Today’s lineups! At Giants (radio via Giants on mlb.com) La Stella, 2B Denorfia, LF Alcantara, CF Soler, RF Castillo, C Bryant, 3B Schwarber, DH Valaika, 1B Russell, SS Turner, P Vs A’s (Len and Mick on mlb.com) Fowler, CF Rizzo, 1B Castro, SS Montero, C Baez, 2B Coghlan, LF Olt, 3B Sweeney, DH Lake, RF Wood, P Random stuff Rizzo …
Previewing the NL Central via the BP Annual
Being more or less snowed in over the weekend provided plenty of time to leaf through this year’s BP annual. I was originally just going to rant about the Cardinals chapter, but figured I’d go ahead and do the whole division. Chicago Cubs Sahadev’s essay was excellent but not really news to those of us who follow the team as …
Daily-ish Facepalm 2.26.15 – Rizzo’s stance, Coach Manny
Is Rizzo’s offensive surge for real? Sahadev takes a long look at Rizzo’s hitting mechanics during his breakout 2014 season vs his relatively disappointing 2013 over at BP. It’s behind the paywall*, but here are some highlights. Some of these are not super surprising for those of us who watched way too much Cubs baseball last year but it’s nice …
“Daily” Facepalm – Moncada, Epstein, Wood Extension?
Yoan Moncada ——-> Red Sox The Cuban defector goes to the Sox on a $30m deal. The Cubs continued to scout him despite being under the CBA signing limit penalty, hoping for the slim chance that he’d sign after July when their probation ends. The Red Sox burned their own signing bridges with the deal and are now due for …
OV Fantasy Baseball 2015 discussion
Fantasy Baseball was what turned me from a casual baseball fan into the fan I am today (with some help from Sammy Sosa), but I lost interest in it 5-6 years ago. Daily lineups, the long season, and relatively large rosters (compared to FFL) led to way more micromanaging than I had time for, and the only thing I really cared …
Cubs sign Jon Lester
Per many reports, the Cubs have signed Jon Lester to a 6/155 deal, with a vesting option for a seventh year. The Cubs have a protected pick, but since Lester was traded last season there is no draft pick compensation so all this costs is money and however many years Cubs fans took off their lives stressing out over this …
Daily Facepalm 10.29.14 – Game 7 looms
Following a 10-0 beatdown from the BABIP gods, the Giants and Royals play game 7 tonight. I’ve been surprised by how much I’ve enjoyed this world series, considering I have essentially no opinion on any player on either side and am mostly rooting for the Giants due to my dislike of Ned Yost and the inevitable barrage of articles about …
Wild Card recap/preview
*I meant to publish this yesterday, but got caught up in work before I could finish it. What a game last night. I’ve been on the record that I’m a fan of the current wild card format. In a perfect world I’d rather have it just be the two best teams in each league playing in a long World Series like …
Series Preview: Chicago Cubs (64-82) at Pittsburgh Pirates (77-69)
The Pirates are only 2.5 back from the Cardinals going into this series, and I wouldn’t mind seeing that lead shrink even further with the Cubs help. It could be a tall order even with the Cubs help though, as the Cardinals are playing a team even worse than the Rizzo/Castro-less Cubs as they host Colorado in St. Louis. The …
Series Preview: Brewers (73-63) at Cubs (61-76)
The Brewers started the season scorchingly hot and had a 20-8 record on May 1. Since then they’ve gone 53-55, are currently riding a five game losing streak, and are now tied with the (ugh) Cardinals for the division lead. I think the Pirates end up taking the division by season’s end but that big lead the Brewers built early …