Cubs "losing" a bunch of players to free agency/waivers Team MVP Shawn Camp was the only officially official free agent on the roster, but a few other players have opted for free agency after being kicked off the Cubs 40-man roster. Apparently they don't realize that "cut from the Cubs roster" is not going to be a net positive for …
Cubs putting out some feelers about leaving WGN
Brett over at Bleacher Nation has a story up about the Cubs surveying random fans on their opinions of WGN, buried amidst a bunch of more boilerplate marketing questions (concessions, etc). Two questions in particular, as reported by one of his commenters look to be gathering data to use in a future push for a new TV deal, as the WGN …
Roster Reshuffling update
The Cubs have transacted half a zillion minor moves in the last week. We'll take a page from Phil Rogers and use the +/- system, because it actually means something in this context (i.e., how many roster spots are open). Outrighted to Iowa (i.e., off the 40-man) RP Blake Parker SP Justin Germano OF Joe Mather RP Marcos Mateo SP Jason …
World Series Preview: San Francisco Giants (94-68) vs Detroit Tigers (88-74)
The Giants have home field advantage in this series thanks to All-Star Game MVP Melky Cabrera, who was suspended for PED violations and was left off the Giants playoff roster (his 50 game suspension just ended). The Tigers have the advantage of having swept the Yankees in the previous round, which already feels like was a month ago. The Giants …
Season in review: David DeJesus
I was looking through our media library, and it looks like the only pictures we have of DeJesus in the system are of him in a Royals uniform, his wife, and his ridiculous truck. That's pretty much summed up his year as a player. He didn't do anything in particular to raise anyone's ire, but never really distinguished himself either. …
NLCS Series Preview: San Francisco Giants (94-68) vs St. Louis Cardinals (ugh)
I guess I really should title this SF (3-2) vs StL (4-2), since all regular season stats somehow don't matter anymore. It drives me nuts that all the graphics in the postseason are basically just what a player has done in his last 5 games. It's even more laughable with pitchers. The Giants got a dose of good luck in …
ALCS Preview: Tigers vs. Yankees
I didn't get around to doing a preview for this series so I'm going to link to one that is far better than anything I could have done. SG does fantastic work on RLYW and based on the Oliver projections he's calculated that the Tigers have a 50.3% chance of winning the series. Basically, flip a coin.
ALDS series preview: Orioles vs. Yankees
Did anyone think the Orioles would be in the playoffs? Did anyone think the O's might actually pull off the AL East division win? Well, they're in the playoffs and they very nearly won the AL East. The O's essentially replaced the Red Sox so the AL East still had 3 very good teams as it has for the last …
NDLS Series Preview: St. Louis Cardinals (88-74) vs Washington Nationals (98-64)
The Nats lost 102 and 103 games in 2008 and 2009, respectively, and improved to 69-93 in 2010. Last year they finished the year with a 80-81 record, which was a marked improvement. Still, it's tough to read too much into a team whose leader in rWAR was a relief pitcher (Tyler Clippard). There was no doubt about it this …
Series preview: San Francisco Giants (94-68) vs Cincinnati Reds (97-65)
The Reds jockeyed with several other NL Central teams (including the Pirates!) for the divisional lead for the first half of the season, but after July 19 they moved into first place and never looked back. The closest they got to losing the lead was on August 9th, after NL MVP Shawn Camp exerted his powers and defeated the Reds …