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The Chicago Cubs chose to part ways with Chili Davis last week after the hitting coach spent just one season with the team, and it sounds like he was not surprised by the move. In fact, we might even venture to say Davis feels relieved. While reflecting on his brief tenure with the Cubs, Davis said Monday that he felt his message was lost on “millennial players” from the start. “I guess I need to make some adjustments in the way I deliver my message to the millennial players now,” he...
A busy morning at the ballpark.
It’s been just two weeks since the Cubs’ early exit from the postseason, but much work has begun in and around Wrigley Field.
Since our last update over the weekend, a large crane has been put in place in the left-field corner (photos 4 and 10), and demolition has proceeded quickly on the area where the new entryway is going to be built on the corner of Addison & Sheffield, as well as the area where the visitors clubhouse used to be. The last of the...
A look at the nine Cubs on the Solar Sox.
The Boys of Autumn are underway down in Arizona as the Arizona Fall League and Mesa Solar Sox have played five games already. I’m pleased to report that the Solar Sox are 4-1 in those five games, which is the best record in the AFL so far.
The Mesa Solar Sox are the team that the Cubs host at Sloan Park in Mesa. The four teams that also send teams to Mesa are the Red Sox, Athletics, Tigers and Angels. No one plays every day in the AFL and often...
Out to launch, and other bullets
BCB commenter Doshi said this:
Launch angle is a fad. Pitchers are going to start elevating their fastballs against known launch angle aficionados, and those guys will start whiffing because they have an uppercut instead of a straight bat.
To which I replied:
Sure. Watch David Bote swing in September. Watch Javy flail at eye-high fastballs.
I was gonna talk about that a little, given that exchange, but given the Cubs’ acquisition of a new old coach (Cubs...
The NLCS moves to Dodger Stadium.
Just when you think each of the League Chapionship Series are going to turn into blowouts, the team that lost Game 1 turns around and wins Game 2 and dominates.
It’s entirely possible both of these series will go the full length, which is just fine with me because more baseball is always good!
The NLCS moves to Dodger Stadium for Games 3, 4 and 5. With the 4:30 p.m. PT starting time today, shadows across the infield could be an issue for hitters. Weather...
The Cubs have hired hitting coach Anthony Iapoce away from the Rangers to fill the same role in their own organization, the team announced Monday. Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram had reported just before the formal announcement that Iapoce had already informed the Rangers of his decision to take the Cubs’ offer. Iapoce has been serving as the Rangers’ hitting coach since the end of the 2015 season, when Texas hired him away from the Cubs organization. Chicago dismissed 2018...
He was in the organization previously; now he returns.
The Cubs last week dismissed Chili Davis after just one year as hitting coach.
Per this report from Jeff Wilson in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the Cubs have a new hitting coach, Anthony Iapoce:
Put another coaching search on the Texas Rangers’ to-do list.
Hitting coach Anthony Iapoce has informed the club that he is leaving for the same post with the Chicago Cubs, a source said on Monday.
The Rangers hired Iapoce after the 2015...
Baseball America has been listing the top prospects in each minor league and 5 Cubs made the list.
Every year after the minor league season ends, Baseball America announces a Top-20 prospects list for each minor league. The Cubs had five prospects named to these lists, all from the lower minor leagues.
These rankings are mostly based on conversations with the managers and coaches of each minor league. That’s slightly different from Baseball America’s rankings of the Top 30 prospects...
And he used to be in the Cubs farm system.
A place where MLB teams have been looking at in the last couple of years is Asia, and specifically, for former major leaguers who have resurrected their careers there.
The Brewers pulled Eric Thames back from KBO in Korea, and he’s had two decent seasons in Milwaukee.
Last winter, the Cardinals signed Miles Mikolas, a righthander who had little success with the Padres and Rangers but had three good years for the Yomiuri Giants in NBP, to a...
What lessons can be learned from how the Astros have built their ballclub?
Carlos Correa. Jose Altuve. George Springer. Lance McCullers. Dallas Keuchel. Yuli Gurriel. Alex Bregman. All were signed to their initial affiliated contract by the Houston Astros. Some were from the draft. Some were from international waters. If you were to put together the excess value created from these names, you would have a whiff of why the Astros are looking so potent now. Even with a major misfire like Mark...
Both LCS are tied up. A couple of Dodgers are having rough series. The Brewers invincible bullpen looks less invincible. The Diamondbacks are quitting grass. And Mighty Casey has struck out.
Everyone knows both League Championship Series are tied at one game apiece, correct?
I’m going to start with the ALCS because that’s fresher in my mind at the moment and because it seems like the more titanic battle as well. Whitney McIntosh loves the ALCS because it’s being played by two very...Miguel Montero’s greatest hit, and other stories
A wildly popular Cubs-centric look at baseball’s past. Here’s a handy Cubs timeline, to help you follow along as we review select scenes from the rich tapestry of Chicago Cubs and Major League Baseball history. It’s a beautiful day for a ball game — let’s get started!
Today in baseball history:
1892 - On the last day the season, Cincinnati Reds pitcher Charles ‘Bumpus’ Jones, in his first major league appearance, throws a...The Astros look to go up two games to none.
The Astros blew open a close game in the ninth inning Saturday at Fenway Park and took a 1-0 lead in the ALCS. At least from the first game, they looked like the better team. But this series could easily go the distance.
The Astros and Red Sox combined for just eight hits Saturday — along with 13 walks and three hit batters. No wonder the game ran four hours and three minutes.
Note below the earlier starting time for tonight’s Game 2.
Pitching...
Theo Epstein & Co. likely need to put the whole system under scrutiny.
With the off-season begun a bit early, so have our between season lives. That may, in some cases, include a degree of re-assessing. Perhaps, that includes how many tickets to buy for 2019. Possibly, a spring trip to Mesa will be assessed. For the Cubs front office, a degree of re-assessment is likely, as well. The most obvious is the specific free agents to court. However, an inventory of which types of players to sign to...
It was a busy day around the ballpark on Saturday.
It was, for the first time in a couple of days, sunny and pleasant in Chicago Saturday afternoon. BCB’s David Sameshima went to Wrigley Field, took the photos above, and filed this report:
I visited Wrigley Field midday. One thing I had to document today was the Taco Bell on Addison, since its days are numbered. It’s just an ordinary Taco Bell, but it’s the Wrigleyville Taco Bell. I had to photograph the sign with the Cubs cap one...
Bitter tastes, testing Wrigleyville’s appeal, and other bullets
Ok then...we’ve looked at the 40-man roster as it stands, and we’re awaiting developments. I stayed up late to try to find some worthwhile links, but no go — that leaves us precious little to talk about over our coffee, so I added some items of historical importance. The Brewers lost last night...I guess that’s a good thing from competition’s sake. I’ve decided that I want the Brewers to win the LCS so that the...
A viewer’s guide to the Astros & Red Sox series.
The American League Championship Series begins tonight in Boston and if the NLCS is a David v. Goliath showdown as I discussed yesterday, the ALCS is a battle of the Titans. The Red Sox won a franchise record 108 games in 2018. The Astros were second in MLB with 103 wins. The Red Sox have the highest payroll in the league, but the Astros are still in the top 10. Both teams have former Cy Young Award winners, MVPs, and a lot of ways to beat...
Two games today!
So let’s review: The Dodgers spotted the Brewers a five-run lead, in part by making four errors, then made Milwaukee go through seven relief pitchers (and probably made Josh Hader unavailable for Game 2), then put together a couple of furious rallies and had the tying run on third base with two out in the ninth.
I say the NLCS will be tied after today’s game.
Meanwhile, the ALCS gets going at Fenway Park with game-time temperatures expected to be in the mid 40s. With the...
It’s not about the lottery. It’s about baseball and its future.
Rob Neyer’s new book ‘Power Ball’ is about a single baseball game, played between the Athletics and Astros at Oakland on September 8, 2017. Inning by inning, Rob chronicles what happened in the game in detail, all the way up to... well, I won’t spoil the ending.
Except that’s not what this book is about at all. When situations come up in each inning, they spur a tangent that’s about how baseball is played,...
Chili yesterday, hot stove tamale, and other bullets
Howdy, campers. Today we’re doing information again. There’s an ever-updated list of Cubs player personnel at the bottom of this page, where may be seen the dreaded double asterisk **. Today we shall be looking in on the reserve position players and completing our handy-dandy 40-man+ roster in addition to the usual festivities in this 2,000-word all-day sucker of a post.
Daniel Murphy is a free agent and I really don’t think he’ll...