Cubs MLB Roster

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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 

 



 

Minor League Rosters
Rule 5 Draft 
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Who Should Be the Cubs 2009 All-Star Game Representative?

Let me preface this entire article with a big old - who cares? With the Cubs playing the way they are, the mercy All-Star that the Cubs will get is of little importance, but I needed an article idea for the day and it's a fun discussion. And dagnabit, baseball is suppose to be fun.

So assuming the lemmings that are voting don't get Alfonso Soriano in there (currently 4th behind Carlos Beltran who is on the DL), the Cubs All-Star will be a reserve. In 2003, the All-Star process was changed and the players vote for eight reserves and eight pitchers, along with the eight starters voted by the fans. It's a 32-man roster, so the managers (in this case Charlie Manuel) gets to pick seven and the fans vote for the final player out of a pool of 5.

So who will be the Cubs representative(s)? Options below the fold...

Ted Lilly -  He's probably my pick for the Cubs because if you're going to take a representative of this team, it should be on the pitching side. He leads the team in ERA (for qualified pitchers), wins and strikeouts. Has he been one of the 8 or 9 best NL starting pitchers this year? Well until that second to last start versus the White Sox he was probably in the discussion, although now he's just 14th in ERA and tied for 12th in wins. He seems to be pretty well-respected around the league, so the player vote should be strong and I assume some will remember that he was a choice for the WBC.

Randy Wells - The unqualified ERA team leader has been more than a pleasant surprise, but for the entire NL to notice, a glossy win-loss record would need to accompany it. I just don't see him getting picked over a vet.

Carlos Zambrano - Like Lilly, if the players got their vote in early in the month, he may have a shot when his ERA was 3.39. He's still considered the ace of the staff by most of the league, so maybe he'll get the reputation vote or as Joe Sheehan likes to pimp at Baseball Prospectus, the All-Star game should be a reward for the better players in the league rather than just having good first halves.

Derrek Lee - He's been the only Cub to hit decently over the last two months but his overall first half numbers are sorely lacking at a strong position in the NL. Albert, A. Gonzalez and Prince Fielder are all sporting OPS numbers over 1.000 to Lee's .834 which just ranks 8th among qualified 1st basemen. His production numbers are sorely lacking as well behind Berkman, Howard and Todd Helton.

Ryan Theriot - The shortstop crop is pretty weak in the NL once you get past Hanley Ramirez. Tejada has trailed off considerably from his hot start and Tulowitzki's surge has been pretty recent that it may have gotten missed by the players. Theriot's 4th in runs scored and home runs among shortstops and no doubt it would be a mercy inclusion if he makes it, but someone has to on this forsaken team.

Vote below for your choice

Comments

[ ]

In reply to by SJS

keep calling me names. it's working you're starting to win the argument. actually no. you are not. and let's look at your post above. you make two distinct arguments. You say the Theriot is a good hitter because he led the league in multi-hit games. I say he ops+'ed at 93. do you know what that means? below average hitter. so, do i care if our shortstop is below average as a hitter? no. no under two conditions. 1. that he is a + fielder. Theriot is not. Some say he's average at best. I think he is bad. 2. if that below average hitter hits 8th. right where he belongs. second argument that you make: who would play short if not for theriot? answer is no one. you are right. the only problem is that you are insinuating that i think we should bench him. we should not bench him. we should start him and bat him 8th where he belongs. i would try to replace him yes, but with someone not currently on the cubs roster.

I voted DLEE just because he has been able to climb from Mendoza-line horrendous in April, to respectable .285, and really been the only consistent offensive "bright spot". Although, Pujols way, way, is more deserving.

I also picked other = the Burger King guy. He is also Soto's favorite!! Seriously, after having half the team in the All-Star game last season, we deserve to have no one make it. If I was forced to take someone, I'd have to flip a 6-headed coin. Even after missing 2 months, Ramirez might still be most deserving to go!!

[ ]

In reply to by Paul Noce

Agreed. They spend the money because they can. See "The Player" sometime - ore read the book. With today's technology, a feature can be shot for festival release, well under $1MM. "Bubble", speaking of Stephen Soderbergh, was done for $1.6MM (Mark Cuban behind it), but lost money (it sucked, imo). And, a movie like "The Visitor", which garnered an Oscar Nomination for Richard Jenkins was done for around $2-3MM. It has grossed $9.6MM (and, in this case, it is a fabulous movie, imo). So, they could make terrific films for much less money, but they choose not to. Or, let's just say that based on star-power, they are selective on what they spend and how - no matter the cost (isn't that right, Jim Cameron?)

[ ]

In reply to by crunch

I saw Transformers 2 was at only 22% positive reviews a week ago at Rotten Tomato's, I don't follow that site's reviews very often but I can't remember a big budget movie getting reviews that bad in quit a while. Then there are the "professional" critics who are paid by the studios to give those stupid positive quotes. "Transformers 2 is the greatest accomplishment in human history!" or "The final moments of my life were spent in peace watching this masterpiece. My eyes glued to Megan Fox, I forgot all about the flesh eating bacteria that was consuming my brain."

[ ]

In reply to by Paul Noce

third consecutive losing season...and last year they put up the white flag mid-season, I don't think it's a stretch to think that they would have been over .500 keeping Blanton and Harden and any other deals they made.

That being said, Beane is looking like his reputation benefitted just as much from the 'roid era as Dusty Baker 

As for a decent audience for the Visitor, $9.6M gross and apparently a $6M profit is pocket change out here. I wouldn't call that a nice-sized audience.

Also, the general public likes American Idol, Top 40 music and will fill Wrigley Field no matter what the Cubs record, so there's no accounting for taste among the masses.

[ ]

In reply to by Paul Noce

why would the percentage matter so much, they're not gonna squeeze anything more out of the Visitor. Most of the world doesn't care abour Richard Jenkins. The first question out of most people's mouths when asking about a movie, is "who's in it?" Occassionally you get a sleeper with word of mouth and no-name actors at the time, but it's a rare feat.

$250M for Transformers, $200 M to make >>>$9M for Visitor, $3M to make for any corporation

the bulk of movie audiences are stil teenagers and the bulk of America doesn't take movies seriously, just like they don't take baseball as seriously as most do on this board. It's entertainment, it's suppose to be fun...

Sure, we search out what we like and this is generally a more intelligent crowd on this board, I mean for the most part we resist to yell "first" on each thread, but I think you guys get that the general public thinks Visitor is a boring movie (I haven't seen it myself, I'm sure it's fantastic).

I don't think there's a shortage of good movies out there, there may be a shortage of good movies produced and marketed by the major studios, but that's because they need to make profits, not art. Sometimes they mix, but mostly it's just about how many toys and Happy Meals and teenage kids they can get into a theater.

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

Let's say you want to invest your own money, would you choose to invest $3k with the chances of getting a 200%+ return on your investment, or would you rather invest $20k that might get a 100% return on investment? Sure, that $20k might get a much higher return than 100%, but it also might lose money. My point is that businesses are in business to make money, and gambling hundreds of millions of dollars on one project doesn't make as much sense to me as spreading the risk with smaller investments that could more easily return a much higher percentage of profit. What did Juno cost to make? With many of these lower cost movies, the problem isn't that they don't make money, it's that the powers that be at the film studios decide not to promote them. When they do promote small budget movies and get them into more screens they make a nice profit. It's all greed, they don't care about the quality of any film, or even making a nice profit on The Visitor or Juno, they see the chance at making $500 million in profits with Terminatorformers and go wild with lust. How many of those big budget movies really make double their investment back? One site says Juno cost $7.3 mil to make and grossed $143 mil.

[ ]

In reply to by Paul Noce

Because even the best movies in the world fail to find audiences, for whatever reason. There's probably half a dozen Juno's a year that cost little to make, find an audience and some really take (Greek Wedding is another example)...but sort of like sabermetrics and objective analysis can tell us the safest way to build a successful baseball team, the movie formula is  bankable stars and franchises with pre-built audiences as the most reliable source of big profits.

As crunch mentioned, most studios have an independent or small movie branch that basically buys well-acllaimed small movies from the festivals, occasionally they finance their own. It's their low risk, often low reward part of the business, with the hope that once in awhile they buy a lottery ticket.

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

Stop defending Hollywood. It's evil. It has turned an art-form into a 2 hrs of mass produced mindless stimulation. The problem is that they just make too much money. There is garbage in other countries as well, but movies in general don't make so much money that talented directors and actors are as likely to 'sell-out' for more money. That's why, IMO, good directors in Japan, Korea, China, etc. continue making great movies throughout their careers with a great deal of autonomy. Most actors in Japan, for instance, make most of their money from commercials and advertisements etc...they can then choose movies that are good/challenging as opposed to to which pays the most. I'm not sure what my point is, but I hate Michael Bay.

I chose "Other", because I think it should be "None of the Above". No Cubs player deserves to be an All-Star and the stupid rule should be changed to force every team to have an All-Star. I don't know how any Cub this year would be able to keep a straight face accepting his nomination.

Lack of Focus is our AS. I still like Lou. He won't be here next year, don't you worry. Rick Morrissey needs to go work for TMZ. I could do without his gossipy interpretation of the Cubs. In other words, what a pussy.

Monty Brewster Joey Gathright None of the Above Fox!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Neifi Perez The Burger King guy Milton Bradley Gatorade Cooler

How many All-Stars did we have last year, six or seven? Now we don't legitimately have one. I disagree that the players vote will come into it. I think the manager/NL will have to name a Cub, the only guy who could have gotten any players' votes is Lilly, but I don't think he'd get enough to get voted on the team. I'll guess Wells, since he should get one more start before they finalize the rosters. Lee and Theriot haven't been terribly good, and are too far down on the pecking order. I disagree that teams shouldn't get an all-star onto the team no matter what, because I watched more than one ASG hoping that a Cub player would get a chance to do something. What's killed the appeal of the ASG is interleague baseball. If they moved that to after the game, it would be more popular again. If they totally killed it, the ASG would again be the highlight it used to be.

i still find it hard to give a crap about the ASG after watching how it's played in the modern era. some blame pete rose...and he did "ruin it" for some...but busting-ass hasn't even been solved by artificially making it mean something for the league that wins. they should just mic up everyone on the field for the side show the ASG is so we can at least hear them having fun.

1-0 win in Milwaukee, Pelfrey (who I just dumped off my fantasy team), S. Green and K-rod combine for the shutout

Like their views or not, I think both Rogers and Morrissey are good writers...movie rights still available for Far From the Trees; make me an offer...leaving now to watch Josh Hamilton take BP w/ OKC Redhawks in Des Moines [over/under = 28?]; hope also to see Barney in the lineeup @ SS - will file report tomorrow - Ramirez to Peoria but we still get a one-game peek @ the reigning one-round HR Derby record-holder as a consolation...

LOU!!! He's back! The hat went flying, and then his spittle went flying as he verbally abused the first base umpire for costing us a run. Also, Rich Harden would have beat that out by 3 steps. Dude's a gazelle.

[ ]

In reply to by The E-Man

Well, it wasn't the 2007 blow-up, but it was good to see him get fired up and stick up for one of his players. The Cubs had runners on 2nd and 3rd (I believe) with 2 out and Randy Wells batting. Wells hit a grounder up the middle that the pitcher got a glove on but deflected away. The pitcher recovered and threw to first, but it looked like Wells just beat it out. Unfortunately, the ump called him out, and Wells started to argue. That's when Sinatro got between him and the ump, and Lou came out guns blazing. First, he pump-faked throwing his hat to the ground, then went for it and spiked it into the dirt. He then got in the ump's face, and in beautiful hi-def you could see the little bits of spittle flying everywhere. He was careful to back up as the umps kept getting closer to him so he wouldn't make any accidental contact and earn his mandatory suspension. Anyway, I think he got his money's worth, got his point across, and hopefully lit a fire under his players (or at least showed that he's got their backs when they get fucked over). Too much detail? Fuck it, I hate missing games and only getting to read a bullshit recap in the Trib (at least when Trans doesn't fill in the rest of the details).

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

I am slowly beginning to detest Lou, but I have to wonder if this wasn't a crazy like a fox move. His pitcher had just busted his ass down the line (by the way, someone teach Wells not to cross first base like a girl experiencing her first pajama raid) and was probably a little upset himself. Lou's shenanigans probably gave Wells a chance to catch his breath and put things in perspective before he had to go back out there. If that was the case, though, I have to admit, our dipshit manager is one helluva (can you say helluvan?) actor.

[ ]

In reply to by The Real Neal

He's been far more calm on more egregious calls, this seem planned in some way. He was relatively calm by the time he got off the field.

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

That is why the whole thing was lame. to me, it was an obvious attempt to light a fire under his team. should he have gone out and argued? yes. should he have gotten himself thrown out? no. not against the last place team in a 3 - 1 game.

[ ]

In reply to by Chad

Earlier in the at-bat, Wells had hit a hard grounder down the third base line that was called foul, and the camera showed Lou barking to the umpire after he called it foul. I think he was genuinely upset, then, when the ump missed the call at first. I liked the going crazy move, particularly because it involved Wells. He's a young guy who initially was pitching great and not getting the results, and he had just busted down the line after a pretty good at-bat with guys on base, particularly for a pitcher. Who cares if he gets thrown out anyway? It's not like he can't communicate with Trammell from the clubhouse.

[ ]

In reply to by Doug Dascenzo

I actually watched the entire game, the first for a long time. To expand on the above, Wells got to the bag with both hands over his head, referenced in another comment below. He looked to the ump to see the call and when he saw that he had been called out he angrily screamed "you've got to be fucking shitting me!" Enter Sinatro to get between. Camera goes away from the umpire, Len says Lou is running out there to get to the ump. Lou yells (like he's been arguing for 10 minutes already) "No way" , "No Fucking Way!" . He continued jawing with the umpire, with every word he slung his head back and forth . The only other words I could lip read were, "He was SAFE. He was FUCKING SAFE!" Another ump comes over and calms him down. He looked like an insane bobblehead out there.

the Sam Fuld throw from LF to get jack wilson at the plate on the freddie sanchez single in the 5th inning is a highlight not to be missed ...the throw was great and beat wilson but the cool part was what Fuld's body did to get EVERYTHING the little guy has into the throw. His arm was all about the throw but his body looked like a high diver doing a half gainer and he almost landed on his head. Bob Brenly said that was a max effort play which is the way he always plays. Remember his crashing into the CF wall catch in Sept 07 at Wrigley including a throw to double up the runner at first, which was also against the Pirates. Refreshing to see some defense in LF (opposed to the loping, hopping and fumbling we've grown accustomed to.

[ ]

In reply to by Cubster

Len and Bob, especially Bob, just gushed about the play. Deservedly so, as his throw was a laser right on the money, but it seemed clear that Brenly was trying to show up Alf. I know he won't repeat last night for the rest of the season, but Fuld was all around outstanding. In the field, he made a sliding catch in addition to the assist mentioned above, a ball that Alf would not have come close to. He also tracked down a ball in Left-Center that Fuku probably could have handled, but Fonsie wouldn't have even been in the picture. I would love it if Alf a couple more games off to let Fuld stay in the lineup. I know they could sit Kosuke, but he hit the ball great yesterday. Milton had some good at bats, too. Len and Bob said that he or Joshua (can't remember) figured out that he was closing off his body too much and leading to weak contact. Hopefully it's enough to get him going

Cubs are 1-0 in July...THIS IS THE MONTH!!!

[ ]

In reply to by Chad

dude...YOU GOTTA BELIEVE. okay, i've run these numbers for hours. i've emailed them to friends all over the globe. we've all put our data together and it looks like the cubs are on pace to win 26 games this month. yeah!

[ ]

In reply to by Chad

unfortunately not...

4-game set versus the 1st place Brew Bitches and their ass pitching staff...time for the offense to wake up at home.

McClung vs. Dempster, Suppan vs. Zambrano, Looper vs. Harden, Burns(?) vs. Lilly

We coud be back in first place by Monday.

/yellon'd

joking aside, if the bats are awake this weekend, the Cubs have the pitching advantage in each game by a fairly wide margin.

[ ]

In reply to by Chad

as much douchebaggery that goes on there, I try to be the Switzerland of Cubs blogs...so I won't.

you're welcome to save them on flickr or something and post the links in the comments though.

[ ]

In reply to by big_lowitzki

serio. here is the best part, that clown druishdruid told me i was wrong. as in factually wrong when i said that bunting decreases the chances of scoring the run. although i was completely right.

Jeff Baker. 28 years old. .268/.322/.468 in 2008 with the Rockies. 299 AB, 12 HR, 48 RBI. In 561 career AB in the bigs, .257/.313/.458. He's not nearly crappy enough to fit in on the Cubs middle infield merry-go-round, but he is injured, so there's that. Has played 2B, 3B, 1B, and OF.

Recent comments

  • Eric S (view)

    With two home runs (so far) and 5 rbi today … clearly Nick Martini is the straw that stirs the Reds drink 😳

  • crunch (view)

    madrigal at 3rd...morel at DH.

    making room for madrigal or/and masterboney to get a significant amount of ABs is a misuse of the roster.  if it needed to get taken care of this offseason, they had tons of time to figure that out.

    morel played almost exclusively at 3rd in winter ball and they had him almost exclusively there all spring when he wasn't DH'ing.

    madrigal doing a good job with the glove for a bit over 2 chances per game...is that worth more than what he brings with the bat 4-5 PA a game?  it's 2024 and we got glenn beckert 2.0 manning 3rd base.

    this is a tauchman or cooper DH situation based on bat, alone.  cooper is 3/7 with a double off eovaldi if you want to play the most successful matchup.

    anyway, i hope this is a temporary thing, not business as usual for the rest of the season.  it will be telling if morel is not used at 3rd when an extreme fly ball pitcher like imanaga is on the mound.

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    There are two clear "logjams" in the Cubs minor league pipeline at the present time, namely AA outfielders (K. Alcantara, C. Franklin, Roederer, Pagan, Pinango, Beesley, and Nwogu) and Hi-A infielders (J. Rojas, P. Ramirez, Howard, R. Morel, Pertuz, R. Garcia, and Spence, although Morel has been getting a lot of reps in the outfield in addition to infield). So it is possible that you might see a trade involving one of the extra outfielders at AA and/or one of the extra infielders at Hi-A in the next few days. 

  • 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)

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  • 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)

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  • 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!!!