I've had a very sore neck, back and shoulders for the last couple of weeks so I haven't written much over that time. It's still not 100% and I'm beginning to feel as though it never will be. But I am good enough that I can spread my infinite wisdom to our readers. You're welcome. Jeff Samardzija was named the …
Baseball America Top 100 Prospects
Don't forget to check out the OV Bunt Tournament Contest if you haven't already entered. The Baseball America top 100 prospects are out today and Javier Baez is the highest ranked Cub, at 18. Albert Almora is 33rd and Jorge Soler 34th. Arodys Vizcaino is the final Cub in the top 100 at 83. This is an improvement over last …
Last year Joe Mather, this year Brent Lillibridge?
Last season Joe Mather was signed to a minor league contract and then made the team. Joe Mather was not any good. Not before he signed with the Cubs and especially not with the Cubs. Despite this, he still had nearly 250 plate appearances. Joe Mather was the worst player in baseball last year. Baseball Reference only thought he was …
2013 Cubs projections: Anthony Rizzo
A little over a week ago, we started our 2013 Cubs projections series by looking at Welington Castillo. The plan is to just go from catcher to 1st to 2nd and so on. Up today is Anthony Rizzo. For more than half a decade the Cubs got a .385 wOBA out of their 1st baseman. Derrek Lee was traded midseason …
Four most likely to exceed expectations
I was working on an idea for a post using the 2013 Cubs projections. The idea was to calculate an approximation of the best case scenario win total. I was going to use the 65th percentile projection for every player just for fun. I'll finish that before the season, but as I was getting the position player projections into a …
Assume the Position: First Base
First base looks to be quite a bit rosier for the Cubs than catcher does. They Cubs have a budding star at the top and some very intriguing options at the bottom. Last Year 2013 Career Name Age AVG OBP SLG wOBA pwOBA AVG OBP SLG wOBA MLB Rizzo 22 0.285 0.342 0.463 0.349 0.368 0.245 …
It’s time to get excited about the 2013 Cubs
Spring training is just around the corner and the 2013 Cubs are set to kick off their Cactus League schedule on February 23rd. It's a split squad game and the game against the Angels will even be televised on WGN. It's not until April 1st that non-practice games will be played, but it's time to get excited. They might be …
US Roster for World Baseball Classic
The rosters for the World Baseball Classic (WBC) were announced yesterday's and here is the US roster. Player Pos. Team Mark Teixeira 1B Yankees Brandon Phillips 2B Reds Jimmy Rollins SS Phillies David Wright 3B Mets Joe Mauer C Twins Ryan Braun LF Brewers Adam Jones CF Orioles Giancarlo Stanton RF Marlins Ben Zobrist INF Rays Willie Bloomquist INF D-backs …
How good is Anthony Rizzo?
Not long after the Cubs hired Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer, the two traded Andrew Cashner and Kyung-Min Na to the Padres for Anthony Rizzo and Zach Cates. Rizzo had just completed his age 21 season with the Padres and to say it didn't go well would be putting it nicely. Still, he had hit well in the minor leagues …
Nick Cafardo on the Cubs and a Matt Garza non-rumor
MLBTR led to me this article by Nick Cafardo, which talks a bit about the Cubs. “We’re certainly farther along than we were last year at this time,” said Epstein. “When we got here, we identified one core player [Starlin Castro] and now we can look around and see Anthony Rizzo, Darwin Barney, Jeff Samardzija , and others. We do …