Over the last two seasons Koyie Hill has posted a 51 wRC+ (weighted runs created, adjusted so that 100 is average like ERA+ and OPS+). wRC+, you may remember, uses wOBA. Oddly enough, it’s only 11th worst over those two seasons among players with 200 or more PA. It’s bad. It’s downright terrible, but he is a catcher so he’s …
Tom Ricketts’ Easiest Interview Ever
I don’t read a ton of articles by Toni Ginnetti, so I can’t say whether she was just having a bad day or if this is the result of Tom Ricketts being particularly oily, but I had a hard time reading her interview with Tom today. Tom Ricketts smiles at the question: Would winning the World Series help the Cubs accelerate …
11 Scandalous Predictions for the 2011 Cubs
By scandalous, of course I mean stupid. Earlier in the offseason I made 103 predictions that won’t happen in 2011. That was pure nonsense whereas this is pure speculation. Huge difference. Some of these could actually come true. And they’re not all optimistic. 11. Brett Jackson will see the majors by June. I don’t know why. I only added this at …
Quade realizes the Cubs have no speed, backs off aggressive baserunning talk
It’s nice to see the team back off from another dumb policy. At the beginning of spring training (and IIRC the offseason) Quade said that the Cubs were going to be more aggressive on the basepaths. Via the hobbit: “I almost feel like we’re forcing something that we shouldn’t,” Quade said. “It goes against everything (I believe) — ‘We’re going …
Getting to Know: Andrew Cashner
Name: Andrew Cashner Position: Starting Pitcher Bats/Throws: Right/Right Opening Day age: 24 Uniform Number: 48 Does he celebrate on September 11th every year?: Well, it IS his birthday, so I would imagine so. Wouldn’t you? Where Does He Rank Among National League Fifth Starters?: 9th The good news is that Beyond the Box Score has him rated above every other …
Mike Quade Has Tiger Blood. Hooray?
There are two basic schools of thought about Mike Quade’s recent comments on Carlos Silva: 1) Mike Quade is the greatest, toughest, smartest son of a gun in baseball; 2) Mike Quade is a verbose, no good, sucker-punching fool. There is no in between. Of course there is still only one school of thought on Carlos Silva: he’s fat ugly, …
Raised Expectations
Well… here we are. After all the hype building up to the site’s debut today, I can’t help but wonder if people will walk away with the same sense of disappointment felt by the folks who initially buy into the Cubs’ “It’s a Way of Life” campaign after watching the Cubs’ attempts to hit the ball, catch the ball, or …
2011 Cubs a Pretty Blank Slate
I haven’t heard anyone not named Carlos Silva complain about Andrew Cashner being named the Cubs’ 5th starter. I’m still waiting for a yet-to-be-discredited Cubs blog to erupt in rage over Marcos Mateo making the roster. Nobody seems all that bothered to see Silva go, and if you’re looking to find someone who is, I’m sorry to disappoint you. But …
Andrew Cashner joins the rotation
The Cubs announced on Saturday that Andrew Cashner would be the team's 5th starter and that Marcos Mateo had claimed the final bullpen spot. This leaves Carlos Silva off the roster and the Cubs will try to trade him. That's not going to happen so the Cubs will eat about $5.6 million assuming some team picks him up and pays …
Platooning 101
The day everyone has looked forward to is here. Obstructed View is no longer something we can hype though we had little to no intention of doing that. It just became fun to do it. Now we have to live up to the hype or face critisim and ridicule by the thousands of fans we raised expectations for. Anyway, this …