Time to finish off the postseason awards circuit with TCR’s unique take on the season. It was a bit more difficult a task than last year, because, well, the Cubs didn’t completely suck, but the selection committee did their best.
Splendid Splinter Award (Honoring the Rookie who was firmly planted on the bench for no real good reason)
The Cubs looked set at the catching position going into the year with the offensive-minded yet defensively challenged Michael Barrett. Unfortunately the offense didn’t show up this year and the defense was never there. After serving as Z’s personal punching bag in early June and suffering mistake after mistake, he finally got shipped off to San Diego.
That would seem like a good chance to bring in the catcher tearing up the PCL and already on the 40-man roster, but instead the Cubs brought over Rob Bowen and his whopping _______ batting average. He managed to perform even worse as a Cub and the Cubs moved him to the A’s.
Alright, fine, no major harm done, let’s go Soto in that lineup.
Um, nope, time f
Tallest Midget of the Year (Perceived Greatness amongst Mediocre Peers)
“…people say “gritty” and “scrappy” and “smart” when they really just mean “short.” (Keith Law)
I think that best sums up the man who eventually took over shorstop duties for 2007.
Ryan Theriot
Nomar Garciaparra’s Groin Award (Crushing Injury That Ruined Hurt the Season)
Alfonso Soriano
Cecil Fielder Award (Most Unathletic Player)
Scott Eyre/
Mitch Williams Award (Heart Attack Bullpen Guy)
Ryan Dempster/Will Ohman
Lord Voldermort Trophy (Most Hated Cub)
Dempster? Barrett?
Brant Brown Award (The Most Amazing Way to Lose a Game)
Ronny Cedeno slide
Grady Little Award (Boneheaded managerial decision of the year)
Carlos Zambrano Game 1
Allard Baird Award (GM’s worst move; Could also be called the Cam Bonifay Award or Chuck Lamar award and by next year possibly the Jim Hendry Award)
Let’s see here, team is second in NL in ERA and Runs Allowed, everyone’s healthy, I know, we need to trade for a pitcher who was good about 10 years ago. YeahSteve Trachsel trade…
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Great update Phil. It is appreciated. Great to see the hitting over the last ten games. Looks like some of these guys are coming around.
I see Feldman and DeJesus as the most tradeable assets, with Shierholtz somewhere behind them, and the asking price for Garza being more than teams want to give up by a pretty good margin. Garza would still be likely to bring back the best haul, though. I mean, even in a good year, what are you really willing to give up for a Feldman or DeJesus?
It appears that Albert Almora is on his way to Kane County.
r.vogelsong (SF) broke the hell out of his pitching hand getting HBP on a swing tonight. the trainer threw a towel over his hand as soon as he saw it...already scheduled for surgery tomorrow...expected to miss 6 weeks.
True.
just when you think the Cubs are starting to look like a major league team, they go and lose 2 of 3 at home to the Mets.
Scott Feldman though looking good as trade bait.
RIP St Rita alum and great musician
http://www.tmz.com/2013/05/20/ray-manzarek-dead-th...
grant balfour + live TV...what the hell was the MLB Network thinking?
he only let 1 swear fly (not bleeped)...that's about 3-4 times less than i expected.
as an aside...the worst SS i've ever seen in my life is/was bj upton.
words cannot describe how awful he was...it blows my mind he actually made it to AAA playing the position...and that he wasn't moved earlier in his minor league or AAA career. even when he wasn't making plays that would count as errors he was playing really bad SS.
they gave him an enormous amount of leeway trying to get him to stick at the position.
True, but if he's at least decent defensively, and could put up a .270/.350/.390
he'd be worth at least a utility spot.
Come on Soler, Almora and Baez!!!
That is kind of damming with faint praise. :)
That may be true. But is he any less of a prospect than Darwin Barney was?
Barney: .288/.337/.378 in the minors, 35/45 steals 1724 PA's
Watkins:.281/.372/.389, 88/124 steals, 2205 PA's
http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/cubs/post/_/id/170...
It seems unlikely to me that Watkins will be able to keep up his walk totals in the majors, which kind of makes him a non-prospect.
Per the Baseball Cube (http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/profile.asp...), Derek played the part of two seasons in A ball. He had 56 erros in 128 games in 1993, and 9 errors in 11 games in 1992.
I remember a conversation at TCR years ago with reference to Starlin's propensity for errors, and it was brought up that Jeter once committed 59 in A ball. It was a mini-point of discussion because different sources were reporting the number as either 59 or 159, but it was determined to be 59. Edit: I guess it was 56, funny we both thought of the same thing.
Not sure if it is a record, but in 1993 at Greenboro Derek Jeter had 56 errors.