Cubs MLB Roster

Cubs Organizational Depth Chart
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, ten players are on OPTIONAL ASSIGNMENT to minors, two players are on the 15-DAY IL, and two players are on the 10-DAY IL

Last updated 4-17-2024
 
* 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
Keegan Thompson
Hayden Wesneski 
* Jordan Wicks

CATCHERS: 2
Miguel Amaya
Yan Gomes

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

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

OPTIONED: 10 
Kevin Alcantara, OF 
Michael Arias, P 
Pete Crow-Armstrong, OF 
Jose Cuas, P 
Brennen Davis, OF 
Porter Hodge, P 
* Luke Little, P 
* Matt Mervis, 1B 
Daniel Palencia, P 
Luis Vazquez, INF 

10-DAY IL: 2 
Seiya Suzuki, OF
Patrick Wisdom, INF 

15-DAY IL: 2
* Justin Steele, P  
Jameson Taillon, P 

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




Minor League Rosters
Rule 5 Draft 
Minor League Free-Agents

kcab si yaraC yrraH (That's "Harry Caray is back," spelled backwards)

Submitted by Cubnut on

Years before most of the English-speaking world was convinced it could do a passable Harry Caray impression, Jim Volkman was a regular on Chicago radio and had established himself as the master Harry mimic.

Well, Harry (Jim) is back now, at 1908worldchampions.com, where he recently started a game-by-game commentary on the Cubs season, with assistance from two other great voices from the Cubs past, who, like Caray, happen to be dead: Jack Brickhouse and Lou Boudreau.

Tags
Harry Caray
Cubs Humor
Jack Brickhouse
Lou Boudreau
Cubs announcers

Comments

Submitted by djchi on Mon, 08/25/2008 - 08:22 am

From baseball prospectus' Postseason Odds Report. As I understand it, they simulate the season 1 million times every day to see how many times each team won/qualified/etc. The Cubs are given a 98.88866 percent chance of making the playoffs as of today, for example. If they simulate it a million times exactly, how in the world can they need five numbers to the right of the decimal point? Sorry, I guess this outs me as a math geek.

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Submitted by WISCGRAD on Mon, 08/25/2008 - 08:36 am

The answer to your question lies in their descriptions below the results: "Champions is how often, in percentage terms, this team won the championship of their division. Ties are not broken, but credited as 0.5 championships apiece (for a two-way tie), .333 apiece for a three-way tie, .25 for four-way, etc. This is why the final decimal place is not an error!"

Submitted by WISCGRAD on Mon, 08/25/2008 - 08:32 am

http://espn.inside-edge.com/reportcardrosters.aspx?enc=CsNdTaN2SU4lzc+z… Perhaps most of you have already seen this, but the ESPN Inside Edge (free) has some pretty cool stats for each player on a player report card of sorts. For instance, 86% of Kerry Wood's 2 strike at-bats become outs. Lots of interesting percentage stats like that compared to league averages, and given letter grades. Interestingly no Cub batter is rated any higher than a B overall, and I think Wood is the only one on the entire team over B+.

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Submitted by nohit on Mon, 08/25/2008 - 08:50 pm

Another interesting one... % runners faced who score. Cubs only have one pitcher who is above league average in this department. Howry many guesses do you need? A few other notes: * Some of the grades are likely to be fluid because A through F differs over only a few percent. * I'm not sure how the overall grade is computed, but if it gives equal weighting to all of those factors, then it's suspect. * The individual item grading is based on the assumption that certain actions are always desirable. For example, throwing strikes: while this is generally true, it doesn't take into consideration the value of a setup pitch outside the zone. I suppose there are lots of nits we could pick with this data, but it is very interesting. Thanks for sharing.

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Submitted by navigator on Mon, 08/25/2008 - 08:46 pm

Thanks for posting. Stark does a great job manipulating his email to advance the debate .

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Submitted by jacos on Mon, 08/25/2008 - 08:50 pm

Nice delusional Brewer fans there. Best is the Cardinal fan talking about "when Carpetner comes back"

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Submitted by Ryno on Mon, 08/25/2008 - 08:07 pm

You should reply to him and say something like, "yeah, bro, when Carpenter comes back it will be like making a major trade for a top-tier starting pitcher."

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Submitted by blockhead25 on Mon, 08/25/2008 - 08:52 pm

I agree that the Cubs have the best overall playoff rotation depth. But the D-backs still scare the heck out of me for a 5 game series where Webb will pitch 2 of 5. Doesn't give us any margin of error. It's all about game 1 in 5 game series, and I would say that Webb has the advantage over anyone in that game.

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Submitted by Ryno on Mon, 08/25/2008 - 08:15 pm

From article... Can't overlook Tampa Bay's Big Three -- Scott Kazmir, Matt Garza and James Shields... I love how everyone talks so matter-of-factly about how obvious it is that the Rays are so good this year. Let's get real about it for a minute... the Rays are defying the laws of physics and Kazmir, Garza, and Shields is not a rotation that warrants a first place ranking in front of the Yankees and Bosox. The Rays are rubbish that refuses to lose.

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Submitted by Charlie on Mon, 08/25/2008 - 08:07 pm

"The Rays are rubbish that refuses to lose." The Cards are rubbish that refuses to lose. The Rays are a team of good athletes outperforming their career lines and winning tight ball games. Their roster isn't intimidating, but they aren't all scrubs either.

Submitted by nohit on Mon, 08/25/2008 - 08:15 pm

That guy does a wonderful Caray impression, but his material sucks. True, Harry would occasionally say the wrong name, but not every other sentence. He would also get it right occasionally, so it was obvious that he had made a mistake (rather than the Jim Rome-esque approach of intentionally renaming people). He also wouldn't have ever said "Ryne" Dempster. "Rick Dempster" or "Rick Dempsey", maybe. *shrug* Seems like this would be great if they would dial it back a bit.

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Submitted by Cubnut on Mon, 08/25/2008 - 08:49 pm

You're definitely right about it being over the top, but I think that's what makes Volkman's take on Harry his own and some of the forced misnaming is pretty funny. In a recap of one of the Cubs/Reds games last week he referred to Johnny Cueto as Jose Cuervo, which Harry clearly would never have done in real life. Anyway, thanks for listening and offering the comment.

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Submitted by nohit on Mon, 08/25/2008 - 08:28 pm

I've heard a lot of different people parody Harry over the years. Most of them just make me wince. This is the first guy I've heard who can do him convincingly enough to really fool me. But then he takes that mystique away by saying things that Harry wouldn't say. I understand that he's just trying to be funny, but every Harry joke has already been told a million times. I'd rather just hear more realism. It's probably just me, but I was disappointed, depsite this guy's mad impersonation skillz (and certainly props are due for those).

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Submitted by Pell Mell on Mon, 08/25/2008 - 08:30 pm

I have a buddy who does an awfully good Harry. The best component of my guy's impression is the same one Volkman gets right: remembering that Harry had a lower vocal register. For the life of me, I will never understand how Will Ferrell got over with that head-voice, breathy nonsense of his. It bore no relationship to the real Harry, to my ears; and yet his is the impression everyone rips off. This all makes me sound like a Harry devotee, when really my heart is along the Brickhouse/Boudreau/Lloyd axis. The impression of Brickhouse on Volkman's website needs work.

Submitted by WISCGRAD on Mon, 08/25/2008 - 08:25 pm

The Twins just got Eddie Guardado from the Rangers to help their bullpen down the stretch. Who did they have to give up for him? None other than the Twins Rookie League closer Mark Hamburger - you can't make this stuff up.

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Submitted by crunch on Mon, 08/25/2008 - 08:08 pm

twins are disgusting...one of the worst organizations in baseball, imo. so many years they're in competition...so many years they get it done spending next to nothing...so many years they get to the trade deadline and DO NOTHING EXCEPT TOKEN PICKUPS. yes, they dont need/want to pick up someone they have to pay 15m the following year and they dont need/want to give up a ton of kids...but they constantly do...nothing. a team legacy full of blown opportunities (or a least a chance to better their opportunities).

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Submitted by djchi on Mon, 08/25/2008 - 08:44 pm

On similar lines...it's mind-boggling to me that they let Johan Santana go this year, then inked Joe Nathan to a 4-year/$47 million contract. Nathan was signed for $6 million for 2008 before they renegotiated. They dealt Santana for a replaceable part for 2008 (Carlos Gomez, .256/.291/.348) and some down-the-road minor leaguers. Imagine this team with Johan Santana on it instead of Carlos Gomez. Spend part of what they committed to Nathan down the road on a CFer. And at the beginning of the year, they were counting on 600 AB's from Michael Cuddyer too. The Twins not trying to win this year in particular is shameful. Santana, Nathan, Mauer, Morneau, Cuddyer is a good enough nucleus to take a crack at it.

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Submitted by 10man on Mon, 08/25/2008 - 08:54 pm

a nice argument until you consider the fact that Santana was gonna ask the Twins for a contract 2-3 times the value of what Nathan got. They just couldn't afford that and hope to hold on to the other players you mentioned as nucleus.

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Submitted by djchi on Tue, 08/26/2008 - 08:22 am

I mean make a run in 2008. Santana would have gotten an arbitration contract this year, then would have left as a free agent at the end. They had a real shot to make a run this year. Now, by the time the guys they got for Santana are good enough to be major leaguers, Mauer/Morneau/Cuddyer will get expensive and be gone. This was the Twins' window year.

Submitted by blockhead25 on Mon, 08/25/2008 - 08:29 pm

Schedule Check: Brewers 31 games 16 home/15 away 15 .500+/16 .500- Cubs: 32 games 13 home/19 away 26 .500+/6 .500- Cardinals: 30 games 15 home/15 away 21 .500+/9 .500- Based on schedule alone, we should have no problem holding off the Cards by a significant amount. But the Brewers have by far the easist September schedule of the 3 teams.

Submitted by crunch on Mon, 08/25/2008 - 08:21 pm

fluff... http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/baseball/mlb/08/25/pitcher.toogoo… " NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) -- Nine-year-old Jericho Scott is a good baseball player -- too good, it turns out. The right-hander has a fastball that tops out at about 40 mph. He throws so hard that the Youth Baseball League of New Haven told his coach that the boy could not pitch any more. When Jericho took the mound anyway last week, the opposing team forfeited the game, packed its gear and left, his coach said." ...and more... btw, look how small his hands are in relation to the baseball to gain a little respect for a "40mph fastball".

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Submitted by 10man on Mon, 08/25/2008 - 08:58 pm

I read that and it's sad really how adult politics get in the way of the kids having fun. If that boys parents were really concerned about letting him develop his "gift" then they should find a more competitive league for the boy to join so that he could be challenged more to get even better.

Submitted by blockhead25 on Mon, 08/25/2008 - 08:37 pm

White Sox are finishing a suspended game today from April when the Sox and Orioles ended tied 3-3 after 11. Random question. Do the stats for this game including the final score count as an April game or August game? It's a pointless question, but I'm curious if the final score will be reflected in April when the game began, or August when the game finished?

Recent comments

  • crunch (view)

    booooooooooo

    also, wisdom and taillon are both in chicago.

  • TarzanJoeWallis (view)

    Tonight’s game postponed. Split games on Saturday.

  • crunch (view)

    cubs getting crazy good at not having player moves leak.

    taillon we 100% know is pitching tonight.  who he's replacing and any additional moves are unknown as far as i can tell.

    p.wisdom was not in today's lineup in iowa (rained out) and he was removed from the game last night mid-game, but not for injury.  good bet he's with the team in the bigs, too.

  • Bill (view)

    A good rule of thumb is that if you trade a near-ready high ceiling prospect, you should get at least two far-away high ceiling prospects in return.  Like all rules-of-thumb, it depends upon the specific circumstances, but certainly, we weren't going to get Busch for either prospect alone.

  • Sonicwind75 (view)

    Right on schedule, just read an article in Baseball America entitled "10 MLB Prospects Outside The Top 100 Who Have Our Attention".  Zyhir Hope was one of the prospects featured. It stated that he's "one of the biggest arrow-up sleeper prospects in the lower levels right now."

     

    Not sharing to be negative about the trade, getting a top 100 prospect who is MLB ready should carry a heavy prospect cost.  But man, Dodger sure are good at identifying and developing young talent. Andrew Friedman seems to have successfully merged Ray's development with Yankees financial might to create a juggernaut of an organization.  

  • Sonicwind75 (view)

    I suspect Brown will spend some time in the bullpen due to inning restrictions.  Pitched only 93 innings last year and career high is 104 innings in 2022.  I would expect them to be cautious with a young player with his injury history.

  • Childersb3 (view)

    I wanted Almonte gone last week, but that was before Merryweather went down and Little got demoted. Almonte in his last 5 appearances has gone 4.1 IP with no ER or Runs. NO hits, 3 BBs and 8 SO. He did hit 96 with his 2S FB in AZ on Tues.
    I don't see Jed waiving him when we have injuries all over and guys with options that can be sent down.
    I probably won't like the move Jed makes, but he can't play the "let's hope no one wants his 1.7mil remaining deal and we can hide him in Iowa" card.
    That's why I think the current Bullpen stays as is and Wicks goes to Iowa.
    I don't like that, but that's the fix I see.
    We'll find out soon enough!!!

  • TarzanJoeWallis (view)

    Teheran minor league deal is done, per MLB.

  • TarzanJoeWallis (view)

    Based on Phil’s sound analysis it sounds like a no brainer for Almonte to be placed on waivers as today’s roster move. We shall see.

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    I suspect Counsell/Hottovy will use the piggy-back extensively, with Taillon and Hendricks pitching as the "pig" (and with a very short leash) and some combo of Wicks, Brown, and Wesneski (whichever two do not start) as the "backers."  

    Keep in mind that Keegan Thompson has a minor league option available, and if Yency Almonte is not outrighted by 4/26 he cannot be sent to the minors without his consent after that date. Almonte is out of minor league options, so I am talking about him getting outrighted to the minors if he is not claimed off waivers, and if he is claimed off waivers, the Cubs save the pro-rated portion of his $1.9M salary, which helps lower the Cubs 2024 AAV.

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