Where's the Beefy?
The Cubs version of Fluffy will no longer exist as the Cubs have traded "catcher" Welington Castillo to the Seattle Mariners for relief pitcher Yoervis Medina. Before I dig into the new guy, let's eulogize Beefy for a bit.
While I'm all for letting prospects develop, Beefy got on my nerves from the very get go. For a "catcher" he didn't do that very well...literally. I'm sure my memory is worse than the reality of it, but I just remeber a bunch of passed balls when he first got called up and some terrible receiving in the way he did catch balls that led strikes to be called balls. It never really got better. He threw some guys out, but if there was ever a player that the "second division starter" label should attach itself too, it was our dear friend Beefy. Enjoy the spacious Safeco Field.
As for the new guy, 26-year old Yoervis Medina, he was a lot more exciting the last few years when he was striking out guys at a clip over 9 per 9 innings. This year that number is down to 6.75 and it's married to a 2 mph drop in his velocity, per the numbers you can find on Fangraphs. Maybe this will turn into a Pedro Strop turnaround story, but seems more likely it'll be a Tommy John story or a Daniel Bard story.
I believe Medina is headed to Iowa anyway as he did have some options left and he entered the season with just over 2 years of service time, so he can be a Cub for quite a few seasons if he can get corrected. Not much to like about this trade, not much to dislike either. With Castillo off the team and Medina headed to Iowa, it does mean a player call-up is looming.
Comments
Medina:
Medina isn't even going to be
Medina isn't even going to be called up unless he figures things out. Don't think a reliever in the NL gets to face the pitcher too often either. XFIP and WAR are pretty similar so there's probably a few ways you can slice it that don't result in an upgrade.
Medina's a project and one that Bosio won't be a part of at first.
Yep, I think it's
It should mean way fewer PH
Well, at least we got more
I don't get Epstoyer saying
My guess is they want him to
Gleyber Torres mentioned in
waves and waves of prospects.
waves and waves of prospects...need a few arms in there soon though.
Let's go Underwood, Johnson, Edwards...
let's go trading
Underwood having a good year
Oh Crane
I actually purchased one of
fun trivia I came across
fun trivia I came across
Name the 3 players have hit 100 HR's and stole 100 bases while members of the Chicago Cubs?
Sosa, Sandberg and Santo?
sosa, sandberg,dunston
Well done. first 2 are easy,
Well done. first 2 are easy, figure Dunston would trip some up.
lucky guess, trying to think
Jimmy Ryan? Missed it by
Ha ha! Well played!