"He's not what you would consider a typical on-base guy." - Starlin Castro and the 2014 Chicago Cubs

http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20140216&content_id=67835626¬ebook_id=67842904&vkey=notebook_chc&c_id=chc

MESA, Ariz. -- The Cubs have yet to play a game under new manager Rick Renteria, but it appears Starlin Castro is the top candidate to be the leadoff man.

Castro has a career .300 average batting first, but overall he also has a career .322 on-base percentage, which would not put in him the top 25 in the National League.

"Starlin has had that role in the past, and I think he did a pretty nice job," Renteria said Sunday. "He's not what you would consider a typical on-base guy. I think that as he continues to get more and more comfortable, hopefully, this year is a year he recovers some of his confidence and that little edge that he brought and that you guys all saw when he was coming up. He's an individual that is looking to do well."

Castro batted .300 in 2010, his rookie season, and followed that with a .307 average in '11. But last season, he struggled to bat .245.

Renteria is still tinkering with his lineup.

"We have the whole spring to develop a scheme as to who might fall into that role," he said.

fuck. why not bat the pitcher first?!

The Cubs have Starlin Castro and Anthony Rizzo tied up for a good while. It will be interesting to see how those bets play out.

They did get a pretty decent starter in Travis Wood out of the Reds for Sean Marshall. Sadly it looks like Sean Marshall has some real injury problems. It doesn't look like he is going to be ready any time soon.

http://pbs.twimg.com/media/BkT82UgCAAAozeP.png

tbf, it was a late night for junior lake

haven't scored in 24 innings

David Kaplan ✔ @thekapman
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How about this stat: Starlin Castro at age 24 yrs/17 days 705 hits. Pete Rose at exact same age had 331 hits. #relaxtheguyisyoungandtalented

#convinced #intangibles #grit

Jason Hamel did a good job today getting his composure back to strike out Lucroy and get Ramierez in the sixth after giving up first hit to Gomez, walking Gennett, then making an error on a pick off to put them on 2nd and 3rd with one out.

three errors in three innings today

I'm going to Wrigley for the first time tomorrow. What is the best thing to eat there?

Vienna hot dog or, better yet, Italian beef.

Anecdotal obviously but the game yesterday against the Brewers was the worst I've seen them look so far this season, with some awful defense and uncharacteristically bad pitching from Samardzija.

Matthew Kory: "After 90 years the Cubs are switching radio stations, which should make the 17 Cubs fans sober enough to change the station furious."

kris bryant promoted to iowa, led double-a southern league in batting/obp/slugging/h/bb/r/hr/rbi with tennessee. had a 1.160 ops

kyle schwarber, the fourth overall pick this month, went 12-for-20 with 4 HR and 10 RBI in five games with boise and has already been promoted to kane county

1 run on 10 hits so far today.

kyle hendricks' big league debut is not going well : /

travis wood: .256/.293/.538

+0.6 war as a hitter
-0.4 war as a pitcher

I missed the whole backup-catcher-wins-game-by-himself-angle

http://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2014/7/30/5950979/john-baker-cubs-extra-innings-win-position-player-pitching

sometimes a backup catcher's gotta do what he's gotta do.. win the whole fuckin' thing

and it's Javier Baez debuting tonight, ladies and others

tomorrow

ok i don't always know what day it is

game-winning HR

Arismendy Alcantara is my current fave baseball name.

Beyond the name, that guy can run. He's pretty fast.

I really love Baez' swing, something beautiful about it.

http://giant.gfycat.com/AggressiveShimmeringBushsqueaker.gif

just put one in the second deck at citifield dag

yeah the cubs are going to be scary

http://m.mlb.com/video/topic/6479266/v35471285/chcnym-baezs-tworun-shot-reaches-second-deck

Guys

The Cubs blamed Tarpgate on ... Obamacare

http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/08/22/the-cubs-grounds-crew-was-short-staffed-because-the-cubs-were-trying-to-avoid-obamacare/

yeah, i remember alfonso soriano almost didn't sign because they didn't offer health insurance at the time

'It's a celebration of the 90's this homestand at Wrigley Field!'

queue Pharrell's Happy*

baez ~~~~> waveland

also wow cubs ownership

i mean, basically all sports team owners are assholes, but some really go the extra mile

I wonder what made Arrieta such a good pitcher, suddenly.

and if his performance his sustainable. and when he is going to be traded for prospects.

Also, Baez is "the first player in the last 100 years to record three Golden Sombreros in his first 17 games.'

I believe the GS was called the Golden Influenza in 1918

Cubs operate like a fast-food franchise, and that's a problem

http://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2014/8/25/6057227/tarpfail-2014-cubs-giants-protested-game-upheld-obamacare

We should poll the worst owners of the majors.

hard/unpleasant to keep tabs on all of em

Is there a good article summing up the failings of the Cubs owners? I've heard people mention what shitheads they are before, but have never read a great summary

i would like to nominate the owners of the Blue Jays... Rogers. one of the most loathed companies in Canadian history. to give you an idea: they charge $18 for a hot dog and beer and built a golden statue of ted rogers outside the stadium and not, like, an actual baseball player.

jeez, that's too many toonies.

Soler comin' up btw

http://espn.go.com/chicago/mlb/story/_/id/11410088/jorge-soler-join-chicago-cubs

Baez thru 90 PA:

.198 / .233 / .465, 40 K

7 hr and a .267 ISO... downright Rob Deeresque.

Since Javier Baez was called up on 8/5, he leads the league in swings & misses with 81. Jon Singleton next with 64

soler, first MLB AB: home run

just like chuck tanner

off Matt Latos. Of course.

http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/just-a-bit-outside/story/next-year-really-might-be-the-year-cubs-fans-082714

Baseball Prospectus scouting guy and two-fisted drinking Brooklynite Jason Parks hired by Cubs

they got a lot of young stud hitters – but I haven't heard anything about pitching.

arrieta and wada could be a great start and a horrible what-if for orioles fans.

in general i think we're all stuck in the strd era idea that a good team needs to be dominant both in hitting and pitching when several contending teams have been disproving that and a bunch of teams are doing it with simple mediocrity on one or both sides. mb we just used to figure a playoff team would at least be dominant at hitting based on old not-era-adjusted metrics, so quality pitching seemed like the real factor. idk.

but cameron's also falling into the every-prospect-will-prosper black hole, which fails a lot. how many world series teams -- or even playoff teams -- are constructed almost entirely out of pre-peak youth?

nb i haven't read the article cause i don't really care but i still like talking

weird he doesn't mention the still 24 yo starlin

kyle hendricks is a young pitcher. i don't know how good he'll be in the long run -- he doesn't have the fastball or stuff of a stud prospect, but he's done very well so far.

they've got cj edwards, who has missed much of the season, but is now in double-a after leading the minors in strikeouts last year.

kinda wonder if they might deal starlin? he's a good player but the mental mistakes don't seem to be going away and he'd no doubt get a nice return. between baez and alcantara and addison russell somebody should be able to play shortstop.

2 hrs for Soler tonight, second one was crushed.

are you beginning to question your allegiance to the sox?

Soler is seventh player in MLB history with an extra base hit in each of his first five games

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BwfLhFVIQAAah5R.png

lol

are you beginning to question your allegiance to the sox?

― mookieproof, Friday, August 29, 2014 10:03 PM (4 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I lean to the Sox bc the Cubs fans/mythos is vaguely annoying but I'm not anti-Cubs. Cubs are definitely a lot more exciting than the Sox right now.

http://i.imgur.com/Lk72HRY.jpg

Fangraph: Building Jake Arrieta

Edwin Jackson with his 6 era facing off against Kershaw and his 1.8

not anymore

great, more HACKING MASS points for b4rry.

kershaw pitching to the score, apparently

lol rizzo picked off first in an 8-3 game

Last night was the last game at Wrigley without a massive video scoreboard above the bleachers.

that's the price of rooftops across the street progress

early projection has kris bryant as a four-win player next year: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/instagraphs/kris-bryants-very-earliest-2015-projection

maddon to the cubs, supposedly

only way to keep coming Cubs dynasty bearable?

thought it was considered poor form to interview/take a coaching job that's already occupied

Very exciting. Everything's coming together. I just wish we didn't have to keep Bryant down for opening day.

http://i.huffpost.com/gen/2179316/thumbs/o-WRIGLEY-RUBBLE-2-900.jpg

http://www.bleedcubbieblue.com/2014/11/9/7180697/wrigley-field-construction-update-november-8#4337384

stat analysis opening

http://baseballjobs.m.teamworkonline.com/Jobdetail.aspx?j=74370

Visiting hitters won't have their home runs thrown back onto Wrigley Field until May 11, at least, as the Cubs announced the stadium's famous bleachers won't be open for the first month of the 2015 season.

The target date is May 11 for the left field bleachers and late May for the right field bleachers, Cubs president of business operations Crane Kenney said at the team's convention Saturday.

http://espn.go.com/chicago/mlb/story/_/id/12184917/chicago-cubs-say-new-wrigley-field-bleachers-ready-opener

@keithlaw
Cubs hire Kevin Youkilis as special assistant to get Javier Baez and Albert Almora to take a damn pitch