If you follow baseball, you have heard of Kris Bryant. If you follow baseball and aren’t a Cubs fan, in all likelihood you are sick of him by now. That’s quite a feat: Bryant only made his major league debut on Friday. But that very fact itself – that his major league debut was on 17 April instead of 5 April, the date of the Cubs’ home debut – is what has fueled the rampant interest in, and speculation about, Chicago’s super-prospect. After all, Bryant did hit .425/.477/1.175 (1.652 OPS) with nine home runs in spring training. How is that not good enough to make a team that just traded its incumbent starter at third base, Luis Valbuena, to the Houston Astros?

 

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/apr/...w-in-mlb-system

 

 

There was another one about Kris Bryant changing the face of baseball (Atlantic Monthly), but I'll spare Fathom further. You know it's almost a cultural phenomenon when The Atlantic, Guardian and NY Times are featuring articles about this kid.

Maddon is on top of all replay calls unlike Ventura.

 

 

I guarantee Maddon's (Epstein's) not going to go into any replay situation without every possible resource/angle/feed available at his disposal.

Edited April 30, 201510 yr by caulfield12

Major League Baseball completed their investigation into manager Joe Maddon accepting the position with the Cubs and leaving the Rays, the league announced.

 

The league concluded Chicago did not violate any tampering rules in their pursuit of Maddon. Tampa Bay accused Chicago of tampering because Maddon was still under contract with the Rays while considering whether or not to opt-out of his contract. Maddon eventually signed a five-year, $25 million contract with Chicago.

 

The investigation took over five months to complete.

Link, lots of other versions.

I guarantee Maddon's (Epstein's) not going to go into any replay situation without every possible resource/angle/feed available at his disposal.

I guarantee Joe Maddon doesn't look at the replays before he decides whether to challenge.

Chris De Luca ‏@ChrisDeLuca 31m31 minutes ago

 

#Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts issues apology after uttering slur on MLB network show

 

http://chicago.suntimes.com/baseball/7/71/...-team-site-slur …

Can't link it from phone, but Bernstein retweeted an article saying Cubs TV ratings up 110 percent this year

Can't link it from phone, but Bernstein retweeted an article saying Cubs TV ratings up 110 percent this year

Things are going right for them. Makes Theo look like a genius.

 

Magnifies the sox woes and their inability to react.

Edited May 1, 201510 yr by Harry Chappas

Can't link it from phone, but Bernstein retweeted an article saying Cubs TV ratings up 110 percent this year

 

That's basically like going from a 5 to a 10.50-10.75 share.

 

http://www.chicitysports.com/forum/showthr...over-last-April

Except baseline numbers were much lower. Still a significant increase.

 

http://sportstvratings.com/cubs-winning-in...tings-too/2221/

Like going up 61000 extra viewers in Chicago compared to roughly 53,000 this time last year.

 

 

 

In the meantime, Schwarber's lighting up the offensive charts again and still catching.

Edited May 1, 201510 yr by caulfield12

Nice lineup today Milwaukee...gross!

 

Only 3 MLB caliber players in it, hopefully it's that weak when the Sox get them.

In the meantime, Schwarber's lighting up the offensive charts again and still catching.

 

No one that's seen him catch thinks he'll stay there.

I'm going to Cubs-Cards on Tuesday. Don't worry guys, I'll be rooting for the Cubs for all of you!

I'm going to Cubs-Cards on Tuesday. Don't worry guys, I'll be rooting for the Cubs for all of you!

 

I feel like this is 2005 again when we hated each other

I feel like this is 2005 again when we hated each other

Haha, ahh the good ol' days...

Visiting family in Des Moines so we hit up the Iowa Cubs Game. What happened to all the good players?

Visiting family in Des Moines so we hit up the Iowa Cubs Game. What happened to all the good players?

 

 

You can still watch Baez K, presumably.

 

Schwarber will be there in June or July. Almora, possibly, and Edwards....

I don't pay much attention to the cubs but they are looking crazy like a fox with the Schwarber pick last year.

You can still watch Baez K, presumably.

 

Schwarber will be there in June or July. Almora, possibly, and Edwards....

 

He was in the lineup, so was was Alcantara. Darwin Barney was too, but on the Dodgers. I gotta say though, that pitch clock made a huge difference. 4 innings were done in an hour with a bunch of runs scored.

And Brewers have dropped or misplayed 3 fly balls today. I hate this baseball season.

Cubs choking this game away.

Cubs have managed to blow 5 and 4 run leads...bullpen torched.

 

Down now 10-8 in the bottom of the 7th in StL.

 

That's a back-breaker.

 

How many times do you score 7 runs against Carlos Martinez and still lose?

Edited May 5, 201510 yr by caulfield12

Bryant not hitting for power but has 16 walks already, which is 33% of the Sox team total.

Bryant not hitting for power but has 16 walks already, which is 33% of the Sox team total.

Rany Jazayerli ‏@jazayerli 3m3 minutes ago

Kris Bryant has a .458 OBP. The all-time record for OBP by a qualifying player in his debut season is .436, by Ted Williams.

 

Rany Jazayerli ‏@jazayerli 2m2 minutes ago

Williams also holds the modern record for walks by a rookie, with 107. Bryant is on pace for 108-even though he was the minors for 12 days.

He's also hitting .291 with a .444 BABIP and 26.8% strike out rate. Testimonial, but I have yet to see Bryant hit it hard when I am watching.

I haven't watched much at all so I'm in the same boat and I get your point. In fact, I'll even boldly predict that Bryant won't have as good a career as Ted Williams. But any time you can be mentioned in a sentence with him, you're doing okay.

He's also hitting .291 with a .444 BABIP and 26.8% strike out rate. Testimonial, but I have yet to see Bryant hit it hard when I am watching.

And just to expand on this, Bryant has a 52.8% flyball rate. Look at the BABIPs of the other guys around there. 9 of the 30 on that page are below .200. You should not have a .444 BABIP ever, but least of all when you hit that many fly balls and also pop up 15% of the time.

 

This is the type of noise you see after 25 games and it's another reason people need to chill out a little on the Sox.

And just to expand on this, Bryant has a 52.8% flyball rate. Look at the BABIPs of the other guys around there. 9 of the 30 on that page are below .200. You should not have a .444 BABIP ever, but least of all when you hit that many fly balls and also pop up 15% of the time.

 

This is the type of noise you see after 25 games and it's another reason people need to chill out a little on the Sox.

The White Sox's team BABIP is .298, the league average is .292.