A lot of discussion started yesterday about WAR thanks a very thoughtful article on It’s About The Money, Stupid. Discussion followed in two article on The Book Blog (here and here) and then on Replacement Level Baseball Blog. I’ve mostly been ignoring the defense part of WAR for some time now. Ever since Colin Wyers showed how useless those metrics …
2011 Minor League Wrap Up, Part 1
Now that the minor league regular season is over it seems a good time to take yet another look at the Cubs top prospects. Over the next week I’ll do just that and this time I will publish a new survey and actually post the results. I promise. First, let’s look at how the teams performed and how one non-top …
Can't think of a stupid title yet so this is obviously not finished
A lot of negative attention has been given to Tom Ricketts re-signing Oneri Fleita for 4 years. A lot more negative attention will be given when Ricketts re-signs Tim Wilken. My first thought when I heard about the signing was that it was odd. Immediatley after that I realized we’re talking about an inconsequential amount of money so firing them, …
When not to bunt
Figured we should post that image since MO is against bunts at all times and because the image makes me laugh. MGL talks about a specific situation in which a bunt is not a good idea at all. The best part: Given that a win costs around 4 million dollars, a manager should be fined $40,000 dollars every time he …
Why extending Oneri Fleita and possibly Tim Wilken's contract doesn't matter
A part of me does wonder whether these kind of moves aren’t as bold or suggestive as I think. Consider this: we fully expect the Cubs to dump Alfonso Soriano and Carlos Zambrano this Winter, eating tens of millions of dollars in the process. Would it really be so shocking for Ricketts to be willing to eat these personnel extensions, …
Series Preview: Cincinnati Reds (69-71) at Chicago Cubs (60-80)
Team overview As always, these are team stats with NL ranks in parentheses. Reds Cubs wOBA .323 (4th) .316 (8th) UBR 14.2 (1st) -11.4 (16th) UZR 39.8 (2nd) -9.1 (10th) SP FIP 4.49 (16th) 4.26 (12th) RP FIP 3.99 (15th) 3.93 (13th) As usual, I feel smug about my pessimism towards the Reds pitching staff turning out to be true. …
Cubs likely to extend Tim Wilken's contract
In a move that will surely anger even more people, Tom Ricketts will sit down with Tim Wilken in a couple weeks to discuss the state of the system and Wilken’s contract status. In other words, Ricketts is very likely to extend Wilken’s contract. I’ve not been too pleased with Wilken, but one thing we have to consider is the …
Oneiri Fleita Getting An Extension is Clearly a Sign of the End of the World
Bruce Levine is reporting today that Oneiri Fleita got a four-year extension as Vice President of Player Personnel earlier this week. This is huge for a couple of reasons: 1) it means a Cubs beat reporter may have reported a story within the same calendar week as when the events actually occurred (largely believed to be an omen signaling the …
Caught Sleeping
Josh Harrison had an infield double in today’s game (click on the link to view the video). Below is a screen cap at the exact point that Harrison takes off for 2nd base. The ball was hit into the hole and Castro threw to 1st. Darwin Barney raced behind the bag to back it up and was in foul territory …