Cubs Fill Out Coaching Staff
The Cubs made it official and removed the interim tag from hitting coach James Rowson, who took over for one of the last remaining Hendry scapegoats, Rudy Jamarillo. A bit surprising to me that they didn't end up hiring Dave Magadan, the Red Sox hitting coach during some of the Theo years, but Magadan must have decided that watching Texas Rangers baseball over the Cubs was a more bearable proposition. Not that the numbers matter at all from last season, but here's a bit of out-of-context theater to make you feel better if you're not a fan of the Theo regime so far:
When the Cubs fired Jaramillo they were hitting .247 with a .689 OPS while averaging 3.7 runs per game. After replacing him with Rowson they hit .235 with a .674 OPS while averaging 3.8 runs per game.
The Cubs also found a new third base coach, as Reds Triple A manager David Bell will take over those duties (not a very good manager by record at least). David is of course a member of the Ohioan Bell's (Buddy, Mike, Gus and David). Anyway, hopefully David has an Ipod and some good playlists as it can be lonely in the third base box with this Cubs offense.
And Randy Bush received a three year extension on his contract to round out today's really boring Cubs news.
And Chris Rusin is probably the #1 LHSP in the PCL right now. He is #1 among all SP (LHP & RHP) in WHIP, and he is 5th among SP in ERA (behind LHPs Brad Mills and Will Smith and RHPs Johnny Hellweg and Sonny Gray). He has been a real workhorse, too, leading the PCL in IP. and he has allowed only 5 HR in 97 IP (pretty good for a SP in the PCL). And he's hitting 222 and hasn't struck out in 18 PA (he was a DH at the U. of Kentucky on days he wasn't pitching), so he would fit right into the Cubs starting rotation.
one problem is going to be a glut in available SP.
josh johnson and r.nolasco are strong candidates most likely to be available...along with a slew of others not so strong...then there's garza/feldman in the mix on the strong side.
teams like CIN, DET, and ATL are most likely not even going to be looking SP.
So, how much do we think they can spend on the 1st-rounder before they give up a draft pick then?
Rosscup and Burke--gotta figure at least one of them makes the 40. Lefties that through like that don't grow on trees. It'd be nice to see Burke developing a bit faster as a pitcher, though, and Rosscup being pushed a bit more.
LHP Zac Rosscup missed most of last season with biceps tendinitis, but once he got back into action he looked very good (his fastball was clocked at 94 MPH in his last appearance with the AZL Cubs before he was moved-up to Tennessee),
Rosscup, SS Arismendy Alcantara, OF Jae-Hoon Ha, and LHP (ex-OF) Kyler Burke are the Cubs minor leaguers most-likely to be added to the 40-man roster post-2013 (Rosscup, Alcantara, and Ha will be Rule 5 eligible, and Burke can be a minor league FA), although Rosscup, Burke, and Ha might have to show something in the AFL
If the other option is to get nothing for Feldman, then sure, talk with him about an extension. But if they can find a way to get a Maholm-esque return on him, I say pull the trigger.
I'm curious to see whether opposing GM's are still willing to part with any quality prospects for Garza after he missed nearly a year due to injuries. To me, you could make a stronger argument there that the Cubs might be better off extending than trading.
heh, I can't imagine a world where the Orioles would consider trading them both. I'm not sure they'd be willing to trade either of them unless they got a guy for more than a half a season.
rizzo sits tonight.
TEX has called up chirinininos today...
archer has had issues with control to the tune of barely being able to go 5 innings without throwing more than 100 pitches...AAA and especially majors where he's had a couple of 4ip outings. this season in the minors he's only gone over 5ip twice...both 6ip.
I'd probably hit that, but I don't love Gausman and the injury stuff with Bundy is definitely disheartening.
I got only 6. Sad considering I'm the commissioner of our local Pony league, and study the rulebook every year.
Disagree. This team is merely below average, with the chance to be awful after the sell-off in July. As for prospects, I don't expect a lot for Feldman even if they do trade him, which is why I think he's a better extension candidate than trade candidate.
This is opposed to Garza, who is likely to be a better pitcher over the next 3 years than Feldman, but is also far more likely to fetch an impact prospect. Garza is also going to get way more than 3/30 this winter, assuming he doesn't break again before that.
ugh, only got 4 of 10...quiz on baseball rules
http://espn.go.com/sportsnation/quiz/_/id/4979/do-know-mlb-rules#top
Well, I think you are right and you can judge the "decision" to make the trade based on what people thought at the time of the trade. Did the GM get "good value" in return, etc.
But then we can still look and see how "the trade turned out for each team in the end" and I think that is a different question and injuries can come into play here.
Soler headed to Daytona's 7-day DL...some sort of shin injury.
5th round pick Trey Masek out of Texas Tech tweets that he signed with the Cubs. 10th round pick Godley signed for $35K, more than $100K under slot. Currently BA has Cubs at $22K under slot.