Cubnut's Archives
Big Unit Signs With Giants, Remains Free to Continue Abusing Cubs
Despite a past association with current Cubs manager Lou Piniella and rumors that the Cubs had him in their sights, Walnut Creek, California native Randy Johnson has signed a one-year deal with the Giants for a reported $8 million plus bonuses,.
The Cubs Club--New! Improved! And Profitable as Hell!!!
You don't have to check out the two new levels of Cubs Club membership; Ed Sherman, posting on his blog for Crain's Chicago Business, has checked them out for you:"Cubs Club is the online fan club for die-hard Cubs fans. Members receive many exclusive benefits such as a subscription to 2009 MLB.com Gameday Audio, ticket opportunities, special merchandise offers and much more. New for 2009: Be sure to check out this year's two new levels of membership."
--Cubs.com
Ripping Joey Gathright
I've been thinking of Joey Gathright as a Doug Dascenzo For The New Century, but Geoff Young, author of the Padres blog
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The Cub Reporter Adds a Reporter
Effective immediately, Joe Aiello of "View From The Bleachers" is joining us here at TCR. Joe started his blog back in October of '03--the "Dark Time"--and over the years he turned VFTB into one of the true stalwart Cub blogs.
We're thrilled to have him.
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Kerry Wood is Officially an Ex-Cub
Kerry Wood passed his physical with the Cleveland Indians and has signed a 2-year/$20 million contract with an option for a third year based on "a vesting mechanism."
As reported by the Cleveland Plain Dealer...
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No Peavy Deal for Cubs
As reported in multiple places, including here, the Cubs are baling out on the Jake Peavy trade talks. Writes Ken Rosenthal:
The Cubs were frustrated by the Padres' attempts to seek five or six players for Peavy with one team executive saying, "They're looking for a Herschel Walker-type deal."
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No Hall for Santo
12:18 pm Update: From the Baseball Hall of Fame Web site:
Fans wishing to voice their opinion in support of
their favorite candidates may do so in two ways. By sending a single
letter to the address below or by clicking here and sending an e-mail.
Hall of Fame Veterans Committee
25 Main Street
Cooperstown, NY 13326
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Final Score: Dodgers 103,000; Cubs 25,000
At The Biz of Baseball, Maury Brown reports that a full post-season share for the 2008 WS Champion Phillies amounted to $351.504.48, and full shares for the AL champion Rays were good for $223,390.05 apiece.
The Cubs' share of the total players' pool came to a little over $1.5MM. The team awarded 50 full shares of $25,032.89, with 11.03 partial shares and five cash awards also being distributed.
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636 Reasons for Cub Fans to be Thankful in 2008
In a special, Thanksgiving edition of his Stat of the Week, John Dewan chronicles the Cubs' aversion to taking walks from 2003 through '07.
Here is how the Cubs hitters ranked among NL clubs in BB:
2003 14th of 16 teams
2004 14th of 16 teams
2005 16th of 16 teams
2006 16th of 16 teams
2007 15th of 16 teams
Last year was a different story.
Cuban's Chances of Getting Cubs Go from "Zero" to Something Less
As several readers have noted in the Comments, Mark Cuban has been charged with insider trading by the SEC "over his sale of shares in Internet company Mamma.com after he learned it was raising money through a private financing."
If any of the clowns who were already resolved to vote against Cuban's quest to buy the Cubs were looking for a pre-emptory "I told you so," I guess they have it.
Will Poor Control Keep Former Cub Farmhand Out of Jail?
Former Peoria Chiefs pitcher Julio Castillo pleaded not guily to two charges of felonious assault Wednesday morning in an Ohio courtroom. Castillo was part of that huge on-field brawl between the Chiefs and the Dayton Dragons this past July 24th, at one point firing a ball toward the Dayton dugout, only to have it sail over his target and hit a fan in the head.
Cub Fans May Have Tribune Company to Kick Around Some More
Two developments on the ownership front:
As reported by Chris de Luca in the Sun-Times and noted by a reader under the previous post, there is z-e-r-o chance that MLB owners will approve beer-drinkin' regular guy/billionaire Mark Cuban as the next owner of the Cubs. According to de Luca, this seems to place "the group headed by John Canning, Jr.—(Commissioner Bud) Selig's personal favorite—back as the frontrunner."
Brenly for Grace Would be a Lousy Deal for the Cubs
Cubs color man Bob Brenly interviewed for the Brewers' managerial job on Thursday, leading Paul Sullivan to wonder if former Cub and onetime Chicago playboy Mark Grace would replace Brenly in the Cubs' booth, assuming BB lands the Milwaukee job.
According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Brewers GM Doug Melvin will probably limit the number of candidates to three, with Brenly competing for the slot against former Mets manager Willie Randolph and former A's manager Ken Macha. Brenly's appeal vis a vis the other two options includes his having won a World Series with the Diamondbacks and his deep knowledge of the Cubs personnel. Melvin expects to make his selection next week.
R.I.P., Kevin Foster
Former Cub pitcher Kevin Foster died over the weekend after losing a six-month battle with cancer. He was 39.
With a career ERA in the upper 4's and a middling won-loss record, Foster hardly stands out from the many forgettable Cub pitchers who populated the roster between 1994 and '98. ('"Jim Bullinger,'" anyone? Do I hear a "Willie Banks" or a "Rodney Myers"?)
Foster was different in at least one respect from the others, however. He was a local kid, who attended Evanston High School and grew up a Cubs fan.
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Game 3 NLDS / Cubs @ Dodgers
|
Rich Harden | vs. | Hiroki Kuroda |
|
*5-1, 1.77, 89 K, 30 BB, 71 IP |
2008 | 9-10, 3.73, 116 K, 42 BB, 183.1 IP |
||
1-2, 6.43, 5 K, 7 BB, 7 IP |
Post | (None) |
||
*NL stats only |
||||
LF |
Alfonso Soriano |
SS |
#Rafael Furcal |
|
2B |
*Mike Fontenot | C |
Russell Martin |
|
1B |
Derrek Lee |
LF |
Manny Ramirez |
|
3B |
Aramis Ramirez |
RF |
Andre Ethier |
|
C |
Geovany Soto |
1B |
*James Loney |
|
CF |
*Jim Edmonds |
CF |
Matt Kemp |
|
RF |
Mark DeRosa |
2B |
*Blake DeWitt |
|
SS |
Ryan Theriot |
3B |
Casey Blake |
|
P |
*Rich Harden |
P | Hiroki Kuroda |
Our very own Rob G. will be in the stands at tonight's game. Be sure to look for him on the broadcast.
Thoughts on Hiroki Kuroda from "Blue Notes," the L.A. Times blog about the Dodgers:
...when the Japanese import is on, dude typically gets into a serious, sometimes unhittable groove. But he's often the Bizarro-version of that pitcher after the first bit of trouble, more often than not tossing himself further into trouble than figuring a way out of it.
In two starts against the Cubs this year, Kuroda has pitched 15 1/3 innings and allowed one earned run. In other words, we really haven't come across that "first bit of trouble" part.
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Recent comments
Arizona Phil (view)
Miles Mastrobuoni cannot be recalled until he has spent at least ten days on optional assignment, unless he is recalled to replace a position player who is placed on an MLB inactive list (IL, Paternity, Bereavement / Family Medical).
And for a pitcher it's 15 days on optional assignment before he can be recalled, unless he is replacing a pitcher who is placed on an MLB inactive list (IL, Paternity, or Bereavement / Family Medical).
And a pitcher (or a position player, but almost always it's a pitcher) can be recalled as the 27th man for a doubleheader regardless of how many days he has been on optional assignment, but then he must be sent back down again the next day.
That's why the Cubs had to wait as long as they did to send Jose Cuas down and recall Keegan Thompson. Thompson needed to spend the first 15 days of the MLB regular season on optional assignment before he could be recalled (and he spent EXACTLY the first 15 days of the MLB regular season on optional assignment before he was recalled).
Dolorous Jon Lester (view)
Indeed they do TJW!
For the record I’m not in favor of solely building a team through paying big to free agents. But I’m also of the mind that when you develop really good players, get them signed to extensions that buy out a couple years of free agency, including with team options. And supplement the home grown players with free agent splashes or using excess prospects to trade for stars under team control for a few years. Sort of what Atlanta does, basically. Everyone talks about the dodgers but I feel that Atlanta is the peak organization at the current moment.
That said, the constant roster churn is very Rays- ish. What they do is incredible, but it’s extremely hard to do which is why they’re the only ones frequently successful that employ that strategy. I definitely do not want to see a large market team like ours follow that model closely. But I don’t think free agent frenzies is always the answer. It’s really only the Dodgers that play in that realm. I could see an argument for the Mets too. The Yankees don’t really operate like that anymore since the elder Steinbrenner passed. Though I would say the reigning champions built a good deal of that team through free agent spending.
Childersb3 (view)
The issue is the Cubs are 11-7 and have been on the road for 12 of those 18. We should be at least 13-5, maybe 14-4. Jed isn't feeling any pressure to play anyone he doesn't see fit.
But Canario on the bench, Morel not at 3B for Madrigal and Wisdom in RF wasn't what I thought would happen in this series.
I was hoping for Morel at 3B, Canario in RF, Wisdom at DH and Madrigal as a pinch hitter or late replacement.
Maybe Madrigal starts 1 game against the three LHSP for Miami.
I'm thinking Canario goes back to Iowa on Sunday night for Mastrobuoni after the Miami LHers are gone.
Canario needs ABs in Iowa and not bench time in MLB.
With Seiya out for a while Wisdom is safe unless his SOs are just overwhelmingly bad.
My real issue with the lineup isn't Madrigal. I'm not a fan, but I've given up on that one.
It's Tauchman getting a large number of ABs as the de factor DH and everyday player.
I didn't realize that was going to be the case.
We need a better LH DH. PCA or ONKC need to force the issue in about a month.
But, even if they do so, Jed doesn't have to change anything if the Cubs stay a few over .500!!!
TarzanJoeWallis (view)
Totally depends on the team and the player involved. If your team’s philosophy is to pay huge dollars to bet on the future performance of past stars in order to win championships then, yes, all of the factors you mentioned are important.
If on the other hand, if the team’s primary focus is to identify and develop future stars in an effort to win a championship, and you’re a young player looking to establish yourself as a star, that’s a fit too. Otherwise your buried within your own organization.
Your comment about bringing up Canario for the purposes of sitting him illustrates perfectly the dangers of rewarding a non-performing, highly paid player over a hungry young prospect, like Canario, who is perpetually without a roster spot except as an insurance call up, but too good to trade. Totally disincentivizing the performance of the prospect and likely diminishing it.
Sticking it to your prospects and providing lousy baseball to your fans, the consumers and source of revenue for your sport, solely so that the next free agent gamble finds your team to be a comfortable landing spot even if he sucks? I suppose that makes sense to some teams but it’s definitely not the way I want to see my team run.
Once again, DJL, our differences in philosophy emerge!
Dolorous Jon Lester (view)
That’s just kinda how it works though, for every team. No team plays their best guys all the time. No team is comprising of their best 26 even removing injuries.
When baseball became a business, like REALLY a business, it became important to keep some of the vets happy, which in turn keeps agents happy and keeps the team with a good reputation among players and agents. No one wants to play for a team that has a bad reputation in the same way no one wants to work for a company that has a bad rep.
Don’t get me wrong, I hate it too. But there’s nothing anyone can do about it.
On that topic, I find it silly the Cubs brought up Canario to sit as much as he has. He’s going to get Velazquez’d, and it’s a shame.
TarzanJoeWallis (view)
Of course, McKinstry runs circles around $25 million man Javier Baez on that Tigers team. Guess who gets more playing time?
But I digress…
Sonicwind75 (view)
Seems like Jed was trying to corner the market on mediocre infielders with last names starting with "M" in acquiring Madrigal, Mastroboney and Zach McKinstry.
At least he hasn't given any of them a Bote-esque extension.
Childersb3 (view)
AZ Phil:
Rookie ball (ACL) starts on May 4th. Do yo think Ramon and Rosario (maybe Delgado) stay in Mesa for the month of May, then go to MB if all goes "solid"?
crunch (view)
masterboney is a luxury on a team that has multiple, capable options for 2nd, SS, and 3rd without him around. i don't hate the guy, but if madrigal is sticking around then masterboney is expendable.
TarzanJoeWallis (view)
I THINK I agree with that decision. They committed to Wicks as a starter and, while he hasn’t been stellar I don’t think he’s been bad enough to undo that commitment.
That said, Wesneski’s performance last night dictates he be the next righty up.
Quite the dilemma. They have many good options, particularly in relief, but not many great ones. And complicating the situation is that the pitchers being paid the most are by and large performing the worst - or in Taillon’s case, at least to this point, not at all.