Team Overviews Here are how the teams stacked up in 2012. Respective league ranks in parentheses. Rangers Cubs wRC+ 105 (4th) 80 (16th) BSR 1.0 (8th) -8.1 (14th) UZR 13.7 (5th) 30.5 (2nd) DRS -6 (10th) -7 (7th) SP FIP- 90 (2nd) 108 (13th) RP FIP- 83 (2nd) 116 (16th) The Rangers are a great team. They lost a …
JoT: Cubs Minor League Recap 4-14-13
Alburquerque Isotops 1 @ Iowa Cubs 4 Chris Rusin made his 3rd start of the season for the I-Cubs on Sunday. He had his best start of the year. He had allowed 7 runs (6 earned) over his previous 11 innings of work while striking out only 6 and walking 6. On Sunday he threw 7 innings, allowed just 4 …
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 …
Random crap
I've had a very sore neck, back and shoulders for the last couple of weeks so I haven't written much over that time. It's still not 100% and I'm beginning to feel as though it never will be. But I am good enough that I can spread my infinite wisdom to our readers. You're welcome. Jeff Samardzija was named the …
Daily Facepalm 3.3.13 – Shark named opening day starter, Garza probably to miss a month
Matt Garza shut down, likely to miss first month of the season Per Carrie Muskat, Garza experienced more pain related to his strained lat muscle during a throwing session today. He's been shut down a week by the trainers, and it's "likely" that he'll miss the first month of the season. Carlos Villanueva is probably the happiest guy in the clubhouse …
Has Junior Lake passed Josh Vitters on the depth chart?
Ian Stewart is injured. It's not his wrist this time, but he'll be out a few weeks. Luis Valbuena has already made the team. Josh Vitters is also out an other 2-3 weeks, but I thought this was interesting. The Cubs do face some decisions regarding Stewart. His $2 million contract is non-guaranteed, which is not unusual for an arbitration-level …
2013 Cubs Projections: Ian Stewart and Luis Valbuena
Our 2013 Cubs Projections series continues with a look at 3rd base. The starting job is Ian Stewart's according to Dale Sveum, which leaves Luis Valbuena as a back-up, but even that job may be in question. It's hard to see both Valbuena and Brent Lillibridge making the roster. I wrote a little bit about Ian Stewart a couple weeks …
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 …
Four most likely to exceed expectations
I was working on an idea for a post using the 2013 Cubs projections. The idea was to calculate an approximation of the best case scenario win total. I was going to use the 65th percentile projection for every player just for fun. I'll finish that before the season, but as I was getting the position player projections into a …
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 …