The Cubs promoted 20-year old Javier Baez to AA Tennessee this past weekend after a scorching half-season or so in Daytona. Baez's power output in the Florida State League was pretty incredible, as he hit 17 homers in a very pitcher-friendly league despite his young age. Last season, he hit 16 homers in 80 games spread between Peoria (in the …
Bryan LaHair's Fantastic Start
Some Cubs fans entered the season with relatively high expectations for Bryan LaHair. Others weren't optimistic at all. I was somewhere in between. I was fairly certain LaHair's numbers were so damn good at AAA that it indicated he should probably be about a league average ballplayer at the MLB level. To this point we've all been wrong. MLB's best …
One foot on the Samardzija bandwagon
Jeff Samardzija transformed. We heard about it all spring. We were to believe the transformation began in the second half of last season in which he threw about 40 or so innings. We had to put all our faith in those numbers that were as a reliever and a scout or two, which was a little silly to me as …
Series Preview: Los Angeles Dodgers of Los Angeles (17-8) at Chicago Cubs (9-16)
The Dodgers have the best record in the National league, and are only one win off of Tampa's 18-8 mark for the best in baseball. A big part of that is Matt Kemp, who is making Bryan LaHair's numbers look pedestrian this year. Kemp has hit 12 HRs to LaHair's 7, though their wOBAs aren't that far off when you …
Series Preview: Chicago Cubs (12-15) at Los Angeles Dodgers of Los Angeles (14-15)
Team Overview Dodgers team stats (NL rank in parens): wOBA: .310 (11th)UZR: -2.9 (10th)DRS: -11 (11th)SP FIP: 3.77 (8th)SP xFIP: 3.64 (5th)RP FIP: 4.52 (16th)RP xFIP: 4.09 (12th) Batters: Player wOBA ZiPS wOBA 2B Aaron Miles .270 .272 LF Jerry Sands .252 .326 RF Andre Ethier .430 .374 CF Matt Kemp .460 .356 3B Juan Uribe .305 .322 1B James …
Series Preview: Los Angeles Dodgers of Los Angeles (10-10) at Chicago Cubs of Chicago (9-9)
Team Overview This is where I would normally talk about what the team’s done, but anything that the Dodgers have acoomplished this year is overshadowed by the legal battle that is shaking up between the McCourts and MLB. It’s going to be a big mess. If MLB does take over, I hope that they appoint current MLB VP of operations …
Matt Garza is not this bad or this good
The start to Matt Garza‘s career as a Cub has not gone as planned. After giving up Chris Archer, Robinson Chirinos, Hak-Ju Lee, Brandon Guyer and Super Sam Fuld, the Cubs Cubs were expecting big things from Garza. He’d been a very good pitcher for a few years now and was moving from the AL East to the NL Central. …