I figured the All Star break was as good a time as any to break out a new Where We Stand Now post. The Cubs sit in 3rd place in the NL Central, but 3rd place isn’t as bad as it sounds. They’re still a game up for the final Wild Card spot, but they’ve been a bit unlucky while …
Where We Stand Now
Following last night’s 6-0 loss to the Indians, the Cubs are a solid 34-28, but are 8 games behind the Cardinals who have hacked their way to baseball’s best 43-21 record. The Pirates are in 2nd place and after winning 6 in a row are a couple of games ahead of the Cubs. The Cubs remain 5th in the NL, …
Cubs Win Playoffs! Daytona, Boise, Tennessee Final Games
Birmingham Barons 7 @ Tennessee Smokies 4 The Smokies lost in the first round of the playoffs. Javier Baez went 1-4 with a home run and 2 SO, and ended the series with a .211 average and a pair of jacks. He was also hit by a pitch in this game. Arismendy Alcantara had a pair of singles and a stolen …
Cubs Minor League Playoffs 2013; Daytona, Boise Game 1
Dunedin Blue Jays 1 @ Daytona Cubs 6 Kris Bryant led the way with 2 hits and a single. He also had enough RBIs by himself to win. The only extra-base hit was a double by Pin-Chieh Chen to lead off the Cubs in the bottom of the 1st (he'd come to score on a move to 3rd off a …
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 …
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 …
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 …
ALDS Series Preview: A’s vs. Tigers
The A's came from about a billion games back to win the AL West thanks to the Rangers cubbing the final month or so of the season. That's not to say the A's backed into the playoffs. They won 94 games, which was just one back of the AL leading Yankees. The Tigers fell back in the AL Central early …