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39 players are on the MLB RESERVE LIST (one slot is open), plus two players are on the 60-DAY IL and one player has been DESIGNATED FOR ASSIGNMENT (DFA)   

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

Last updated 4-23-2024
 
* bats or throws left
# bats both

PITCHERS: 13
Yency Almonte
Adbert Alzolay 
Javier Assad
Colten Brewer
Ben Brown
* Shota Imanaga
Mark Leiter Jr
* Luke Little
Hector Neris 
Jameson Taillon 
Keegan Thompson
Hayden Wesneski 
* Jordan Wicks

CATCHERS: 2
Miguel Amaya
Yan Gomes

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

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

OPTIONED: 9 
Kevin Alcantara, OF 
Michael Arias, P 
Pete Crow-Armstrong, OF 
Jose Cuas, P 
Brennen Davis, OF 
Porter Hodge, P 
* Miles Mastrobuoni, INF
Daniel Palencia, P 
Luis Vazquez, INF 

10-DAY IL: 1 
Seiya Suzuki, OF

15-DAY IL: 3
Kyle Hendricks, P 
* Drew Smyly, P 
* Justin Steele, P   

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

DFA: 1 
Garrett Cooper, 1B 
 




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Cubs Lineup Waste

Submitted by Rob G. on

(awesome illustration from Tim Souers of Cubby Blue, click on the image for the full-size)

More after the jump...

A few days ago I put up a poll on some of the lineup atrocities over the years, which Neifi ran away with at 73% of the vote, but this continued mess of Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez hitting ahead of Alfonso Soriano and Geovany Soto finished a distant second at 11% (with Soriano hitting leadoff finishing just behind at 10%). Anyway, how about contextualizing the current atrocity in numbers thanks to Baseball Prospectus (ROB is Runners on Base).

Player PA ROB
Ramirez 141 104
Lee 154 103
Byrd 143 97
Theriot 155 85
Soriano 121 67
Fukudome 117 63
Soto 107 62
Fontenot 85 53
Colvin 59 52
Baker 57 46
Nady 52 42

As you can see, the two guys struggling the most have had the most opportunities to drive in runs thanks to batting in the middle of the order.  On top of that, thanks to their struggles, there isn't anyone on-base for Soriano while he is hitting. It's a double whammy of lineup stupidity. Just to compare, Chris Young of Arizona and Raul Ibanez of Philly are two other NL #6 hitters with a similar number of at-bats and Young has had 95 ROB in a 144 PA and Ibanez has had 90 ROB in a 130 PA.

Now let's add a column of OBI% or Others Batted In. When we talk about a guy being a run producer, this is where they should be excelling at, driving in the other guys on base in front of them (16-17% is the average). Granted, it's a number that fluctuates quite a bit from year-to-year, but you gotta take advantage of the hot hitters.

Player PA ROB OBI%
Ramirez 141 104 11.5%
Lee 154 103 11.7%
Byrd 143 97 18.6%
Theriot 155 85 14.1%
Soriano 121 67 19.4%
Fukudome 117 63 20.6%
Soto 107 62 9.7%
Fontenot 85 53 20.8%
Colvin 59 52 9.6%
Baker 57 46 2.2%
Nady 52 42 11.9%

I wouldn't worry about Soto much, he just gets walked whenever someone is on-base so they can face the pitchers, but while Lee and Ramirez struggle, Soriano is basically just being back to a leadoff man in the middle of the order. Maybe that was Lou's plan all along.

Today, nothing changes with Theriot, Byrd, Lee, Nady, Ramirez, Soriano, Soto, Castro and Gorzelanny set to battle the Pirates lefty Brian Burres.

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Cubs Statistics

Comments

Submitted by billybucks on Fri, 05/14/2010 - 05:43 pm

Pre-Ricketts: Cubs beat Pirates. "Year One": Still looking for an inferior team -- no luck so far, despite playing the Pirates, Reds, Astros and Marlins.

Submitted by big_lowitzki on Fri, 05/14/2010 - 05:48 pm

Damn... Ramirez can't catch a break. He finally gets a big hit, and it sticks in the vines and he doesn't get an RBI.

Submitted by Ryno on Fri, 05/14/2010 - 05:26 pm

It just sunk in for me that 5 guys in the Cubs lineup are hitting over 300, yet they are 15-20. R. Theriot 2b .324 M. Byrd cf .346 A. Soriano lf .333 G. Soto c .310 S. Castro ss .364

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Submitted by crunch on Fri, 05/14/2010 - 05:51 pm

i don't think it's a tragedy, but i'm a little sick of watching soriano waste RBI slot hits. byrd at least gets to hit 4th/5th occasionally... aram should be where sori is in the lineup until his bat "wakes up" byrd and soriano are the power...and they're hitting.. be nice to see soto move up a little, too.

[ ]

Submitted by MikeC on Fri, 05/14/2010 - 05:22 pm

Well this is what happens when a player goes into a slump and you start jockeying the lineup all around. By time you figure out the player is back on track, you have pretty much wasted a ton of good RBI chances in the middle of the lineup. This is knee jerk managing that the fans want.

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Submitted by crunch on Fri, 05/14/2010 - 05:28 pm

we're a month and 1/2 into the season. aram has almost 140 PAs with very constant suck...that's almost 1/4th of a season. nady hitting 4th/5th so often when he plays i don't get at all... dlee in the 3 slot i can buy because he's at least seeing the ball with occasional flashes of constancy. uggg...

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Submitted by Jace on Fri, 05/14/2010 - 05:29 pm

Correction - What you described might be what happens with Lou. Most of us have been calling for moving ARam out of that slot for at least a week... I agree that by the time Lou does it, Aram may be heating up...

Submitted by artskoe on Fri, 05/14/2010 - 05:27 pm

Is Hill hurt? I think he has a better chance of throwing these speedy Pirates out, but it looks like he is in the Lou dug-house.

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Submitted by big_lowitzki on Fri, 05/14/2010 - 05:42 pm

Is Hill hurt? No... he just sucks. And Soto is good. And FWIW, Hill has a career 33% CS%, compared to Soto's 27%. Which basically means that Hill would throw out a handful of extra baserunners out a year.

Submitted by Cubster on Fri, 05/14/2010 - 05:15 pm

Z has figured out how to get back In The rotation... By sucking in the 8th inning Of course, I mean the rotation in Des Moines

Submitted by jacos on Fri, 05/14/2010 - 05:16 pm

At work, keep us updated to what happens when Lou pulls Z. I'm guessing some jawing.

Submitted by jacos on Fri, 05/14/2010 - 05:22 pm

Question for Lou in post game- "Lou when do you expect Xavier Nady to snap out of it and be that .270ish 10 hr guy that we know that he is?"

Submitted by Mike Wellman on Fri, 05/14/2010 - 05:29 pm

today could be the day - tick, tick, tick... the illustration & caption are excellent, btw...

Submitted by Rob G. on Fri, 05/14/2010 - 05:49 pm

it'll be funny when we're feeding the Pirates playoff run later this year maybe they'll take Aramis back

Submitted by Q-Ball on Fri, 05/14/2010 - 05:05 pm

Going back to last year, we have lost 6 in a row to the PIRATES, first time we have done that since 1992....which was also the last year the Pirates were actually good, the tail-end of the Bonds/Drabek/Van Slyke era. What does that tell you?

Submitted by Tito on Fri, 05/14/2010 - 05:13 pm

On the positive side, I have Garrett Jones on my fantasy team. On the negative side, I have Big Z on my fantasy team.

Submitted by Old and Blue on Fri, 05/14/2010 - 05:12 pm

Amazingly, only 5 1/2 games out. 4th in the league in AVG, 7th in total runs. I guess I could be just insane, but I'm not quite ready to throw in the towel yet. I do get the lineup complaints, though. Maybe Sam Fuld will give up his playing career and manage this team. He's quite the stats hound, I've read.

Submitted by Charlie on Fri, 05/14/2010 - 05:55 pm

Anybody else notice that Gorzo was really busting it in their today? Or was the WGN radar gun just hot? They had him at 96 mph on at least one pitch and routinely hitting 92.

Recent comments

  • Childersb3 (view)

    Things I've been wrong about:

    -Tauchman is fine as a 4th OF. I knew that. I just want a better LH DH option and he was really the DH for us until Seiya got hurt. I'm glad Mervis is getting a chance at it. Caissie is coming for that job for sure. But Tauchman continues to be highly useful as a 4th OF with Seiya being hurt

    -I wanted Yency to go to get guys at Iowa a chance. Guys like Palencia and Sanders or RileyT. Maybe even Hodge! But Yency has been better the last two plus weeks. He did hit 96 the other day. He was 93 in Texas to open the season.

    -Leiter has his split working enough. It just needs to stay there

    -I was surprised Jed picked Wisdom over Cooper. I wonder if this happens if Seiya wasn't hurt. Wisdom has more power. Cooper is the better hitter. Jed picked Wisdom and Wisdom had an option left as well.

    -Palencia just doesn't miss enough bats. Similar to ManRod, just two yrs younger. ManRod is killing AAA for TB right now!

    Things I got right so far:

    -Hendricks. Sorry Kyle. You got paid though!

    Jed, you missed there.

    -Smyly. If Jed could've traded him before or during ST, then he should have and saved some cash.

    -Mastro.  Not a LH DH. Pinch runner. Defensive utility. Maybe he's better than Madrigal but didn't get a legit chance to prove it.

    -Luke Little is good. He's had one bad outing. That's it. Needs to get better entering with guys on base. But he needs to stay in MLB.

    -Oh yeah....Morel is doing fine at 3B! He'll get better as well!!

  • crunch (view)

    bellinger "right rib contusion"

  • Childersb3 (view)

    South Bend just lost the lead in the bottom of the 9th on the weirdest scenario, ever.

    It's absolutely pouring rain....men on 1st and 2nd, 1out....JPatterson asks for a new ball, but no time out was called....he throws the old ball toward the dugout (not sure if it rolled out of play).....the ump declares the runners get two bases each so one run scores. Then a single up the middle ties the game.

    The rain was coming down in buckets at this point.

    Just weird

  • crunch (view)

    ...and bellinger is gone in the 7th because of that 2nd blown chance and the wall he bounced off of...

    hopefully his rib cage/shoulder feels better tomorrow, we just got happ back.

  • Childersb3 (view)

    Phil,

    Any thoughts on Y. Rojas' stuff and Y. Melendez's game (I believe I've asked about him before, sorry)?

  • crunch (view)

    wow, things are moving fast.  hopefully it continues.

  • crunch (view)

    morel with 4 clean plays in 4 innings...showed off his 100000000mph arm a couple times.

    cody bellinger not having a good 4th, though...5 run leads are handy when your CF is making your pitcher have a 5-out inning.  2nd blown chance was ruled a hit even though it went in/out of his glove...1st was lost in the lights, also ruled a hit.

  • crunch (view)

    welcome back happ!  double off the wall 1st PA back.

  • crunch (view)

    oh yeah, totally, i was just chiming about why i fan like i fan.

    i would like nothing more than hendricks to keep on hendricks'ing.  guys with his stuff can throw for a long, long time as long as it works.

    he velocity is actually up a minor amount this year.  it's really "damn" when a guy like him not only has gas in the tank, but it's looking like it was years ago.  he added a curve a few years ago and it helped a little bit, but he's throwing it less and less while the fb/change combo are less effective.

  • Alexander Dimm (view)

    CRUNCH—There is no one person in this community I’m talking about.  My remarks were not directed at you or anyone, but at a tone I’ve noticed lately. 

    You have a great, dry sense of humor and there is thought behind your comments.   You and I don’t always agree but I always understand your position.  

    Lastly, and I’ll be quiet, I agree with you on Hendricks.  We can dislike the recent performance but still love the guy.  Lots of questions about his future.
     

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