Berselius refused to show up for work so that left the rest of us scrambling around to find a replacement. We couldn't find any qualified applicants though we thank you for your interest, so I'm going to go ahead and do his job for him. He has been punished and will not be having dinner anytime soon.
These Cubs Are Not the 1997 Marlins
Dave Kaplan wrote a post on the CSN Chicago site where he poses the question: Will the Cubs follow Marlins’ blueprint? I clicked on it because I thought maybe, just maybe, he would have some information from speaking with Jim Hendry or Tom Ricketts or anyone within the Cubs organization that would indicate the Cubs were actually considering such a …
Cubs Are Pretty Consistent
I happened to realize that the Cubs just finished off their stretch where they played 18 straight games against an opponent projected to finish over .500. The Cubs went 12-15 in the early soft part of their schedule against teams like Houston and the Diamondbacks for a .444 win percentage. Then we figured the bottom would fall out as they …
Catcher Interference Skill
Mike Fast looks at the catcher inference leaders (batters, catchers, and even pitchers) since 2007 (subscription required). Carl Crawford, who reached base last night via catcher interference on Welington Castillo, leads the way. The top 15 batters in catcher interference have accounted for 60% of all interference calls (including playoffs and spring training) since 2007. Crawford has 14 and the …
The Cubs just aren’t very good
About a quarter of the 2011 season is in the books and the Cubs have performed about as we expected overall. The pitching, particularly the rotation, has been worse than we thought. Part of that can be explained by the injury to Randy Wells who is an above average starting pitcher. The pitchers they’ve used to fill in for Wells, …
Random facts
Jose Bautista has more home runs than all these Cubs players combined: Geovany Soto, Koyie Hill, Jeff Baker, Darwin Barney, Blake DeWitt, Starlin Castro, Aramis Ramirez, Tony Campana, Reed Jonson, Kosuke Fukudome, Tyler Colvin, and Marlon Byrd. Bautista has 18 and those players have combined for 15. The following players have combined for one more walk than Jose Bautista has: …
Pirates (sorta) winning, attendance goes up
In a Hardball Talk blog today, Drew Silva reported that the Pittsburgh Pirates’ attendance is up relative to last year. A couple reasons why: 1. PNC Park is really nice. As reported below: According to Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, ticket sales this year at the gorgeous PNC Park are already up 2.4 percent and are 14 percent ahead …
Garza ——–> MRI on elbow
The only starting pitcher the Cubs have had this year that’s been any good is now going to miss his scheduled start on Sunday and visit a doctor. He’ll have an MRI and knowing the Cubs luck will probably be out for the next 19 years. BOSTON – Believe it or not, the Cubs’ starting pitching went from worst to …
Random Cubs Notes and Ramblings
The world won’t end today, but by the 5th inning of tonight’s game, you’ll wish it had. The Cubs aren’t just modeling themselves after the Red Sox, they’re four years ahead of the curve. They signed a speedy left fielder with diminishing potential to a gaudy longterm contract long before Theo Epstein made it fashionable. (h/t, of course, to Berselius) …
Cubs Baserunning
Baseball Prospectus has their sortable statistics available for 2011 now. The first thing I checked out was the Cubs baserunning numbers since they’ve sucked at baserunning for several years. So far they rank 21st in baseball in EqBRR (Equivalent Baserunning Runs) and are -1.0. They did rank 14th last year, but 28th the year before that. Darwin Barney has been …