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 …
Daily Facepalm 5.30.13 : It’s Dioner Navarro’s World, We’re Just Living In It
"The Dioner Navarro Game?" Navarro demolished White Sox pitching to the tune of 3 HR and 6 RBI yesterday. In his only PA in which he didn't hit the ball into the stands, he drew a walk and later came aroudn to score with the help of a Matt Lindstrom wild pitch and a single by pinch hitter Ryan Sweeney. …
Kuji Fujikawa out for the year with Tommy John Surgery
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 …
Daily Facepalm 5.29.13 – Edwin Jackson’s velocity and other news and notes
Edwin Jackson had a good/crappy night For the first time, Jackson looked like the pitcher the Cubs were expecting when they signed him to a four year deal. He hit 97 on the Sox gun (which Len and JD suggested may have been a little hot) with his fastball. Though the game ended up getting rained out, his pfx numbers are …
Series Preview: Cubs (19-30) vs White Sox (24-24) – Two Teams, One Cup
Tim did a good job recapping his feelings about the so-called "Crosstown Classic" on Friday. I don't have much more to add, except that the Barrett-Pierzynski fight is one of my top ten favorite moments in the past decade or so of Cubs fandom (also making the list – Zambrano ejecting an umpire, Cubs four game sweep of the Brewers …
Umpires practicing their ejection moves for June 10-13
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
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)
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
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 …
OV Daily Facepalm 5.21.13
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 …