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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 

 



 

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YouTube Find

I stumbled across a few fun Youtube items last night and I thought these highlights of a 1981 Dick Tidrow implosion would be good for some fun weekend nostalgia. Doug Bair?!?You give up a homer to freaking Doug Bair?

Comments

rob. something screwy here, apart from the usual cubbery of course. i think that is actually dick tidrow giving it up - it sure does not look like the big butted lee arthur smith. i could be wrong...

I like how the transitions between clips, etc. were a bit choppy in those days...1981 WGN sports highlights ain't no 2007 ESPN Sportscenter.

thanks Henry, all relievers look to the same... I have no idea what happened there, I must still be scarred by 1984 and felt the need to blame Lee Smith.

heh...jody gerut leading Venz. winter league to a probable MVP performance... .422/.495/.622...hell of a line for 90ab's.

Romero resigns with the Phillies: http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/7431152 12/3 with a with a 4.75 mil club option for the 11 season. Since Romero was a july waiver claim this will most likely be the baseline for Woody's contract and since he is better and a closer candidate I think were looking in the 18/3 range with a mutual 4th option year for Kerry.

Crunch, Unless the Tigers want to use Maybin in LF this year I think they will acquire a lefty OF to platoon with Thames. Though it makes more sense for them to target Lofton as a 9 hole hitter so Granderson has someone to knock in.

chifan3887: Why cant we just get cash or a PTNBL back?Infante isnt even better than Cedeno. I wouldn't get too worked up over anything found on mlbtraderumors.com

I do like the very Cubbish touch of getting the winning run to the plate before the final batter fans. I've only seen that about 1500 times in my life.

Ryno, I am not. I was just pointing out how stupid the rumor was. I listen to ESPN 1000 daily throughout the week and havent heard this.

that's footage from "When It Was A Game"...volume 1, i think. some really amazing footage on that 3-part series from the 90s. almost all of it wasnt widely seen before and comes from non-broadcast sources. home movies, fan shot stuff...etc.

rather, that footage is in "When It Was A Game"...i dont recall if the whole clip was in there unedited as shown on the link. its been a few years since ive seen it.

Durham and Lee Smith with the 1981 Cubs. And Dick Tidrow the only man to pitch for the Cubs, White Sox, Mets and Yankees.

Wow that 1929 clip was amazing. A lot looked so similar to today in so many ways--including those bastard Cubs suffering a heartbreaking loss in the series. Too bad we can't even get there to suffer the loss.

Thanks for the "memories". A couple of interesting observations from my viewpoint - WGN did not have a dedicated "sports anchor" at that time (unless he was off) - it was funny to remember the anchor reading sports copy as if he was reporting a burglary on the North Side. Also, I don't think baskets were instaled yet in the bleachers - where you could still buy a ticket for a couple bucks in 1981 - and have some room to spread out.

Nice video from 1929-30. Notice all the men wearing hats. I gotta get me one of them and some bootleg whiskey. Also the Building ad sign behind the RF bleachers seems to have been there with an Atlas sign (Torco, now Miller).

Another to notice in those days they guys wore white shirts and white hats in the summer. And incredibly they sat in centerfield bleachers too. Hard to believe they had so many high BA's in those days.

I think the news clips from 'GN are from the show Night Beat which used to come on sometime after midnight following the 10:30 airing of Cool Hand Luke, a movie it seemed like WGN showed five out of every seven nights. On their 10:00 news, there were regular sports anchors - including Wendell Smith, a guy who was terrible for TV but was instrumental in the campaign to get a black player to the majors when he was a sports columnist at the Pittsburgh Courier. In fact, Branch Rickey hired Smith to room with Robinson when he first came up in '47. Ernie Banks was also the sports anchor at times for 'GN and he was beyond bad.

"a movie it seemed like WGN showed five out of every seven nights." LOL! Terrific memory for you, Tbone. The only sports "anchor" I really remember from the 70's and early 80's was Bruce Roberts on CBS 2, who unfortunatley succumbed way too early to cancer. When showing a pro golfer on the green sinking a long one, his trademark was, "And that one had...eyes" (ball drops into cup). Of course, Johnny Morris (and wife) were also on the scene there, perhaps as the first successful ex-Bear doing sports reporting/anchoring.

That's what the Cubs need... a marching band! Also of note is the fans crossing the field to exit the game.

Rob, Amazing you found this clip. I happened to meet Doug Bair this summer at a Dayton Dragons game. (Dayton=Reds Class 'A'; Bair is pitching coach). When I told him I was a lifelong Cubs fan, he immediately mentioned this game. Said he knew he would be pitching the bottom of the 9th and the last thing he wanted to do was spend a long time at bat, so he told himself if Tidrow threw a ball anywhere near the plate, he was going to swing as hard as he could and get it over with. When he made contact, he took off for first, then he realized the ball was going to clear the leftfield wall. At that point, he decided to slow down and enjoy a leisurely home run trot. Tidrow gave him a 'go to hell' kind of look, but Bair said after allowing so many other guys to homer off of him in his career, he was going to take his time and enjoy being on the other end. Bair seems like a good guy, If he didn't have a game to worry about, I think he would sat there and talked baseball forever. Oh, yeah--the other thing he brought up when I said I was a Cubs fan was how shocked he and his Tiger teammates were in 1984 when it turned out they wouldn't be playing the Cubs in the World Series. I had to thank him for bringing that up.

just saw a promo on Fox for the show: Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader...with a guest appearance starring Kellie Pickler. I wonder if they will show highlights from the Len/Bob 7th inning interview? (somehow that's one of the funniest ideas ever, who at Fox comes up with this stuff?)

I'm pretty sure I linked to the 1929 footage in an old TCR Friday Notes, not that I expect anyone to remember that. I got about 20-30 videos I marked for the offseason...

crunch — November 11, 2007 @ 4:34 am that’s footage from “When It Was A Game”…volume 1, i think. some really amazing footage on that 3-part series from the 90s. almost all of it wasnt widely seen before and comes from non-broadcast sources. home movies, fan shot stuff…etc. crunch — November 11, 2007 @ 4:36 am rather, that footage is in “When It Was A Game”…i dont recall if the whole clip was in there unedited as shown on the link. its been a few years since ive seen it. ================================================ CRUNCH: The Cubs WS footage in the "When It Was a Game" video is an 8MM film of the 1938 World Series, not the 1929 WS. 1938 was the year the Cubs were seven games back of the Pirates on September 4th, and had to go 21-5 at the end of the season to win the N. L. pennant. Player-manager Gabby Hartnett hit his legendary "Homer in the Gloamin'" against the Pirates in the bottom of the 9th inning of the game on 9/28/38, boosting the Cubs into 1st place to stay. A "victory parade" for the Cubs was held after the Cubs won the pennant but before the WS was played. Supposedly the Yankees weren't real pleased about it, and swept the Cubs four straight. The 1938 World Series was the last one for Lou Gehrig, who retired with ALS on July 4, 1939, and then died a couple of years later (see the movie Pride of the Yankees). New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia (he's the one who looks like Lou Costello) can been seen schmoozing with Joe DiMaggio at Wrigley Field before one of the games. The video itself is from "When It Was a Game - Vol. 1" (there are three volumes), and was the first known color film of a World Series, taken very soon after color 8MM film stock became available to the general public (B&W 8MM film was first available in 1932, and was sold to the public to make "home movies"). "When It Was a Game - Vol. 1" also has a "home movie" film of the 1934 Tigers-Cardinals WS taken by Cards trainer "Doc" Weaver, but it's in B&W.

tbone — November 11, 2007 @ 2:14 pm I think the news clips from ‘GN are from the show Night Beat which used to come on sometime after midnight following the 10:30 airing of Cool Hand Luke, a movie it seemed like WGN showed five out of every seven nights. On their 10:00 news, there were regular sports anchors - including Wendell Smith, a guy who was terrible for TV but was instrumental in the campaign to get a black player to the majors when he was a sports columnist at the Pittsburgh Courier. In fact, Branch Rickey hired Smith to room with Robinson when he first came up in ‘47. Ernie Banks was also the sports anchor at times for ‘GN and he was beyond bad. ======================== T-BONE: Carl Grayson was the host of "Night Beat." He also was the voice of "When Movies Were Movies." As for Wendell Smith, his "day job" was sports columnist for Chicago's American. The American was the Tribune's afternoon paper, while the Chicago Daily News was the Field afternoon rag. While Wendell Smith was WGN-TV's main sports anchor in the 1960's, it wasn't unusual for Jack Brickhouse, Vince Lloyd, or Lloyd Pettit to fill-in when Smith was off. Bruce Roberts was the #1 sportscaster on Channel 2 (with Bears WR Johnny Morris gradually transitioning into his new career during the off-season) and Bill Frink was the #1 guy at Channel 7. Bill Frink and Alex Karras had a really fun show on Channel 7 on Monday nights when "Monday Night Football" first hit the air. This was before Karras had that great role of "Mongo" in Blazing Saddles. My favorite memory of Chicago TV news sports segments in the 1960's was when bow-tie wearing retired Notre Dame coach Frank Leahy was hired by Channel 2 to provide "commentary" of Bears games on the Sunday night sportscasts during the Fall. I can't remember one of his "commentaries" where he did not absolutely trash the Bears coaching staff (not that they didn't deserve it, just that TV media didn't do that back then).

#36 az phil- do not neglect carl greyson's all-important role as the voice behind "creature features". only thing on w-g-n scarier than 10;30 saturday night were the daytime baseball broadcasts.

We welcome Ne!f! v 2.0 with open arms. I motion we start referring to him as !nfante! effective immediately.

Is there really any reason to make this trade? I don't see how it makes the team better. There's absolutely nothing about Infante that improves what we currently have. I'd much rather keep Jones than swap him for a crappy backup middle infielder. The ONLY way this trade looks good is if we then flip Ronny Cedeno to someone in a bigger deal.

Levine is still the best source of Cubs info, and it appears he was right again on this one. Since Infante can also play the OF, he is actually more Macias than Nefi (talk about damning with faint praise).

Is there really any reason to make this trade? I don't like the idea of this trade. With that said, Infante wouldn't be a terrible 25th guy. And it would free up money. But I still do not like the trade. At all.

This trade seems to be more about money than the players involved. Infante is eligble for arbitration, but would likely get ssubstantially less than $2 million. With JJ at $5.5, Cubs save a bunch. Maybe that extra $20 to $25 million in budget was more rumor than fact. Lifetime .OBP? .298

Could very well be the proverbial salary dump if the Tigers are taking all of JJ's salary... For our big run to sign Arod of course. :)

hell we could just non-tender Omar if we sign Kaz and save even more money.

"...was Bruce Roberts on CBS 2, who unfortunatley succumbed way too early to cancer." I believe Bruce Roberts suffered a heart attack right after a broadcast, but he was great. Funniest "sports anchor" moment for me was when Ch. 2 sent out the premier crime reporter in the city (John Drummond, who sometimes anchored the sports on the weekends there) to cover the drunken (and angry) Bears fans outside of Soldier's Field after the crushing playoff loss to the 'Skins in '86. A true classic, I'd love to see that segment again.

If it is a salary dump, which I think it is, what do you want for him then? Infante is arb eligible and can be knocked down to under $1m if my math is correct. Are you going to get anything worth a crap if you're looking to pick up somebody you can then dump or pay next to nothing?

I wasn't sure if it's a salary dump or not but I believed that due to Jacque's better play at the end of last year, he'd be more valuable than Omar Infante. But if the Cubs are taking a dump here (so to say...) so that they can go after another important piece, then it makes more sense.

*hell we could just non-tender Omar if we sign Kaz and save even more money.* If they sign Kaz Matsui the fans could save a lot of money by not bothering to buy tickets. If the brass isn't going to try why should the fans?

*# Chad says: November 11th, 2007 at 5:59 pm even as a 6 year old, ARod could outplay ivan dejesus. * Would the Phillies have traded Bowa and Sandberg for a 6 year-old A-Rod? Probably.

[...] at Cub Reporter hooks us up with footage from a 1981 game between the Cubs and [...]

Recent comments

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    18-year old SS Jefferson Rojas almost made the AA Tennessee Opening Day roster, and he is a legit shortstop, so I would expect him to be an MLB Top 100 prospect by mid-season. 

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    Among the relievers in the system, I expect RHRP Hunter Bigge at AAA Iowa and RHRP Ty Johnson at South Bend to have breakout seasons on 2024, and among the starters I see LHP Drew Gray and RHP Will Sanders at South Bend and RHP Naz Mule at ACL Cubs as the guys who will make the biggest splash. Also, Jaxon Wiggins is throwing bullpen sides, so once he is ready for game action he could be making an impact at Myrtle Beach by June.

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    I expect OF Christian Franklin to have a breakout season at AA Tennessee in 2024. In another organization that doesn't have PCA, Caissie, K. Alcantara, and Canario in their system, C. Franklin would be a Top 10 prospect. 

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    The Reds trading Joe Boyle for Sam Moll at last year's MLB Trade Deadline was like the Phillies trading Ben Brown to the Cubs for David Robertson at the MLB TD in 2022. 

  • 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.