Tim Anderson’s placement on the 10-day injured list (strained groin) left manager Ricky Renteria with a quandry: who to lead off Saturday’s game against the Royals in Kansas City. His answer turned out to be rookie CF Luis Robert, and Robert did not disappoint. THE GOOD: Luis Robert. His career-opening six game hitting streak was […]
Category: News and Notes
FULL SPEED AHEAD: We’re Really Doing This?
As COVID-19 cases are rising across the United States since states began to reopen, professional sports are trying to conduct business as usual. Or at least as usual as local jurisdictions will allow. Here in Chicago, both the Cubs and White Sox are preparing for 30 home games each in empty stadia. But the Ricketts […]
PLAY BALL? Owners and Players Agree On Race To COVID.
In “news we all figured would happen eventually”, MLB owners and players agreed to begin training camp on July 1. While it’s good news, I guess, for baseball to be returning, can anybody really think this through and agree it’s a good idea? I mean, would you send your kid off to play Little League […]
IT’S HARD OUT THERE FOR A PIMP: Owners cry poor, paint players as greedy
So we’re still at a stalemate in regard to Major League Baseball being played at some point in 2020, if at all. The owners have been performing a full-court press, including Cubs owner Tom Ricketts appearing on a video forum with season ticket holders to turn his pockets inside out and hope moths fly out. […]
RENEWAL DEFERRED
Baseball has always been a harbinger. The promise of summer,. Of sunshine. Of warm nights dripping with the air that seemed to be the life’s blood of our game. The electricity surging through the crowds that seemed to power the lights as well as the players. The warm air will come, as will the light […]
#WhereStoriesPlay: Josh Phegley
While the North Side weather forecasters argue over whether Chicago will see “some snow” or “ducal assloads of snow”, the sun is shining and the air is warm and baseball is being played in Mesa, Arizona. Some will be quick to point out this isn’t “real baseball”, as though all the games played before Opening […]
OH, THE HUMANITY: Marquee Network Launches This Weekend
The Hindenburg. The Titanic. The Tacoma Narrows Bridge. This weekend, the much-anticipated and much-ballyhooed Marquee Network debuts. This is of relevance to the less than 50% of Chicago area homes that don’t subscribe to Comcast. While the Ricketts family (and presumably, Cubs’ Baseball Operations) have been planning this launch for years, they never thought to […]
CUBS AUSTERITY PLAN STRIKES AGAIN: Crane Kenney Forced to Fly Coach
The Cubs’ ongoing austerity program has now reached beyond the baseball operations segment of the team, and into business operations as the Cubs have announced that not only is President of Business Operations Crane Kenney being forced to flying on commercial flights, but he has been relegated to flying in coach. “He got pretty annoying” […]
FROM THE HOME OFFICE: Fangraphs ZiPS It.
It’s everyone’s (well, at least someone’s) favorite time of year, when seasonal projections start coming out. Fangraphs has dropped the ZiPS projections for both the White Sox and Cubs, and as you can guess, the difference in each team’s trajectory shows. Now here is a quick explanation of how these projections are cooked up: Basically, […]
SoxFest 2020 Recap
Soxfest 2020 took place this past weekend at the McCormick Place. With the new free agent signings and our young core of players attending, the mood was considerably more upbeat than in recent years. Fans packed themselves into the convention center to meet their favorite players. They had the opportunity to take pictures with the […]