Cubs MLB Roster

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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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Game 11 Thread / Cubs @ Phillies (2 of 3)

Game Chat | Press Pass | BR Preview

SP Ted Lilly
SP
*Cole Hamels
  0-1, 9.72, 5 K, 2 BB
1-1, 1.20, 10 K, 5 BB
       
LF Alfonso Soriano CF #Shane Victorino
CF
Reed Johnson RF
Jayson Werth
1B
Derrek Lee 2B
*Chase Utley
3B
Aramis Ramirez 1B
*Ryan Howard
C
Geovany Soto LF
Pat Burrell
RF
Mark DeRosa 3B
Pedro Feliz
2B Ronny Cedeno C
Carlos Ruiz
SS Ryan Theriot SS
Eric Bruntlett
P
*Ted Lilly P *Cole Hamels

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lilly is coming off his shortest outing as a Cub, that is, in games that weren't meaningless end-of-season affairs or didn't involve his getting a quick thumb from the home plate umpire. In Monday's game, you'll recall, the Cubs staked Lilly to a 7-0 lead, then the lefty couldn't make it out of the fourth inning. Eventually the Cubs won 10-8 in 12 innings. Thank God for Jon Lieber and Evan Meek.

From the cubs.com report about the outing:

"I almost felt like...I was trying to force the ball in there and going a little too fast," Lilly said.

As far as Cubs manager Lou Piniella was concerned, Lilly is going too slow, the infielders may be back on their heels, and that may be contributing to the errors behind him.

"The way it appears is I'm going slow, but when I'm out there, I feel like I'm going too fast," the left-hander said. "I almost feel better when I'm a little bit slower. It's almost like I rush through my delivery when I go too fast..."

Lilly says too fast; Lou says too slow. Unless this game is played in a time warp, I think somebody is destined to be unhappy with Lilly's pace.

As for the Phillies' lefthander, Hamels is 2-1, 4.24 lifetime against the Cubs. Alfonso Soriano has tagged him for three HR in just 21 plate appearances.

Last night's game, in which Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez hit consecutive first-inning homers, was the 27th game in which the pair have homered. (Only Santo/Williams (63), Santo/Banks (43), and Banks/Williams (42) have achieved the feat more times for the Cubs.) Too bad Cub hitters went 4-for-27 over the final eight innings.

One other note: Jason Marquis, who missed his scheduled start Friday night with a strep throat, will now pitch in the series finale Sunday afternoon against Jamie Moyer.

Update: Cubs give Fukudome the night off, and DeRosa sees his first action this season in right field, where he appeared in 22 games for the Cubs last year. Soto gets moved up into the fifth spot. Regarding the bottom third of the order--Cedeno, Theriot, and the pitcher's spot--all I can say is oy, oy, oy.

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Comments

"Hey, we swept the Pirates! We must be good!" Ah, never mind. Meyers and Hamels outpitch CZ and Lilly, and Phils hitters hit while the Cubs don't. Very discouraging -- and they didn't even have Rollins. Very early, but the Phils look to be the far superior team. Is Lilly toast? Ever since he gave up the glove-slam HR in the playoffs, he has been lousy -- terrible in Spring Training, very lousy so far in 2008. Wonder if that one pitch, and his violent reaction to the result, so shattered his confidence that he can no longer be successful. If Lilly and Hill continue to pitch like this -- it will be a very interesting season. Cubs rotation now looks very shaky. Early, I know. But still....

[ ]

In reply to by billybucks

You blame that homer and concoct some deep-rooted psychological problem if you like, but I'll stick with the fact that he can't throw a curveball for a strike right now. Just from my observations, he's not throwing nearly as many curves as he did last year. The ones he is throwing are poorly located, which makes me think there's something to this story about him having back pain.

Rotoworld's take on Lilly: He's been fine while working from the windup, but he just hasn't been able to get anyone out from the stretch so far. Has anyone else caught this distinction? I honestly haven't paid attention.

I don't know about his confidence, but Lilly's fastball only hit 88 mph twice tonight. Otherwise, it was generally in the 85-86 mph range for the most part. It only touched 87 mph in the 4th inning and 88 mph twice in the 5th. Last year (at least by the end of the season) he was getting up to a top end of 92 mph. Likewise, Howry's fastball is maxing out at 91 mph now as opposed to 95 mph last season. I recall Howry took a couple of months to get his velocity up last year. Z also took awhile last year before his velocity was in its normal range. I don't recall that being the case with Lilly. At any rate, two of our struggling pitchers have yet to show the kind of speed they had last year. Hope this problem rights itself quickly.

So... I am waiting for everyone to call for sitting Lilly like many did with Hill. Hopefully people realize that while Hill has not been great, Lilly has been much worse. But no.. Lilly is a rich veteran, while Hill is just a lowly 2nd year player.

[ ]

In reply to by big_lowitzki

There's also the element that while they are both sucking, you've got a lot more options with Hill, as in he has options. With Lilly, you either have to stick with him or come up with an injury to put him on the DL, with Hill you can send him down to get some extra coaching and to try and fix whatever it is that's hurting him and bring him back whenever he's ready to come back. Its not like missing a couple starts while working in Iowa to figure out what is wrong is a death sentence for Hill's career. Of course, we could also go back to declaring an injury any time a Cubs pitcher was underperforming, but I thought we were finally rid of Mark Prior.

U-G-L-Y!!! Let's get the getaway game and a 4-2 road trip is very respectable. But there are some real things to start worrying about. Nothing to go crazy, but some guys need to start hitting while other needs to start getting some people out.

as someone stated already - this Phillies club is far superior. And - no Jimmy Rollins in the lineup even. During the offseason, I was hoping there was some way Hendry could have gotten Shane Vittorino. It is going to be interesting to see, if the Cubs do miss the playoffs, just how much of an impact either Bedard OR Roberts could have made.

I knew they were in for it last night when Lou started an all righty lineup against Hammels. He did the same thing last year and Hammels made them look horrible in two starts. A pitcher like Hammels needs to have different looks so he can't get comfortable with that changeup. Having an all right-handed lineup allows him to get into a rhythm. Why do managers do this? I can see if Hammels were a power pitcher, like a Randy Johnson, but he's not. This team is going to struggle to score runs all year, not much different than last year's team. Too many fence swingers and not enough baseball players.

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.