Well, that escalated quickly. The Cubs have traded Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel to the Athletics for Addison Russell, Billy McKinney, Dan Straily and a player to be named later. Ken Rosenthal was the first to report discussions about an hour ago, and was the first to call it done. Tom Loxas has been all over these discussions, as well, …
Cubs 6, Yankees 1
Did The Cubs Win? OSS: Hammel outduels Tanaka, and Lou Goodvalue gives Masahiro fits. Three Up 1. Luis Valbuena doubled twice and singled once. On the season, he’s .261/.384/.434. Last year, he was .218/.331/.378 on a .233 BABIP, so we should have seen this coming. It’s insane to me that Valbuena isn’t considered a long-term solution at 2B or 3B; …
Cardinals 5, Cubs 4 (5/5/14)
Did The Cubs Win? OSS: Yadier Molina owned the Cubs again off of a fluky single in the 9th, and Rizzo was the zero, not the hero. Three Up 1. The Valbuena/Olt battle is just about wrapped up at this point. Luis Luis walked, doubled and tripled. If the battle is between a guy who plays good defense and can …
Cubs 4, Brewers 0 (4/28/14)
Did the Cubs Win? OSS: The Cubs play their most complete game of the season against the “best” team in baseball. Three Up 1. Jason Hammel was absolutely sublime all game. It seemed like he had the best control of his pitches out of any Cub in the past 3 years – especially the low outside corner against righties. Hammel …
Cubs 9, Diamondbacks 2 (4/22/14)
(A note for the reader: I’m home today with a sick little one. She’s asleep, so I’m writing this while watching Season 3: Episode 6 of Breaking Bad (titled: Sunset). There will be spoilers if you haven’t gotten this far). OSS: Hammel dominated, and Olt finally had a no-doubt home run. BBA: I like Walter’s new partner, but really what …
Series Preview: Worst Record vs Third-Worst Record
As you might have heard, it’s the 100th anniversary of the opening of Wrigley Field this week. Seeing how the two teams that are playing are in the bottom five of the standings right now, it’s no wonder that the Cubs have been using “Party of the Century” as their main marketing gimmick this season. On Wednesday the teams will …
Doubleheader Preview: Chicago Cubs (4-8) at New York Yankees (7-6)
Rain turned this short series into a day-night doubleheader. The two teams will meet again in mid-May, and hopefully we won’t have to get bummed out yet again by seeing Tanaka on the mound in a Yankees jersey. Aside from Tanaka, the Yankees also picked up Carlos Beltran, Brian McCann, Kelly Johnson, Brian Roberts, and Jacoby Ellsbury this offseason. I guess …
Cubs 7, Pirates 5 (4/9/14)
OSS: Twin Towers Topple Tons of Tiny Traducer Taters Three Five Up 1. Junior Lake wanted more playing time. After a conservatively-estimated 800-foot blast onto whatever street comes after Waveland, he just might get it. Sure, he didn’t have the most totally productive day, but if you hit a ball as far as Lake did, it’s easy to be wooed. 2. …
Series Preview: Pittsburgh Pirates (4-2) at Chicago Cubs (2-4)
These guys again? After taking the opening series from the Cubs, the Pirates went on to take two of three from the Cardinals. They beat up on Cards starter Shelby Miller in the first game, and the Cardinals returned the favor against Liriano in the second. They won a close game on getaway day with Edinson Volquez somehow outpitching Adam …
Series Preview: Chicago Cubs (0-0) at Pittsburgh Pirates (0-0)
Baseball season we are in you! The Cubs open up against last year's surprise (ish) team, the Pittsburgh Pirates. They finished at 94-68 last year, beat the Reds in the inagural NL wild card game, and took the eventual champions to the full five games in the NLDS. They had no answer for Adam Wainwright and the Cardinals fireballing bullpen, but in …