Last week, Fangraphs added fielding data from Inside Edge to its player pages and leaderboards. Inside Edge scouts grade every play on a scale from impossible (0% chance of a successful fielding play) to almost certain / certain (90-100%). In between we have remote (1-10%), unlikely (10-40%), about even (40-60%) and likely (60-90%). The data…
“It was a fortunate selection, for Dickey took to shortstop like a duck to water, and in the first game he played in that position, he showed such ability that none of the old-timers on the team had a chance to beat him out of the job. And none did after that for years and…
“The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it’s a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that…
In what has become a typical move for the team, the Cubs reportedly signed free agent pitcher Jason Hammel last Friday to a one-year deal worth $6 million with another $1 million in incentives. Hammel figures to be a favorite to fill out one of the bottom two spots in the rotation along with his…
People sometimes ask funny questions. More specifically, people sometimes ask funny questions to Google. You probably saw the Google autocomplete map of the United States that was floating around the net last week.The fine folks who run @Amazing_Maps made that by using the first suggestion from Google after typing “Why is [state] so.” Other people…
At least a few times last year, Cubs play-by-play man Len Kasper voiced his displeasure on the growing trend of teams foregoing their traditional grey road uniforms for ones featuring the teams’ primary color. I don’t have numbers to support this, but from memory alone, I would think that we saw the Cubs play in…
About that long gap between posts. I started writing this about a month and a half ago. I put it aside for a bit to write something else and then put that aside to write another something. I ended up completely scrapping that and turned my attention back to this. Then Murray Chass wrote that…
Apologies for the long gap between posts. I’ll have more of an explanation in my next post, which is nearly done. Granted, it won’t be a good explanation, but hey. Anyway… Former New York Times columnist and current blogger-who-doesn’t-want-to-be-called-a-blogger Murray Chass had some words about the Hall of Fame today. ‘Tis the season, after all.…
Cool your jets on free agency talk. I’m not done talking about 2013 (you know, because I’m a masochist). In a shocker, no Cub received a single vote for either the MVP or Cy Young. That’s no matter, because here are even more prestigious awards only eligible to Cubs, former Cubs and other Cub-related peoples.…
“It’s not ready yet. Down the road, 40 or 50 years, when you can put some of those categories, you get your O-B-Ps and all that, your V-O-R-Ps, when you put in T-W-T-W, and interface those numbers with T-W-T-W, that category, then you might have something cooking.” – Hawk Harrelson (Update: For the sake of…
The Rawlings Gold Glove Awards, the fielding awards voted on by managers and coaches and have been given out annually since 1957, and the Fielding Bible Awards, newer fielding awards voted on by a group of a select few analysts and have only existed since 2006, were both announced this week. The Cubs aren’t going…
I didn’t make any posts last week. I even missed the weekend Sharing is Caring. I’d feel worse about this if I had readers. Jason Parks of Baseball Prospectus, aka Professor Parks, aka the guy responsible for this piece of fashion gave a small preview of BP’s next top 101 prospects list today on Twitter.…
The best Cubs and other links from the last week (that I saw!) Whoa, where did all this Red Sox gear from? I’m just glad Boston finished it in six so I wouldn’t have to make a choice between watching game 7 or watching Peyton Manning against the Colts, which is quite literally the one…
On Wednesday, the Dodgers defeated the Cardinals to bring the NLCS to 3-2 in favor of the Red Birds. They go into St. Louis tomorrow hoping to stave off elimination again. That’s important stuff. The winner of the NLCS almost always goes on to play in the World Series. Like, I’m pretty sure it happens…
The best Cubs and other links from the last week (that I saw!) The big news from the last week was the Cubs missing out on Joe Girardi. I was disappointed but I wasn’t as enthused about Girardi as everyone else seemed to be. I didn’t get the narrative that signing Girardi would be a…
The W Flag 