Ryan Dempster has gotten off to the worst start of his Cubs career. It’s led to some wondering what is wrong or whether or not he’s done. If we look at his ERA it’s gone from 2.96 in 2008 to 3.65, 3.85 and now 7.63. Obviously something isn’t right. We see a similar trend with his FIP (3.41, 3.87, 3.99 …
Cubs compared to their projections
I wrote this on Friday morning so it’s updated through Thursday’s games. I’m too lazy to update it to include Friday’s blowout loss. This is something I’ll try to update once a month just so we can see where players are at compared to their projections. It’s something SG has done on RLYW a few times over the last couple …
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 …
Chicago Cubs @ Colorado Rockies, 2:10 pm
GamedayB-Ref Preview Cubs wOBA wRC RS Rockies wOBA wRC RS Starlin Castro .332 .52 -.03 Dexter Fowler .347 .58 -.03 Darwin Barney .293 .36 .03 Jonathan Herrera .298 .38 .02 Marlon Byrd .338 .52 -.01 Carlos Gonzalez .381 .67 .00 Aramis Ramirez .350 .54 -.03 Troy Tulowitzki .382 .66 .04 Carlos Pena .378 .62 -.01 Todd Helton .345 .51 -.01 …
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. …
Cubs offense as bad as we thought despite Albert Pujols leading off every inning
Through 11 games the Cubs have scored 45 runs. It should be understood that this is a small sample size. That being said, the Cubs have played eight games against pretty bad teams and only three games against a team anyone thinks will come close to finishing at .500 or above. Nearly five of those games have come against the …
Chicago Cubs @ Houston Astros
Time: 7:05 pm CTGameday Cubs wOBA wRC RS Astros wOBA wRC RS Starlin Castro .332 .557 -0.13 Michael Bourn .307 .451 0.03 Darwin Barney .293 .386 0.03 Angel Sanchez .287 .363 -0.07 Marlon Byrd .338 .561 -0.01 Hunter Pence .342 .574 -0.01 Aramis Ramirez .350 .591 -0.03 Carlos Lee .338 .546 -0.05 Carlos Pena .378 .680 -0.01 Brett Wallace .326 …
Series Preview: Chicago Cubs (4-5) at Houston Astros (2-7)
The Cubs roller coaster ride to .500 continues with a trip to Houston to play the Astros. They were swept by the Phillies to start the season, and picked up getaway day wins against the Reds and Marlins for their two wins this season. Team Overview NL Ranks wOBA: .285 (14th)SP FIP: 4.25 (13th)SP xFIP: 4.81 (15th)RP FIP: 3.50 (10th)RP …
Mapping out the Rotation
Shawn pointed out in the comments that given the number of off-days, the Cubs can limit the 5th starter somewhat. But given that they’re spaced 7 days apart there will still be a few starts. Here’s how it maps out 4/6 Ryan Dempster OFF DAY 4/8 Carlos Zambrano 4/9 Matt Garza 4/10 Casey Coleman 4/11 Demp 4/12 5TH STARTER 4/13 …
Diamondbacks @ Cubs
Just the numbers from now on. RS equals Runs Saved on defense. Diamondbacks wOBA wRC RS Cubs wOBA wRC RS Willie Bloomquist .296 .409 -0.13 Kosuke Fukudome .343 .602 -0.06 Chris Young .339 .571 0.00 Starlin Castro .332 .545 -0.03 Kelly Johnson .360 .650 -0.01 Marlon Byrd .338 .564 -0.01 Justin Upton .381 .712 0.03 Aramis Ramirez .350 .594 -0.03 …