Riding an eight game losing streak and consecutive sweeps on the west coast, the Cubs continue their upset bid to take the number one pick away from the Houston Astros. The Reds, meanwhile, are two and a half games ahead of the Cardinals and the still hanging in there Buccos. For all the slagging I like to do on the …
Javier Baez promoted to Daytona – tweet
The Cubs have promoted SS Javier Baez to high Class A Daytona. Monster bat potential.
— Ben Badler (@BenBadler) August 4, 2012
Podcasting the Cubs
Before gallivanting off to the hinterlands of Molina-esque interwebs, Berselius recorded a podcast with longtime reader, sometime commenter sitrick2. We talked the Cubs for about an hour, including talk of prospects, the Dempster situation based on what we knew on Tuesday (not much), and The Future. We also talked some Breaking Bad, Parks and Rec, and other TV stuff to …
Series Preview: Chicago Cubs (38-53) at St. Louis Cardinals (47-45)
The Cardinals continue their streak of being the reverse-Diamondbacks this season, sitting at 2 games above .500 despite the best run differential in the National League. Clearly they are missing Ryan Theriot's clubhouse presence. Team Overviews NL Rank in parentheses Cubs Cardinals wOBA .299 (13th) .334 (2nd) BSR 2.8 (5th) -2.3 (11th) UZR 11.9 (3rd) -18.5 (14th) DRS +18 …
Updated “This Old Cub” to air on MLBN this Saturday (tweet)
MLB Network will air updated version of “This Old Cub” on Saturday to celebrate Ron Santo in HOF bit.ly/MKqmNz #Cubs
— Carrie Muskat (@CarrieMuskat) July 19, 2012
Series Preview: Carlos Zambrano (43-46) at Chicago Cubs (36-52)
To judge from all the negative buzz I've seen around the interwebs heading into this series, you'd think that Zambrano is starting all three games and Cubs fans should boo the crap out of him. However, he is slated to start zero games in this series. Which is a bummer, because I love watching Z pitch. Team Overviews (NL ranks …
Series Preview: Chicago Cubs (29-49) @ Atlanta Braves (41-37)
The red hot Chicago Cubs travel to Atlanta fresh off sweeping the super-talented Houston Astros. The Braves lost 2 of 3 to the Nationals over the weekend. Teams at a glance Stat Cubs Braves wOBA .297 .317 wRC+ 80 (16) 98 (5) UZR 2.5 (6) 35.7 (1) BsR 1.2 (7) 6.0 (2) SP ERA 4.32 (15) 4.22 (12) SP FIP …
Series Preview: Boston Red Sox (31-32) at Chicago Cubs (21-42)
Wait, the Red Sox have a losing record? That was a surprise to me. Pythagoras disagrees with their record, as they have a +26 run differential, second in the AL east and 4th in the whole AL. If their non-winning trend continues they might have to watch out for some sleeper cell cultists. Luckily the Red Sox are playing the …
Castro: "I don't have to change"
After some talk about Bobby V's criticism of Castro's focus last year, the Hobbiton Press has some quotes from Castro about the new hitting coach and whether he'll change his approach. "I don't have to change," he said. "The walks and those kinds of things, they're coming. I try to be more patient, but right now, the pitchers are throwing …
Series Preview: Detroit Tigers (28-32) at Chicago Cubs (20-40)
The Tigers were the easy favorite to dominate the mediocre AL Central. They added Prince Fielder to a team that won the division by fifteen games in 2011, forming a core of starts that also includes Miguel Cabrera, Victor Martinez, and Justin Verlander. Fielder has mashed since coming to the team, but not surprisingly the overall lineup has regressed (most …