Cubs MLB Roster

Cubs Organizational Depth Chart
40-Man Roster Info

40 players are on the MLB RESERVE LIST (roster is full) 

28 players on MLB RESERVE LIST are ACTIVE, and twelve players are on OPTIONAL ASSIGNMENT to minors. 

Last updated 3-26-2024
 
* bats or throws left
# bats both

PITCHERS: 15
Yency Almonte
Adbert Alzolay 
Javier Assad
Jose Cuas
Kyle Hendricks
* Shota Imanaga
Caleb Kilian
Mark Leiter Jr
* Luke Little
Julian Merryweather
Hector Neris 
* Drew Smyly
* Justin Steele
Jameson Taillon
* Jordan Wicks

CATCHERS: 2
Miguel Amaya
Yan Gomes

INFIELDERS: 7
* Michael Busch 
Nico Hoerner
Nick Madrigal
* Miles Mastrobuoni
Christopher Morel
Dansby Swanson
Patrick Wisdom

OUTFIELDERS: 4
* Cody Bellinger 
Alexander Canario
# Ian Happ
Seiya Suzuki
* Mike Tauchman 

OPTIONED: 12 
Kevin Alcantara, OF 
Michael Arias, P 
Ben Brown, P 
Alexander Canario, OF 
Pete Crow-Armstrong, OF 
Brennen Davis, OF 
Porter Hodge, P 
* Matt Mervis, 1B 
Daniel Palencia, P 
Keegan Thompson, P 
Luis Vazquez, INF 
Hayden Wesneski, P 

 



 

Minor League Rosters
Rule 5 Draft 
Minor League Free-Agents

Game 90 Thread / Astros @ Cubs (3 of 3)

Game Chat Wandy Rodriguez vs. Jason Marquis Lineups:
Burke 2B Theriot SS
Pence CF Fontenot 2B
Berkman 1B Lee 1B
Lee LF Ramirez 3B
Loretta SS Soriano LF
Lamb 3B DeRosa RF
Scott RF Soto C
Ausmus C Pagan CF
Rodriguez P Marquis P
Wandy with a 1.81 ERA at home, 6.60 on the road.

Comments

Just as I thought, Lou getting Soriano some mid order time for DLee suspension. Bravo, Lou.

whew Michael Barrett since being traded to the Pods .264 .264 .321 0 HR 19 SB's against (4 CS) with 12 game starts at catcher

When Derrek is suspended, Ward will probably hit fifth, behind Ramirez and Soriano. DeRosa wll follow him in the lineup

i like Pagan in front of marquis. we can manufacture a run perhaps there. little bunt steal hit. that would be nice.

Okay... does anyone think that this move of Soriano to 5th is permanent? I would love it if it was...

Okay… does anyone think that this move of Soriano to 5th is permanent? I would love it if it was… I hate it. Soriano will be running up Aram's ass. Better to move DLee to second unitl he's suspended and bat Soriano 3rd where his combined power and speed make sense.

I doubt the move is permanent, becuase Soriano is a better career leadoff hitter than middle of the order, at least with aveage. Also, we don't know that Theriot will always be in the lineup. I guess he will have to be so he can leadoff if Soriano hits lower in the lineup

I hear you about Soriano running up Aram's ass, but given that Lee's run production has fallen off a bit, it would be nice to have Soriano's dingers mean a little more... I actually think that the best spot for Soriano might be hitting 2nd... Still sees the benefit of having Lee and Ramirez hitting behind him, but also has a possibility of there being someone on base when he steps up...

19sb against? yow. think he gave up 3-4 on the night maddux pitched, one of them anyway...always one of barrett's weaknesses. maddux (and a lot of braves that came through the system, marquis isnt immune, himself (remlinger was awful about it, too)) just dont check runners...so its not all barrett.

I'm an if it ain't broke kinda guy. I also like having a sparkplug leadoff. It's far more important to have men on base as we are clearly better when we play small ball. This "let's hope we have men on when maybe sori hits it out of the park" doesn't seem to sit well with me.

Exactly, mark, let's have people on base, which is why having two players in Theriot and Fontenot who are hitting well but without power in the top 2 spots can be good. They will get on base for Lee, ARam and Soriano. Also, Theriot is even better at stealing then Soriano.

You might be right Johann. I just think sori will get on base more than theriot will over the course of a few games and will therefore be driven home more. What makes you think theriot is a better base stealer?

just took a look at AAA team totals...using the "magic" .340 ob% mark (somehow .330-.339 isnt good, but the .340 ob% seems to be the magic mark of "good")... no one who's been on the team all year receiving more than 100ab's is under that mark except for 3 players...pagan (116/.310), a.richie(103/.313), c.walker (157/.220). everyone else is well into the .346 (k.hill) to .437 (f.pie) area. weak hitting middle IF'rs and line drive hitters? except for hoffpauir (true power hitter) they're all hitting like they are power hitters (cedeno, coats, patterson, etc.) showing off the doubles/homers. totally missed bo hart being a cub...19 games of failure.

not that Barrett is any good at throwing out runners but Padres were the worst team at throwing out runners before Barrett got there. Their pitchers don't care. They've also allowed less runs than any team in the NL, by 60 runs over the Cubs. Petco isn't good for a 60 run difference.

1st place nashville...4 hitters abover .340 ob%...a majority of the team they field everyday hitting below the mark. great bullpen and power hitting seems to be carrying them.

my god...nashville's first baseman is andy abad!!! i didnt know he still existed. good for him. he's like...35.

"Also, Theriot is even better at stealing then Soriano. " When Theriot steal 40 we can talk.

Fine, but he steals at a better rate then Soriano. I'd rather have someone steal less and better then more and worse. Soriano got caught 17 times last year, which isn't very good.

The Cubs offense is impressive today...Gotta love D. Lee hitting that BIG HR to help the Cubs come back...the momentum has shifted and the Cubs can sweep this series.

and soriano is 0-3. Why is he mentally disabled when it comes to not batting leadoff?

I can't believe Wuertz escaped that half-inning successfully. Didn't look like he could find the plate to save his life.

Experiment watch… so far so bad. ... END O’ EXPERIMENT. i hope. Right... because one game is enough to come to a conclusion on something like a good or bad batting order?

Seasoning Pie still the master of AAA pitching He and Moore each had two home runs today and three hits

its always percentages with you isn’t it? ____________________________________________ Yep! And how about that Theriot!?

soriano hitting lower in the order? not a hard sell to too many i'd imagine. at least understandable. only problem i have is putting him behind a guy who's not running 100% and wasnt that fast to begin with. yeah, soriano's power is nice but speed is also a part of his game and he applies it for a lot more than just stealing a base.

Fun fact: the Cubs have only 20 games remaining against teams that are over .500. That's right, 52 of the remaining 72 games are against sub-.500 teams. By contrast, 42 of the 90 games to date have been against teams that are now over .500. As of today, in 2007 the Cubs will play only 62 games against over-.500 competition, and 42 of those games are already in the books. Seems hard to believe, but by this measure, the Cubs are through the most difficult part of their schedule.

wow...that close in the WC? not that 3 games is exactly close, but its a lot closer than i thought.

The Cubs are 3.5 back of the best record in the NL. They have scored more runs, and allowed less runs, than the Mets who have the same record as the Brewers, and are in 1st place. They've allowed the third least runs (377) in the NL, just two shy of the Dodgers (374 - still playing), and a good bit short of the Padres (311).

Sorry dave, but I just don't like the experiment. I would like to see sori leading us off and us trading for a legitimate outfield bat who hits in the five slot.

Reasons why in my opinion sori should lead off: - he is more comfortable there; - he gets more ABs there; - noone holds him up if he wants to steal; - he puts opposing pitchers off their game early. While theriot is bound to get on base too, the upside imo is less compelling.

Nohit, we discussed Junior before. Rob G thinks it would have to be an expensive package to get him. Chad thinks he'll come albeit no through a different channel.

There's talk of Lofton being on the trading block and I'd like to see him back here. He'd be cheaper to get and I think Soriano, Lofton, Lee, Ramirez, would be a tough top-4.

BTW... Dave Pinto has a great post looking at how OBP and SLG impact run scoring, specially in relation to the leadoff spot (i.e. people like Soriano).

Johann... you really aren't interesting in this: .309/.391/.446 OPS: .837 20 SB, 4 CS And that is in 278 at-bats, which is not exactly a small sample size. Lofton can definitely still produce.

Wait yes, I am very tired and was thinking of Pierre. I love Lofton and would like him on a team potentially competing for a World Series.

yeah, soriano’s power is nice but speed is also a part of his game and he applies it for a lot more than just stealing a base. This is an interesting piece of baseball convention that probably should be analyzed, because I think it may be a crock. Think about it, how often is AramRam going to be on first when Soriano hits a ball to that could be a double, but AramRam isn't able to move up two bases on? At maxiumum, it would probably be 3 times a year. Now (not to be viscious, just pointing it out), who bats in front of Soriano normally? The pitcher or bouncing baby Ward. How often are those guys are going 1st to 3rd? And if you say 'well they are not on base as much as AramRam' - that's the whole point, isn't it? I looked at the Soriano batting leadoff and having better stats earlier this year- turns out that was a load of crap as well. Keep in mind, the first rule of analysis: correlation is not causation.

"Chad thinks he’ll come albeit no through a different channel." I was saying that he will pass through waivers very easily. I don't think he'll come that cheap, but I have been saying that he'll be moved (likely to us) after 7/31.

I hope that's true - Rob is correct, the Red's GM usually asks for the moon whenever possible trades are discussed. The guy is likely to be asking for the ridiculous when clubs inquire about Adam Dunn as well.

Josh B: Soriano struggling down in the order has everything to do with him not being able to hit off spead pitches. Leadoff you see a lot of fastballs, whereas down in the order (especially if runners are on) you see way more off-speed pitches--which Soriano really cant hit. He is a fastball hitter. If you dont believe me, than ask Stoney, because I am paraphrasing what he said a few months ago on The Score.

In 2004 Soriano had his highest BA and OBP batting 4th. In 2005 his higest OPS was batting 5th. Just because he had his best two seasons batting first - doesn't mean that he had his two best seasons because he was batting first, it's just a coincidence.

Or Neal, maybe its that he had his best two seasons batting first because he likes batting first.

Or Neal, maybe its that he had his best two seasons batting first because he likes batting first. But in 2004 and 2005 he liked hitting 3rd (not 4th) and 5th better?

And I could care less if he "likes" hitting leadoff better. His preference shouldn't matter. Now this something to be said for seeing different pitches in teh leadoff spot than in the 5th spot. But that is the case, bat him 3rd (with Lee 2nd) and have him hit in front of A-Ram.

Oh god the stupid Soriano should be hitting lower in the lineup arguement. But ummm Real Neal your stats quoting is wrong. In 2004 according to ESPN.com and CBS Sportsline he didnt have a single AB in the 4th slot. He spent most of the year hitting #3 and put up a .280 BA, and a .328 OBP. In 2005 his highest OPS was hitting 5th but he only hit .268 with a .315 OBP. You say its a load of crap he doesnt bat batter in the leadoff spot as opposed to other spots in the lineup? His 3 year averages.... #1 706 AB, .289 BA, .354 OBP, .928 OPS #3 557 AB, .264 BA, .315 OBP, .773 OPS #5 573 AB, .272 BA, .317 OBP, .839 OPS Ohhhh but you might discount it cuz its only 3 year averages. So lets do for his career! #1 2379 AB, .295 BA, .343 OBP, .889 OPS #3 630 AB, .260 BA, .310 OBP, .762 OPS #5 575 AB, .271 BA, .316 OBP, .836 OPS Ummm yeahhhh so your arguement is a load of crap, sorry. I will take a Soriano hitting leadoff and near .300 than Soriano hitting #3 or #5 hitting between .260 and .270. And i have to point out the #1 reason (Again) you dont want Soriano lower in the order. He doesnt do well with RISP. 916 career AB's and he hits .254 in those situations. Thats why his average is much lower hitting lower in the lineup, he isnt very good with RISP. And forget 2 outs and RISP his average dips to .234 for his career.

I don't know why this is so hard for people to get their head around. Observationally and statistically, Soriano is better in the leadoff spot. This much seems clear. If anyone is interested, I have a theory that may explain why. There is a well documented, curvilinear relationship between anxiety and performance. This means that different people perform at different capacities under duress. MikeC makes an excellent point in regards to Soriano's performance with RISP. It is not hard to imagine that some players perform better under greater pressure to perform in "clutch" situations while others do not. Playing baseball at a professional level is a job whose demands increase and decrease situationally and in all work environments, some pressure enhances a person's job performance, while too much pressure diminishes performance. This threshold of "too much" pressure differs from one person to another. This would then explain why some players are clutch--they perform better when the pressure is on--and some players perform poorly in higher stress situations. It seems very plausible that Soriano does not perform as well in situations where expectations are greater for him to build on others' offensive production. That being the case, the general theories of run production that would indicate that someone with Soriano's stats would produce more runs in a different place in the lineup miss the possibility that his stats might change fairly dramatically if his role changes. I'll leave the exploration of role theory and its potential impact on performance to another discussion.

Soriano is one of our better hitters, give him as many AB's as you can. End o' subject... I kid, I kid but the article Dave pointed out was a good one.

"There is a well documented, curvilinear relationship between anxiety and performance. This means that different people perform at different capacities under duress." No way! There is no such thing as pressure or clutch or situational hitting. ITs all stats. That's what i've learned here. By the way, the grape TCR Kool-aid is Grrrrrrrreat!

The Real Neal got punk'd by Dave. Good work Dave. Like I said, he sucks with RISP because he doesnt see a steady diet of fastballs.

Observationally, I'm inclined to agree with the fastball/offspeed evidence. Mostly based on his 2 ABs that I saw yesterday. Is 2 a good sample size? I digress: Qualls fed him low sliders, and Soriano looked like a girl at the plate. End o' story

Or if you, I don't know, thought about it maybe he batted leadoff in these situations: Batting infront of Derrek Jeter and Bernie Williams. Playing for a big Free agent contract. Big freaking suprise he had some of his best seaons batting in those situations. Or maybe we could look at this: http://inside-edge.com/teams/cubs/reports/h94.htm Or maybe you can think out of the box instead of having people spoonfeed you your whole lives - whatever. The sample sizesa aren't big enough. And when I talk about sample size I am talking about seasons- not at bats. I am not arguing that he feels more comfortable batting leadoff and that contributes to his success. What I am arguing is that that doesn't necessarily have to be that way for his whole career. Just as an aside, you're more likely to see fastballs with runners on than with the bases empty. Soriano has trouble handling good fastballs too, he's a mistake hitter.

Recent comments

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    Javier Assad started the Lo-A game (Myrtle Beach versus Stockton) on the Cubs backfields on Wednesday as his final Spring Training tune-up. He was supposed to throw five innings / 75 pitches. However, I was at the minor league road games at Fitch so I didn't see Assad pitch. 

  • crunch (view)

    cards put j.young on waivers.

    they really tried to make it happen this spring, but he put up a crazy bad slash of .081/.244/.108 in 45PA.

  • Childersb3 (view)

    Seconded!!!

  • crunch (view)

    another awesome spring of pitching reports.  thanks a lot, appreciated.

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    Here are the Cubs pitchers reports from Tuesday afternoon's Cardinals - Cubs game art Sloan Park in Mesa:

    SHOTA IMANAGA
    FB: 90-92 
    CUT: 87-89 
    SL: 82-83 
    SPLIT: 81-84
    CV: 73-74 
    COMMENT: Worked three innings plus two batters in the fourth... allowed four runs (three earned) on eight hits (six singles and two doubles) walked one, and struck out six (four swinging), with a 1/2 GO/AO... he threw 73 pitches (52 strikes - 10 swing & miss - 19 foul balls)... surrendered one run in the top of the 1st on a one-out double off Cody Bellinger's glove in deep straight-away CF followed one out later by two consecutive two-out bloop singles, allowed two runs (one earned) in the 2nd after retiring the first two hitters (first batter had a nine-pitch AB with four consecutive two-strike foul balls before being retired 3 -U) on a two-out infield single (weak throw on the run by Nico Hoerner), a hard-contact line drive RBI double down the RF line, and an E-1 (missed catch) by Imanaga on what should been an inning-ending 3-1 GO, gave up another run in the 3rd on a two-out walk on a 3-2 pitch and an RBI double to LF, and two consecutive singles leading off the top of the 4th before being relieved (runners were ultimately left stranded)... threw 18 pitches in the 1st inning (14 strikes - two swing & miss, one on FB and the other on a SL - four foul balls), 24 pitches in the 2nd inning (17 strikes - three swing & miss, one on FB, two SPLIT - six foul balls), 19 pitches in the 3rd inning (13 strikes - seven swing & miss, three on SL, two on SPLIT, one on FB - three foul balls), and 12 pitches without retiring a batter in the top of the 4th (8 strikes - no swing & miss - four foul balls)... Imanaga throws a lot of pitches per inning, but it's not because he doesn't throw strikes...  if anything, he throws too many strikes (he threw 70% strikes on Tuesday)... while he gets a ton of swing & miss (and strikeouts), he also induces a lot of foul balls because he doesn't try to make hitters chase his pitches by throwing them out of the strike zone... rather, he uses his very diverse pitch mix to get swing & miss (and lots of foul balls as well)... he also is a fly ball pitcher who will give up more than his share of HR during the course of the season...   
     
    JOE NAHAS
    FB: 90-92 
    SL: 83-85 
    CV: 80-81 
    COMMENT: Was called up from the Hi-A South Bend group at Minor League Camp for the day... relieved Imanaga with runners at first and second and no outs in the top of the 4th, and after an E-2 catcher's interference committed by Miguel Amaya loaded he bases, Nahas struck out the side (one swinging & two looking)... threw 16 pitches (11 strikes - two swinging)...   

    YENCY ALMONTE
    FB: 89-92 
    CH: 86 
    SL: 79 
    COMMENT: Threw an eight-pitch 5th (five strikes - no swing & miss), with a 5-3 GO for the first out and an inning-ending 4-6-3 DP after a one-out single... command was a bit off but he worked through it...   

    FRANKIE SCALZO JR
    FB: 94-95
    CH: 88 
    SL: 83
    COMMENT: Was called up from the AA Tennessee group at Minor League Camp for the day and worked the 6th inning... got the first outs easily (a P-5 and a 4-3 GO) on just three pitches, before allowing three consecutive two-out hard-contact hits (a double and two singles), with the third hit on pitch # 9 resulting in a runner being thrown out at the plate by RF Christian Franklin for the third out of the inning... 

    MICHAEL ARIAS
    FB: 94-96
    CH: 87-89
    SL: 82-83
    COMMENT: Was called up from the AA Tennessee group at Minor League Camp for the day and allowed a hard-contact double on the third pitch of the 7th inning (a 96 MPH FB), and the runner came around to score on a 4-3 GO and a WP... gave up two other loud contact outs (an L-7 and an F-9)... threw 18 pitches (only 10 strikes - only one swing & miss)... stuff is electric but still very raw and he continues to have difficulty commanding it, and while he has the repertoire of a SP, he throws too many pitches-per-inning to be a SP and not enough strikes to be a closer... he is most definitely still a work-in-progress...   

    ZAC LEIGH: 
    FB: 93-94 
    CH: 89 
    SL: 81-83 
    CV: 78
    COMMENT: Was called up from the AA Tennessee group at Minor League Camp for the day and tossed a 1-2-3 8th (4-3 GO, K-swinging on a sweeper, K-looking on another sweeper)... threw 14 pitches (11 strikes - one swing & miss - eight foul balls)... kept pumping pitches into the strike zone but had difficulty putting hitters away (ergo a ton of foul balls)... FB velo is nowhere near the 96-98 MPH it was a couple of years ago when he was a Top 30 prospect, but his secondaries are better...   

    JOSE ROMERO:  
    FB: 93-95
    SL: 82-84
    COMMENT: Was called up from the Hi-A South Bend group at Minor League Camp for the day and worked the 9th (14 pitches - only six strikes- no swing & miss) and allowed a solo HR after two near-HR fly outs to the warning track, before getting a 3-1 GO to end the inning... it was like batting practice when he wasn't throwing pitches out of the strike zone...

  • crunch (view)

    pablo sandoval played 3rd and got a couple ABs (strikeout, single!) in the OAK@SF "exhibition"

    mlb officially authenticated the ball of the single he hit.  nice.

    he's in surprisingly good shape considering his poor body condition in his last playing seasons.  he's not lean, but he looks healthier.  good for him.

  • crunch (view)

    dbacks are signing j.montgomery to a 1/25m with a vesting 20m player option.

    i dunno when the ink officially dries, but i believe if he signs once the season begins he can't be offered a QO...and i'm not sure if that thing with SD/LAD in korea was the season beginning, either.

  • crunch (view)

    sut says imanaga getting the home opener at wrigley (game 4 of the season).

  • crunch (view)

    cubs rolling out the who's who of "who the hell is this guy?" in the last spring game.

  • videographer (view)

    AZ Phil, speaking of Jordan Wicks having better command when he tires a bit, I remember reading about Dennis Lamp 40 years ago and his sinker that was better after 3 or 4 innings when he would tire a bit and get more sink with a little less speed on the pitch.  The key for Lamp was getting to the 4th inning.