Thanks the Padres come from behind win last night in a game started by Madison Bumgarner, the Cubs are nearing what was inevitable a month ago: a spot in the postseason. It's been so long that we've known this was coming that the Cubs even moved their rotation around so to ensure that Jon Lester and Jake Arrieta would each …
Series Preview (and game thread): Giants (6-3) at Cubs (3-5)
The Cubs will get a whiff of success this weekend, and it will probably be coming from the other dugout. (Blatantly plagarized from Brett's preview blurb at Bleacher Nation, because it's too funny. Take that, Paul Sullivan. Or something.) The Cubs are on a roll, not having lost for two straight days. The Giants, meanwhile, have crushed all before them and are coming …
Rethinking Pitching Philosophies, Derek Johnson, and Carlos Gomez
Cubs Den has a post up drawing attention to a Baseball America article on changes in the Cubs’ organizational philosophy related to developing pitching talent. The BA piece focuses on new pitching coordinator Derek Johnson, formerly the pitching coach at Vanderbilt, which famously produced David Price, Mike Minor, Sonny Gray, and many others on his watch. Johnson is of the …
World Series Preview: San Francisco Giants (94-68) vs Detroit Tigers (88-74)
The Giants have home field advantage in this series thanks to All-Star Game MVP Melky Cabrera, who was suspended for PED violations and was left off the Giants playoff roster (his 50 game suspension just ended). The Tigers have the advantage of having swept the Yankees in the previous round, which already feels like was a month ago. The Giants …
Series Preview: Chicago Cubs (18-32) at San Francisco Giants (27-24)
The Cubs start a ten game road trip with a visit to Pac Bell Park (or whatever the hell they're calling it these days). At least this series, unlike most west coast series, will only have one super late game (tonight's). Unfortunately the Cubs will miss Tim Lincecum, who seems to have transformed into a lesser pitcher. Maybe Jeff Samardzija …
Matt Garza Update
It’s been a few days since we had a post about Matt Garza and since we’re rebranding as the Matt Garza Blog we figured it was time for an update. Jon Heyman says that there is no leader in the trade talks. There is “no real favorite” in the five-team Matt Garza sweepstakes, according to someone familiar with the talks. …
Series preview: World Champions (21-16) at Chicago Cubs (16-20)
Team Overview Team stats (and NL ranks) wOBA: .297 (15th)UZR: -8.1 (12th)DRS: -6 (6th)SP FIP: 3.22 (3rd)SP xFIP: 3.47 (4th)RP FIP: 2.79 (3rd)RP xFIP: 3.14 (2nd) Batters Player wOBA ZiPS wOBA CF Andres Torres .390 .337 2B Freddy Sanchez .301 .313 1B Aubrey Huff .283 .344 C Buster Posey .319 .365 RF Nate Schierholtz .334 .327 LF Pat Burrell .354 …