Last night, the Cubs traded Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel for Addison Russell, Billy McKinney, Dan Straily and a PTBNL. In following reactions around the Cub twitter-sphere, I was pretty surprised at how split the reactions were: fans who have bought in to what Thoyer is doing think this is on par with the Wedding at Cana, those who haven’t …
Cubs Trade Samardzija, Hammel to the A’s
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; …
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 5, Diamondbacks 7 (4/24/14)
Did The Cubs Win? OSS: Cubs celebrate 100 years of Wrigley Field in fitting fashion. Three Up 1. Jeff Samardzija was brilliant (again). He deserved to win (again). He didn’t win (again). 2. Hector Rondon has to be the best Rule 5 pick of the past 5 years, right? A short reflection of the past Rule 5 drafts: 2013: too …
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 …
Series Preview: Chicago Cubs (3-6) at St. Louis Cardinals (5-4)
Hey, at least the Cubs aren’t in last place in the division (sort of)! Cincy also has a 3-6 record but has a slightly worse run differential. St. Louis is coming off a series win against those Reds, and get to feast on this Cubs team next. Given Matt Adams‘s emergence last season, Allen Craig has moved back to …
Cubs 4, Pirates 5 (4/11/14)
Did the Cubs Win? OSS: James Russell marches onwards towards his ignominious release. Three Up 1. Starlin Castro continues his hot start to the season with a 3 single day. He scored a run and hand an RBI. 2. Travis Wood deserved the win here, but we’ll get to that later. He allowed 1 run (that Schlitter inherited), walked 3, …
Series Preview: Philadelphia Phillies (1-2) at Chicago Cubs (1-2)
Cubs HOF Ryne Sandberg returns to Wrigley for the Cubs home opener. The Phillies opened the season with a 14-10 win against the Rangers in which included a Jimmy Rollins grand slam and Cliff Lee picking up a win for giving up eight runs in five innings. Team Overviews These are 2013 numbers, NL rank is in parens Cubs wRC+: …
Journeymen of Tomorrow: 4/1/14
Did the Cubs Win? (image c/o bleacher nation) Chicago Cubes 0 @ Pittsburgh Pirates 1 One Sentence Synopsis: Cubes gonna Cube, Bonifacio going to TOOTBLAN, and Cubs go 0 for 11 with RISP. Three Up 1. Jeff Samardzija was very good, going 7 scoreless frames. He walked 2 and allowed 5 hits, but only fanned 3. He was bailed out by …