Did The Cubs Win? OSS: A to the Rizzo dominates Cingrani/Christiani, and Cubs tee off on fastball guys. Three Up 1. Couldn’t be anyone but Rizzo, who walked 4 times and hit a 2-run homer in the 1st inning. His WPA for yesterday’s game was a stout .298. 2. Starlin Castro had almost as good of a game. He went …
Cubs 7, Pirates 5 (4/9/14)
OSS: Twin Towers Topple Tons of Tiny Traducer Taters Three Five Up 1. Junior Lake wanted more playing time. After a conservatively-estimated 800-foot blast onto whatever street comes after Waveland, he just might get it. Sure, he didn’t have the most totally productive day, but if you hit a ball as far as Lake did, it’s easy to be wooed. 2. …
Quiet Optimism
So, we've got the team. My best guess at the 25-man roster (Wins Above Replacement – Myles): Position Player WARM C Castillo 1.5 1B Rizzo 3.0 2B Valbuena 1.0 SS Castro 2.5 3B Olt 1.0 LF Lake 1.0 CF Sweeney 1.5 RF Schierholtz 1.0 4OF Ruggiano 1.0 5OF Vitters 0.5 UTIL Barney 1.0 UTIL Roberts 0.75 2C Kottaras 0.5 #1 …
2014 Assume the Position: C
It's the second annual (holy shit, I've been blogging over a year) installment of Assume the Position! I don't plan on making many changes since last year, though I imagine I'll have to edit these a bit as the last few signings or so trickle in. The one thing I will do is just remove the players that aren't on the …
Cubs to make a run at Brian McCann?
Tim Dierkes from MLBTR tweets: Have talked to multiple agents who think Cubs will spend good money on FA catcher this winter. They are underestimating Welington Castillo! — timdierkes (@timdierkes) October 2, 2013 Seeing how agents are always the most reliable source for this kind of thing, this has to mean Brian McCann, right? The only other catching free agents …
Assume the Position in Review: C
I thought it would be neat to review my critiques at each position that I made before the season. Let's see how wrong I was! MLB Beef Castle is the definite starter next year. He's projected by BJ to have a wOBA of .318. I like him a pretty good deal: his minor league numbers indicate that he is ascending, he improved …
JOT: Cubs Minor League Recap 8-16-13
St Louis Cardinals 0 @ Chicago Cubs 7 How 'bout that Jake Arrieta, huh? I'm starting to think we won the Feldman trade. Arrieta tossed 7 shutout innings against the cards, allowing only 2 hits and 2 walks against 7 Ks, and was dominating. Someone asked Keith Law on Twitter if Arrieta could be "a GUY" (which, can I say, …
Cubs under contract for 2015
With the Anthony Rizzo signing, I thought it'd be sweet to show you the "Cubs Core;" players under team control for 2015 (when we should EXPECT a competitive team instead of just hoping). Anthony Rizzo: 2021 Starlin Castro: 2020 Welington Castillo: 2017 Edwin Jackson: 2016 Luis Valbuena: 2016 Travis Wood: 2016 Darwin Barney: 2016 Jeff Samardzija: 2015 James Russell: 2015 …
Series Preview: Chicago Cubs (13-21) at Washington Nationals (19-15)
The Nats have had a bit of a streaky season so far. They've swept the Mets, White Sox, and Tigers and have been swept by the Braves and Cardinals. They're currently riding a four game winning streak. Inconsistent offense has plagued the team this year (sounds familiar). I'm wishing I was back home this weekend, as just about everyone I …
Cubs catchers are terrible at defense
I don't know if you've been paying attention or not, but if you have, you've noticed how terrible the two Cubs catchers are on defense. Dioner Navarro may be the worst defensive catcher I've ever seen. Welington Castillo isn't far behind. I was curious how many times per game these guys have screwed up. Wild pitches, passed balls and errors …