About a quarter of the 2011 season is in the books and the Cubs have performed about as we expected overall. The pitching, particularly the rotation, has been worse than we thought. Part of that can be explained by the injury to Randy Wells who is an above average starting pitcher. The pitchers they’ve used to fill in for Wells, …
Random facts
Jose Bautista has more home runs than all these Cubs players combined: Geovany Soto, Koyie Hill, Jeff Baker, Darwin Barney, Blake DeWitt, Starlin Castro, Aramis Ramirez, Tony Campana, Reed Jonson, Kosuke Fukudome, Tyler Colvin, and Marlon Byrd. Bautista has 18 and those players have combined for 15. The following players have combined for one more walk than Jose Bautista has: …
Random Cubs Notes and Ramblings
The world won’t end today, but by the 5th inning of tonight’s game, you’ll wish it had. The Cubs aren’t just modeling themselves after the Red Sox, they’re four years ahead of the curve. They signed a speedy left fielder with diminishing potential to a gaudy longterm contract long before Theo Epstein made it fashionable. (h/t, of course, to Berselius) …
Don’t Ever Bet On the Cubs at Home
Today, I happened upon a site looking at how well you would do historically if you bet on the Cubs regularly. Obviously, (and I don’t think we needed actual data to convince us of this) the result of such betting would have been bad. Not Oh-Darn-I-Guess-I-Won’t-Be-Able-to-Buy-That-iPad-Now bad, but more like Holy-Shit-I’m-Now-Homeless bad. I don’t fully understand how lost “units” are …
Besides That, Cubs Fans, How Have You Enjoyed the Ricketts Era?
The Ricketts showed up last year at the Cubs Convention to a hero’s welcome. If the crowds could have somehow gotten ahold of some rose petals or palm fronds to throw at their feet, they surely would have. Finally! The reign of the Tribune had come to an end! Long live the Ricketts Family!!! They talked about how they were …
The Cubs Are Who We Thought They Were
Tony Campana will remember May 17, 2011 as the day he made his major league debut, the day he scored his first run, notched his first RBI, and delivered the first single of his career. People around the world might remember it as a night with a full moon, particularly if they gave birth, went cuckoo, or were attacked by …
It’s never too early to look ahead to next year
A few years ago I wouldn’t have considered writing something about looking ahead. The Cubs had the pieces in place to contend for as long as they were willing to supplement the roster when it was needed. Following the 2009 season the Cubs refused to do that and what they basically agreed to do at that time was a much …
Are the Cubs out of it?
The Cubs sit 6 games behind the Reds after last night’s loss. I’ll even admit that I didn’t think the Cubs would fall this far behind this quickly. With the Cubs easy schedule early on I expected them to actually look like a contender and then fall back when the schedule became tougher. Instead of that, the Cubs fell behind …
(Not) Tom Ricketts Clarifies Statements on Attendance
I was a little confused this morning when I read Ed Sherman’s interview with Tom Ricketts. In it, Ricketts said that the Cubs’ meagre attendance numbers had more to do with the soggy weather than the crappy baseball. When you play most of your home games in 45 degrees and it’s wet, I’m sorry, I can understand why some people …
Grades so far: Outfield
I haven’t gotten to this one as quickly as I’d hoped, but here it is. You can read about the article I wrote about the infield if you haven’t already. Alfonso Soriano – It hasn’t been pretty, but Soriano has been a productive hitter to this point in the season. He has a .359 wOBA thanks to his 11 home …