Cubs Stuff

Since May 23, Pete Crow-Armstrong has been the leadoff hitter in Craig Counsell’s lineup all but four times. In that same timeframe, Crow-Armstrong’s OPS has gone up by over 200 points, from .682 to .884. Through the first five games of this week’s homestand, Crow-Armstrong has homered four times. There’s [...]

When the Cubs were rolling in the first month of the season, they got plenty of runners on base and drove most of them in. When things hit the skids in May, they were still getting runners on, but the Cubs were stranding them in scoring position at a league-leading [...]

OK so we have seen MLBPA throw out a proposal and MLB submitting a counteroffer (that I would say is not ideal by any means if I’m being nice), now we have a new wrinkle that doesn’t actually have to do with the salary cap: No more eligibility for high school [...]

Diehard Exclusive [...]

Craig Counsell’s Cubs entered the season as favorites to win the National League Central, and after a month and a half, they had only confirmed those preseason expectations. A pair of ten-game winning streaks before the first week of May will do that. Blame what you will for what’s happened [...]

So Facebook can be useful every now and then in alerting me to some fun stuff, and in this case, it seems Baseball-Reference now has a page for curating all the ABS challenge results so far. It’s actually very comprehensive, including the display of zone maps where overturns are more [...]

So you know by now that the Cubs had a bad May, though their multiple long win streaks have allowed them to maintain a 32-28 record through 60 games on this much needed off day. The Brewers get to play the Giants (lame) while the Cardinals play the Rangers (meh) [...]

OK, so the other day we saw MLBPA’s initial proposal, and today whilst I was toiling in the dungeon, MLB put forth their counter offer: $171.2MM minimum payroll, though that includes the player benefits which seems kind of shady $245.3MM hard cap, which is barely over the current first tier luxury [...]

While pondering whether we are even allowed to pod anymore given the current Cubs freefall (please stop) and also realizing the silly pun I inadvertently put in the parenthetical, there’s multiple reports out there (summarized by MLBTR among others) that the players side have made the first formal proposal in [...]

It’s just the Cubs lot this year that they’ve had not one but two double digit winning streaks, and yet have just a 1.5 game lead on the division. At least the rotation lined up in a way that the three currently ‘best’ pitchers in the rotation are pitching this [...]

As you can see from the standings, the Cubs have a 3.5 game lead in the NL Central, thanks in part to their own hot streak prior to running into a motivated Rangers squadron as well as Nick Castellanos doing them a solid. The entire division is off today, and [...]

The original plan was to go to Wrigley Field in September (I got tickets with some friends and the wife for the Pirates game for Sammy Sosa bobblehead day) but then Bryan Smith (originally of Bleacher Nation and now I think he writes for Baseball America) reminded me that he [...]

The Cubs completed the sweep of the Snakes on Sunday, and not surprisingly, Moisés Ballesteros played a big role. He went 2-5 with an opposite field two-run homer in the Cubs 8-4 win, and now has a .317/.380/.598 slash line on the year, good for a .421 wOBA and 171 [...]

It was nice to have a day off and an early-ish game to listen to that the Cubs actually won. Big applause for Jameson Taillon eating seven innings despite the requisite home run balls, bigger praise for Ben Brown coming in to a bad situation and coming oh so close [...]

OSS: Dodgers bullpen, my beloved Three up: Dansby Swan-dong hit a ninth-inning go-ahead home run to cap the Cubs late comeback following a rocky start against Dodgers starter Emmet Sheehan. He went 2-3 with two runs, four RsBI, and a HBP on the day, and now has a .206/.349/.453 line on [...]

While watching the recap of the Cubs walking off the Phillies to sweep the home stand, I saw a graphic showing Ian Happ moving up the team all-time home run list. If you were curious, he’s now 13th, sandwiched between legends Alfonso Soriano and Derrek Lee. Happ currently leads the team [...]

To paraphrase Michael Cerami’s much better article, the Cubs found some gumption after being officially eliminated from playoff contention to sweep the Mets at Wrigley. Nico Hoerner was the clear MVP of the series, going 4-12 with a home run on Friday and the walk-off hit in extras on Sunday. [...]

And when I’m back in Chicago, I feel it Another version of me, I was in it I wave goodbye to the end of beginning -Djo, End of Beginning Chicago Cubs fans love to talk prospects and it’s known throughout the game about how driven this fanbase is discussing the entire organization. Cubs fans [...]

On Monday, Baseball America released their yearly minor league park factors update. If you’re a giant nerd like I am, it’s one of your favorite days of the long and cold offseason. The article, put together by Matt Eddy, takes a look at all 120 ballparks and sorts them into the [...]