I feel extremely vindicated in my confidence that the Rockies were going to be good this year. Please disregard any comments that I may have made in the podcast to open the season about how they would end up with a worse record than the Padres, that must have been deceptively edited. Oddly enough, the Rockies record is not built …
Cardinals 6, Cubs 7 (6.14.17)
OSS: Cubs complete the sweep of the Cardinals behind a big day from Ian Happ. Three up: Ian Happ launched two homers off of Michael Wacha, driving in more than half the the Cubs runs. One of them even had runners on base. The novelty! Based on what few innings I've seen he looks credible in CF too. Albert Almora …
Series Preview: Chicago Cubs (25-24) at San Diego Padres (19-33)
Well that was, uh, not great. At least the Cubs transition from playing one of the best teams in the league to one of the worst. Weird shit tends to happen on west coast road trips though, so who knows what will happen. The Padres are as bad as their record, with the second worst offense in baseball by wOBA …
Series Preview: Chicago Cubs (25-21) at Los Angeles Dodgers of Los Angeles (27-20)
The Dodgers pitching is tops in the league, which is not a huge surprise, but their offense is way better than I would have guessed as well. They were fourth in the NL in offensive production last year, and are right there again in 2017. Turner, Grandal, and Seager are having big years as expected, but they are also getting …
Series Preview: San Francisco Giants (19-26) at Chicago Cubs (22-20)
As much grumbling as there has been at the Cubs slow start, this series offers a stark reminder that it could be much worse. The Giants season can be summed up with the fact that Giants ace Madison Bumgarner, who has been out since late April due to a dirtbike accident, has the team's third highest offensive WAR on the …
Series Preview: Milwaukee Brewers (24-18) at Chicago Cubs (21-19)
There's a little less smoke and mirrors going on with the Brewers record compared to the team the Cubs just swept. The Brewers are simply scoring a crapload of runs, in large part thanks to Eric Thames's scorching hot April. He has slowed down a bit in May, but he's anchored what has been a pretty good offense, middle infield …
Series Preview: Cincinnati Reds (19-18) at Chicago Cubs (18-19)
Well, here we are in fourth place with a losing record. Just like we thought at the beginning of the season, right? The Reds have been streaky all year, already with two four-plus game winning streaks and losing streaks. Votto continues to be Votto and Cozart is building on last year's solid season, but the WAR leader on the team …
Series Preview: Chicago Cubs (17-17) at St. Louis Cardinals (19-14)
While the Cubs scuffled against the Yankees and Rockies, the Cardinals ripped off a six game winning streak because, Cardinals. Their pitching has rebounded from early season struggles to have the second best ERA in the leage (n.b. they are tied in FIP with the Cubs), and their offensive wRC+ is smack on 101. They even have fewer HR than …
Series Preview: New York Yankees (17-9) at Chicago Cubs (16-12)
Hey, the Yankees are suddenly really good again. The main driver of their success is the offense, which leads the majors in wRC+ by a large margin. They are second only to the Brewers in home runs, and that's without much contribution from Gary Sanchez. Our old pal Starlin Castro is having a great year, slashing .362/.402/.543. He wasn't on …
Series Preview: Phillies (11-12) at Cubs (13-11)
The Phillies are in the middle of about as tough a stretch as any team could face. They just got swept by the Dodgers in LA, head to Wrigley to face the Cubs for a four game series, then are rewarded with a trip home to face the Nationals. They did manage to rip off a six game winning streak …