I know AC (and others) are very antsy for the Cubs, and anyone in MLB for that matter, to stop their faux collusion and start spending already, but the calendar is the calendar and both the agents/players and the owners/front offices are in a staring contest at the moment before the Winter Meetings in a couple weeks. I was going …
Bending the Rules
Towards the end of the previous post, in between waiting for the Cubs (and really all of MLB) to show signs of life on the transactional front, AC and I started pondering how batters might mess with pitchers with the new pitch clock rule coming in 2023. As a reminder, in addition to the defensive shift restrictions and the larger …
Roster Check in Advance of Rule 5 and Free Agent Additions (If Any)
Most of the stuff I was tracking was in the previous post, but the official list is out with no DFAs (yet) since the Cubs had room: The Cubs will therefore roll the dice on the other Rule 5 eligible guys, but since most rosters are still stuffed to the gills, they’ll probably be okay for the most part. Now …
Random Crap For the Off Day
We have to wait for the World Series to end before anything will happen that necessitates any level of “analysis,” so I figured it was fine to just pull a Seinfeld and write a post about mostly nothing. I thought about some of the silly baseball terms that people still argue about online (at least until Twitter dies, but I’m …
A Wish List For Fun Baseball
So anyway, while waiting for the World Series to resume and then for the offseason rumor mill to start churning at maximum speed, I was thinking about what new stuff to throw up on this website and decided to take another crack and stuff that I really like about baseball that need to be emphasized. Part of this is to …
This Generation’s “Mr. Cub”
While we wait for the World Series to start (and end) so the Cubs can finally do something to get back to the postseason, I realized a couple things that stemmed from the previous entry. The one thing is an extension of that blog, where it’s way more fun when the Cubs win, and that could generate far more goodwill …
Predicting Tommy John Injuries
Bradley Woodrum and others on MLB Trade Rumors have spent hundreds of hours working on a way to predict Tommy John injuries. The Cubs risk factors are pretty good to look at for the most part. Risk+: This is merely a representation of how far above average or below average the player’s risk is. Here, 0% indicates a league-average risk; 100% …
Starlin Castro’s Trade Value
The Cubs have three middle infielders for two positions. Addison Russell is planted at shortstop so that leaves Starlin Castro and Javier Baez for 2nd base. There are other possible scenarios. Baez or Castro could move to centerfield if the Cubs don’t re-sign Dexter Fowler or add another CF via free agency or trade. Neither have played there, but there’s …
The New Obstructed View (and a word on ads)
As you can certainly tell, OV has gone through some extensive changes. While the partnership with Bloguin alleviated much of the work for us (and when I say "us", I mean dmick89. He is the one that does nearly everything behind the scenes, and OV simply wouldn't exist without his leadership), it introduced other problems. Chief among them were the …
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame vs. MLB Hall of Fame
This will be short because I'm mostly interested in your thoughts. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame does not keep drug users out of the Hall. It doesn't really care one way or the other. Drug use and music have gone together for longer than than I've been alive (39 years today). The best bands have been ones that …