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 

 



 

Minor League Rosters
Rule 5 Draft 
Minor League Free-Agents

Cubs Week in Quotations

Caffeine Watch '08
"I've never had Red Bull in my life, but I've actually seen people at a bar order Red Bull and vodka. I can't comprehend that. If I had a couple of those things, I'd be like the malt liquor bull (from the old TV commercials) leaving the bar. My lord."'
- Lou Piniella

"You think Lou lives in my house in Chicago?"
- Carlos Zambrano responding to questions that Lou thinks he's still drinking too many caffeinated beverages

"Every time I don't want to drink Gatorade or water, they are all over me .I appreciate that. They are doing a good job. I have to keep going with my diet -- bananas, bananas and bananas.''
- Carlos Zambrano

I Sense Sarcasm...
"It was foul? You mean, the umpires were wrong?"
- Lou Piniella on DeRosa's "gift" homer on Sunday

But Let's Be Clear, I'm Better
"Dusty's a good man, and a darn good manager. I've always felt that way."
- Lou Piniella on Dusty Baker

Except Me, They Would Never Boo Me, Right?
"They boo everything now, so they might boo him. I don't see the reason why, but I wouldn't be surprised."
- Derrek Lee on Dusty's return to Wrigley Field

Most of Those People Aren't TCR Readers
"Most people aren't going to say bad stuff to your face. They were all cool. They were like, 'Hey, Dusty, we miss you. We love you. I was like, 'Thank you.' "
- Dusty Baker

Just a Hop, Skip and A Jump
"No, no, no, it’s not because of the hop. I had felt it before and I felt it last week and didn’t take care of it then. It was not because of the jump."
- Alfonso Soriano defending his "hop"

"I don’t know how to answer you. Obviously he feels comfortable with it. What happened (Tuesday) night was a freak thing. You can blame it on the hop. You can blame it on whatever you want, but truthfully, if it didn’t happen there, it would’ve happened doing something else."
- Lou Piniella

"I don’t mind the hop, as long as he catches them all. That’s his thing. It helps him relax and focus better, and for the most part he plays good solid defense for us and throws a lot of people out."
- Jim Hendry

"Any time you lose one of your top players it's not good. "
- Lou Piniella on losing Soriano

The Replacement
"I don't have that flair in my game .I turned around to the fans [Tuesday night] and said, 'It's not going to be pretty, but I'll get it done.'"
- Mark DeRosa

"I don't know why it's so different from right, but it played a little different."
- Mark DeRosa on playing left field

"At the end of the day it's like playing Little League. Just catch the ball, hit your cutoff man and everything will take care of itself."
- Mark DeRosa

Liar, Liar!
"We're going to let him start here. I told Felix we're going to play him when we have right-hand pitching out there, and the Reds are pitching three right-handers, so you're going to see Felix out there in center field"
- Lou Piniella before the Reds series started

"We're going to work with him a few days,"
- Lou Piniella the next day.

Papa Lou Is Going to Take Care of This
"I've gotten involved."
- Lou Piniella on working with Felix Pie

"This kid will catch on, and when he does and he feels comfortable with it, we'll run him out there."
- Lou Piniella

No Good Will Come of This
''I've been getting on Zambrano a little bit about his hitting. I told him he's a [batting-practice] hitter. But today, he swung it really well during the game.''
- Lou Piniella on Zambrano's hitting

''I'm a good hitter. I was hitting .000 before the game; now I'm hitting .250. That's good.''
- Carlos Zambrano on his hitting

"You think Sammy Sosa is stronger than me?"
- Carlos Zambrano guaranting that he'd hit the centerfield scoreboard with a home run during batting practice this year

It Would Be Cool if You Got Some Hits
"It's cool to start everything off You get more at-bats. It's cool to do it in the big leagues."
- Mike Fontenot

"Fontenot left a lot of people on today. He hit a lot of balls hard."
- Lou Piniella

Lost In Translation...
'I don't know what the creator of the shirt meant this to be, but they should make it right. Maybe the creator created it because he thought it was funny, or maybe he made it to condescend the race. I don't know.''
- Kosuke Fukudome, on the Horry Kow! shirts being sold outside Wrigley

'I'm looking for something in Spanish. There are more Latin players here than Japanese -- there is only one.''
- Carlos Zambrano commenting on the backdrops in the Cubs interview room consisting of an American and Japanese company, but no Latin companies.

Taking "Throw It Back" to New Levels
"It's something I hadn't seen before. What's amazing is [the fans] beat each other up trying to get these balls in batting practice, and they scrape their knees and elbows. I've seen some fistfights out there, and all of a sudden they give them up rather easily." - Lou Piniella on the fans throwing 15 balls back on the field after an Adam Dunn home run

"I didn't know that many people hit home runs today,"
-Kosuke Fukudome

When Old Men Attack...
"This is the kind of thing … that makes you want to see the Chicago Cubs team lose."
- Reds Announcer Marty Brenneman

Well He Does Have a Point Here
"You simply root against them. I've said all winter, they talk about this team winning the division. They won't win it because they still are the Chicago Cubs and they will figure out a way to screw this whole thing up."
- Marty Brenneman

The Team Responds...
"You're torn in situations like that. You get a chuckle out of it but at the same time you waste 10 minutes of your life." - Mark DeRosa on Marty's comments

"I like Marty Brennaman myself, I really do. I was over there for three years with him, but he's got nothing to do with the Cubs winning it or losing it, I can tell you that."
-Lou Piniella

Oh, You Thought He Was Done?
"I understand all these fans are all upset. Half of them are probably brain dead to begin with. If they can't understand that what happened Wednesday night is completely over the top and out of line, then I'm sorry.
- Marty Brenneman a few days later

"I think what I said about how tough it is to root for the Cubs is something that a lot of people, those that didn't grow up to be Cub fans, feel the same way I do, but they don't want to articulate it. I'm not afraid to say what I think."
- Marty Brenneman

"If you compare the fans in Chicago with the group of people I think are the best fans in baseball, which are the Cardinal fans, they are hands down the best fans in baseball. They respect the game. They go to the ballpark to see the game. They don't do stupid stuff. That is the difference."
- Marty Brenneman

And The Rest...
"Yeah, get about four or five alarm clocks and make sure they get set. It's a mistake that happened and last year's in the past and this year you learn from it and don't let it happen again."
-Eric Patterson's on what he does to make sure he's not late again

"You guys are fantasizing with lineups again,"
- Lou Piniella

Comments

seems like there's always weird stuff going on in cubsworld, not sure how many teams could have quotes like this consistently...we'll probably have more about kosuke's eye and god knows what next week. mets get to play in the slightly late sunday night spot before coming to town for the slightly early night game tomorrow. let's hope this one goes about 15 innings, and that i turn on mute for most of them so i don't have to listen to these assclowns on espn. why do i get the feeling they'll be at wrigley tomorrow night??

I find it extremely distasteful that someone would make fun of the way Asian People talk. Dr. Aaron B would never endorse such a thing.

Cubs lead NL in OBP 2nd in BB's, 2nd in Runs, 2nd in Ops helps that they lead in BA currently, but still...wow, just wow!! Can we play the Pirates every day?

The Carlos Zambrano quote is much better taken out of context. "Bananas bananas bananas!" ~ Carlos Zambrano

[ ]

In reply to by Ryno

very few people know about it but the truth must be told now: last year barrett was assigned by the trainer to remind Z to eat bananas when pitching. of course when michael made a comment to Z about shoving a banana into his mouth, Big Z just lost it.

Theriot is walking slightly more frequently than last year (10% of PA vs. roughly 8%). He walked 49 times last year, good for third on the team behind Lee and DeRosa so while it certainly would be nice if he walked more often, that's not really the biggest weakness in his game. Of course if he increased that walk total from 50 to say 70, that would increase his isolated on base percentage from .060 to .080, which would probably make him an above average leadoff man from a purely OBP standpoint.

I would love to see Theriot make me eat some crow regarding my complaints about his spot near the top of the lineup. That said, I'm probably overly excited about what I've seen from recent Cedeno at-bats. Unfounded or not--it's still excitement. Trying to keep cool. We've had some close wins, lucky wins. But damn if it ain't a treat to see our patience and our cold cockin' line drives. Maine and Figuroa for two. Let's see if we can keep this up against a good team.

Theriot is a net plus for the team. I'm not worried about him. And he'll surely cool off from his 338/408/485 line and when he does, I still won't be worried about him. Really, the team looks pretty good to me right now except they're missing a legit CF. Thank god they picked up Reed Johnson. He'll cool off too, but he's better than nothing. Also, the next couple starts for Ted Lilly will be watched pretty closely, you'd think. He should be coming around pretty soon unless something is wrong.

from the Sun-Times: Alfonso Soriano is progressing from his strained right calf and could start running on Wednesday. Scott Eyre, on the disabled list with an inflamed left elbow, was to throw Sunday in extended spring training in Mesa, Ariz., and soon could be sent on a rehab assignment. Eyre, who has been out since March 23, is likely to go to Class A Daytona. He isn't expected to return to the Cubs anytime soon. Reliever Chad Fox, who is trying to make a comeback from elbow surgery in 2005, will go to Class A Daytona on Tuesday after pitching back-to-back days in Mesa.

It's good to see the Cubs win consistently against teams they're expected to beat. That said, I'm looking forward to this next series against the Mets; it should give us a better read on how well our boys are doing.

Yes, the fast start is great, but the next two weeks should be telling: 10 of 13 against teams with legitimate playoff hopes. So far the Cubs are 2-4 against those teams.

Watch out for the dreaded "regression to the mean". Six Cubs starters currently hitting over .300 -- Lee, Riot, Fukky, DeRosa, Johnson and Soto. Not likely to be sustainable.

[ ]

In reply to by billybucks

Yeah except all of those players you mentioned (save Johnson and Theriot) are easily capable of hitting above .300

[ ]

In reply to by 10man

While I agree it is not likely, Johnson did hit 319 in 461 ABs in 2006 and 294 in 412 ABs in 2003.

[ ]

In reply to by 10man

Lee, Riot, Fukky, DeRosa, Johnson and Soto Actually, on that list Lee looks like the only guy who is a relatively safe bet to hit .300 or better. No one knows whether Fukie can maintain his current average--his numbers in Japan suggest that at some point he'll start striking out more, but who knows? Soto is an unknown as well. Is it possible that he'll hit .300-.320? Sure. But I think a lot of us would be thrilled if he managed to keep his average over .280. DeRosa has never hit .300 for a season, but he's come close in the last two years. Johnson actually HAS hit .300 in his best season, 2006, but never really came very close to that before, and I for one hope he ends up a very valuable forth outfielder again sometime in the near future. Theriot doesn't look like a good bet to hit .300, but I would hope for .280 and a decent walk rate if he has a good season--his regression will come mostly in his slugging percentage as I don't expect to see him hit maybe a couple more homeruns and he will not continue his doubles rate. Expect Rammy and Murton/Soriano to pick up some of the slack when Lee and Soto (and maybe Fukie) regress a bit, and I would also expect a decrease in offense when Pie replaces a cooling off Johnson, which should be offset by improved defense. A touch of perspective though--there is going to be regression from this point. This team is not likely to continue a TEAM OPS of .822 through the whole season. Holy Cow that would be amazing, though.

Good to see Soto continuing his form from 2007 - when was the last time we saw a fairly unheralded position prospect on the Cubs get called up to the big club and perform beyond all reasonable expectations?

I like this little look at the stats... Fuku 14 BB - 13 SO Soto 12 BB - 12 SO Ramirez 11 BB 12 SO Lee 8 BB - 12 SO Theriot 8 BB - 9 SO DeRosa 9 BB - 10 SO It's like Fukudome's patience at the plate is contagious. And the bottom of the lineup isn't easy outs anymore.

The smallish shortstop is pleased with a lot of things right now, but perhaps none more than his decision three years ago to quit the nonsense of trying to be a switch hitter, the lefty-righty technique he had been told would be his ticket to the Bigs*. ''It was a hard decision,'' he says, and it was made entirely by himself. ''What if they release me?' I thought.''
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * As if the Cubs minor league organization knows anything about developing position players for the Bigs Quiet Riot Energizes Cubs -- Rick Telander today http://www.suntimes.com/sports/telander/905665,CST-SPT-rick21.article

Good job guys. Way to make our first Japanese player feel welcome with racists t-shirts. Awesome! We're not all like that, Fukkakedome. It also makes me sad to hear Lee's comments. Cubs fans, in just a few years it seems, have gone from the 'best fans in the world' to a bunch of assholes...in the minds of many. This argument has gone on a lot here, but I am firmly opposed to the booing of one's only players (and ex-players/managers). It makes them suck more AND it pisses of the people that we DO like. All this shit does make me feel embarrassed.

[ ]

In reply to by The Joe

Agreed. And it's not just the booing that is irksome. It's the stupid frat boy behavior that results in idiotic things like the 15 balls coming back from right field. The whole "win or lose we still booze" mentality. Or hollering at Dempster when he clearly unintentionally intentionally walked Bay to load the bases rather than throw a 3-0 meatball with runners on 2nd and 3rd. Or screaming out "Fukudome would have had that one" at DeRosa after his full-stretch effort by the right field wall. Marty Brenneman is an ass, but he has a point, and Wrigley faithful and to an extent the Cubs themselves are responsible for such behavior.

[ ]

In reply to by navigator

"frankly, the tee shirt flap is just pc liberal bullshit." that's an interesting take. slanted eyes, broken english...yeah, that's not a cheap shot at an entire race. how about a big crooked nosed evil sneering white guy with a funny looking skull cap and the phrase "OY Cow!"? how about a black dude holding a watermellon with "Oh lawdy, Cow!"? yeah, you can't whitewash everything by labeling it liberal overreaction no matter how many talk radio hosts do.

[ ]

In reply to by navigator

"...but calling him "Fukkakedome" like you just did isn't embarrassing and racist?" ...yeah, that part was irony. I though it was obvious. But: I'm not going to get into specifics of my differentiation between 1) what I see as a crude joke concerning the similarity (in my eyes) between his name and a Japanese word (a word, by the way, which isn't actually dirty, but it a mild everyday word) and 2) the tired practice of making fun of an entire continent's inability to differentiate between l's and r's...eg. ha ha, stupid asian. Perhaps because I have numerous Asian friends who struggle constantly to learn the nuances of English, making fun of those struggles just isn't funny to me. It's not about being PC...a reference to bukkake is anything but...it's about not making fun of another group of people's differences with ourselves, ie racism. If you think that's hypocritical or overly sensitive, you're free to believe so.

[ ]

In reply to by navigator

"You are so full of it. What's the ironic part?" The ironic part is that I'm admitting that there is a fine line when dealing with race. Fukkakedome is a name that I have used in the past and I am recognizing (in saying, 'we're not all like them') that I too could be understood negatively. It was a reference that I too have made a Fukudome joke, yet I perceived a difference. At the time, I wasn't aware that my comment needed to be a thesis and my consistancy would be challenged. The difference, for me, is that I was making a play on his name in relationship to his native language. I don't know, like if there was a ballplayer named 'Facial' or something similar. The word itself isn't crude, but it could be understood as such. I'm not making fun of him because he's Japanese...or even making fun of him for that matter. The name comparison is merely funny to me. Lots of ballplayers get nicknames based on plays on their names. Latin players often getting Spanish twists to those nicknames, but they're generally not perceived as racist. The mere fact that it is a crude joke doesn't make it racist. It's just crude, and yes, in bad taste. "And this may come as a surprise to you TJ but Asian-Americans born in the United States have no difficulty at all speaking English." I'm missing the Asian-American part. When did they enter the conversation? I thought we were talking about Asians? Fukudome is from Japan. The friends that I was referring to are predominantly Thai...from Thailand. Here is what I said: "Perhaps because I have numerous Asian friends who struggle constantly to learn the nuances of English, making fun of those struggles just isn't funny to me. It's not about being PC...a reference to bukkake is anything but...it's about not making fun of another group of people's differences with ourselves, ie racism." Is this what you're referring to? But no, to answer your question, it is not surprising to me that Americans can speak English. "Chances are, they're smarter than you and speak better English." Why are the chances such? Cause they're Asian? or because you're assuming I'm ignorant? I'm betting that most of 'them' can speak English very well. I'm also willing to bet that they don't speak better English...we probably speak the same English, in fact. But, some of them probably speak English better than I do, and some of them probably do not. I'm guessing that their Asian heritage has nothing do with whether or not they are more intelligent than myself. I'm still unsure what exactly you're arguing. You've spent equal time condemning me for being too PC and for being a racist. What exactly is your point? I've spent this entire conversation defending Asians from racism, yet you've disregarded all of that in favor of a particular word that I chose to use. A word used in the midst of an anti-racist rant, no less! How can you not recognize my point? Are you so consumed with the need to be right, that your only means of winning your argument against political correctness is to condemn me for being politically incorrect? Do you even realize the incongruity?

[ ]

In reply to by The Joe

btw, a japanese pronouncing L as R is not an inability but rather a cultural norm. that is really how they pronounce L's. It's nothing more than say the way Americans pronounce Spanish names by placing the accent on the first syllable like Beltran(BEL-tran) as opposed to how hispanic people say it with the accent on the 2nd (bel-TRAN). Accenting the first syllable is just a norm in American speech as is pronouncing L's as R's in Japanese.

A small subset of fans will always be total assholes, regardless of team affiliation or city. When these fans are given a stage, it makes us all look like total assholes. Some dickwad selling slightly offensive t-shirts on a street corner is not a news story. I guarantee Fukudome didn't bring up the topic of the racist t-shirt all by himself. He probably had no idea it even existed until some media douche (probably at the tabloid known as the Sun-Times) brought it up to him to try and create a story out of nothing. It's like telling someone, "Hey I heard that guy over there called you a (fill in whatever insult)", just so you can stir up trouble. It's similar with all the balls thrown on the field. It was, at most, 15 people out of 40,000, but since their small act of throwing a ball on the field was on TV and covered so voraciously by the media, it makes it seem like all Cubs fans are drunken idiots.

[ ]

In reply to by Doug Dascenzo

it doesnt reflect well, but all teams have their embarrassing stuff...its up to the fan to actually be embarrassed by it. im not bothered by conditions of society...be it a tshirt or someone with a flaming cross whapping minorities in the skull with phamphlets about how they are destroying something or other. the guy selling the shirts didnt give a fuk (har). he just wants the loot...if "gee i love fuku!" shirts were selling...he'd sell them. however... i dont really see an issue that's negative with the vendor being told to quit... he didnt get arrested...he didnt get his merch. taken... he was just told to go sell his racist stuff elsewhere. personally, im more concerned with the people who bought the shirts rather than the guy who's only motivation was money. whether the seller is racist or not doesn't matter to me cuz even if he was a hardcore racist the motivation here is purely money for him (it seems). ultimately, though...though i have more concern for the pool of people who bought the shirts i could ultimately care less.

My main problem with Brennaman was his branding of all Cubs fans as the type that would throw baseballs out of the bleachers. Everyone knows at this point that a large number of people who sit out there are not true fans. Yeah, they root, but they're their for reasons mostly unrelated to baseball. Marty's been around long enough to know that.

"It's the stupid frat boy behavior that results in idiotic things like the 15 balls coming back from right field. The whole "win or lose we still booze" mentality." This has been going on since the late 80's at Wrigley, and only now some people happen to be noticing it? Jeez, try living a few blocks from the ballpark, that kind of crap's been going on for forever and a day.

Freaking Bananas A couple years back I moved from indoor to outdoor work. I had some cramping issues. So I cut back on alcohol and caffeine but I don't like bananas so I did some research. I found Nectarines had almost four times the amount of potassium as bananas. So, in addition to buying nectarines, I planted a dwarf nectarine tree. I'm left with: why are bananas always promoted for potassium issues? The only thing I could come up with is that I can grow, as can most American's, Nectarines in my back yard but I can only get bananas from multinational corporation third world plantations. (Also, ESPN chucks. Morgan is a worthless moron but he isn't half as bad as Phillips who seems to think it's his responsibility to carry Mets manhood is his mouth.) If anyone knows Cubs trainers, suggest Nectarines. I haven't had a cramping issue since ... and it's been years.

Recent comments

  • Arizona Phil (view)

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  • Arizona Phil (view)

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  • Arizona Phil (view)

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  • Arizona Phil (view)

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  • crunch (view)

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  • 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.