| Article | Author | Date | Description |
|---|
| Cubs sign Jason Marquis to 3 yr, $20M contract | Tim Stuart | 2006-12-09 | Tim gives his input on what the pitching staff looks like after the Marquis acquisition. |
| Lineup PA Breakdown | Matt Christenson | 2006-11-29 | I'm just posting some tables that show how often each lineup spot comes up in various base-out situations. (This really isn't an article, just some info I dug up for a friend and decided to share.) |
| Cubs Do Indeed Re-Sign Ramirez, Wood | Tim Stuart | 2006-11-13 | Well, now I have to write my second article of the day!
The big news is that Aramis Ramirez has re-signed with the Cubs, along with Kerry Wood. Reports are that both signed very team-friendly deals. Current reports have Aramis accepting a 5/$70M deal with a mutual option for a sixth year and Wood taking a one year deal with a low base and lots of incentives. These moves have definitely put the Cubs in a better position for 2007. Let’s take a look at where things stand and what work remains to be done. But first I want to comment quickly on re-signing Aramis.
I have very mixed feelings about the signing. There’s no question that we are in a much better position to compete in 2007 and 2008 with him than without him. That is particularly true since he seems to have signed a much below market deal. I will be enthusiastic about this deal if he did not receive a full no trade clause with the contract. In which case, I will love the production from him for the first few years of the deal and then suggest trading him before he declines. I am very glad that the Cubs did not have to do a six or seven year deal at more than $15M per year to get this done, though. |
| Ramirez to Test Free Agency | Tim Stuart | 2006-11-12 | With the news that the Cubs exclusive negotiating period with Aramis Ramirez has passed without him being resigned by the team, many Cubs fans are feeling that the sky just fell. I’m going to change the argument a bit. I think the Cubs are doing the right thing by not signing Ramirez to a long term contract. Before people start thinking that this article is going to be an exercise in apologizing for management, though, let me say that the article will also be an indictment of the team’s ability to plan effectively. |
| Prospect Spotlight - Sean Gallagher | Matt Christenson | 2006-06-25 | This week’s prospect spotlight will focus on Sean Gallagher, an exciting young right-hander whose domination of the Florida State League recently earned him a promotion to AA West Tennessee. |
| Prospect Spotlght #1 - Felix Pie | Matt Christenson | 2006-06-19 | This is the first in a series of articles providing in-depth, PBP-derived data on Cubs prospects. (Among other players...I will sometimes go outside the system to look at potential trade targes, for example.) First in the box: consensus #1 prospect Felix Pie |
| Draft Analysis: Picks 1-5 | Danny Grossman | 2006-06-14 | T2E takes a look at the first 8 rounds of the draft. |
| Draft Analysis: Picks 6-10 | Danny Grossman | 2006-06-14 | T2E takes a look at the next 5 picks, rounds 9-13 |
| What's Wrong with Aramis? | Matt Christenson | 2006-05-04 | This mini-article is a response to a thread about Aramis Ramirez’ early-season slump. In it, several posters are saying Ramirez should get far more of the blame for the team’s offensive woes than Juan Pierre and Jacque Jones, two scapegoats popular among many NSBBers. While it’s true that the difference between Ramirez’ expected and actual performance is far greater than it is for Pierre or Jones, I don’t think it’s wise to give up on (or rip into) ARam just yet. |
| West Tennessee Stats 04-20-2006 | Matt Christenson | 2006-04-20 | This is a simple test of the new article submission method for northsidebaseball.com. I am testing it by copying over two tables I have created in Microsoft word that include general hitting and pitching stats for the West Tennessee Diamond Jaxx. To test the image uploading function I have uploaded an image that represents Eric Patterson's hitting spray chart through 04-19-2006. |
| Don't Panic | Matt Christenson | 2006-04-20 | After hearing of the severity of Derrek Lee's injury, I decided to quantify just how much it would hurt the Cubs' chances in 2006. What I found was slightly encouraging. Given the most plausible scenarios (those in which most of Lee's PA's are taken by some combination of Perez, Hairston, and Mabry) it would seem as though the injury will cost the Cubs no more than a win or two. A definite setback, in other words, but not enough in and of itself to remove the Cubs from playoff contention. |
| Bonjour, Mr. Pierre | Matt Christenson | 2005-12-11 | Matt gives his take on the acquisition of Juan Pierre by the Cubs. |
| 2005 Initial Top 10 Prospect Rankings | Tim Stuart | 2005-11-27 | Each year, we release a top 30 (or so) prospect ranking here at NSBB. One comment that we've received is that we should put ours out before Baseball America so that there's no possibility of us "cheating" by looking at their rankings before performing ours. So, this year, our prospect committee is putting out our top 10's before BA does their thing. We haven't yet had time to pull together our comments and everything else that will go into the full list come springtime. But we wanted to get something out quickly, so enjoy! |
| Draft Analysis: Rounds 41-50 | Tinkers2Evers | 2005-10-10 | T2E concludes his look at the Cubs 2005 draft with rounds 41-50 |
| Draft Analysis: Rounds 26-30 | Tinkers2Evers | 2005-08-25 | T2E continues his look at the Cubs 2005 draft with rounds 26-30 |
| Draft Analysis: Rounds 31-40 | Tinkers2Evers | 2005-08-24 | T2E continues his look at the Cubs 2005 draft with rounds 31-40 |
| The Importance of Persistence | Matt Christenson | 2005-08-23 | An article Matt wrote back in June that I have somehow failed to get online until now. In the article, Matt looks into whether hitting with RISP is an actual ability or not and surveys some of the previous work done on the issue |
| The Importance of Persistence | Matt Christenson | 2005-08-23 | An article Matt wrote back in June that I have somehow failed to get online until now. In the article, Matt looks into whether hitting with RISP is an actual ability or not and surveys some of the previous work done on the issue |
| Playing the Devil's Advocate | Matt Christenson | 2005-08-23 | Matt takes a look at many of the common criticisms of Dusty and delves into the facts to see if they are deserved. |
| Draft Analysis: Rounds 11-15 | Tinkers2Evers | 2005-07-07 | T2E's look at the Cubs' 2005 draft continues with rounds 11-15 |
| Draft Analysis: Rounds 16-20 | Tinkers2Evers | 2005-07-07 | T2E continues his look at the Cubs 2005 draft with rounds 16-20 |
| Draft Analysis: Rounds 21-25 | Tinkers2Evers | 2005-07-07 | T2E continues his look at the Cubs 2005 draft with rounds 21-25 |
| Draft Analysis: Rounds 1-5 | Tinkers2Evers | 2005-06-19 | T2E begins his coverage of the Cubs 2005 draft picks |
| Draft Analysis: Rounds 6-10 | Tinkers2Evers | 2005-06-19 | The draft analysis continues with rounds 6-10 |
| Draft Recap | Tinkers2Evers | 2005-06-08 | Every Cub fan was looking for the Cubs to make a boom with their first pick in the 2005 June Amateur Draft. With two Scott Boras pitchers still on the board at pick number 20, college righty Luke Hochevar and high school lefty Mark Pawelek, Cub fans knew they were going to get an impact talent. The Cubs opted to go with Pawelek, who was rated by some as the best high school pitcher in the draft... |
| Draft Preview: Pitchers | Tinkers2Evers | 2005-06-07 | This is the fifth part of a five part series that will feature the positions and the players in the upcoming draft |
| Draft Preview: Outfield | Tinkers2Evers | 2005-06-05 | T2E continues his draft preview with a look at the outfielders. |
| Draft Preview: Middle Infield | Tinkers2Evers | 2005-06-05 | This is the third part of a five part series that will feature the positions and the players in the upcoming draft.
Second Base
With the exception of Rickie Weeks in 2003, second base has lacked impact talent. This is true because, often, the best infield prospects play shortstop in high school and even into college. Then, teams often move them to other position if they have a deficiency in their fielding skills at shortstop. This year’s crop, like always, is dominated by college players. |
| Hindsight 20/20 | Tinkers2Evers | 2005-06-02 | Every team has those picks they wished they could have back, that one player that they should have pursued harder. The Cubs have a few of those, but for the most part, have done an excellent job signing the best picks. Here’s a review of notable players that the Cubs failed to sign. |
| Draft Preview: Corner IF | Tinkers2Evers | 2005-06-02 | T2E continues his look at the top draft prospects by previewing the corner infielders. |
| Draft Preview: Catchers | Tinkers2Evers | 2005-05-31 | This is the first part of a five part series that will feature the positions and the players in the upcoming draft. |
| Ten Years of Draft History | Tinkers2Evers | 2005-05-31 | In 1999, John Stockstill became the scouting director of the Cubs. Prior to 1999, the results of Cubs’ drafts had been mixed. In ’95 they got Kerry Wood and in ’98 they nabbed Corey Patterson, but behind those two, the Cubs didn’t gain much from their ‘94-‘98 drafts. Stockstill took over in 1999, and had a disastrous draft. Things have been better since ’99. Here’s a look at the last ten drafts: |
| College Updates 5/13/05 | Tinkers2Evers | 2005-05-14 | The latest look at college prospects for the 2005 amateur draft. |
| Draft-and-Follows | Tinkers2Evers | 2005-05-07 | T2E looks at the 2004 draft and follows to see how they're doing and evaluates whether or not the Cubs may want to pursue signing them before the 2005 draft. |
| BK on Baseball: Weekly Recap: 04/04/2005 – 04/10/2005 | Matt Christenson | 2005-04-10 | The first installment of BK's weekly wrapup of Cubs baseball. |
| Spring Notes from Mesa | Bryan Stroh | 2005-04-08 | Bryan makes his debut as a NSBB article writer with this great account of his time in Mesa this season. You may remember Bryan as one of the best Cubs bloggers out there. We at NSBB are very happy to be able to add Bryan as a contributor to the site. |
| The Art of Pitching | Matt Christenson | 2005-04-03 | Matt uses detailed, pitch-by-pitch data to analyze two years worth of pitching data and comes to some startling conclusions. |
| Review of 2004 Top 30 Prospects | Tinkers2Evers | 2005-03-30 | Here is a breakdown of last years NSBB top 30 and how they rate now. |
| College Updates 3/29/05 | Tinkers2Evers | 2005-03-29 | An update on the 2005 draft prospects as of 3/29/05. |
| Minor League Statistics Comparison: Part I | Tinkers2Evers | 2005-03-07 | This article is intended to look at how the Cubs compared just statistically compared to the others in the division. It gives us an objective look at how the Cubs stack up in numerous different categories such as walks, average and power. This isn’t necessarily the team with the best hitters or the best prospects, but the team whose minor leaguers posted the best numbers. Age, an important factor for future success, is not used in the analysis. |
| Minor League Statistics Comparison: Part II | Tim Stuart | 2005-03-07 | The second part of a two part statistical overview of the year. Part I will focused on the hitters. |
| Oneri Fleita Answers NSBB's Questions | Mark Peel | 2005-02-13 | Oneri Fleita, the Cubs' Director of Player Development and Director of Latin American Operations, has played a large part in building the team into a contender. Mr. Fleita took some time recently to answer questions posed by the readers of NorthsideBaseball.com; here are his replies. |
| Farnsworth Traded to Detroit | Tim Stuart | 2005-02-13 | Enigmatic reliever Kyle Farnsworth was traded to Detroit today for three players: right handed reliever Roberto Novoa, 3B Scott Moore and OF Bo Flowers. |
| Not This Way | DeShawn Jackson | 2005-01-30 | Many fans got their wish. Sammy Sosa has been traded. DJ says that it shouldn't have happened. At least "not this way". |
| BK on Baseball - Goodbye Sammy, You'll be Missed | Matt Christensen | 2005-01-29 | BK gives his thoughts on the Sosa trade to Balitmore as the deal has been reported by the morning of Jan 29th. |
| The Sosa Deal | Tinkers2Evers | 2005-01-29 | T2E gives his opinion about the initial reports on the Sosa deal. |
| BK on Baseball: The Cost of a Run | Matt Christensen | 2005-01-12 | BK takes a look at how to value the contributions of a player in dollars. |
| Draft Order and Names to Know | Tinkers2Evers | 2004-12-27 | In T2E's latest article, he takes a look at the 2005 draft and gives us some names to follow. |
| Third Base Prospects | DeShawn Jackson | 2004-12-26 | DeShawn takes a look at the third base prospects the Cubs have in the minors. Unlike years past where this was one of the deeper positions in the system, there isn't much left there other than Matt Craig. |
| Men in the Middle | DeShawn Jackson | 2004-11-11 | DeShawn takes a look at the top middle infield prospects for the Cubs. |
| 2004 Cubs Draft Report Card | Tinkers2Evers | 2004-11-05 | T2E has done a draft report card that follows the format of Baseball America's approach. |
| How to Interpret College Stats: Part IV- Player Analysis | Tinkers2Evers | 2004-11-04 | In Part IV of his series on the Cubs 2004 draft, T2E takes a detailed look at the players and how they performed. |
| They Call it Small Ball for a Reason | Matt Christenson | 2004-10-19 | This is a must-read article looking at the history of small-ball vs. big ball. It details the overall effect on run scoring, the consistency with which teams score runs and much more. |
| How to Interpret College Stats: Part III- The Pitchers | Tinkers2Evers | 2004-10-07 | Tinkers takes a look at how to evaluate college pitchers in a more sophisticated way than ERA. |
| Brian Dopirak vs. the World | DeShawn Jackson | 2004-10-07 | A comparison between Brian Dopirak's performance at Lansing and the recent sluggers to have gone through the Midwest League. |
| 1B Depth | DeShawn Jackson | 2004-09-29 | A look at the first base prospects in the system. |
| Rotation Shuffle: Good Decision? | Matt Christenson | 2004-09-29 | Matt takes a look at the career of Glendon Rusch and tries to answer the question of whether putting him in Clement's place in the rotation was a good idea or not. |
| Best Cubs Staff Ever? | Matt Christenson | 2004-09-17 | BK compares the current Cubs staff with the legendary rotations of the past to answer the question - Is this the best Cubs pitching staff ever? |
| Is Catcher Becoming a Strength? | DeShawn Jackson | 2004-09-14 | A look at the top catching prospects in the minors, this article looks to see if a new "catcher of the future" has been found in the system. |
| What to do with Clement? | Matt Christenson | 2004-09-12 | This article first looks at Matt Clement's performance over the past few years, then addresses the question of whether the Cubs should try to re-sign Matt. |
| Best Tools in the Cubs System | DeShawn Jackson | 2004-09-06 | This is the start of a series of articles to get everyone familiar with the Cubs minor league prospects from top to bottom. The series will culminate with the top 50 prospect rankings later in the offseason. |
| How to Interpret College Stats: Part II- The Hitters | Tinkers2Evers | 2004-09-06 | T2E continues his look at how to interpret college stats with a knockout look at the Cubs 2004 position player draftees. |
| Patterson vs. Brock | Matt Christenson | 2004-09-02 | Comparing Corey to Lou Brock has been all the rage since he moved to the leadoff spot. BK takes a look at this comparison in detail to see how well it holds up. |
| The Next Wave of Pitching Prospects | DeShawn Jackson | 2004-08-30 | A look at the next wave of pitching prospects that you might not have heard of. These guys are honing their craft at Lansing or lower in the system. |
| How to Interpret College Stats | Tinkers2Evers | 2004-08-30 | Given the unique dimensions of college parks and the varied level of competition, it can sometimes be difficult to decipher the meaning in a player's college statistics. This is the first part of a multi-step article looking at college players and how to interpret their stats. |
| Is Sosa Finished? | Matt Christenson | 2004-08-30 | Sosa's having his worst season in years. Is he finished or is he in a more gradual decline. This article compares Sammy to other great players of similar profiles to take a look at how they aged. |
| Nomar is a Cub | Tim Stuart | 2004-08-01 | A discussion of the impact of Nomar Garciaparra joining the Cubs. |
| Nomar Trade Analysis | Tim Stuart | 2004-08-01 | A detailed look at the Nomar trade and the impact on the Cubs farm system. |
| Why NSBB Premium? | Tim Stuart | 2004-07-15 | A discussion of the origins of nsbb "Premium" and the motivations for it. |
| The Cubs at the All-Star Break | Tim Stuart | 2004-07-12 | A look at where the Cubs stand at the all-star break. |
| Mid-Season All-Star Team - Pitchers | Tim Stuart | 2004-07-05 | My mid-season prospect all-star team, pitching edition. |
| Mid-season Prospect All-Star Team | Tim Stuart | 2004-06-30 | A position by position look at the top performers in the Cubs minor league system to date in 2004. |
| Scouting for Help | Tim Stuart | 2004-06-01 | Looking for positional help from teams falling out of the race |
| The Need for Speed | Tim Stuart | 2004-05-24 | A look at how closely tied speed measures are with runs scored. |
| A Conversation with a Classic Car Collector | Tim Stuart | 2004-05-01 | This article looks at the other side of the pitch count argument by drawing an analogy with changing the oil in a car engine. |
| An Interview with Dusty, Part 1 | Tim Stuart | 2004-04-28 | A mock interview with Dusty on the subject of pitch counts. |
| Two Weeks of Baseball | Tim Stuart | 2004-04-17 | Bullet points from the first two weeks of baseball. |
| The Pros and Cons of Dusty | Tim Stuart | 2004-03-31 | A quick discussion of the pros and cons of Dusty's managing style. |
| Spring Training Games Start | Tim Stuart | 2004-03-07 | An article about what's happening at the start of spring training. |
| Maddux Returns | Tim Stuart | 2004-02-21 | Greg Maddux returns to Chicago |
| State of the System | Tim Stuart | 2004-02-10 | A rundown of the state of the Cubs' minor league system, with a link to my 2004 top 30 prospect page. |
| Why the Cubs won the 2004 Series | Tim Stuart | 2004-02-02 | A pretend look back at the 2004 season to see what were the key factors in the Cubs fictional run to the 2004 world series. |
| Offseason Regrets | Tim Stuart | 2004-01-22 | Players I wish had become Cubs in the 2003-2004 offseason |
| Pitching edge for Houston or Chicago? | Tim Stuart | 2004-01-15 | After the Houston acquisition of Clemens, who has the pitching edge in 2004? |
| Houston Gets a Rocket Boost | Tim Stuart | 2004-01-12 | Evaluating the Cubs vs. Astros after the Clemens acquisition. |
| Cubs acquire Michael Barrett for a PTBNL | Tim Stuart | 2003-12-16 | A discussion of the Cubs acquisition of Michael Barrett |
| Cubs re-sign Grudzielanek and Goodwin | Tim Stuart | 2003-12-09 | A look at the Cubs 2004 offense. |
| What I Would Do this Offseason | Tim Stuart | 2003-12-04 | A quick description of what I would have done with the offseason from that date, plus links to pages listing the moves and potential rosters. |
| Cubs Trade Choi for Lee | Tim Stuart | 2003-11-27 | My take on the Choi for Lee deal |
| My Take on the Offseason (Part 5) | Tim Stuart | 2003-11-24 | A look at starting pitching |
| My Take on the Offseason (Part 6) | Tim Stuart | 2003-11-24 | A look at the relief pitching |
| My Take on the Offseason (Part 7) | Tim Stuart | 2003-11-24 | A summary of my other writeups on my approach to the offseason. |
| My Take on the Offseason (Part 4) | Tim Stuart | 2003-11-19 | A look at the outfielders |
| My Take on the Offseason (Part 1) | Tim Stuart | 2003-11-18 | A series of articles discussion how I would go about improving the team for 2004. |
| My Take on the Offseason (Part 2) | Tim Stuart | 2003-11-18 | A look at catcher, first and second base. |
| My Take on the Offseason (Part 3) | Tim Stuart | 2003-11-18 | This article covered shortstop and third base. |
| Plate Discipline or lack thereof... | Tim Stuart | 2003-08-21 | A discussion of my ideal plate approach, derived from Ted Williams' wisdom. |
| More Gloom... | Tim Stuart | 2003-06-06 | An answer to some of the responses from the message boards |
| June Gloom | Tim Stuart | 2003-06-05 | A discussion of where the Cubs are at and what they should do about it |
| Sosa Goes Batty | Tim Stuart | 2003-06-04 | A short conversation about Sammy and his bat |
| Cubs flaws becoming apparent - part 2 | Tim Stuart | 2003-05-05 | Part two takes a deeper look at the Cubs team and attempts to discern whether or not there's enough offense there to compete. |
| Cubs flaws becoming apparent | Tim Stuart | 2003-04-24 | Can the Cubs compete for the division as currently constructed? Or are they a flawed team that needs another couple pieces? |
| Second Base this spring | Tim Stuart | 2003-03-24 | A look at who should be starting at second base for the Cubs to begin the year. |
| The Cubs 2001 Draft | Tim Stuart | 2003-03-19 | Looking back at the 2001 draft, it was an exceptional success for the Cubs. It could have been even better. |
| Notes from Spring Training | Tim Stuart | 2003-03-11 | I give some quick hitters upon my return from Mesa |
| Other prospects to watch | Tim Stuart | 2003-03-05 | I've put together a list of prospects to keep an eye on that are outside of my top 30. All of these guys have the potential to emerge as solid prospects. I wouldn't be surprised to see any of them on next year's top 30 list. |
| What to do with Alan Benes in 2003? | Tim Stuart | 2003-02-24 | A look at Alan Benes' chance to make the team out of spring training and what might be the best thing to do with him if he doesn't make the cut. |
| A plan for several years out | Tim Stuart | 2003-02-03 | Just for fun, I imagined that all the Cubs key prospects pan out. Given this (fanciful) supposition, here is how things could pan out over the next several years. |
| The Success Cycle and the Chicago Cubs | Tim Stuart | 2002-12-17 | This article links the concept of "The Success Cycle" as outlined in the Baseball Prospectus to the recent history of the Chicago Cubs. It then looks at where the Cubs stand in the cycle now and judges whether management is acting properly given the team's place in the cycle. |
| A Better Contract Structure | Tim Stuart | 2002-11-18 | This article discusses the virtues of front-loaded versus back-loaded contracts |
| How to go really, really young | Tim Stuart | 2002-09-27 | Following the lead of Cleveland, this article takes a look at how to blow up the current team and reload the system with as much talent as possible. |
| How well did Kerry Wood pitch in 2002? | Tim Stuart | 2002-09-02 | I start by discussion my views on measuring pitcher performance, then look at Kerry Wood's 2002 season in particular. |
