Rotation battle news Chris Volstad followed up Jeff Samardzija's strong outing with three solid innings of his own yesterday. Volstad struck out three, walked none, and allowed one hit. Spring training stats don't mean much (especially just three innings for each guy), but as far as we can tell things are very up in the air for the last two …
Projecting the 2012 Cubs: Paul Maholm
Next we move to the newest Cubs starter, Paul Maholm. Maholm stat-gathered 13.9 fWAR (11.1 rWAR) in his seven seasons with the Pirates, but it seems like he's been around a lot longer. Some years he was the defacto ace of the staff, and during his tenure he was certainly the most consistent member of their rotations that featured the …
Projecting the 2012 Cubs: Ryan Dempster
We haven't looked at any of the pitcher projections yet, so we might as well start with the longest tenured starter on the squad. Last year, Dempster looked utterly awful in the first month of the season. He had some terrible BABIP and HR luck but was generally being hit hard. However, after his first 6-8 starts or so he …
Daily Facepalm 3.5.12 – Random state laws edition
This week in state laws Lots of discussion in the comments this morning about state liquor and marriage laws yesterday. Apparently WaLi tried to get drunk and marry his cousin yesterday, and needed to make sure what states he was allowed to do that in. Is there a Cubs game today? The Cubs play an A's split squad today at …
Daily Facepalm 3.1.12 – Expanded playoffs edition
Expanded playoffs have arrived I thought this had already been decided, but the extra wild card has been approved. I'm kind of surprised that MLB would do this so close to the start of the season. Given the glacial pace at which MLB moved, I figured they had just decided that they were going to do it at some point, …
Daily Facepalm 2.29.12
Cubs go from maybe thinking about extending Garza to thinking about extending Garza. Or possibly cloning him. It's not clear. Hoyer (via Orange Guy): “We have a good relationship with Matt,” GM Jed Hoyer told Comcast SportsNet. “We need more Matt Garzas. We’ll sit down to talk to him about a deal. We’re hoping to get something worked out, but …
Daily Facepalm 2.28.12
Cubs start deciding who will start the games to start Spring Training. Rodrigo Lopez pitches Sunday, Dempster on Monday, and Garza on Tuesday. Sunday's game is on mlb.com radio broadcast, presumably with Len Kasper, and the latter two games are on WGN radio with Pat Hughes. The first WGN TV game is next Saturday. Is there a Cubs game today? …
Another shitty Cubs season in review: Casey Coleman, Ramon Ortiz, Doug Davis, Rodrigo Lopez, James Russell
When Wells and Cashner hit the DL on the same day in late April, the Cubs slim chances at grabbing a playoff spot disappeared. What we did not expect was the massive pile of fail that came in its wake…which doesn't even take into account the fact that Randy Wells probably came back too soon from his injury because the …
Daily Facepalm 2.23.12, Position Players report
Position players report to spring training today Speaking of which, Mets manager Terry Collins is bitching yet again about players not reporting earlier than their report date. Pouliot summed it up well in the post And that’s just not right. MLB and the MLBPA negotiated reporting deadlines for a reason, and no player should be pressured to show up early. …
Daily Facepalm 2.22.12
We just have the point-after-try to kick, or something Several months ago, we were on the "five yard line" in the Theo compensation situation. Since then we've crossed the blue line, stepped into the paint, crossed the box, and veered right at the fireworks factory exit, and now it's finally been decided that Cubs prospect Chris Carpenter would be the …