He's [Brian Bogusevic] been the Joe Mather of camp so far — Dale Sveum I'm pretty sure Dale Sveum meant this as a compliment, but saying someone is the Joe Mather of anything is kind of the opposite. I'll just repost what I already did about Mather. Joe Mather was the worst player in baseball last year. Baseball Reference only thought …
Last year Joe Mather, this year Brent Lillibridge?
Last season Joe Mather was signed to a minor league contract and then made the team. Joe Mather was not any good. Not before he signed with the Cubs and especially not with the Cubs. Despite this, he still had nearly 250 plate appearances. Joe Mather was the worst player in baseball last year. Baseball Reference only thought he was …
Bimillenial Facepalm – 11.2.1
Cubs "losing" a bunch of players to free agency/waivers Team MVP Shawn Camp was the only officially official free agent on the roster, but a few other players have opted for free agency after being kicked off the Cubs 40-man roster. Apparently they don't realize that "cut from the Cubs roster" is not going to be a net positive for …
Roster Reshuffling update
The Cubs have transacted half a zillion minor moves in the last week. We'll take a page from Phil Rogers and use the +/- system, because it actually means something in this context (i.e., how many roster spots are open). Outrighted to Iowa (i.e., off the 40-man) RP Blake Parker SP Justin Germano OF Joe Mather RP Marcos Mateo SP Jason …
Season in review: David DeJesus
I was looking through our media library, and it looks like the only pictures we have of DeJesus in the system are of him in a Royals uniform, his wife, and his ridiculous truck. That's pretty much summed up his year as a player. He didn't do anything in particular to raise anyone's ire, but never really distinguished himself either. …
The Top 20 Cubs performances in a 2012 game
I was curious which players had the best games in 2012 for this shitty team we follow. I used Win Probability Added (WPA) from Baseball Reference to compile the list. There's no reason to write more of an introduction than that so here they are. 20. Travis Wood, .395 WPA Despite Wood's up and down season, he ended up having …
The worst Cubs of 2012
In a season that has mostly sucked it seems appropriate to pay tribute to those who helped them suck even more than they would have otherwise. I haven't looked this over so I'm doing the work as I write along. We'll start with the position players and if I feel like I'll do one for the pitchers tomorrow. Joe Mather …
The Cubs probably won’t be taking many walks for some time
The Cubs 6.5% walk rate prior to last night's games was the lowest in baseball (league average 8.1%). The following Cubs with 150 PA or more are or were above league average: Geovany Soto (9.6%), Luis Valbuena (9.8%), Ian Stewart (10.4%), David DeJesus (10.6%) and Bryan LaHair (11.2%). One of those players is now with the Texas Rangers. Another is …
Revisiting the Cubs offseason transactions
Since the Cubs changed management this past offseason I thought it might be fun to look back at the transactions and see how they've turned out so far. Keep in mind these are a final analysis. There's still much time left for some of these deals to look different than they currently do. I considered breaking this into parts, but …
Joe Mather Redux
I don't even think Joe is terrible, but I can't stand him in center.