Cubs News of the Moment
Theo Was Chatty Today
I guess Theo had a press conference today, lots of stuff is said at press conferences, some of it actually has merit, some of it is bullshit. Only time will tell us which is which, but here's an aggregation of quotes from twitter. I won't attribute each one indivudually, but mostly coming from Jesse Rogers, Bruce Levine, Jordan Bernfield, Jon Greenberg, Bruce Miles and Paul Sullivan.
In no particular order...
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Cubs Look to End 5-Game Losing Streak, Midwest League Finals Begin
Cubs finish up their north of the border series versus the Blue Jays and attempt to end a 5-game slide. With Kyle Hendricks on the mound, it seems possible. Although not in the lineup, Anthony Rizzo was spotted taking BP and might be ready to return sometime this weekend.
In non-depressing news of the day, it's is the opening of the Midwest League Finals. Kane County takes on Lake County (Indians affiliate). Jen-Ho Tseng gets the start and the lineup for the Cougars will be: Dunston Jr. LF, Zagunis DH, Candelario 3B, Balaguert RF, Rogers 1B, Brockmeyer C, Penalver SS, Martin SS. I presume Clint Frazier is Lake County's biggest prospect name if you're looking for such things.
"...Only in their dreams can men be truly free."
There's not much in Cubs news or even anecdotes to pass on at this time. Rosenthal had a video report that Jon Lester's Boston teammates believe he'll sign with the Cubs, but that'll have as much weight as a feather this offseason. The Tigers may be down another pitcher in Justin Verlander, and I wonder if Edwin Jackson would be of any interest. The Cubs would probably have to pay a lot of salary and get little in return, but worth a phone call probably. As for the current team, Operation Draft Pick is moving along nicely...currently in the 4th spot (which will actually be the 5th spot in the draft because of the Astros extra pick). It's a tight race with 45 games to go and with Alcantara, Hendricks and Baez out there with something to prove, I expect them to drift farther back than closer to a #1 pick.
Bryant, Schwarber Promoted
I'm not around much this week, but a quick note to give you a new thread to chat on. 4th overall pick Kyle Schwarber assaulted the Northwest League for a few days and got a quick promotion to Kane County and the Midwest League yesterday. Then after Kris Bryant won the home run derby in the Southern League All-Star game, he got his promotion to AAA to play along side Javier Baez. I haven't seen what the Iowa roster shake-up will be to make room for Bryant to play 3b, but demoting Christian Villanueva would probably make the most sense.
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Minor League Playoffs and More
The most exciting thing around the Cubsverse right now is the minor leagues competing in the playoffs. Meaningless as a victory may be to the big league club down the line, it's fun to follow and have a rooting interest in something, other than the Cubs losing for a better draft pick slot.
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Draft Pick Watch is On
- The Dodgers have won 40 of their last 48. This has nothing to do with the Cubs right now except it gives me an opportunity to post this gif of our old friend LaTroy Hawkins after serving up the game tying home run.
- Back to the Cubs, they've lost 13 of their last 17 and have moved into a tie for the 4th draft pick with the Brewers, in which they own the tiebreaker.
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TCR Weekend Notes
As you all know by know, Alfonso Soriano was dealt to the New York Yankees along with a ton of cash for RHP Corey Black. According to Buster Olney, the Cubs will pay $4.7M of the remaining $6.5M owed Soriano in 2013 and then $13M of the $18M owed Soriano in 2014, saving $6.8M total on the deal and getting a decent relief prospect that Theo compared to Jessie Crain. Soriano went 0/5 in his Yankee return with a run scored and an RBI. Black will stay in Florida and head over to Daytona.
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TCR Weekend Notes
After a nice little run where the Cubs took 6 of 9 versus the baseball bottom-feeders (Astros, Brewers & Mariners), the Cubs are back to playing the major league teams and have promptly dropped 3 of 4 including yet another loss to Fransisco Liriano this afternoon. 3 More months of this fun...
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Soler Broken and Other Cubs News
A few weeks back, Jorge Soler fouled a ball of his shin...a seemingly common occurrence in baseball that carries little consequence past the few moments of stinging pain for the offending party. This being the Cubs and all, the foul ball sent Soler to the 7-day disabled list of which he returned off of this week. The leg still hurt though and now it's being reported that he has a stress fracture and will be out 4-6 walks and possibly the rest of the season. Oh Cubbery...you strike in mysterious ways! Soler will of course miss the Futures Game as well over the All-Star Break, which him and Arismendy Alcantara were named to the World rosters.
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As Long as You Don't Look at the Standings, The Cubs are Doing Great!
The Cubs just took 2 of 3 from the Nationals including winning games started by Strasburg and Gio. Their starting pitching has put up the third best ERA in the senior circuit without their best pitcher. 'Mo Gregg is locking down games in the 9th, and Anthony Rizzo is the left-handed power hitting droid you've been looking for...what's not to love?
(clicks on Yahoo MLB Standings...quickly clicks off Yahoo MLB standings)
Recent comments
Charlie (view)
I worry that Morel will lose starts at 3B as long as this roster lacks a compelling DH.
Dolorous Jon Lester (view)
I think if you had ranked players by how much the team could ill afford to have them miss significant time, Steele would be right at the top of the list.
crunch (view)
steele MRI on friday. counsell expects an IL stint.
no current plans for his rotation replacement.
hellfrozeover (view)
I would say also in the bright side column is Busch looked pretty good overall at the plate. Alzolay…man, that hurts but most of the time he’s not giving up a homer to that guy. To me the worst was almonte hanging that pitch to Garcia. He hung another one to the next hitter too and got away with it on an 0-1.
crunch (view)
amaya blocked like 6-8 of smyly's pitches in the dirt very cleanly...not even an exaggeration, smyly threw a ton of pitches bouncing in tonight.
neris looking like his old self was a relief (no pun), too.
TarzanJoeWallis (view)
In looking for bright spots the defense was outstanding tonight. The “stars” are going to need to shine quite a bit brighter than they did tonight offensively though for this to be a successful season.
Eric S (view)
Good baseball game. Hopefully Steele is pitching again in April (but I’m not counting on it).
crunch (view)
boo.
crunch (view)
smyly to face the 2/3/4 hitters with a man on 2nd in extras.
this doesn't seem like a 8 million dollar managerial decision.
crunch (view)
i 100% agree with you, but i dunno how jed wants to run things. the default is delay. i would choose brown.
like hellfrozeover says, could be smyly since he's technically fresh and stretched.
anyway, on a pure talent basis....brown is the best option.