This is a fairly stat-heavy post, so please feel free to ignore it if that’s not your bag. If you don’t want to learn about stats, but still want to learn, this is a really cool site. This defies description. I trust that most people have realized at this point that a team’s W-L record doesn’t tell the whole story. A great …
Nelson Perez performs in the DWL
Nelson Perez, essentially a non-prospect, tore up the DWL. Good for him, I guess? Pretty hard to get jazzed about .732 OPS AA LF repeaters who are 25, but nice to see.
Should the NL adopt the DH rule?
Starting this season, the NL and the AL are going to play interleague games in a fashion quite unlike before; namely, year-round interleague play. With this new development (making it very unfeasible to call up a Quad A guy to be your DH for the 2 weeks you play at AL stadiums), the calls for the NL to adopt the DH …
Better Know a Cub: Christian Villanueva
Christian Villanueva was acquired by the Cubs for Ryan Dempster at the trade deadline in 2012. He wasn't the top prospect we all wanted (Randall Delgado), but I was fairly excited by the pickup. I almost always prefer positional prospects to pitchers; partly due to TINSTAAP, but mostly because successful position players are (on the whole) usually more beneficial to …
Derrek Lee: The Joe DiMaggio of Doubles
While fiddling around in Baseball-Reference (my Christmas gift to myself was a subscription to Play Index), I came across something very curious: Derrek Lee is the all-time record holder in consecutive games with at least 1 double. I'm not saying that the streak (which is 8 – there are a hundred or so 7 game streaks) is as untouchable as …
Goodnight, Lovie
After 9 years and 3 playoff wins, the Bears have fired Lovie Smith. To start, I'd like to say that I don't think Lovie Smith is a terrible coach. Smith led the Bears to a record of 81-63 from 2004 to 2012, and a winning percentage of .563 is 9th of 32 franchises during his tenure. He was also 9-3 …
Week 17: Chicago at Detroit
The Bears enter Week 17 with everything to play for. Win against the Lions, and the dream of losing in the first round of the playoffs is still alive. Lose, and the McCaskeys will have to find an inventive way to rationalize keeping Lovie "3 playoff wins in 9 years with the best defense of the decade" Smith for another …
Better Know a Cub – Edwin Jackson
Edwin Jackson used to be the #4 prospect in baseball. Getting his first taste of the bigs in 2003 (as a 19-year old, no less), Jackson had a huge reputation to live up to early on in his career. For a long, long time, he never lived up to it. 2004 20 LAD NL 2 1 .667 7.30 8 5 …
Cubs Sign Carlos Villanueva
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2012/12/cubs-to-sign-carlos-villanueva.html The Cubs have reportedly signed Carlos Villanueva to an undisclosed deal. Barring some unexpected turn of events (like Bob Nightengale involving the Nippon Ham Fighters in some insane bidding war), this appears to be final. What does it mean for the Cubs? I'm not sure what the contract is, but almost certainly it means that the Cubs are going …
Edwin Jackson, come on down (please)
News broke today that the Cubs and the Rangers are the final two suitors in the Edwin Jackson regretstravaganza, after the failed pursuit of Anibal Sanchez last week. Now, reports are indicating that the Rangers will not be the high bid. The reported figures are somewhere in the 4 to 5 year range at around 12 to 13 per. If …