Cubs 'closing in' on deal with Taiwanese RHP Jen-Ho Tseng MLB.com's Jesse Sanchez says the Cubs are close to a deal with the Taiwanese pitcher, who is ranked 29th in mlb.com's list and 23rd on BA's. For a while he projected to be the #1 prospect in this year's class, but he scuffled a bit this year. GW points out …
Series Preview: Anaheim Angels of Disneyland (43-45) at Chicago Cubs (39-48)
On June 9th, the Cubs (25-35) and Angels (27-36) had very similar records, and things weren't looking so rosy for the Angels. Since then they've begun digging themselves out of their hole, going 16-9 over that span including two road series sweeps…and climbed into third place in their stacked division. Angels Cubs wRC+ 109 (5th) 89 (23rd) BSR -2.8 (17th) …
Series Preview: Pittsburgh Pirates (52-32) at Chicago Cubs (36-47)
The Pirates now have the best record in baseball. Let that sink in for a second. Will they be able to avoid the second half collapse that they suffered in the previous two seasons? They've got a big hurdle to clear right now in the middle of the season, as four of the five pitchers expected to be in the …
Diving into Starlin Castro’s 2013 numbers
It's safe to say that it's been a disappointing season for Starlin Castro. 82 games into the season, Castro's -1.4 fWAR makes Jeff Francoeur look like a valuable major league player (J.C. Bradbury nods approvingly). What is so different this year? MB posited to me a few weeks ago that pitchers have been pitching differently to him this year, and the …
Series Preview: Chicago Cubs (35-45) at Oakland Athletics (48-35)
When I checked the schedule before my work trip to San Francisco two weeks ago, I was bummed that the A's weren't also in town to allow me to knock another stadium off my list. When I got there, I was glad that they weren't in town, as raw sewage backed up through the drains and flooded both clubhouses and …
Series Preview: Chicago Cubs (28-39) at St. Louis Cardinals (44-25)
I had to stop and ask myself if the Cubs had even played the Cardinals yet this year. Two and a half months into the season, the Cubs and Cardinals have only played a two game series back in May that they split. This is probably a good thing for the Cubs win-loss record (or a bad thing, depending on …
Series Preview: Chicago Cubs (26-38) at New York Mets (24-37)
The Cubs have had a crappy year, but it's been just about as bad for the Mets. I'm sure Ron Santo is smiling somewhere that at least if the Cubs are going to be bad, the Mets are just as awful. They've gone 2-8 in their last ten games, and there's been a roster shakeup or two. Manager Terry Collins's …
Series Preview: Cincinnati Reds (37-26) at Chicago Cubs (25-35)
The NL Central's been pretty good this year. That is, the upper 60% of the division. The Cubs have been demolished by division opponents, going 7-18 against their divisional foes. The fun week that was the two teams, one cup series already feels like it was a month ago after three offensively futile games against the Pirates, Team Overviews …
Daily Facepalm 6.10.13 – Welcome to the Cubs, Edwin Jackson
Edwin Jackson finally arrives The 'real' Edwin Jackson showed up for the first time this season, striking out eight while allowing one run, one walk, and four hits in seven innings. More importantly, his fastball averaged 94.78 on the day, much closer to his career avg of 95 mph than the paltry low 93.x mph he had been throwing earlier …
Series Preview: Arizona Diamondbacks (30-23) at Chicago Cubs (22-30)
The DBacks lead the NL West division with a record of 30-23, which would be good for fourth place in the surprisingly competitive NL Central. The Cubs are movin' on up, and now have a comfortable three game lead on the Brewers for fourth place. We're not Number Five! Let's see if they can continue to promote the ephemeral momentum …