NEW YORK — Who's your first half Most Valuable Player for the Cubs? Manager Dale Sveum picked relievers Shawn Camp and James Russell. Camp was 2-4 with a 2.86 ERA and one save, while Russell was 2-0 with a 2.43 ERA entering Sunday. Russell had a 2.30 ERA in 101 games since the start of 2011, the second-lowest mark by …
Matt Garza last year and this year
Last season Matt Garza enjoyed a breakout season. His strikeouts increased. His walks decreased. He kept the ball on the ground and therefore in the park a lot more often. He was even so lucky last year that he allowed only 7.7% of his fly balls to leave the yard. While Fangraphs had him with a cool 5.0 WAR, Baseball …
Series Preview: Detroit Tigers (28-32) at Chicago Cubs (20-40)
The Tigers were the easy favorite to dominate the mediocre AL Central. They added Prince Fielder to a team that won the division by fifteen games in 2011, forming a core of starts that also includes Miguel Cabrera, Victor Martinez, and Justin Verlander. Fielder has mashed since coming to the team, but not surprisingly the overall lineup has regressed (most …
Updated End of Season Projections
Using Baseball Prospectus rest of season PECOTA projections I figured it might be fun to see just how many games the Cubs are expected to lose at this point. Since this is OV and we're Cubs fans we do things in reverse order. We're more focused on the 2013 draft order and which slot the Cubs may be picking from. …
Series Preview: Chicago Cubs (18-36) at Milwaukee General Hospital (24-30)
I don't have much time today, so this will be a short preview. The Brewers are in bad shape, with several players (Chris Narveson, Mat Gamel, Marco Estrada, Alex Gonzalez, various catchers) out, Aramis Ramirez and Ryan Braun banged up, and others (Weeks) underperforming. The Cubs might be looking ahead to their next series with the Twins, who are in …
A 2013 Cubs Contender, Part 2
About 10 days ago we looked at what the Cubs have in terms of guaranteed contracts and we also signed Ryan Dempster and Matt Garza to long-term extensions. Since it's been 10 days I'll post the most relevant information here and we can move forward. Our roster We already have $54.3 million committed, but only the following players under contract …
Fortnightly Facepalm: 6.3.12 Draft, Soler, Baez, Garza, Dempster
I guess there's something going on tomorrow? The MLB draft is tomorrow. The Cubs worked out possible first round picks Carlos Correa (SS) and Max Fried (P) earlier this week, and several draft evaluators are prognisticating that the Cubs will take high school OF Albert Almora. It's nice not having to worry about the Cubs picking another Tyler Colvin or …
Series Preview: Chicago Cubs (18-32) at San Francisco Giants (27-24)
The Cubs start a ten game road trip with a visit to Pac Bell Park (or whatever the hell they're calling it these days). At least this series, unlike most west coast series, will only have one super late game (tonight's). Unfortunately the Cubs will miss Tim Lincecum, who seems to have transformed into a lesser pitcher. Maybe Jeff Samardzija …
5th worst start for the Cubs ever
Chris Jaffe looked at the Cubs worst starts and found that this 15-31 bunch ties for 5th worst with the 1962 team. Jaffe's article is worth a read. It's a brief article so it won't take you very long. Last night I became curious how well the Cubs would have to play the rest of the season to reach certain …