The Cubs open their first homestand against a team that is in even worse shape than they are. The Brewers are already missing first basemen Corey Hart and Mat Gamel due to injuries suffered before the season, and in the past week 3B Aramis Ramirez, LF Ryan Braun, and SS Jean Segura have all been banged up. None of the injuries …
Daily Facepalm 4.3.13
Draft bonus pools announced Not shockingly, the Cubs have the second largest bonus pool at ~$10.5m. The Nats have the lowest at ~$2.5m due to their low draft position and losing their pick for signing Rafael Soriano. Cubs sign Ryan Sweeney The Cubs signed OF Ryan Sweeney to a minor league deal and have him stashed in Iowa. He could see …
Series Preview: Chicago Cubs (0-0) at Pittsburgh Pirates (0-0)
Well, here we go with another season of Cubs baseball. The Cubs open the season in what is probably the most beautiful ballpark in baseball (it's certainly one of the top 30). At least, beautiful when the weather forecast isn't 40s and raining. The Pirates aren't the punching bag they used to be – they've finally gotten over the hump …
That revamped Cubs rotation
Much has been written here in the last few days about the Cubs rotation injuries and what it means for the overall strength of the rotation. Most, or actually all of that has been negative. Sure, losing Garza can't be spun as a positive so I'm not going to do that. As the resident optimist, I am here to assure …
Scott Feldman will be the 4th starter
Dale Sveum said yesterday that Scott Feldman will be the 4th starter for the Cubs. He also confirmed what we already knew in that Scott Baker won't be ready to start the season. Cubs manager Dale Sveum said Scott Baker, coming back from Tommy John surgery last year, most likely will not be ready by Opening Day, and that Scott …
2013 PECOTA Projections
The 2013 PECOTA projections are out and I thought I'd post some of the Cubs below. Since you have to be a subscriber in order to download the spreadsheet, I'm only going to include PA and wOBA, which I calculated using the basic formula. For pitchers I'll only show IP and FIP (I calculated this too). 2013 PECOTA Projections for …
It’s time to get excited about the 2013 Cubs
Spring training is just around the corner and the 2013 Cubs are set to kick off their Cactus League schedule on February 23rd. It's a split squad game and the game against the Angels will even be televised on WGN. It's not until April 1st that non-practice games will be played, but it's time to get excited. They might be …
How many games will the 2013 Cubs win?
Over at The Cub Contrarian, Kyle used an estimated WAR for players to get a team win total. I thought I'd do the same thing, but I'm going to do it two ways: projections and my wild ass guesses. Wild Ass Guess Catchers: Welington Castillo (1.0), Dioner Navarro (negative infinity) I could easily see Castillo being a 2 WAR player, …
An updated look at the 2013 rotation
The Cubs finalized contracts with Edwin Jackson and Carlos Villanueva today, which gives the Cubs something like 18 starters. I lost count. The good news is that Edwin Jackson is actually good unlike the other 22 starters they signed this offseason. Jackson has been underrated for some time and that's in part to how miserably he performed when he reached …
Dave Cameron on the Edwin Jackson signing
Dave Cameron wrote a bit about the Cubs signing of Edwin Jackson. Here's part of it. But we should note that Edwin Jackson makes them better, and this price for Edwin Jackson is still completely reasonable based on his established performance level. That the Cubs aren’t yet obvious contenders shouldn’t cause us to tell them to stop trying to improve. …