Holy. Shit. I still can't believe I saw what I saw today at Wrigley. Jeff Samardzija basically told us to take our small sample sizes and shove them up our collective asses. As we expected to meet the new F7, same as the old F7, he went out there and looked pretty damn good all day. I'm not ready to …
Series Preview: Washington Nationals (0-0) at Chicago Cubs (0-0)
Welcome back to another year of Obstructed View series previews! And I guess Cubs baseball too. The Washington Nationals have come a long way since their "Natinals" days. The team has made great strides and could be a playoff contender if it weren't stuck in the NL East. Even then I wouldn't be too surprised if they manage to nab …
Random Opening Day Thoughts
This current roster couldn't even bring a smile to an easily excitable child. If you look at the lineup we'll see most frequently it's a little depressing. Darwin Barney. Bryan LaHair. Ian Stewart. Marlon Byrd. David DeJesus. Some of them have some value, but who is going to watch a game to see those guys in action? I'm a half …
Daily Facepalm 4.3.12
Was there a Cubs game yesterday? The Cubs hit roughly 37 sac flies to beat the DBacks yesterday, and drag their spring trianing winning percentage to .500. Clearly I should place a big bet on the Cubs winning 81 games this year. Kerry Wood pitched a scoreless inning, and Jay Jackson had a meh start. Jeff Samardzija threw four scoreless …
How good is the Cubs rotation?
Player IP Matt Garza 193 Ryan Dempster 188 Paul Maholm 165 Chris Volstad 155 Jeff Samardzija 122 The Cubs opening day rotation is set with news that Randy Wells and Travis Wood have been optioned to AAA. That left Jeff Samardzija and Chris Volstad to join Ryan Dempster, Matt Garza and Paul Maholm. Using our playing time projections and the …
Other transformed Cubs
With Jeff Samardzija's "transformation" I thought it would be fun to find other Cubs player who have transformed this spring. Joe Mather: With a .412/.455/.745 batting line through today, he's established himself as a completely different ballplayer. We know this because he's had 55 plate appearances and that's absolutely enough to know whether or not a transformation has taken place. …
Wells and Wood optioned to minors, Clevenger over Castillo
I'd much rather have seen Randy Wells in the Chicago Cubs rotation, but rather than bullpenning him the Cubs have at least done the only other smart thing possible by optioning him to the minors. Good call on that even if it's the result of other poor decisions. I've been saying for awhile that Steve Clevenger is the better catcher …
Did the Cubs really add that much depth?
Over on Cubs Den (a really good blog), John talks about how the Cubs have quietly built depth to give them trade flexibility. I want to look at his bullets one by one because I just don't agree with the conclusion that John is reaching. John is attributing this depth to Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer too, which is another …
Worst Moves of the Epstein Era
Since opening day is here (well, not here, but somewhere), it seems like an appropriate time to catalog the numerous failures of the Cubs under The Epstein Regime. Sure, no actual games have been played, but it’s never too early to make like mb and don your three wolves tee and start excoriating optimistic chumps. After all, future blogging historians …
Burning Lesson
h/t Rice Cube