1. Brett Jackson OF AAA The Math — The 23 year old, 2009 1st round pick has a slash line .261/.339/.494. Astronomical strikeout rate (33.8%), but he still has a 114 wRC+. The Good — Despite the K's Jackson has still been a productive player. He gets a ton of XHB's with his speed and has plenty of pop from CF. …
Let the Piling On Starlin Commence in Three… Two… One…
Shit is about to come down on Starlin Castro, and it shouldn't be shocking to anyone that the source of the impending storm is located in a Paul Sullivan piece in the Tribune. Whether he is trying to stir the pot purposefully is a matter of opinion, but whether he is doing it intentionally or not, this pot is getting …
Dale Sveum’s First Half MVPs: Shawn Camp and James Russell
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 …
Players vote in Starlin Castro and Bryan LaHair as all-stars
Starlin Castro and Bryan LaHair will represent the Cubs as All Stars this year. Both players were voted in by the players. Link: http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120701&content_id=34263550&vkey=news_mlb&c_id=mlb I’ll have more on this later.
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. …
Handling Starlin Castro
The other day in San Francisco Starlin Castro lost track of the number of outs and failed to complete the second half of what may or may not have been a double play. As you'd expect, Dale Sveum was quite unhappy about it. "It's something that's obviously unacceptable at any time," Sveum said. "Whether we could have turned the double …
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 …
Trading Starlin Castro for these reasons would be stupid!
On the sidebar we have a Yardbarker widget and one of the articles I noticed this morning was this one: 3 Reasons the Chicago Cubs Should Trade Starlin Castro. Starlin Castro is currently the shortstop for the Cubs. This position is the de facto captain of the infield, and it needs to be manned by someone that will be very reliable in …
A 2013 Cubs Contender, Part 1
RC has been insistent about wondering how the Cubs may contend in 2013. I've been meaning to write something about it for some time, but can't help but think the Cubs are a long way away from contention. 2013 doesn't seem possible, but it's always possible. How can they do it? After thinking about this post for awhile I finally …
Series Preview: Atlanta Braves (18-11) at Chicago Cubs (11-17)
The Cubs just managed to take 2 of 3 from the NL's best team and now face another one of the best teams in the Atlanta Braves. The Braves are a half game behind the Nationals in the NL East, but have won 3 in a row. Pitching Matchups Monday, May 7, 7:05 PM CT, WCIU Tommy Hanson, RHP (3.74 …