Cubs swept by Astros, things about to get much worse

In News And Rumors by dmick89249 Comments

The Cubs just completed a 9-game home stand against the Mets, Pirates and Astros. The Cubs entered the home stand 5 games below .500 and it was concluding the easiest part of their schedule. The Cubs needed to make up ground during this home stand because even if they play well after, it’s unlikely they can improve their record all …

What the Cubs may soon look like

In News And Rumors by dmick89212 Comments

The Cubs are 8.5 games out of first place and it’s just the first of June. Their pythagorean record is even worse than their actual 23-30 record. Pythag has them at 22-31. The only team with a worse Pythag than the Cubs is the Houston Astros at 22-33. Minnesota is worse in the AL at 17-36, but no other team …

Which types of players have been injured? (UPDATED)

In News And Rumors by berselius80 Comments

Fellow Cubs blogger Doc Blume opined in the comments to today’s article at LOHO that part of the Cubs injury issues stem from the roster being filled with players with questionable medical histories, as the Cubs had no money to spend on better players. The lack of payroll room the past few offseasons pushed the Cubs towards signing/acquiring marginal, injury …

These Cubs Are Not the 1997 Marlins

In News And Rumors by aisle42481 Comments

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 Baserunning

In Unobstructed Views by dmick892 Comments

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 …

It’s never too early to look ahead to next year

In News And Rumors by dmick89138 Comments

A few years ago I wouldn’t have considered writing something about looking ahead. The Cubs had the pieces in place to contend for as long as they were willing to supplement the roster when it was needed. Following the 2009 season the Cubs refused to do that and what they basically agreed to do at that time was a much …

Welington Castillo to Chicago?

In Unobstructed Views by dmick893 Comments

It could be nothing, but I couldn’t help but notice that moments after Soto was out of the game that the Iowa Cubs pinch hit for Welington Castillo. Castillo began the season rehabbing in High-A Daytona and has hit a combined .244/.324/.400. This is his 14th game for the Iowa Cubs and he played 12 for Daytona prior to getting …

Grades so far: Infield

In News And Rumors by dmick8982 Comments

The Cubs are 33 games into their 2011 season and it seems a good time to check on how players are doing. I’ll break it into four parts. Click the link below to read more.

Cubs rWAR and fWAR

In Unobstructed Views by dmick89Leave a Comment

Most of you are at least somewhat familiar with WAR and how it works. I’d bet most of you are familiar that Fangraphs publishes their own WAR (fWAR) and Baseball Reference publishes their own. BRef’s WAR is based on Rally Monkey’s formula and it’s been referred to as rWAR for a few years now. There are some key differences between …