The Cubs can’t lose today. Nary a single Cubbie appendix has ruptured. Starlin Castro hasn’t been put in timeout yet. Alfonso Soriano leads the league in homers. Wrigley Field hasn’t had chunks of itself fly off in several months. Albert Pujols‘ free agent value has tumbled to $299 million. No new Nicolas Cage movies are being released this weekend. It’s …
TGIF Is A Replacement Level Restaurant
I hope I don’t get fired by Tim, Adam and Berselius for writing a post that is only loosely tied to sports, but after reading a couple threads on the fantastic The Book Blog over the last week, I’m going to do it. The first thread I’m not going to bother looking for as it was mostly about fast food. …
Searching For a Ray of Sunshine on an Otherwise Craptastic Day
Today has been a rough day to be a Cubs fan. Everything got off to a bad start this morning as we awaited word on Andrew Cashner’s MRI results. But we can look to Cubs.com to point us to the light and make the best of a bad situation. Surely, Carrie Muskat will give us the hope for a happy …
Mapping out the Rotation
Shawn pointed out in the comments that given the number of off-days, the Cubs can limit the 5th starter somewhat. But given that they’re spaced 7 days apart there will still be a few starts. Here’s how it maps out 4/6 Ryan Dempster OFF DAY 4/8 Carlos Zambrano 4/9 Matt Garza 4/10 Casey Coleman 4/11 Demp 4/12 5TH STARTER 4/13 …
Diamondbacks @ Cubs
Just the numbers from now on. RS equals Runs Saved on defense. Diamondbacks wOBA wRC RS Cubs wOBA wRC RS Willie Bloomquist .296 .409 -0.13 Kosuke Fukudome .343 .602 -0.06 Chris Young .339 .571 0.00 Starlin Castro .332 .545 -0.03 Kelly Johnson .360 .650 -0.01 Marlon Byrd .338 .564 -0.01 Justin Upton .381 .712 0.03 Aramis Ramirez .350 .594 -0.03 …
Entire team lands on DL
Andrew Cashner left yesterday’s game with tightness in his shoulder and had an MRI after the game. The results revealed a tear in his rotatar cuff. It’s what they are calling a mild strain, which is the same thing as a mild tear. Randy Wells also landed on the DL becasue of pain in his forearm. Hendry has said it …
Cashner exits game with tightness in his right shoulder
Andrew Cashner was taken out of today’s Cubs/Diamondbacks game in the 6th inning with tightness in his pitching shoulder. He had thrown the ball as well or better than any starter so far. He’d averaged about 94.5 mph on the fastball, but on one pitch in that 6th inning you could see him lower the shoulder after the follow through. …
5 Cubs Trends Sure to End
The Cubs are five games into the 2011 season, so naturally we know everything we need to know about this team. But for anyone who thinks the sample size isn’t quite large enough to draw conclusions, I just want to correct a few lies the opening weekend may have told us. For the record, I wrote this before today’s game, …
Diamondbacks @ Cubs
The projections below are from the 2011 ZiPS spreadsheet. I’m using last year’s bullpen numbers. Diamondbacks wOBA wRC Cubs wOBA wRC Willie Bloomquist .296 .409 Kosuke Fukudome .343 .602 Dan Johnson .349 .612 Starlin Castro .332 .545 Justin Upton .381 .731 Marlon Byrd .338 .564 Miguel Montero .339 .553 Aramis Ramirez .350 .594 Chris Young .339 .536 Tyler Colvin .318 …
Kevin Millar Can Die in a Fire
I happened to be driving in the car when Kevin Millar went on the Waddle and Silvy Show on ESPN 1000 so I heard this live and I was pissed as hell I wasn’t able to transcribe any of it because I was screaming at my radio by the end of it. Thankfully, Paul Sullivan took the trouble of doing …