The Cubs won three in a row! The Cubs won three in a row! The Cubs won three in a row! How the hell did that happen? Hunter Pence happened. With the score tied at four in the bottom of the 10th inning, Marlon Byrd hit a ball to right and Pence zigged when he probably should have zagged. Byrd …
OV Pic of the Day: Some People REALLY Don’t Like Houston
It was a banner day at Wrigley. The Cubs won, Carlos Marmol didn’t completely implode, and there were a couple of homeruns. There was also an actual banner. I don’t know what Houston did to these people, but they want to get them realigned the hell out of the National League Central. (Brian Cassella, Chicago Tribune / July 23, 2011) I …
2012 NL Central Champion Cubs, part 2
In part 1 we found that there were currently 13 players on the Cubs roster that the Cubs want to keep assuming they try to contend next year, which they will. We left off talking briefly about Aramis Ramirez and the club option the Cubs hold for $16 million (or a $2 million buyout). Using Ramirez’s .354 rest of season …
OV Pic of the Day: The Astros Are Bad at Baseball
The Cubs and Houston Astros clashed at Wrigley Field allowing us to finally get an answer to the age-old question: Who sucks more? (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh) At least until tomorrow. Go Cubs go.
Series Preview: Houston Astros (33-65) at 2012 NL Central Champion Chicago Cubs (39-60)
One of the chief objections to Interleague play, especially the notion of two 15-team leagues and a year-round interleague schedule, is the onset of less than compelling matchups. Who wants to see the Twins and Padres? Is a Red Sox vs. Reds series really enough of a novelty to warrant any extra attention from either fan base? Who in America …
2012 NL Central Champion Cubs, part 1
As much as I’ve written about the need to rebuild, it’s not going ot happen. The Cubs have some decent players on their roster and some you’d really like to get rid of. Since they’re planning on contending, we have to first figure out which of the current players on the roster are worth keeping around. To do that, we …
Anatomy of a Rebound – 2006-2007 vs 2011
One thing that hasn’t been discussed much is how the Cubs went from a similarly unwatchable team in 2006 to the playoffs in 2007. Just like the 2011 Cubs, the 2006 Cubs had some major black holes on their roster, trotted out numerous awful pitchers in the 5th starter spot, and were completely unwatchable and awful. Somehow they managed to …
Mike Quade Has Lots of Excuses
Yesterday we learned from Mike Quade that the Cubs lost a game 9-1 because Starlin Castro wasn’t focused on a pop fly which set a bad tone for the entire rest of the game. Not too long ago, he went off on the umpires for being horrible. Before that, he was on board with Tom Ricketts’ assessments that the team …
OV Pic of the Day: Dempster Doesn’t Have a Good Poker Face
So, I’ve been at work and wasn’t able to pay much attention to the rubber game against the Phillies today. With Ryan Dempster going up against rookie starter, Vance Worley, you had to figure the Cubs had as good a shot as they could expect to take the series from the best team in the National League. How’d it go, …