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 

 



 

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Rule 5 Draft 
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Game 115 Thread / Astros @ Cubs (3 of 3)

Game Chat | Press Pass | BR Preview

SP Brandon Backe
SP
Jason Marquis

6-10, 4.72, 100 K, 56 BB, 129.2 IP


6-7. 4.68, 64 K, 45 BB, 117.1 IP
       
2B
#Kaz Matsui LF
Alfonso Soriano
RF
Hunter Pence
SS
Ryan Theriot
1B
#Lance Berkman 1B
Derrek Lee
LF
Carlos Lee 3B
Aramis Ramirez
SS
#Geoff Blum CF
*Jim Edmonds
3B
Ty Wigginton 2B
Mark DeRosa
CF *Darin Erstad
RF *Kosuke Fukudome
C Humberto Quintero
C
Geovany Soto
P
Brandon Backe
P *Jason Marquis

 

What a surprise!

I returned Tuesday night from a wonderful vacation on the East Coast, and based on the news mix I got from the all-sports radio station in Boston, I assumed all of MLB had gone on hiatus while the Red Sox negotiated their divorce arrangements with Manny Ramirez.

Turns out the Cubs had, in fact, stayed busy, eviscerating the Brewers and taking two-of-three from the Bayless Bucs while building a 5-game lead in the Central. This afternoon they try to even up their season mark against Houston—currently they're 5-6—while capturing yet another series win. In 18 series so far this year at Wrigley, the Cubs are 14-3-1.

Jason Marquis, winless in his last six starts (0-4, 5.25), goes for the home team. Brandon Backe, the losingest pitcher on Cecil Cooper's staff, has an ND and loss against the Cubs this season.

Hey, I see the Cubs are stumping for permission to play some of their home night games on Fridays and Saturdays. Why not? Then Erin Andrews could cover the games in a cocktail dress.

Comments

Sean Gallagher is expected to go on the disabled list with a sore shoulder. A source told the San Francisco Chronicle that Gallagher felt a "pop" in the shoulder in his July 25 start against Texas.

Jason Marquis, winless in his last six starts (0-4, 5.25) That is not a really fair look at Marquis. Four of his last five starts been solid or good, all being "quality starts," which should be more than enough to win on this team.

...then Erin Andrews could cover the games in a cocktail dress.
Hmm... and maybe Bruce Levine can wear a Tux or something. Oh wait... we don't care what he wears, because he is a guy.

[ ]

In reply to by Chad

I've gotta disagree on this. Bruce Levine's job isn't to be on tv. Like it or not, Erin Andrews isn't a typical "journalist". She's like a host on E!, except she talks about sports instead of celebrities. Part of her job is to look good for the camera. I have absolutely no problem with her dressing a little sexy. If she were a beat writer using her tits to get a scoop, then that's a problem. But she's not. She's a fucking sideline reporter who appears on camera 4-5 times per game and lobs the players/managers softball questions for our entertainment.

[ ]

In reply to by Chad

That's a real stretch from what I said. You may have your own issues if you think you can't be both attractive and respected at the same time. There's a reason you don't see very many ugly people on television. Part of her job is to look good. The other part is to ask a few questions that we (the viewer) might find interesting. And let's drop the whole "respected journalist" garbage. It doesn't make me sexist or a mysogynist because I don't think she's breaking the next Watergate any time soon. And that has nothing to do with her gender or her looks. It's because she's a SIDELINE REPORTER. Woodward and Bernstein she is not, but she's good at what she does.

[ ]

In reply to by Chad

that's a stretch considering she doesn't take her work as a joke. you aware that a great number of sports writers never wanted to be sports writers? it's just the job/beat that they were put on or assigned to for a lotta them. it's like any specialization, though...once you work it enough it becomes a whole lot easier to go from place to place within your specialization. besides, the pressure to wear what she wears may not even be her call. the changing face and dolling up of jennie zolasco...who's a very legit baseball reporter...doesn't even remotely match her personality.

[ ]

In reply to by big_lowitzki

Very few sports guys are "respected reporters". The entire genre is built first on entertainment with real journalism a very distant 10th or 11th. So Erin first going for the entertainment part of the job is absolutely no different from any male reporter first going for the entertainment story about a player, or reporting only ARod's infidelity. I'd say Erin wearing a revealing dress is a lot better actually then all the drivel spouted by ESPN talking heads. But god knows if you show some cleavage you must be a slut and have no real value as a human being, let alone a reporter.

in Parachat for the Brewers/Cincy game while I wait for the Cubs one...

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

Another strong outing by Reds' Homer Bailey -- coming in to the game, teams were hitting .381 against him. Today -- 5.1IP, 8H, 6ER. In hindsight, perhaps Mr. & Mrs. Bailey shouldn't have named their son "Homer". Not the best name for a pitcher, unless your last name is "Howry", in which case it's perfect.

Andrews, meanwhile, said she did nothing wrong. "These players are not into me like that," said told the Minneapolis Star Tribune. "If anything, I think these guys look at me like a little sister or one of the guys." Riiiiggght. One of the guys they want to nail.

I don't get our pitchers keep giving Lee opportunities to beat us. Intentionally walk him, throw him crap, or put the god damn ball in his flabby ribs, but don't throw him fast balls over the plate. Eeeesh.

I mean, really, this is not that complicated --- 2 outs, 2 on, a .228 hitting SS on deck...and you throw CLee (who is Pujols when he is in Wrigley) something to hit? WTF?????????????????????

DeRosa's been putting a charge into the ball the last few days. After coming up 2 feet short of being the hero the other night, it looks like he had an extra bowl of Wheaties this morning.

I'll take this a step further...I don't even think Andrews is that good at what she does. She generally asks lousy questions along the lines of, "So, how do you feel right now?" I can't think right now of a "good" sideline reporter, but I don't think she's one of the better ones. She is, however, smoking hot.

Bob Brenly: This is why you don't send Geovany Soto on what could have been a close play at home plate. (less than 2 seconds later) Kasper: SORIANO DEEP TO LEFT, THAT BALL'S GONE!!! A HOME RUN! OH HO BABY! I might have to ask Brenly for the Mega Millions numbers this week.

Imagine the last few minutes from the Brewers' perspective. They finish off the Reds and take one last look at the scoreboard, Cubs down 4-1. By the time they get to the clubhouse and flip on ESPN it's 9-4 Cubs. That's got to suck just a little bit. Also, if Erin Andrews were my little sister I might have to rethink my position on incest.

Cubs lead the NL in BOTH OBP and SLG, and thus lead the league in runs scored by a wide margin -- 604 runs vs. 558 for the 2nd place Phils. Today's game will likely improve all 3 metrics. So, while no individual is having a killer year (maybe Fonzie on a pro-rated basis), the team certainly is. Well done, Jim Hendry.

This may go against the mainstream opinion, but I believe Marquis is an above average starting pitcher for the role he plays on the Cubs - 5th starter. Somewhere on this site there must be a sabermetrician, cruncher of numbers, (where are you Dave from the old site?), who could no doubt prove my point. If you take Marquis' GS, W/L, ERA, IP, SO to BB ratio, etc., and compare Marquis against every other 5th SP in the majors, I would be very surprised if he wasn't in the top 5 - maybe even top 2-3. The frustration most Marquis-haters have is that they compare him to other teams #2 or #3 starters and that ISN'T the role he's been asked to play for the Cubs. Getting Harden solved that issue. Marquis' job on the Cubs is take the ball every 5th day, pitch 6+ innings, so Z, Harden, Dempster, Lilly aren't over-used and the bullpen isn't blown out every 4-5th game. In his first 20 starts he's logged 117 1/3 IP, 6-7 record, 4.68 ERA. Marquis is doing everything the Cubs could have hoped from a #5 starter. Is he overpaid for most 5th starters? Hell, yes. But I don't think any of us need to hold a fund-raiser for a team that's going to draw 3.3 million fans this year and is going to be sold for north of $750 million. The bitch of it is for Marquis is that he almost certainly won't make the playoff roster as they won't need 12 pitchers in the playoffs. Also, the Cubs should walk Carlos Lee every other time he bats against them this season anytime the Cubs have less than a 6 run lead.

I agree, although I too would like to see the numbers to back it up. I have the impression his ERA and Quality Start stats have been pretty damned solid for a #5. He pales in comparison to the other Cubs starters, but the Cubs have arguably three aces (Z, Dempster, Harden) and another guy (Lilly) who would be a #2 or #3 on most teams. I support Marquis. He competes, he hits, he pinch runs, he's solid. He gets paid too much, but since it's not my wallet, I don't care. I just want to see the Cubs win. FWIW, I'd also rather see Marquis than Howry on the postseason roster. :-) EDIT - And apparently I failed to hit the reply button... argh.

[ ]

In reply to by nohit

Well, it's sort of a tough question to answer without really digging into each team. The first problem, is that Marquis was really the 4th starter, not the 5th, until Harden arrived. The second problem is that it is pretty rare for a 5th starter to get 32 starts. Typically the team thinks they can do better than that guy and he will be replaced peroidically or someone gets hurt on the staff and he moves up to #4 or #3, and you have a new 5th starter. But if you look at all NL Pitchers with 100 IP's (57 of them), Marquis ranks: 44th in Quality Start Percentage 42in ERA 57/5 = 11.2 So you would expect your 4th starter to be rank between 34 and 45, and your 5th starter to be between 46 and 57. By this simple analysis, Marquis is a bottom half 4th starter or a very good 5th starter. I think he was brought in to be a 4th starter, so in that regard he's not doing well. However, with the current roster, he can be seen as a strength compared to other teams. He's probably not going to make the post-season roster barring injury.

[ ]

In reply to by The Real Neal

While I have the page up, the list of guys who rank behind Marquis in ERA is pretty impressive: 43 Roy Oswalt HOU 44 Aaron Harang CIN 45 Johnny Cueto CIN 46 Joel Pineiro STL 47 Zach Duke PIT 48 Brett Myers PHI 49 Brandon Backe HOU 50 Barry Zito SFO 51 Bronson Arroyo CIN 52 Andrew Miller FLA 53 Jeff Francis COL 54 Mark Hendrickson FLA 55 Adam Eaton PHI 56 Micah Owings ARI 57 Ian Snell PIT You've got a Cy Young winner, two Cy Young contenders, one more staff ace, a couple of #2 starters and a couple more ROY hopefuls (when the season started), and Cub killer Zach Duke who rolled into the season with a 2.10 career ERA against us.

Well said George Altman re: Marquis. Also, it always gets lost in the mix that he makes all his starts. Would Marshall do that? One of the reasons I think Hendry got both Lilly and Marquis was durability. Each has made all their starts for the last 5 years now except one year for Lilly. After the year when the Cubs started either 16 or 17 different pitchers, Hendry got the concept of durability of starters having a trickle-down effect to the bullpen. What I hated about Marquis yesterday was a 2-out walk to Hunter F'in Pence with Berkman and Lee to follow.

If my math from last week was correct, Marquis has now had 21 starts, and the Cubs are 12-9 in those games, despite his W-L record. Some of that is certainly due to the prolific run totals the team is putting up, but some of it is also because his starts have been competitive. All that said, if the Cubs continue to win half of Marquis' starts the rest of the year, I'll have very little to complain about.

Watching the highlights -- interesting reaction from Backe after the ball left Soriano's bat. He threw his hands up in disgust -- either at himself, at his catcher, or at his manager for leaving him out there to absorb the pain of an 8-run inning -- perhaps a combination of all 3.

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.