One name that seems to be popping up here and elsewhere the past few days is Jason Heyward. He is heading into free agency, and the Cubs could definitely use an outfielder, even though Heyward isn't a true centerfielder. Thinking about it a little, the thing that struck me about him is that I can’t remember the last time a player as …
Three former shortstop prospects struggle offensively
Prior to the 2010 season, Alcides Escobar was ranked by Baseball America as the 12th best prospect in baseball. That same year, Starlin Castro was ranked 16th. Also prior to 2010, Elvis Andrus had just completed an impressive rookie season with the Rangers. Andrus was ranked as high as 19th by Baseball America. Escobar was 23, Castro was 20 and …
AL Scout on A-Rod: I can't believe anyone would be interested
AL scout on arod: "I can't believe anyone would be interested." #114MIL plus #30MIL in milestone HR bonuses — Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) October 19, 2012 Every single year we hear about this. Player makes lots of money. Same player isn't worth what he's paid. Not even close. People say this player can't be traded. Every. Single. Year. Yet every single …
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 …
Becoming more optimistic about Josh Vitters (Ryan Dempster, Ryan Dempster, Ryan Dempster, Ryan Dempster, Ryan Dempster, Ryan Dempster, Ryan Dempster, Ryan Dempster, Ryan Dempster, Ryan Dempster, Ryan Dempster, Ryan Dempster, Ryan Dempster, Ryan Dempster, Ryan Dempster, Ryan Dempster, Ryan Dempster, Ryan Dempster, Ryan Dempster, Ryan Dempster, Ryan Dempster)
Josh Vitters entered the 2007 Draft as one of the best bats in the class. Matt Wieters was considered the best college bat in the country and scouts debated whether Mike Moustakas or Josh Vitters was the best high school bat. Some scouts even said Vitters had the best bat in the draft. David Price would be selected 1st and …
What can we expect from Starlin Castro on defense?
Starlin Castro has not been a good defensive shortstop to this point in this career. His career UZR is -11, his DRS is -15 and his Total Zone (TZ) is -27. His 60 errors since 2010 leads all MLB players. Ian Desmond is close at 58, but has played a little more than Castro. Those two are nowhere close to …
Some thoughts on the so-called team meetings
On Saturday Tim explained how silly the Cubs are, but I came to a much different conclusion than he did after reading the same thing. Let me start with just quoting some of the same things Tim did. General manager Jim Hendry and assistant GM Randy Bush will preside over the two days of meetings. Hendry’s objective will be to …
Series Preview: New York Yankees (39-28) vs Hapless Victims (28-40)
Before I get to previewing this bloodbath, I just want to mention that it was fun to watch the Cubs take three of four from their little brothers to the north. Team Overviews Teams stats with respective league rankings in parens. Yankees Cubs wOBA .353 (1st) .318 (6th) UBR -1.9 (9th) -7.1 (16th) UZR 11.6 (3rd) -15.5 (15th) SP FIP …
The All Average wOBA hitters
I was looking on Fangraphs at Starlin Castro‘s stats this morning and couldn’t help but notice that his .357 wOBA was almost entirely batting average (.330). It doesn’t really matter how you accomplish it, but I started to wonder about the difference in wOBA and AVG. I was specifically interested in batters who had hit .300, which is what we …
Matt Garza is not this bad or this good
The start to Matt Garza‘s career as a Cub has not gone as planned. After giving up Chris Archer, Robinson Chirinos, Hak-Ju Lee, Brandon Guyer and Super Sam Fuld, the Cubs Cubs were expecting big things from Garza. He’d been a very good pitcher for a few years now and was moving from the AL East to the NL Central. …
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