Luis Valbuena’s 2013 season

In Commentary And Analysis by berselius19 Comments

With all the doom and gloom surrounding this year's offense and the intense focus on Castro and Rizzo, Luis Valbuena's fantastic season seems to have fallen through the cracks. Valbuena currently has a line of .248/.361/.421* on the year, good for a .339 wOBA and about 1 WAR through two months of the season. What the hell? *Today's game, in which …

Kuji Fujikawa out for the year with Tommy John Surgery

In aside by berselius1 Comment

Kyuji Fujikawa left Sunday's game with an apparent re-aggravation of his forearm injury. After taking an MRI yesterday, he was diagnosed with a torn ligament and is due for TJS. This is a real bummer – Fujikawa looked pretty good after coming back from his first injury. The Cubs have him signed through next season, at $4m, and have a …

Umpires practicing their ejection moves for June 10-13

In Commentary And Analysis by berselius18 Comments

Temperes flared in yesterday's Cubs game after Reds starter Johnny Cueto threw a pitch over David DeJesus's head in the sixth inning. Cueto was visibly pissed with DeJesus at the start of the game when he felt DeJesus stepped out of the batters box several times and took way too long to get ready at the plate. Both benches were warned …

Cubs at Reds gamethread 5.26

In Game Threads by berselius32 Comments

The Reds go for the sweep in what is easily the best pitching matchup of the series. Here are the lineups  Cubs wOBA wOBA Reds CF David DeJesus .365 .413 CF Shin-Soo Choo SS Starlin Castro .291 .259 SS Zack Cozart 1B Anthony Rizzo .354 .438 1B Joey Votto LF Alfonso Soriano .297 .348 2B Brandon Phillips RF Nate Schierholtz …

Series Preview: Cubs (18-28) at Reds (29-18)

In Series Previews by berselius33 Comments

The Cubs are back in the basement of the NL Central following their winless series against the Pirates. If the season ended today, they would have the fourth pick in the 2014 draft. The Reds, meanwhile, are coming off a sweep of the Mets and get their ace back this week.  Team Overviews   Cubs Reds wRC+ 90 (11th) 99 …

Matt Garza Debut game thread and mini series preview

In Series Previews by berselius24 Comments

Here's a preview of today's game. I'll add info on the rest of the series later tonight. Pitching Matchup Matt Garza, RHP (-,-,-,3.63) vs Wandy Rodriguez, LHP (3.25, 125, 3.99, 3.73), 6:05 PM CT Garza is finally back! He looked sharp in his rehab outings, capping it off with a six strikeout, zero walk six-inning shutout in Iowa his last …

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OV Daily Facepalm 5.21.13

In Facepalm by berselius16 Comments

Matt Garza returns tonight Garza is back and ready to go tonight, bumping Villanueva to the bullpen. The Cubs say Villanueva will be used in long relief, but given how their late inning options have sucked lately I'd rather see him in the late inning mix with Fujikawa and Transformed Kevin Gregg. Suddenly the Cubs pen doesn't looks quite as …