Slightly Better than Replacement Level
Too often we like to think of baseball as a linear game. This is especially true when it comes to prospects and younger players. They must progress at very specific rates and hit distinct checkpoints or something is amiss. We certainly don’t allow much wiggle room for prospects who struggle over a number of years […]
Baseball Prospectus – Craig Goldstein ($): Baseball executives love to talk about financial flexibility. They peddle that term as if it means they are positioning themselves to spend big money when it counts. As these past two offseasons have shown that isn’t the case. Financial flexibility simply means saving as much money as a team […]
Chicago Cubs fans have gotten used to extolling the virtues of Ednel Javier Báez. He’s an exciting player who succeeds both in traditional ways and in ways in which he shouldn’t. I’m not even talking about his magical slides or extra effort on the basepaths. The fact of the matter is that Javy should not […]
Last year the Chicago Cubs were not known for their offense. It was common to turn on a game and see the Cubs struggling to score runs. Kris Bryant was injured most of the year, while Anthony Rizzo and Willson Contreras struggled mightily in different halves of the season. There were points last year where […]
The National League Central Division had the best grouping of first basemen in all of Major League Baseball in 2018. When the St. Louis Cardinals traded for Paul Goldschmidt that grouping became even better. It’s a scary thought, but heading into 2019 there isn’t another division in MLB that can touch the NL Central first […]