I was looking on Fangraphs at Starlin Castro‘s stats this morning and couldn’t help but notice that his .357 wOBA was almost entirely batting average (.330). It doesn’t really matter how you accomplish it, but I started to wonder about the difference in wOBA and AVG. I was specifically interested in batters who had hit .300, which is what we …
Cashner to the bullpen when he returns
No decision has been made on what type of a role he will have long term with us. I will leave all of that up to Dr. Gryzlo and Dr. Yocum who are treating him for his shoulder injury. I will tell you that I think that if he is out for a while it is probably unrealistic to think …
All of the United States Except Miami vs. Miami – Game 4
You have to figure that if the Bulls can ever actually hit a two-foot shot, their chances for victory go way up. We’ll see what happens. For now let’s give it up for Chris Bosh for not being totally irrelevant in this series. Her-cu-les! Her-cu-les!
Series Preview: New York Mets (22-24) @ Chicago Cubs (20-25)
Berselius refused to show up for work so that left the rest of us scrambling around to find a replacement. We couldn't find any qualified applicants though we thank you for your interest, so I'm going to go ahead and do his job for him. He has been punished and will not be having dinner anytime soon.
These Cubs Are Not the 1997 Marlins
Dave Kaplan wrote a post on the CSN Chicago site where he poses the question: Will the Cubs follow Marlins’ blueprint? I clicked on it because I thought maybe, just maybe, he would have some information from speaking with Jim Hendry or Tom Ricketts or anyone within the Cubs organization that would indicate the Cubs were actually considering such a …
Cubs Are Pretty Consistent
I happened to realize that the Cubs just finished off their stretch where they played 18 straight games against an opponent projected to finish over .500. The Cubs went 12-15 in the early soft part of their schedule against teams like Houston and the Diamondbacks for a .444 win percentage. Then we figured the bottom would fall out as they …
Catcher Interference Skill
Mike Fast looks at the catcher inference leaders (batters, catchers, and even pitchers) since 2007 (subscription required). Carl Crawford, who reached base last night via catcher interference on Welington Castillo, leads the way. The top 15 batters in catcher interference have accounted for 60% of all interference calls (including playoffs and spring training) since 2007. Crawford has 14 and the …
The Cubs just aren’t very good
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: …
Pirates (sorta) winning, attendance goes up
In a Hardball Talk blog today, Drew Silva reported that the Pittsburgh Pirates’ attendance is up relative to last year. A couple reasons why: 1. PNC Park is really nice. As reported below: According to Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, ticket sales this year at the gorgeous PNC Park are already up 2.4 percent and are 14 percent ahead …