Cubs MLB Roster

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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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Gameday Open Thread / Cubs @ Padres

More drama with another Mark Prior start today...snore. Greg Maddux takes the hill for the Padres. Rich Hill set to relieve Prior, supposedly after four innings but I'd start warming up early if I was Hill.

Comments

Just posted on the last thread, but Len says rain shouldn't be a problem.

Murton "the butcher" guns down the runner at the plate. Prior looks like shit.

seems he woke up....Padres announcers said he threw some nice sliders and even a change or two

He was clocked at 79 MPH in the 1st. Barrett was almost returning the ball as hard as Prior was throwing it. He did look better in the 2nd, changing speeds on a couple hitters. I question whether those fastballs were 90 MPH though.

"Goat — March 22, 2007 @ 2:38 pm He’s playing with our hearts… someone give me a can to chew on." That was laugh out-loud funny.

"i saw prior in his prime"...padres announcer. hehe...remember back in 1948 when prior was just a young kid trying to get his 300 innings in?

I'm watching on mlb.com and Prior was consistantly hitting 90 - 91 in the 2nd. His breaking pitches looked sharp too.

Anyone else notice that Murton's batting stance has changed? Looks like quite a difference.

Chad! Seriously, though. Prior gives me more intestinal cramps than scrap metal.

he threw spicoli a nice curveball, and finished him off with 93 mph inside fastball. very nice.

That was definitely the old dominant-pitch-hop of old from Prior after striking out Greene on that 93mph fastball.

I'm very impressed with the progress Prior has made today. Regardless of what the stat line says at the end of the day, the velocity is coming back (all the way to 93 there in the 3rd), and the slider looks a thousand times better. Very tight and a good sharp break to it. Looks like he's still over-throwing the cheese a little bit and it's causing him to get a little wild, but still, he has shown dramatic improvment.

Hey! I was not expecting him to even go out there for the 4th inning. To make it through 4 with 1 ER is WAY better than I was expecting for today...

Wow, four innings and we're all optimistic again. I never was one to call Prior "done" but, hey, it's four innings. Let's wait and see.

I don't want to pull out the old Jump to Conclusions Mat here Team, but if he can maintain this level of pitching, I wouldn't rule him out right now. If he can run the heater up at 91-93 consistently (be nice if he could pick a couple more mph's, but I'm not picky) and throw the breaking ball as well as he has today, I'd take him over Wade Miller for the #5 right now. I an aware all of that is a rather large if.

as I mentioned in the chat, the outing seemed encouraging but he should spend all of April in Iowa, show up every 5 days to pitch, dominate...then we talk.

What's the difference between a 4 inning game and a 5 inning game? Len keeps referring to the fact that it's an "official" game because they've completed 5 innings. Does he think they are going to reschedule a game called after 4 innings or less that gets rained out? AZ Phil, did you get soaked?

How does Ryan Theriot look this Spring? Do you think he will see much playing time this year. From what I read it looks as he will be used as a kind of super-utility player at 2nd, ss, 3rd and even the outfield. He played well after being called up last year and he's got some speed.

big john stud:
Prior looks like shit.
IMO, Prior looked great. Even in the 1st inning. See you in May, Mark.

so, heres the thing I want to ask the stat heads. In the prime of maddux and martinez career, how hard were they throwing? I think late in their careers, hitting 90 was an achievement right? If so, then who gives a shit how hard he is throwing. Its more can he "pitch"? A mid 80 fastball with movement is just as damn hard to hit as a 99mph heater. I am really not concerned with his speed. Its location and movement. Throw in the 80's. I don't care. Just don't get shelled doing it.

Cubster, If it didn't go 5, it would have a cancelled game and not official. This game now counts in ST stats and records.

Sam Malone - Theriot --- Let me tell you - this kid is a playa'....gets on base, plays a gritty, gritty style of baseball. ...he's a perfect 2nd hitter behind D.Lee. Don't be surprised if DeRosa becomes the utility player to backup Theriot / Murton / Jacque. Give that kid a budweiser...

"In the prime of maddux and martinez career, how hard were they throwing? I think late in their careers, hitting 90 was an achievement right?" Pedro in his prime threw real hard. Mid 90's.

Also, I don't want my comments to be miscontstrued as Prior being magically healed and everything's fine and we can set the rotation and he'll win 20 games and win the Cy Young and we'll win the World Series. w00t!!!!!!1111!!eleventy!!! Let me provide a little context: Today was far and away his best outing. I said last week that if he didn't show some improvment by today's outing, he should be shelved. This was about the longest that the team could wait for his velocity to return. He got a big bump of about 8-10 mph. I'd expect that the next couple of times out, he could gain another 2-3 and get back to typical Prior velocity. With all of that said, one good 4 inning outing a pitcher does not make, as the old saying goes. He's still got some more work to do. A couple more outings similar to this, however, will be just about the all convincing I would need to believe that he's healthy. Last time I saw him on TV, I thought he looked like he was pitching through pain and he was tentative. I saw none of that today. He looked pain free, very sharp, and very sound mechanically. I thought the arm angle was still a little bit lower than I'm used to seeing, but I suppose I can't gripe about that.

There was some joy in Cubville--the Mighty Prior (actually) struck a few out.

a rotoworld blurb says it's between edwin jackson and jp howell for the 5th spot in tampa...jae-kuk ryu may still make the team out of the pen.

I think everybody knows, or soon will--the fantasy players sure know it--that Hill is the Cubs' no. 2 behind Z. The business about Lilly being #2 and Marquis #3 is a fiction based on their free-agency winnings. Lilly looks to me like a decent #4, and Marquis--well, he'll always be back there competing with three other guys for the 5 spot. To be a good team, we just need a good #3. Since Prior started out better than that, it's not asking that much to have him be a little better than Lilly. Prior just has to take care of his arm.

"a rotoworld blurb says it’s between edwin jackson and jp howell for the 5th spot in tampa…jae-kuk ryu may still make the team out of the pen." Anything on Mitre? Nolasco?

Last I had heard E-Man, Nolasco was going to open as Florida's #4 and Mitre was in a 2 or 3 way battle for the #5.

This game now counts in ST stats and records. ------ Somewhere in a dusty old hard drive lives the spring training stats from the 1955 Cubs. I sure am glad this game will count as much as those stats, otherwise nobody will believe us when we tell them we saw Mark Prior pitch well in 2007.

"IMO, Prior looked great. Even in the 1st inning. See you in May, Mark." ______________________________________ There's no opinion needed. Prior was wild, throwing 79 MPH and everyone was hitting the ball with authority in the 1st. It's a fact - he simply looked like shit. He looked like an entirely different pitcher in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th.

'Prior was wild, throwing 79 MPH and everyone was hitting the ball with authority in the 1st.' They just invented this pitch called 'a change up', sounds pretty nifty.

big john stud:
There’s no opinion needed. Prior was wild, throwing 79 MPH and everyone was hitting the ball with authority in the 1st. It’s a fact - he simply looked like shit.
I am most certainly entitled to an opinion, asshole. Further, I don't call a single skimming by Theriot hitting with "authority". And by the way, the radar gun at Hoho blows, so careful calling those facts.

79 might be an exaggeration of what he did in the 1st on whole, but prior's 1st was marked by wildness and a lack of velocity. in the 2nd he found both...in the 3rd/4th he was "effectively wild" but flashed the velocity. in the 1st he supposedly didnt touch 90 so the next 3 innings of 87-91mph (up to 93mph) was a nice surprise.

I watched the game. The 79 MPH was on a high, wild fastball. ------------------------------------------------- "I am most certainly entitled to an opinion, asshole." ------------------------------------------------- Mark Prior looked Mexican, in my opinion. Even though it spits in the face of the facts. Everyone was hitting the ball hard off Prior in the 1st inning. BTW, the radar gun seemed to be working completely fine when Maddux was on the mound.

"79 might be an exaggeration of what he did in the 1st on whole, but prior’s 1st was marked by wildness and a lack of velocity." ------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you. He looked like he was lobbing the ball to start the game. 79 looked about right. He was releasing high and looked like he was afraid to finish his delivery.

Guess I'm puzzled by the intended meaning, as well. I saw very little Mexico in the first inning. I saw a guy who was dropping the arm a bit too much and looked like he wasn't completely warm out of the bullpen.

Recent comments

  • crunch (view)

    in other news, it took 3 PA before a.rizzo got his 1st HBP of the season.

  • Eric S (view)

    With two home runs (so far) and 5 rbi today … clearly Nick Martini is the straw that stirs the Reds drink 😳

  • crunch (view)

    madrigal at 3rd...morel at DH.

    making room for madrigal or/and masterboney to get a significant amount of ABs is a misuse of the roster.  if it needed to get taken care of this offseason, they had tons of time to figure that out.

    morel played almost exclusively at 3rd in winter ball and they had him almost exclusively there all spring when he wasn't DH'ing.

    madrigal doing a good job with the glove for a bit over 2 chances per game...is that worth more than what he brings with the bat 4-5 PA a game?  it's 2024 and we got glenn beckert 2.0 manning 3rd base.

    this is a tauchman or cooper DH situation based on bat, alone.  cooper is 3/7 with a double off eovaldi if you want to play the most successful matchup.

    anyway, i hope this is a temporary thing, not business as usual for the rest of the season.  it will be telling if morel is not used at 3rd when an extreme fly ball pitcher like imanaga is on the mound.

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    There are two clear "logjams" in the Cubs minor league pipeline at the present time, namely AA outfielders (K. Alcantara, C. Franklin, Roederer, Pagan, Pinango, Beesley, and Nwogu) and Hi-A infielders (J. Rojas, P. Ramirez, Howard, R. Morel, Pertuz, R. Garcia, and Spence, although Morel has been getting a lot of reps in the outfield in addition to infield). So it is possible that you might see a trade involving one of the extra outfielders at AA and/or one of the extra infielders at Hi-A in the next few days. 

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    18-year old SS Jefferson Rojas almost made the AA Tennessee Opening Day roster, and he is a legit shortstop, so I would expect him to be an MLB Top 100 prospect by mid-season. 

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    Among the relievers in the system, I expect RHRP Hunter Bigge at AAA Iowa and RHRP Ty Johnson at South Bend to have breakout seasons on 2024, and among the starters I see LHP Drew Gray and RHP Will Sanders at South Bend and RHP Naz Mule at ACL Cubs as the guys who will make the biggest splash. Also, Jaxon Wiggins is throwing bullpen sides, so once he is ready for game action he could be making an impact at Myrtle Beach by June.

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    I expect OF Christian Franklin to have a breakout season at AA Tennessee in 2024. In another organization that doesn't have PCA, Caissie, K. Alcantara, and Canario in their system, C. Franklin would be a Top 10 prospect. 

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    The Reds trading Joe Boyle for Sam Moll at last year's MLB Trade Deadline was like the Phillies trading Ben Brown to the Cubs for David Robertson at the MLB TD in 2022. 

  • 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.