Randy Wells is the Day 2 King Of The Mountain!

 

There are 2 spot open for the back of the Cubs starting rotation, and watching who wins 'em ought to be pretty entertaining even if you feel it's a foregone conclusion that it's Randy Wells and Carlos Silva or Wells and Andrew Cashner.

Randy went 2 innings of 2-hit ball with a strikeout yesterday, and he started so that was against the Brewer "starters".
Young Cashner had a throwing error and a wild pitch that resulting in one of the 2 runs he gave up in his two innings.

If we were keeping simple tabs on these guys, I think so far Wells would have a "good", Cashner a "not so good" and I already can't remember what James Russell did the other day, but I think it was a "not so good".
I might re-visit this illustration as time goes on to keep tabs on who's "king of the mountain" because surely there will be some headlocks and brawling and tumbling down the almighty mound...

Uh, and Reed Johnson led off and got a couple hits, Tyler Colvin got a triple.

Ryan Dempster starts today, and we'll see who comes in in the 3rd - maybe it's Coleman or Looper.

Also, the Cubs are looking for a PA announcer at Wrigley.
Here's the story, and they're having you send your audition tape to CareerBuilder 

It says you must have a "deep knowledge of baseball", which I think in this case means being able to pronounce "Samardzija" and... like that one game where the tornado sirens went off?
As official PA guy you should be able to yell, "GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!"

Submitted by CubbyBlue on Tue, 03/01/2011 - 8:32am

Comments

Submitted by Rob Richardson
on Tue, 03/01/2011 - 1:22pm

Chris Carpenter Sustains Injury, Leaves Cardinals Spring Training Game

http://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2011/3/1/2023077/...

Submitted by crunch
on Tue, 03/01/2011 - 1:25pm

and his replacement, reliever mitch boggs, leaves with a back strain.

Submitted by Rob G.
on Tue, 03/01/2011 - 1:31pm

twitter sez minor hamstring injury...

Submitted by Rob Richardson
on Tue, 03/01/2011 - 2:35pm

Doesn't sound like a big deal.

"Carpenter said he threw one more pitch after feeling the hamstring tug. He said he wasn't that concerned about the injury."

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/spring2011/news...

Submitted by Rob G.
on Tue, 03/01/2011 - 1:33pm

http://twitpic.com/453a6q

Submitted by crunch
on Tue, 03/01/2011 - 1:34pm

fuku/castro/byrd/aram/SOTO/dewitt/r.johnson/lahair

byrd seems to be quade's guy in the 3 slot.

Submitted by navigator
on Tue, 03/01/2011 - 2:17pm

Chris Archer today vs the Orioles:

1.0 IP 0 Runs O Hits 0 Nothin' 3 Strikeouts

Submitted by Old and Blue
on Tue, 03/01/2011 - 2:26pm

I really don't have an opinion about the trade since you can't truly judge a trade until quite a ways after the fact, but it would be quite Cubslike if Archer won a rotation spot and had a better year than Garza.

Submitted by crunch
on Tue, 03/01/2011 - 2:35pm

s.castro picks up his 1st throwing error on the year. he's season-ready now.

Submitted by crunch
on Tue, 03/01/2011 - 3:26pm

dumpster - 3ip 2h 1er 1bb 3k
wellemeyer - 2ip 1h 0er 0bb 2k

Submitted by crunch
on Tue, 03/01/2011 - 3:14pm

damn...Sonnanstine (TB) gave up 6 hits today in 2ip...5 HRs.

Submitted by jacos
on Tue, 03/01/2011 - 3:18pm

Jim Hendry and Andy McPhail weep.

Garrett Anderson retires.

http://sports.espn.go.com/los-angeles/mlb/new...

Submitted by Rob G.
on Tue, 03/01/2011 - 4:51pm

now on SI

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers...

5 year rank is 13, 2010 rank is 5

one green light in Garza with this interesting note...

his UCL is actually covered in scar from a youth injury, which doctors believe makes it stronger than normal.

and the rest of the starting staff is a red light as well as Marmol and Wood.

Submitted by crunch
on Tue, 03/01/2011 - 5:03pm

i was interested until i saw who wrote the article...

Submitted by Jace
on Tue, 03/01/2011 - 5:05pm

Do these ratings strike anyone else as a tad arbitrary?

Submitted by crunch
on Tue, 03/01/2011 - 5:09pm

his dad is a doctor...i trust him, yo...i trust him.

he's the self appointed god of "injury statistics." lulz.

Submitted by Cubster
on Tue, 03/01/2011 - 5:29pm

his dad is a doctor...i trust him, yo...i trust him.
---
Based on the green, yellow and red light ratings...does that suggest his mom was a traffic cop?

...not touching the "red light" I'll leave that one for Johann's mom.

Submitted by Rob G.
on Tue, 03/01/2011 - 5:32pm

last year

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php...

Red: Ramirez, Soriano, Lilly, Marmol
Yellow: Guzman, Soto, Lee, Bird, Z, Dempster, Wells
Green: Gorzelanny, Fukudome, Theriot, Fontenot

under Randy Wells, claims the history of converted catchers to pitchers is not good when it comes to injuries.

Submitted by Rob G.
on Tue, 03/01/2011 - 5:34pm

primer on ratings

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers...

fwiw, a red is 51% chance of an injury putting player on DL, so it's not a death sentence, nor even a certainty, just slightly better odds then guessing a coin flip.

Submitted by Rob G.
on Tue, 03/01/2011 - 5:43pm

I guess mariners are sticking with him, I just assumed he was released.

3/3 today

it is a contract year, so he may try this time.

Submitted by jacos
on Tue, 03/01/2011 - 6:49pm

Racist

Submitted by Paul Noce
on Tue, 03/01/2011 - 6:55pm

Cracker!

------------

Has he had a resolution to his latest legal problems?

Submitted by Rob G.
on Tue, 03/01/2011 - 6:56pm

believe all charges were dropped

Submitted by Paul Noce
on Tue, 03/01/2011 - 8:04pm

Ok, then the M's keeping him makes more sense. I was thinking if the threat of jail time was hanging over his head the team could be excused for not wanting that further distraction. Bradley's asking for help last year probably also bought him some forgiveness and another opportunity, but I would think he's still on a short leash.

Submitted by Ryno
on Tue, 03/01/2011 - 6:57pm

hah... high five

Submitted by Rob G.
on Tue, 03/01/2011 - 7:00pm

just on Tuesdays

Submitted by Rob G.
on Tue, 03/01/2011 - 6:17pm

http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?...

F. Perez hurt already
Colvin to get start at 1B on Friday
Cub Carpenter sent home with the flu

Submitted by Cubster
on Tue, 03/01/2011 - 7:48pm

mlb has it's ipad/iphone apps up for 2011.

...saw this 5 dollar app called "Pennant" in the iTunes store which seems like a unique way to look up historical game data back to 1951.

might take a look at the author's video presentation of it on his website...

http://www.pennant.cc/

Submitted by The Real Neal
on Tue, 03/01/2011 - 9:00pm

From Musket's write up of today's win (tomorrow's preview).

Carlos Pena will be back in the lineup at first. Let's see if the Brewers utilize the defensive shift again. Milwaukee did that Monday, and Pena grounded out both times.

So much for my hope that Pena will use the whole field.

Submitted by Tony S.
on Wed, 03/02/2011 - 12:41am

There was actually a decent article about Pena's response to TRN a couple days ago.

He basically said it makes more sense to stay with what you know so you don't screw up worse. I'll buy it, as long as he hits at least .240...

...Then he said "Screw The Real Neal" ;)

Submitted by tbone
on Wed, 03/02/2011 - 8:24am

Good. He knows the past two seasons he's hit in the .220s and the .190s this way so why mess with success, huh? If it ain't broke don't fix it.

Submitted by The Real Neal
on Wed, 03/02/2011 - 4:44pm

I guess he means "If I got $10 million, I won't worry about it."

Submitted by VirginiaPhil
on Wed, 03/02/2011 - 9:43am

I don't know what Pena's problem is, but I doubt it's the shift.

Adam Dunn hit .260 against the same shift, with more home runs than Pena. Looking at the mlb.com home-run charts in their home ballparks, I see that Dunn hit 20 home runs in Nationals Park, Pena hit 18 in Tropicana. 13 of Dunn's HRs were to the right of dead center, while 12 of Pena's were to the right of dead center (and 1 was dead center). One curiosity is that all of Pena's 5 other HRs were to the left of the distance sign in left center, while all of Dunn's 7 left-field HRs were to the right of that number. Dunn never came anywhere near the left-field line.

At any rate, if Pena wants to learn to swing toward left, there is a knowledge base of Cub alums he can call up for advice, guys like Jacque Jones, Hollandsworth, Choi, Edmonds, etc., etc.

By the way, if you want to see a good old-fashioned dear-to-my-heart dead-pull hitter, look at Tyler Colvin's home runs.

Submitted by jacos
on Wed, 03/02/2011 - 9:48am

I thought I read Pena's problems started when he became a pull hitter.

Submitted by VirginiaPhil
on Wed, 03/02/2011 - 3:25pm

Not according to his 2007 home-run chart at Tropicana, where he hit 23 home runs, half his total. That was the year he hit .282 and had an OPS of 1.037.

I count 2 home runs directly at the 370 sign in dead right center and 8 or 9 HRs (the graph is crowded with h's) well to the right of the sign.

I'd like to see a few examples of power hitters who are not pull hitters.

Submitted by The Real Neal
on Wed, 03/02/2011 - 4:50pm

Well, other than strikeouts, the reason his batting average is low is a low BABIP. The best ways to have a low BABIP is to:
1. Hit a lot of fly balls that don't leave the park
2. Pull everything so that the defense can stack the odds against you
3. Be slow

Last year I supsect Pena was guilty of all three.

Submitted by VirginiaPhil
on Thu, 03/03/2011 - 7:44am

I would say the best route to a low BABIP is not to make solid contact, not to "square the ball up," as the baseball people say.

But looking at it that way makes BABIP something of a circular concept, and takes the fun out of it.

I haven't seen Pena hit, so I really have no idea what's wrong with him. Just looking at his hitting highlights, which are usually home runs, it's kind of an ugly swing. Maybe he's not really a major-league hitter.

It's one year, so who cares?

Submitted by JoePepitone
on Thu, 03/03/2011 - 12:29am

Historically, Hank Aaron was an all-fields home run hitter, though he gradually became more of a pull hitter late in his career -- possibly after he realized he was close enough to Ruth's record to break it. I recall Sosa also hit quite a good number of his home runs to right field, especially later in his career when he stood so far off the plate and couldn't catch up on fastballs like he used to.

Edit:
I used to have a baseball game that used spinners on top of discs that showed a player's batting outcomes with hall of fame players. I can't recall the name of it, but the background of the game board was Wrigley Field with the center field bleachers NOT covered with the Astroturf hitting background. Anyway, I had "Hall of Fame" player disks and the Hank Aaron disc was nearly equally divided between home runs to left, center and right fields, whereas Ernie Bank's disc was heavily weighted to left field home runs, very few to center and none to right.

Submitted by VirginiaPhil
on Thu, 03/03/2011 - 8:21am

The Aaron I remember was a pull hitter; but the stats are spotty. In Aaron's home-run log, BR comes up with this breakdown of his 40-homer 1960 season: LF (16), LF-CF (5), CF (6), CF-RF (1), RF (0), no information (12).

The wrong-way power hitter in that 50's-60's NL HOF cohort was Clemente who hit double-digit triples most years but only 240 home runs over 18 seasons.

Submitted by Charlie
on Wed, 03/02/2011 - 9:55am

Tyler Colvin and Carlos Pena are very different hitters. Most of Colvin's homeruns may be on his pull side, but he can hit line drives to left with the best of them (okay, maybe not up there with Jacque Jones, but Jones could only hit to left).

Submitted by The Real Neal
on Wed, 03/02/2011 - 4:52pm

I agree, Colvin is happy to lash a line drive over the shorstop's head. He jumps on his HR's and jerks them to right, but with a little loft he could probably hit some to left-center as well.

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