Chicago Cubs

By Jonathan Mathis I’ll take it from Piniella and say it is the second cooler destroyed this year by a Cubs player. Not long ago, pitcher Carlos Zambrano damaged the Gatorade cooler in the dugout when he was livid after being removed from a feeble outing on the mound.

By Al And I suppose all you want to talk about is Milton Bradley. Bradley and manager Lou Piniella had words in the dugout after Bradley flied to left in the sixth inning and, to make a long story short -- and the story may yet get longer -- Lou sent Milton home, but not before Bradley had slugged the Ga...

By Ray Tannock It just simply makes sense to keep Lilly in Chicago. He produces every year. He has bettered himself since being here, and I think he will continue to do so. Dempster will be gone and Zambrano could be gone, and let’s not talk about the newest news of the Cubs being interested in Pedro Martinez.

By Kurt So many things to blog about, so little time.  I wanted to write an article defending Sammy Sosa, but it'll have to wait.  I wanted to expand upon my opinion that Lou Piniella isn't helping this team, but there's no time for that just now.  Instead, I will have to regrettably talk about one of our...

I played hooky from work yesterday and went to watch the Cubs game at Wrigley Done Right. (See my review of Wrigley Done Right.) My friend, a Twins fan and a teacher, had not been up to a rooftop yet, so we celebrated the end of his school year with a trip to the ballpark to watch the interleague mat...

By Josh Herman What all of these players have in common is that each was the first pick in the MLB amateur draft by the Cubs between 1999 and 2006, with one name missing: 2001 first rounder (and second overall pick) Mark Prior. So why haven’t the Cubs had successful first-round picks?

By Josh77 It's amazing how fast the Major League Baseball Amateur Draft has grown over the past decade. Some of us can remember when picks after the first round were secret for at least a week. (That's why Bob Brenly's story about him calling the commissioner's office to see if he had been drafted isn't...

By Kurt The team is at a cross-roads, whether they admit it or not.  Some people may blame the immature acts of some of the players -- Carlos, Milton, Lilly, Dempster.  Others might attribute this year's woes to the mass-slumps -- Lee, Soto, Fontenot, Bradley.  Still more might call to blame the seri...

By Owen Stiffler He's often overlooked and shadowed by guys like Carlos Zambrano, Derrek Lee, and Alfonso Soriano. But he'd be my choice for the face of the Cubs as far as consistency goes for the past couple of seasons.  There is no player I miss more at this point, aside from maybe the '08 Kerry Wood, than Aram...

By Al A: Fukudome's on fire right now, so I'd probably take the hot bat, but I've always liked Reed Johnson (and kind of wish the Braves had made a play for him last year). Obviously, Aramis when he's healthy is a middle of the order force. I must say that the Cubs don't have anyone I really covet, but I'...

By ajwalsh Of course, it's much easier to accept the punishment doled out by MLB disciplinarian Bob Watson (the Cubs' newest BFF, obvs) when your team can avoid having to call up a spot starter from the Triple A affiliate. Jeff Samardzija Next up: Kevin Hart Lastly, a dark horse: J.R. Mathes Go Cubs!

By Al Sean Marshall threw five solid innings without his best stuff and three Cubs relievers shut down the Brewers and the Cubs salvaged the final game of the series in Milwaukee, 4-2, and wound up with a winning road trip and went over .500 on the road for the season at 9-8.

By Al Can we now knock off all the Soriano-has-to-be-dropped-from-leadoff talk? He produces in that spot. He hits better in that spot. The Cubs don't have a reasonable alternative. And guess who's leading all MLB leadoff hitters in runs scored? That's right, Soriano, who now has 19 (Brian Rober...

By Jason Game One - Carlos Zambrano vs. Roy Oswalt Game Two - Ryan Dempster vs. Wandy Rodriguez Game Three - Ted Lilly vs. Brian Moehler I'm going with the Cubs taking two of three (pick your two) against the Astros as a) I'm a Cubs fan and b) the Astros sort of blow. Go Cubs.

By Al Alfonso Soriano and Aramis Ramirez were taken out of last night's lineup because of the sketchy weather. But had they played last night, Lou said he was going to sit them today, so with today's weather looking windy but dry, expect to see both of them play. Soriano didn't get his wish to be the f...

By Al Soriano, LF Theriot, SS Lee, 1B Bradley, RF Ramirez, 3B Johnson, CF Soto, C Miles, 2B Gaudin, P Kosuke Fukudome will be returning to camp soon, and will have a lot to prove to fans and teammates who saw his free-fall in the second half of last year. One place he won't be going is the minors:

By Kurt Spring Training Review Aaron Heilman - 10 IP, 1.80 ERA, 13 SO, 3 BB.  Ignoring the ERA, Heilman's been pitching with authority and leads the Cubs in Spring Training strikeouts.  At this point, I'd honestly not be even the slightest bit upset if he got the job.

By Kurt The baseball season remains just under a month away.  There are plenty of opportunities for surprise players to surge to the forefront.  There are even more opportunities for heavy favorites to evaporate in a cloud of injury and suck.  But at this moment, on the Chicago Cubs, the following h...

By brosage@mvn.com (Joe Aiello and Brandon Rosage) Last year, the NL Central looked to be one of the most competitive divisions in baseball.  Analysts and fans alike could've made arguments for the Cubs, Cardinals, Brewers, and even the Astros to be potentially playoff bound.  Then, Chicago pretty much blew the rest out of the water, clinc...

By SackMan However, I'm having a difficult time finding any history suggesting the Cubs enforce their right to revoke tickets. Complicating matters, of course, is the Cubs very own scalping business... Wrigley Field Premium Ticket Services Inc.

By Kurt Brought to you by The Best Team Ever: A Novel of America, Chicago, and the 1907 Chicago Cubs (read Kurt's review here) Rating: B Odds of Reaching the Majors = It snows in Chicago on Christmas Odds of becoming a successful Major Leaguer = it snows in Chicago in late May

By Kurt Brought to you by The Best Team Ever: A Novel of America, Chicago, and the 1907 Chicago Cubs (read Kurt's review here) Summary This article brought to you by The Best Team Ever: A Novel About the 1907 Chicago Cubs.  Buy the book here and save $4

By Kurt Barney was considered one of the best amateur baseball players in the state of Oregon before he went off to university - at, you guessed it, Oregon State - and upon being drafted in the 4th round he's gone on to hit the ball well in the minor leagues for Chicago.

By Kurt The writing team of this novel are Alan Alop, whose day-time job is that of a Chicago lawyer  and Deputy Director of the Legal Assistance Foundation of Metropolitan Chicago, and Doc Noel, whose career is in health promotion but his passion is in baseball.  Both men are obvious fans of the Ch...

By Kurt Of all catchers in baseball, Soto was ... 2nd in doubles with 35 (behind only Brian McCann who had 42)Tied for 1st in homeruns with 23 (Brian McCann also hit 23)3rd behind Brian McCann and Bengie Molina with 86 RBI (Molina had 95, McCann 87)3rd in walks with 62 (Russell Martin had 90, Joe Mauer ha...

By Darrell Horwitz The Arizona Diamondbacks swept the Cubs in three games as Piniella pulled Carlos Zambrano after six innings so he could save him for Game 4. Unfortunately, I guess the senile Lou Piniella didn't realize it was a best of five series and you have to win a game to get there. So the Cubs went home and...

By Byron Anyhow, I digress. Wood won the closer's job out of Spring Training and 65% of Cubdom assumed he would do a great job as closer. That's been the eternal dividends of those wonderful May 1998 starts. Kerry Wood has been the hope of this franchise for 11 years. The Franchise turned to him for game 3 o...

By Al It begins before the season even starts, with Durbin meeting Cubs owner Charles W. Murphy in his ornate downtown Chicago office to sign a contract (for more money than Durbin, who was from a small town in Missouri, could have imagined). It takes you through the "Practice Season", which was h...

By Jim Neveau 1. Platoon Johnson and Fukudome in center Reed Johnson was a Godsend after he came over from the Blue Jays at the end of last year's spring training. He did everything the Cubs could ask of him and more, and was an integral part of a team that won 97 games. 2. Sign either Derek Lowe or Ryan Dempster

By Olemisscubs I know we are all having a hard time right now. I went through the same pain Saturday night. I sat on my couch with tears in my eyes, cause I truly believed that this was the year. I had tickets to game five of the World Series, which happened to be on my birthday by the way. All I know is that I will always...

By DGU The 2008 Cubs won 97 games, with winning records in every division (except interleague).  They scored more runs than anyone in the National League, 56 more than the next best teams.  Only the Texas Rangers scored more runs in all baseball.  Similarly, they were second best in runs allowed (s...

By Travis Nelson Tonight, the Los Angeles Dodgers (84-78) and the Philadelphia Phillies (92-70) will face off in their best-of-seven series to decide the National league's representative in the World Series. By rights, the Dodgers should not even be in this series. The Cubs were a vastly better team over...

By Wrigleyville(noreply@blogger.com) WV: The Cubs were 70-39 in games started by Alfonso Soriano and 27-25 in games not started by Alfonso Soriano. A 52 percent winning percentage would not have gotten the Cubs into the playoffs. And, yes, Soriano needs to bunt more. Enough of those selfish home runs.

By Jon Greenberg But this team has been so good all year, and the rest of the National League so average, it seemed predestined that in the 100th anniversary of the Cubs' last World Series title, they would win again and exorcise the old demons that have haunted this club and its fans for so long.

By EnriqueFed(noreply@blogger.com) After a rough start to the series against the Cubs, the Phillies finished out strong this weekend, winning a pair of games against the best team in the National League. They were helped on Sunday by the late scratch of Cubs starter Carlos Zambrano, but the Phillies played some good baseball...

By Al BCB: I noticed on Sunday when Aramis Ramirez hit the double that broke the tie, they took a shot of all you guys in the dugout and everybody was right off the bench cheering for everybody. That really shows how tight you are as a team. BCB: You know one of the broadcasters calls you Little Babe Rut...

By Al Ozzie. Gotta love him, right? Thankfully, the Cubs had extra security in the bleachers last night -- they needed it, as the crowd, likely overfueled from being able to party all day before the Sunday night game, was pretty rowdy. There were quite a few ejections, both of people wearing Cubs A...

By Al That was in evidence again today, as Jim Edmonds, nearly booed out of Wrigley Field in his first few days as a Cub, had two more extra-base hits today and two RBI, and maybe, just maybe, is going to show enough of his previous form to become a useful platoon center fielder. A productive Edmonds...

By David Hoekstra 1 p.m. April 11---- The funny thing about the April 9 maiden voyage of the monthly Lovable Losers Literary Revue was how the Chicago Cubs--the evening’s timeless subject---framed the event by blowing two leads against the lowly Pittsburgh Pirates....

By Al New York Mets Chicago Cubs Monday, Apr 21, 2008, 6:05 PM CDT Wrigley Field John Maine vs Carlos Zambrano Q: Nelson Figueroa starts against the Cubs on Tuesday. He's a great story, but can he maintain this pace all year? Baseball-reference.com game preview

By Al Good signs today: a good outing from Michael Wuertz, who has needed one. He dispatched the Reds 1-2-3 in the 9th inning, not that it mattered by that time. Reed Johnson had four hits today and played a good CF. I would imagine he'll be playing CF vs. the two Pirates LHP on Saturday and Sunday.

By Al Small sample size on those numbers; Lilly isn't that bad, and Hamels isn't that good. Well, maybe Hamels is -- he's been the Phillies' top young pitcher for a while, and they need him to step up and become an ace. He hasn't faced that many current Cubs, but Alfonso Soriano has homered three time...

By Leitch For the third consecutive season, we are proud to introduce the Deadspin Baseball Season Previews. Yes, baseball is awfully close now; heck, they're playing real games in Japan tomorrow. Today: The Chicago Cubs. Your author is Mike Bruno.

By chicagosports Ryan Jaster @ 9:48 a.m. Cubs and Sox myths Wrigley naming rights Ryan Jaster @ 9:48 a.m. If the Cubs are going to play somewhere other than Wrigley Field for part or all of an upcoming season, they can't do better than the other Major League Baseball park in town.

By RJ Anderson Brian Barton OF Cardinals A week ago it looked like Barton was a lock for the Rays at number one, apparently the idea was to have the Padres "buy" the pick and take Barton. Maybe they were outbid by the Cubs, or perhaps Barton's knee isn't going as well as hoped?

By Al Mark Prior: Projected: G-18 GS-16 IP-100 H-80 W-7 L-5 BB-39 SO-105 ERA-3.89 WHIP-1.19 Actual: Did not play Carlos Zambrano: Projected: G/GS-34 IP-225 H-170 W-19 L-7 BB-91 SO-215 ERA-3.02 WHIP-1.16 Actual: G/GS-34 IP-216.1 H-187 W-18 L-13 BB-101 SO-177 ERA-3.95 WHIP-1.33

By Jim McLennan One of my SB Nation colleagues, Jay from Let's Go, Tribe got a nice job helping cover the post-season baseball for Esquire. However, in a preview, he wrote the following about the Cubs-Diamondbacks match-up: While acknowledging a genuinely exciting Game One matchup, it's hard to work up...

By Jim McLennan The best demonstration of that was the third, where he allowed a lead-off double to Zambrano, then fanned Soriano, Jones and Lee in order. And the fifth was almost as good. A wild Reynolds throw to first (too much adrenalin?) put the lead-off hitter, and at that stage tying run, on second: Web...

By Al If you don't know what The Heckler is, you'll see it in and around the Wrigleyville area and the ballpark; it's a free newspaper containing humorous articles like this one titled "Cubs Cut Bullpen", in which Jim Hendry releases everyone in the pen because the starters have done so well, an...

Last season, the Cardinals claimed the NL Central flag with only 83 wins. Sure, they went on to win the World Series, but the '06 Cardinals remain, in any objective sense, a fairly middling outfit. In fact, since divisional play was instituted prior to the 1969 season, only the 2005 Padres an...