I've been my usual lazy self and not paid much attention to the goings on around the league this offseason. At least MLB has obliged by keeping things pretty quiet. Next we'll take a look at the Cardinals, who somehow still employ Mike Matheny. 2017 Record: 83-79 2018 Projected Record: 87-75 Top projected hitter (ZiPS): Marcell Ozuna, 3.1 Top projected …
NL Central Offseason Whip-Around: Pittsburgh Pirates
I've been my usual lazy self and not paid much attention to the goings on around the league this offseason. At least MLB has obliged by keeping things pretty quiet. I'll start by taking a look at the Pirates, whose window has firmly shut. After three straight playoff appearances (and no series/WC wins), the team is back in the sadly …
Second Look: New Cubs Pitchers
It’s no secret that the Cubs have struggled to draft and develop pitching, so it’s nice that they have been willing to spend freely to fill in the gaps. Sahadev wrote about the team’s struggles in December (subscription required, h/t Fangraphs), with a pretty remarkable chart. The problem with this chart is pretty simple: contenders are not particularly interested in …
The Scrap Heap – Winter Meetings
It was an ice cold stove for most of the offseason, but things finally picked up after Shohei Ohtani signed with the Los Angeles Angels of Disneyland on the eve of the Winter Meetings. Cubs Moves The Cubs picked up a pair of relief pitchers and a injury project that could see some time in the pen late this year: …
Where We Stand Now
I'm bringing back this feature from the olden days…if only because we need a new post. I'm stealing this format mostly from the 2015 version of this post, which credits shawndgoldman for the original regular feature. Record: 43-45, 5.5 games back of the Brewers and tied with the Cardinals for second place in this shitshow of a division. The actual …
The 25: Jake Arrieta
Previous programming note from Myles: Now that the season is fast approaching, and I've started to get the itch to talk baseball again, I'm hoping to pick up the pace. Hopefully I can convince the other writers to do the same. I'm going to take a look at the 2017 Cubs, starting with the best players and taking a descending …
Seven Cubs storylines going into spring training
The World Series parade seems like yesterday, and not just because it's not that many posts ago at this here blog. Now that the players are back in camp, let's take a look at what to watch over the next few weeks. Did you hear that the Chicago Cubs won the World Series? And they are bringing pretty much everyone …
Merry New Year from Obstructed View
2016 sucked for a lot of reasons, but at least there was one extremely bright spot. The Cubs are currently on pace to win every World Series until the heat death of the universe. Enjoy it while it lasts. Or don't. We can't tell you what to do.
Taking stock of the top relief pitching options
A wild blog post appears! To paraphrase something Theo Epstein said during the 2015 playoffs*, whoever wins the World Series will prove the Right Way to Win and every other team will follow suit in the offseason. In 2016 the conventional wisdom has turned out to be having a relief ace or two that you can ride to death in …
Cubs 8, Cleveland 7 (World Series Game 7)
This is just the greatest. I don’t even know what to say. The Cubs finally did the thing, in the most heart-attack-y way possible. And we were all able to see it happen. Let’s skip the negative crap and focus on what was great because, again, THE CUBS ARE WORLD CHAMPIONS. Twenty Five up: Fuck it, I’m just going to …