The other day The Hardball Times wrote that Alfonso Soriano is not overpaid. I'm a big fan of anyone who doesn't talk about Soriano in a way that makes him seem like he's a lazy, overpaid player. However, THT relied on fWAR, which uses UZR as its defensive metric. His 2007 UZR is so high that my iPad probably won't …
Darwin Barney defensive highlights
Since Darwin Barney set the single season record for an errorless streak at 2nd base last night, I figured we might look back at some of his best plays. Thanks to mlb.com we can do that. As I was looking through these last night I was surprised at two things: there weren't as many outstanding defensive players as I thought …
Cubs upset Alfonso Soriano won’t waive no-trade clause
This is getting old. Cubs personnel are disappointed that Alfonso Soriano won’t waive his 10-and-5 rights to go to the Giants. The outfielder doesn't want to play in a colder climate that could adversely affect his hitting. If this is true, why can't the Cubs just shut up about it? Sure, they'd probably try to trade him, but what fucking …
The Cubs probably won’t be taking many walks for some time
The Cubs 6.5% walk rate prior to last night's games was the lowest in baseball (league average 8.1%). The following Cubs with 150 PA or more are or were above league average: Geovany Soto (9.6%), Luis Valbuena (9.8%), Ian Stewart (10.4%), David DeJesus (10.6%) and Bryan LaHair (11.2%). One of those players is now with the Texas Rangers. Another is …
Worst Cubs offense ever?
I was checking out Starlin Castro's disappointing offensive season on Fangraphs and thought I'd check to see where the Cubs rank offensively as a team. I didn't realize it had gotten so ugly. Their 77 wRC+ is dead last behind the Mariners at 81. The two offense's may actually be equal if we eliminated the pitcher in the NL, but …
Let’s play “What if”
Starlin Castro has established himself at the big league level and he's going to get better. How much so? Who really knows, but even if he never got any better, he's still an above average shortstop currently making league minimum. Anthony Rizzo hasn't established himself as Castro has, but he's more than shown in his first couple months with the …
How much is Darwin Barney worth in a trade?
Before we look into Darwin Barney's trade value, I was thinking I wouldn't be that confident in the numbers below. Most of the time I am, but for someone like Barney I'm not. At all. Why? Because of Placido Polanco. To understand why you can check these two links out. IN the first link written after the 2006 seaosn, Tangotiger …
Dale Sveum’s First Half MVPs: Shawn Camp and James Russell
NEW YORK — Who's your first half Most Valuable Player for the Cubs? Manager Dale Sveum picked relievers Shawn Camp and James Russell. Camp was 2-4 with a 2.86 ERA and one save, while Russell was 2-0 with a 2.43 ERA entering Sunday. Russell had a 2.30 ERA in 101 games since the start of 2011, the second-lowest mark by …
Tigers asked about Darwin Barney
From MLBTR: The Tigers asked the Cubs about second baseman Darwin Barney a couple of weeks ago, Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports reports (on Twitter). However, talks didn't progress.
Handling Starlin Castro
The other day in San Francisco Starlin Castro lost track of the number of outs and failed to complete the second half of what may or may not have been a double play. As you'd expect, Dale Sveum was quite unhappy about it. "It's something that's obviously unacceptable at any time," Sveum said. "Whether we could have turned the double …