Cubs MLB Roster

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40-Man Roster Info

40 players are on the MLB RESERVE LIST (roster is full), plus two players are on the 60-DAY IL 

26 players on MLB RESERVE LIST are ACTIVE, twelve players are on OPTIONAL ASSIGNMENT to minors, one player is on the 15-DAY IL, and one player is on the 10-DAY IL

Last updated 4-18-2024
 
* bats or throws left
# bats both

PITCHERS: 13
Yency Almonte
Adbert Alzolay 
Javier Assad
Colten Brewer
Ben Brown
Kyle Hendricks
* Shota Imanaga
Mark Leiter Jr
Hector Neris 
* Drew Smyly
Jameson Taillon 
Keegan Thompson
* Jordan Wicks

CATCHERS: 2
Miguel Amaya
Yan Gomes

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

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

OPTIONED: 12 
Kevin Alcantara, OF 
Michael Arias, P 
Pete Crow-Armstrong, OF 
Jose Cuas, P 
Brennen Davis, OF 
Porter Hodge, P 
* Luke Little, P 
* Miles Mastrobuoni, INF
* Matt Mervis, 1B 
Daniel Palencia, P 
Luis Vazquez, INF 
Hayden Wesneski, P 

10-DAY IL: 1 
Seiya Suzuki, OF

15-DAY IL: 
* Justin Steele, P   

60-DAY IL: 2 
Caleb Kilian, P 
Julian Merryweather, P
 




Minor League Rosters
Rule 5 Draft 
Minor League Free-Agents

Carlos Zambrano - Opening Day Starter and Could Still Pitch in the WBC

Submitted by Rob G. on

The headline pretty much says it all as Lou made it official today on the Cubs' Opening Day starter. If Lou skips the 5th starter as he mentioned, the rotation for the month of April could look like this.

4/6 @ Houston: Zambrano
4/7 @ Houston: Dempster
4/8 @ Houston: Lilly
4/9 Off-day
4/10 @ Milwaukee: Harden
4/11 @ Milwaukee: Zambrano
4/12 @ Milwaukee: Dempster
4/13 vs. Colorado: Lilly
4/14 Off-day
4/15 vs. Colorado: Harden
4/16 vs. St. Louis: Zambrano
4/17 vs. St. Louis: Dempster
4/18 vs. St. Louis: Lilly
4/19 vs. St. Louis: Marshall or Heilman
4/20 Off-day
4/21 vs. Cincinnati: Zambrano
4/22 vs. Cincinnati: Dempster
4/23 vs. Cincinnati: Lilly
4/24 @ St. Louis: Harden
4/25 @ St. Louis: Marshall or Heilman
4/26 @ St. Louis: Zambrano
4/27 @ Arizona: Dempster
4/28 @ Arizona: Lilly
4/29 @ Arizona: Harden
4/30 vs. Florida: Marshall or Heilman

You have to assume that if Marshall ends up winning the 5th starter spot, that Lou will want to break-up the lefties and put Lilly third and Marshall fifth. He runs into a little dilemma the first time he needs a 5th starter though on the 19th, but I recall him mentioning last year that the Cardinals were weaker against lefties (.796 OPS vs. righties, .753 vs. lefties), so he might not mind doubling up against them and then he can reset the rotaton the next day. Of course, Harden might have a setback and be the 5th starter that gets skipped. If that happens, I could see Lilly getting moved up the second spot with Dempster dropping to the third.

Also, if the Cubs do go with four starters for the first two weeks, they can carry an extra bench bat which would be a nice bonus when starters are even less likely to go deep in games.

In other Zambrano news, the Venezuelan players are under the assumption that Carlos will be available for Round 2 of the WBC according to an article in the Edmonton Sun. I assume Hugo Chávez has assured him he can play first base and hit.

Tags
Cubs News of the Moment

Comments

Submitted by The Joe on Thu, 03/12/2009 - 03:43 pm

Why would Harden pitch the 15th and the 19th? Trying to break him sooner rather than later?

Submitted by MikeC on Thu, 03/12/2009 - 03:03 pm

Nice article on Mark Prior over at Yahoo http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=jp-prior031109&prov=yhoo&type=lgns I found this interesting... You’d hope so, though the universal consensus is that Cubs manager Dusty Baker abused Prior at the end of the 2003 season simply because he knew no better. In Prior’s last nine games, including three in the playoffs, he logged the following pitch counts: 131, 129, 109, 124, 131, 133, 132, 115, 119. House believes the overuse by Baker doomed Prior. Eight pitchers this decade have thrown 109 or more pitches in nine straight games, and half of them needed reconstructive arm surgery. The only other pitchers this decade to throw at least four 130-plus-pitch games in a season, let alone in two months, are Livan Hernandez and Randy Johnson. Prior is in some elite company for throwing 130 pitch games. You might be able to survive it if your a seasoned veteran like Livan or Randy, but making a rookie do it was border line criminal. I said it during these 130 pitch games, i don't care how perfect his mechanics seem to be, he is not a robot. His body has never experienced this kind of stress and he needs to be taken out of games to rest. Even Prior admits he didn't have perfect mechanics but no one (*cough* Dusty's Cubs *cough*) listened.

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Submitted by George Altman on Thu, 03/12/2009 - 03:12 pm

I couldn't agree more with you Rob and always contended that the only thing Dusty ever knew about pitching was how to hit it reasonably well. A writers comment during the 2003 NLCS put it best about his managerial ability -- one guy was managing every game like the 7th game of the World Series and the other guy was managing it like the rubber game of 3 game series in August. Guess who was who? Dusty was and is a monumental dumb-ass. On top of that, he gives every oral indication that he is an apologist, enabler, and plays the race card every time it suits the position he favors. Half the posters on this board could manage a MLB team better than Dusty dumb-ass.

Submitted by Rob G. on Thu, 03/12/2009 - 03:11 pm

if they do go with a 4-man rotation through the 19th... C- Soto, Bako INF - Lee, Hoffpauir, Miles, Fontenot, Theriot, Ramirez, (one of) Rivas, Koskie, Scales OF - Soriano, Fukudome, Bradley, Johnson, Gaithright SP - Z, Dempster, Lilly, Harden Pen- Marmol, Gregg, Cotts, Heilman, Marshall, Vizcaino, Gaudin or Guzman then they can figure out a roster move on the off-day on the 20th...

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Submitted by George Altman on Thu, 03/12/2009 - 03:17 pm

Would love to see Ascanio or Samardzija replace Vizcaino unless can start finding home plate without a search party. Also, I'm not necessarily with the great Gathright experiment. I'm not convinced he can outhit Fuld and probably isn't measureably better with the glove or on the bases. It's the 25th player on the roster, so I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.......I'm just saying. Also, I wish the Angel Guzman from 2003 would show up between now and April 5th.

Submitted by HendryIsClueLess on Thu, 03/12/2009 - 03:24 pm

To me it makes sense to save Harden till April 19th. Why waste him in April vs September? Unless holding him back will make no difference in terms of wear at the middle or end of season. I would assume Lou and Rothchild have an idea. I think Vizcaino is gonna get dealt or released or "DL'd"

Submitted by kmokeefe on Thu, 03/12/2009 - 03:07 pm

What sort of leash do you think Harden will be on to start the season? I would imagine he gets pull at 70-80 pitches his first few starts. Being a strikeout pitcher, this puts him at maybe the 5th inning. What I'm getting at is: Could we see a Harden/Marshall tandem at the 4 spot and Heilman throwing 5 for the first month? I don't think Lou would want to go into a game knowing he needs at least 4 innings out of his bullpen. Marshall is used to coming into games anyways. And I personally think their styles clash tremendously, which could result in 8 great innings.

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Submitted by Rob G. on Thu, 03/12/2009 - 03:18 pm

not a bad idea, but I think if Harden makes it through spring training w/o any setbacks he will be on a 100 pitch count limit and probably 100-110 for most of the year.

my guess is they'd like to back off on Harden in the summer and September more than April. Cubs have a couple of big head-2-head series in April vs. Cards, Brewers, Astros and Cincy.

 

Submitted by Rob G. on Thu, 03/12/2009 - 03:25 pm

looks like Darvish is getting the start for Japan, Fukudome batting 6th.

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Submitted by Rob G. on Thu, 03/12/2009 - 03:27 pm

oh, you think the Cubs facing one of Japan's biggest prospect and one of their teammates would be interesting television?

I mean who would want to watch that when you can get scrub Cubs vs scrub White Sox in Las Vegas instead.

so yeah, don't think it's on anywhere...lame.

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Submitted by The Joe on Thu, 03/12/2009 - 03:26 pm

Yeah. You're right. Who'd want to see that? Who wants to see Ichiro, Darvish and Fukkakedome play the Cubs? But, to be fair, the D-Bags game was on MLB.TV at the same time, which is almost good enough. But seriously, who decides this shit? It's fucking unsmarted.

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Submitted by crunch on Thu, 03/12/2009 - 03:05 pm

they could have picked a better subject to tie that rant into... "Skybox on Sheffield last week began offering 12- and 18-game packages. The packages, which range from $1,740 per person up to $3,150, include admission to the rooftop overlooking right field, plus food and drinks." sitting 800ft. away from the game paying $150-$300 per game isn't exactly going to bring too many socio-economic levels of society together.

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Submitted by crunch on Thu, 03/12/2009 - 03:10 pm

good luck wasting their money on that. hopefully i won't have to pay higher pay tv rates to support the hole they're going to throw money down. there's many more powerful and bankrolled who can't do what they propose. you know what the main issue is...that too many of these people don't get... THE USA ISN'T THE WORLD...good luck pushing that lobbying and lawmaking in Brazil, Nigeria, Germany, Uruguay, etc. i know a place online that streams games during the season...it's from japan or korea or some area where they have a language that looks like a bunch of stick houses.

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Submitted by CPH2133 on Thu, 03/12/2009 - 03:12 pm

While they can't stop P2P in other countries, I wonder if they can make some sort of law banning watching things on P2P in the US (even if it's being broadcast from China, Brazil, Japan...) much like Internet gambling in the US. Not that I'm too worried, I still download music and movies illegally, so I'm not going to stop watching P2P sporting events.

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Submitted by crunch on Thu, 03/12/2009 - 03:25 pm

P2P has many legit uses and users...not to mention forms of P2P are the "way of the future" vs. single-server driven file serving. the only way to effectively stop it is having your ISP watch your online activity. aside from government spook computers that run themselves with no on-site technician aside (yes, they really exist) ISPs don't want to be in the business of hooking spooky crap up to their services to scare away customers. They even fought the govt. computers pretty damn hard.

[ ]

Submitted by The Joe on Thu, 03/12/2009 - 03:07 pm

That's fucking ridiculous. Like I said previously, I pay for MLB.TV every fucking year. Then they call my using P2P to watch games that they've decided not to show me as 'piracy'? Fuck all. God forbid I get to watch games of the team I support financially with subscriptions and merchandising.

Recent comments

  • Raisin101 (view)

    Hi Arizona Phil!

    Exciting to see Naz Mule in box scores a few times. What's his stuff like now after the TJS?

  • Childersb3 (view)

    Mastrobuoni can't come back, yet

    Wisdom does have an option left. He can hide in Iowa if Jed DFA's someone else

    Does Brennan Davis get shown the door? I know it's too early for that, but these injuries are crunching the roster of a 12-7 team playoff demands and BDavis isn't going to help anytime soon.

    Someone has to go to add Peralta. And Canario isn't going to get to play everyday regardless of RHers or LHers. Neither is Tauchman. Also don't see PCA getting a chance over Peralta.

    If Jed does those moves:

    4 OF: Belli, Peralta, Canny, Tauch

    2 C: Gomes and Amaya

    2 DH: Cooper and Mervis

    5 INF: Busch, Nico, Dansby, Morel, Madrigal

    Little short on OF depth but two injuries will do that  

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    I have had the pleasure of watching some of the young A's pitchers lately (first Joe Boyle the last day of Minor League Spring Training in March, and more recently Luis Morales last week and Steven Echavarria yesterday at Extended Spring Training), and it reminds me of the Miami Marlins a couple of years ago. A really nice collection of young pitchers. It will be interesting to see what the A's will get for two years of ex-Cub Paul Blackburn at the Trade Deadline (there should be a robust market for Blackburn). 

  • Childersb3 (view)

    Good deal

    MB needs some talent infusion!

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    Childersb3: Very possible. Suriel, too. 

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    DJL: if a pitcher is recalled to be the 27th man for a doubleheader and then is optioned back to the minors the next day, the 15-day "clock" does NOT reset. The one day call-up for the doubleheader is treated like it never happened with respect to a pitcher having to spend at least 15 days on optional assignment before he can be recalled. 

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    Probably the only reason David Peralta is still in the organization (he is at AAA Iowa) is to be available in case anything bad were to happen to Ian Happ (which it just did). So if Happ needs to go on the IL, the Cubs can select Peralta to play LF, DFA Wisdom (and hope he and what remains of his $2.725M salary gets claimed off waivers), and recall Mervis to platoon at DH with Cooper (with Canario / Tauchman sharing RF), at least until Suzuki and Happ are back...

     

  • crunch (view)

    i'd just like to take a moment to express to the world i'm still pissed willson contreras is not a cub when the pricetag was 5/87m (17.5m/yr).

    it would be nice to have a legacy-type player to stick around, especially one with his leadership and the respect he gets from his peers.  cubs fans deserved more than 1 season of contreras + morel...that was gold.

  • crunch (view)

    happ, right hamstring tightness, day-to-day (hopefully 0 days).

    he will be reevaluated tomorrow.

  • Childersb3 (view)

    I guess I'm not looking for that type of AB 

    Just a difference of opinion

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