Spring Training Roster Projection

Some of you may wonder how a Spring Training roster is constructed.

The template generally looks like this:

30-36 pitchers
6 catchers
3 1B
3 2B
3 3B
3 SS
3 LF
3 CF
3 RF

PITCHERS: During the first couple of weeks at Fitch Park (prior to the move to HoHoKam Park and the start of the Cactus League season), the pitchers are broken up into three groups of 10-12 pitchers each. There is a status to the three groups, where Group 1 is mostly the big league guys, Group 2 is mostly the guys battling for spots, and Group 3 is everybody else. When a top draft pick guy like Andrew Cashner gets a courtesy-invitation to big league camp to "get a look," he might be assigned to Group 1 just so he can see how the big leaguers prepare for the season. (This happened with Jeff Samardzija).

CATCHERS: Six catchers are needed at big league camp at Fitch Park because the 10-12 pitchers in each of the three groups are further divided into groups of 5-6, and they simultaneously throw in the "Ten Pack" (ten-mound bullpen located north of the clubhouse), so there needs to be one catcher for each pitcher. (In minor league camp where there are five squads, all ten bullpen mounds in the Ten Pack are used simultaneously, so at least ten catchers are needed in minor league camp).

INFIELDERS/OUTFIELDERS: Each position needs to be three-deep at Fitch Park, because the position players also are sometimes broken up into groups of three while taking fielding practice & BP.

Here is how the Cubs 2009 Spring Training roster looks right now (subject to players who might be added prior to the start of ST):

PITCHERS:

GROUP 1:
* Andrew Cashner (TBD)
Neal Cotts
Ryan Dempster
Chad Gaudin
Kevin Gregg
Rich Harden
Ted Lilly
Carlos Marmol
Sean Marshall
Luis Vizcaino
Carlos Zambrano

GROUP 2:
Jose Ascanio
* Chad Fox
Angel Guzman
Kevin Hart
Rich Hill
Jeff Samardzija
Jeff Stevens
Randy Wells
* Bill White
Michael Wuertz

GROUP 3:
Mitch Atkins
Justin Berg
* Edward Campusano (TBD)
* Esmailin Caridad (TBD)
* Casey Lambert (TBD)
Marcos Mateo
* J. R. Mathes (TBD)
David Patton
Rocky Roquet (TBD)
* Jason Waddell (TBD)

CATCHERS:
Geovanty Soto
Koyie Hill
* Mark Johnson
* Welington Castillo (TBD)
* Tony Richie (TBD)
* Robinson Chirinos (TBD)

FIRST-BASE:
Derrek Lee
Micah Hoffpauir
Jake Fox

SECOND-BASE:
Mike Fontenot
Aaron Miles
* Nate Spears (TBD)

THIRD-BASE:
Aramis Ramirez
* Kyle Reynolds (TBD)
* Bobby Scales (TBD - if re-signed)

SHORTSTOP:
Ryan Theriot
Ronny Cedeno
* Andres Blanco
NOTE: Darwin Barney could get NRI if Cedeno is traded

LEFT-FIELD:
Alfonso Soriano
Joey Gathright
So Taguchi

* Tyler Colvin (TBD - DH TJS rehab)

CENTER-FIELD:
Kosuke Fukudome
Reed Johnson
Felix Pie

RIGHT-FIELD:
Milton Bradley
Sam Fuld
Brad Snyder

* Non-Roster Invitee (NRI)

Tags: 
Cubs Spring Training
Submitted by Arizona Phil on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 9:17am
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Comments

Submitted by Jace
on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 10:31am

Thanks, Phil, as always. I can't imagine that Hendry is going to be able to get a whole lot for Cedeno, Pie and Hill at this point, but maybe he could get another decent 5th starter type...

Submitted by Charlie
on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 11:13am

I think in a couple years, we would look at the trades of Cedeno, Pie, and Hill for a 5th starter type in 2008 as a really awful sell low. How much more could you have gotten for them in 2007 or 2006? Will you be able to get more for them again in 2009? I'd be awfully tempted to find a way to hold onto at least one or two of them.

Submitted by Ted Lilly Fan Club
on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 1:27pm

TLFC wonders aloud what Pledge Master Ted has in store for all the rookies this year? Maybe some shenanigans with a goat? Maybe a panty raid over at Mesa Community College?

A frat paddle wielded by a certain left-handed starting pitcher/friend to the world from Torrance, CA can't feel good...

Submitted by Dr. aaron b
on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 10:36am

AZ Phil,

In your opinion, would Marquez Smith be the 3rd Third Basemen if Scales isn't re-signed?

Submitted by Hook
on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 11:10am

Is that the same Bill White that pitched in the Rangers system last year?

Submitted by crunch
on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 11:34am

yes

Submitted by Rob G.
on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 12:05pm

on sale today

http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/chc/ticketing/leadoff_...

if I was a scalper, I'd be in on it...

not sure if you have to be on the season ticket waiting list or not...

Submitted by Rob G.
on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 12:09pm

packages range from $208 to $630 for one ticket to 13 games....

still had bleachers available for about $520....

Submitted by CPH2133
on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 12:12pm

Scalpers dream if you're on the waitlist (which i think you have to be, but they never had me sign in or anything, so not sure how'd they know). I just tried for about 30 minutes straight, kept getting "Unable to process transaction due to high volume. Please try again".

Submitted by Rob G.
on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 12:16pm

I was just curious about the prices and tried to get 2 tickets at a few of the different price points, I got through on bleachers.

But since I don't live in Chicago, I cancelled. I'm not a big fan of ticket scalping, especially at something already so massively overpriced as Wrigley Field. 

If I did live in Chicago, I couldn't imagine being able to take my family more than once or twice a year, which is sort of sad.

Submitted by CPH2133
on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 12:28pm

Same here, living in Cleveland makes it silly for me to have tickets for a Wed afternoon game at Wrigley.

Submitted by CincyKid
on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 2:28pm

welp... i catch most Cubs game here in Cincy and never have a problem scoring tickets. Although scalping is LEGAL, you can get tickets at the box office for any game, except Opening Day, or the slim chance the Indians are in town for a weekend series... plus the cost of living is great, there's no traffic, and its a great place to raise a family!

Submitted by Rob G.
on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 2:32pm

s the cost of living is great, there's no traffic, and its a great place to raise a family!

of course the cost of living is great and there's no traffic, it's Cincinnati

Submitted by Jace
on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 2:49pm

Wow. I have NEVER seen or read of anyone saying that Cincinnati is a great place to raise a family. Have you ever lived anywhere else?

Submitted by JD
on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 5:13pm

I've got family in the Cincinatti area and I've never heard any complaints from them.

Submitted by dB
on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 7:26pm

good place to live if you're German.

Submitted by CincyKid
on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 8:28pm

actually yes... i grew up in the south Burbs(little old Richton Park) and moved here on a college soccer scholorship and never moved back. The family is still in Chicagoland so i still visit frequently, but its great here that i commute to work in downtown Cincy, from Northern Kentucky, in just 10 minutes... during rush-hour!

Submitted by gobuckeyes
on Fri, 01/16/2009 - 10:26am

You're lucky, its way worse coming from the north. I've had to travel down from Middletown a few times when I lived down there and ...not really fun. So keep that in mind if you ever have to roll in from the north, on 75. Oh, and heaven forbid anyone try and get around the 71/75/275 interchange areas around 530. On average though I'd definitely rate it about a B+ in terms of traffic on average.

That said there's plenty of nice places in Cincy. FWIW I prefer Columbus, though.

Submitted by Rob G.
on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 1:06pm

I'm 71,367 on the Cubs season ticket waiting list...

Submitted by CPH2133
on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 1:16pm

31,000 and change... I also signed up when i was like 15 with the hopes by my 30th brthday i'll be able to afford them and be in a place to buy them...i doubt either will happen.

Submitted by jacos
on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 1:27pm

I don't know if you guys caught Inning 2 of Ken Burns' Baseball the other night on MLB.

For the one game playoff between Cubs and Giants in 1908 they had 10,000's of thousands of people turned away. Some tried to "burn" their way into the stadium by setting outfield wall on fire.

Crazy.

Submitted by Rob G.
on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 1:36pm

I recall reading that last year in this book...

 http://astore.amazon.com/thecubrep-20/detail/06185...

nice thorough history of the team I thought

Submitted by jacos
on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 1:56pm

Do you mean "Crazy 08"?

http://astore.amazon.com/thecubrep-20/detail/00608...

Great book.

Yes the old pictures of the dark ball parks and the mass of people give it another world feel to it.

Submitted by Rob G.
on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 2:04pm

No, I meant "The Cubs: The Complete Story of Chicago Cubs Baseball"...

I hear the Crazy '08 is good too

 

Submitted by jacos
on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 3:42pm

It's a must read for a baseball fan.

Well written and it's about the whole baseball season just not Cubs only.

WSox signed BartOlO COlOn to one year contract.

~snickers~

Submitted by Tony S.
on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 2:06pm

Got that one for xmas, Rob. And it was easy to open.

And you're really pushing that amazon thing, relax, man, I promise, the next thing I buy will be 'TCR Approved'!!

Submitted by Rob G.
on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 2:09pm

I just want our $10 from them...they don't payout until then. Right now we've sold about 4 things over the last year for like $4 in referral fees.

Someone bought a Soriano jersey though...

Submitted by Doug Dascenzo
on Fri, 01/16/2009 - 10:53am

17,073 for me, which I think is exactly where I was last year. I was kind of hoping one of the side effects of this bum economy would be a big move up the list, but I guess not.

Also, that Leadoff Pack or whatever it's called looked like a shitty deal. In order to do it, you basically had to take 6-8 games in April/early May. I really don't think anyone would make much money trying to scalp those tickets. As much as I love the Cubs, it's fucking depressing to be at a game when it's snowing.

Submitted by Tony S.
on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 1:34pm

Crazy?

That's just pure awesomeness.

Submitted by Cubster
on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 1:58pm

I don't know if you guys caught Inning 2 of Ken Burns' Baseball...
---------------
I hadn't seen it before but I love the old photo's from the era. I believe they are going thru the entire series every tuesday night from 8-10:30 pm Chicago time.

I think I saw Old and Blue in one of those photo's, of course he was in sepia tones

West Side Ballpark, home of your World Champion 1908 Cubs

Submitted by Indiana JJ
on Fri, 01/16/2009 - 6:39am

Earlier in the winter I caught a few episodes of some show call "Baseball's Golden Era" or something like that on CSN that showed lots of colorized film clips and old photos of Wrigley. It was pretty cool. They showed the outfield pre-ivy and with some potted trees on each end of all the rows of the center field bleachers. They also had film of the marquis before it was painted red. Pretty cool stuff.

Submitted by big_lowitzki
on Fri, 01/16/2009 - 9:12am

They also had film of the marquis before it was painted red.

Jason Marquis was painted red?

Submitted by Indiana JJ
on Fri, 01/16/2009 - 12:27pm

Woah...bit of a Freudian slip there. Um marquee. Though a red Jason Marquis might be more entertaining than the orginal.

Submitted by The E-Man
on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 2:06pm

Anyone score decent seats for all 13 of those games? They really make you buy some clunkers, with four or five decent ones attached.

Submitted by Newport
on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 6:13pm

I got bleachers for the 13 games, although that is probably my least favorite place to sit.
I am 3100+ on the waiting list. Started around 4400 after the 2004 season. I put Mrs. Newport on the list today for shits & giggles, she is lucky fan #100,560!

Submitted by The E-Man
on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 8:37pm

I got through on 13 Games for Bleachers - but am "too old". Give me a reserved seat, and a view of as close to the infield as possible at this stage. When I was in HS or college and I could go for $10 or $15 it was fine to sit or stand and sweat with drunk frat folks 365ft from the plate. I'm over it now though. Needless to say, I passed on the tickets.

Submitted by Rob G.
on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 4:03pm

on a 1-yr deal....

Submitted by Cubster
on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 4:12pm

Aardvark dfa'd by Bosox...he'll be playing in the band with Jerome Williams and the Pookah Shells

Submitted by Charlie
on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 7:55pm

The #1 player in baseball history has okay-ish projections for next year. Worth another go around? he had a 4.08 with the big league club in 2006. But I don't see that happening.

He'd be a good guy to look into if you're the Pirates, Marlins, Nationals, Giants, or Padres GM, though.

Submitted by Rob G.
on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 4:23pm

http://withleather.uproxx.com/?p=13810

Sutcliffe as an Oriole appearance and for some reason a girl puts on a Yankee hat filled with water...

Submitted by crunch
on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 5:03pm

she's cooling off.

also...the early 90s ruuuuuuuuled. win.

Submitted by crunch
on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 5:15pm

not cubs-related, but today's "Get Fuzzy" comic was nice. the "toast" gag rules...the NYJV gag wasn't as sharp.

http://assets.comics.com/dyn/str_strip/000000000/0...

Submitted by The Real Neal
on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 5:27pm

That whole campaign was ripped off from the SARS people, anyway.

Submitted by Ryno
on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 10:03pm

Ahh, the good ol' days when we thought rap was just a fleeting trend that wouldn't last.

*sigh*

Submitted by jacos
on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 4:38pm

The anti "Baseball" documentary

http://www.ronniewoowoo.com/buyDVD.htm

Punch yourself in the face to get yourself in the mood.

Submitted by The Real Neal
on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 4:54pm

Sounds sort of like the Fisher King, but with all the entertaining bits edited out.

Submitted by Charlie
on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 8:01pm

Why is there a ronniewoowo.com?

Submitted by Cubnut
on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 8:42pm

Padres sign Jae Kuk Ryu.

From Paul DePodesta's blog:

Originally signed for $1.6 million by the Cubs in 2001, Ryu has spent parts of the past three seasons in the Majors with Chicago and Tampa Bay. His 2008 season ended prematurely, however, as he was shut down in May and had relatively minor elbow surgery in June. Ryu's fastball sits around 90 mph while reaching as high as 92, and he complements it with both a curveball and a changeup. According to our scouts, all of his pitches grade out as at least Major League average, and he can throw all three for strikes. Given his repertoire and success as a starter in the minor leagues, we believe Ryu can compete for a spot in our rotation or our pen. He has one minor league option remaining.

Submitted by jacos
on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 8:50pm

Selma Hayek is on 30 Rock now.

Submitted by Ryno
on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 10:01pm

Yowza is right.

Submitted by Adam
on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 10:38pm

$822,000 deal for Cedeno
http://blogs.denverpost.com/rockies/2009/01/15/cub...

and Cubs sign So Taguchi to minor league deal.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3836941

Submitted by The Joe
on Fri, 01/16/2009 - 12:25am

Sweet! I love Taguchi.

Submitted by The Real Neal
on Fri, 01/16/2009 - 7:03am

Sweet and sour Taguchi?

Submitted by The E-Man
on Fri, 01/16/2009 - 8:18am

Sashimi Taguchi

Submitted by Cubster
on Fri, 01/16/2009 - 7:50am

Sun-Times article with comments on Pie's future

http://www.suntimes.com/sports/deluca/1381273,CST-...

Submitted by Arizona Phil
on Fri, 01/16/2009 - 8:12am

Submitted by Hook on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 11:10am. Is that the same Bill White that pitched in the Rangers system last year?

 ==============================

HOOK: Yes.

Submitted by Arizona Phil
on Fri, 01/16/2009 - 8:17am

Submitted by Dr. aaron b on Thu, 01/15/2009 - 10:36am.

AZ Phil, In your opinion, would Marquez Smith be the 3rd Third Basemen if Scales isn't re-signed

==============================

DR AARON B: Marquez Smith won't get an NRI to big league camp, but Josh Vitters might. The Cubs like to give their best prospects a taste of the big leagues, and the only way Vitters can get that is to get an NRI to big league camp, at least for a couple of weeks.

Or Darwin Barney could get an NRI even if Ronny Cedeno isn't traded, and then both Cedeno and Aaron Miles could move back & forth between 2B and 3B.

Or Matt Camp could get an NRI and (with Tyler Colvin rehabbing from 11/08 TJS and being limited to DH duties until mid-season) move back & forth between LF and 2B, with Miles moving between 2B and 3B. Camp has a good chance to make the Iowa Opening Day roster, and generally speaking, the guys who are expected to play at AAA get an NRI to big league camp, because the manager needs to know who is down there and what they bring to the table in case they get brought up later in the year.

Submitted by Cubster
on Fri, 01/16/2009 - 1:54pm

17,073 for me, which I think is exactly where I was last year
---------
I wonder how many of those on the list ahead of you are dead. As long as they can vote in the Chicago election they keep them active on both the voter registration and season ticket lists. That way they can be considered valid in any election.

Submitted by John Beasley
on Sat, 01/17/2009 - 7:16pm

18503 11/2/06
18438 1/17/09

Awwwwww cheese and crackers.

Submitted by CPH2133
on Tue, 01/20/2009 - 10:07am

32.921 and haven't moved in 6 months

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