Have the Cubs even played the Mets this year? I can’t remember (laughing). Apparently the Cubs took two out three from them behind strong performances from Demp and Z. Team Overview Cubs Mets wOBA .315 (8th) .322 (5th) UBR -11.4 (16th) 1.0 (8th) UZR -9.1 (10th) -44.5 (16th) SP FIP 4.23 (12th) 4.12 (10th) RP FIP 3.87 (9th) 3.91 (12th) …
Cubs Help George Lucas Continue to Ruin Star Wars
When I saw Star Wars when it first came out in 1977, I thought it was the best thing than man would ever do. As I grew up and saw the next two movies in the trilogy, it only solidified my belief that George Lucas was a frickin’ genius. If only he had known when to just quit at the …
WAR And Salsa
A lot of discussion started yesterday about WAR thanks a very thoughtful article on It’s About The Money, Stupid. Discussion followed in two article on The Book Blog (here and here) and then on Replacement Level Baseball Blog. I’ve mostly been ignoring the defense part of WAR for some time now. Ever since Colin Wyers showed how useless those metrics …
2011 Minor League Wrap Up, Part 1
Now that the minor league regular season is over it seems a good time to take yet another look at the Cubs top prospects. Over the next week I’ll do just that and this time I will publish a new survey and actually post the results. I promise. First, let’s look at how the teams performed and how one non-top …
Can't think of a stupid title yet so this is obviously not finished
A lot of negative attention has been given to Tom Ricketts re-signing Oneri Fleita for 4 years. A lot more negative attention will be given when Ricketts re-signs Tim Wilken. My first thought when I heard about the signing was that it was odd. Immediatley after that I realized we’re talking about an inconsequential amount of money so firing them, …
When not to bunt
Figured we should post that image since MO is against bunts at all times and because the image makes me laugh. MGL talks about a specific situation in which a bunt is not a good idea at all. The best part: Given that a win costs around 4 million dollars, a manager should be fined $40,000 dollars every time he …
Why extending Oneri Fleita and possibly Tim Wilken's contract doesn't matter
A part of me does wonder whether these kind of moves aren’t as bold or suggestive as I think. Consider this: we fully expect the Cubs to dump Alfonso Soriano and Carlos Zambrano this Winter, eating tens of millions of dollars in the process. Would it really be so shocking for Ricketts to be willing to eat these personnel extensions, …
Series Preview: Cincinnati Reds (69-71) at Chicago Cubs (60-80)
Team overview As always, these are team stats with NL ranks in parentheses. Reds Cubs wOBA .323 (4th) .316 (8th) UBR 14.2 (1st) -11.4 (16th) UZR 39.8 (2nd) -9.1 (10th) SP FIP 4.49 (16th) 4.26 (12th) RP FIP 3.99 (15th) 3.93 (13th) As usual, I feel smug about my pessimism towards the Reds pitching staff turning out to be true. …
Cubs likely to extend Tim Wilken's contract
In a move that will surely anger even more people, Tom Ricketts will sit down with Tim Wilken in a couple weeks to discuss the state of the system and Wilken’s contract status. In other words, Ricketts is very likely to extend Wilken’s contract. I’ve not been too pleased with Wilken, but one thing we have to consider is the …