Archive - 2016

It's time for the Winter Meetings!--in National Harbor, Maryland (for some reason).

12/2 UPDATE #2: The Cubs have non-tendered LHP Gerardo Concepcion, RHP Conor Mullee, LHP Zac Rosscup, and 3B Christian Villanueva. Read my original post below to find out why the Cubs did this. The Cubs MLB Reserve List (40-man roster) now stands at 35 (five slots are open). As I mentioned in the original post below, the Cubs can re-sign any or all four of the non-tendered guys to minor league contracts with an NRI to Spring Training (if the player is willing - TBD).  

12/2 UPDATE #1: The Cubs signed free-agent LHP Brian Duensing (ex-BAL) to a one-year contract ($2M). As an Article XX-B free-agent, Duensing will receive an automatic "no trade" right through June 15th. He can waive this right, but if he does, he can be traded for cash and/or player contracts with a maximum aggregate value of $50,000. The Cubs MLB Reserve List (40-man roster) now stands at 39 (one slot is open).

11/29 UPDATE: The Cubs signed free-agent OF Jon Jay (ex-SD) to a one-year contract ($8M). As an Article XX-B free-agent, Jay will receive an automatic "no trade" right through June 15th. He can waive this right, but if he does, he can be traded for cash and/or player contracts with a maximum aggregate value of $50,000. The Cubs MLB Reserve List (40-man roster) now stands at 38 (two slots are open).

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11/22 ORIGINAL POST: The Cubs decided last Friday to add four minor leaguers who were eligible for selection in next month's MLB Rule 5 Draft (C-1B Victor Caratini, OF Jacob Hannemann, LHP Jack Leathersich, and RHP Duane Underwood Jr) to their MLB Reserve List (40-man roster), thus preventing them from being drafted.

The next order of business for the Cubs will be to decide whether to tender or not tender a 2017 major league contract to the 30 unsigned players on the club's MLB Reserve List (40-man roster).

11/18 UPDATE: The Cubs have selected the contracts of LHP Jack Leathersich from Iowa, C-1B Victor Caratini and OF Jake Hannemann from Tennessee, and RHP Duane Underwood Jr from Myrtle Beach, and all four have been added to the Cubs MLB Reserve List (40-man roster).

The Cubs also claimed LHP David Rollins off waivers from the Seattle Mariners today, so the Cubs MLB Reserve List now stands at 39 (one slot is open).

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Congrats again to Ryno for winning this year's Predictions Contest. Giving (almost?) everyone two points for picking the Cubs to win it all was the most enjoyable grading I've ever done. Now it's time for free agent fun!

11/8 UPDATE: 

19 Cubs minor leaguers were declared MLB Rule 55 minor league free-agents Monday afternoon:

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11/7 UPDATE: RHP Jose Rosario has indeed been added to the Cubs MLB Reserve List (40-man roster).

Also, RHP Andury Acevedo, RHP Dallas Beeler, and C Tim Federowicz have been sent outright to AAA Iowa.

Acevedo will be declared an MLB Rule 55 minor league 6YFA if he does not sign a 2017 minor league successor contract, and Federowicz has the right to elect to be an Article XX-D minor league free-agent (because he has been outrighted previously in his career), but even if he doesn't elect free-agency per Article XX-D he will be declared an MLB Rule 55 6YFA if he does not sign a 2017 minor league successor contract.

Beeler does not have the right to elect free-agency if outrighted and he is not eligible to be an MLB Rule 55 minor league 6YFA post-2016 either, so he will remain under club control through the 2017 season, although he is eligible for selection in next month's MLB Rule 5 Draft. However, since he wasn't claimed off waivers ($20,000 waiver claiming price with no roster restrictions), it is very unlikely that he will be selected in the Rule 5 Draft ($50,000 draft price plus roster restrictions);

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Post-2016 MLB Rule 55 minor league 6YFA and second-contract free-agents who decline to sign 2017 minor league successor contracts are now being added to MLB 40-man rosters in advance of next week's deadline, as the Cincinnati Reds have added RHRP Ariel Hernandez and the Texas Rangers have added OF Drew Robinson to their respective MLB Reserve Lists.

Usually no more than a dozen potential minor league free-agents are added to MLB 40-man rosters each year. As far as potential Cubs minor league free-agents are concerned, I would expect the Cubs to add RHRP Jose Rosario to the 40 by next Monday's 5 PM (Eastern) deadline, unless he agrees to sign a 2017 minor league successor contract.

A minor league successor contract is essentially an agreement between the player and the club to extend club control for one more season, usually with a financial inducement for the player (and sometimes an NRI to Spring Training as well). However, a potential post-2016 Rule 55 minor league free-agent who signs a 2017 minor league successor contract prior to Monday's deadline becomes eligible for selection in next month's MLB Rule 5 Draft, as does any free-agent who signs a 2017 minor league contract prior to the Rule 5 Draft, so the only way the club can be sure to retain the player is by adding him to the 40. 

For example, LHRP Jack Leathersich (previously non-tendered by CHC) was eligible to be a Rule 55 second-contract minor league free-agent post-2016, but he signed a 2017 minor league successor contract with the Cubs in September. However, he will be eligible for selection in next month's Rule 5 Draft if he is not added to the Cubs MLB 40-man roster pror to the deadline for submitting MLB and minor league reserve lists to the MLB Commissioner on 11/18. NOTE: The roster filing deadline usually is 11/20, but it is moved up two days this year because the 20th falls on a Sunday.  

YOUR WORLD CHAMPION CHICAGO CUBS

Box Score, Play Log, Game Graphs

W - Chapman (2-0), all of us.

L - Shaw (2-1)

S - Montgomery (1), my faith that sometimes things work out.

Things to Take from This Game:

1. Cubs get to Kluber, Miller

Fowler got things started right with a leadoff home run. Kluber consistently left the breaking stuff up in the zone, and struck out no one in four innings. A Russell sacrifice fly and Contreras double plated two more in the fourth.

2. Baez, Ross, atone for defensive miscues

Baez made a couple of errors of youth and enthusiasm, first throwing away a grounder he went to his knee for, and then missing on an attempted barehand turn of a double play. But he made up for it by chasing Kluber from the game with a solo home run at the top of the fifth. Similarly, David Ross entered the game with Jon Lester, and had a throwing error and then let a wild pitch clang off his facemask that scored two runs. He promptly homered off of Andrew Miller.

3. Hendricks solid, Lester heroic.

Hendricks was functional if not especially dominant, but got the quick hook from Maddon after he walked Santana with two outs and no on in the fifth. Lester suffered from a squibber, a wild pitch, and some rough defense from Ross to give up two runs with two outs in the fifth, but then settled down and pitched masterful relief. Maddon pulled him with two outs in the eighth and one one, bringing in Chapman. Guyer promptly doubled to bring the game to 6-4. And then....

4.Rajai F'ing Davis

With 4 outs to go and Cleveland at a 3.5% Win Expectancy, Davis golfed a home run out down the left field line, tying the game at 6.

(We somehow survived that, and then, with 1 out to go in the bottom of the 10th and a 4.5% Win Expectancy, Davis again tormented us with a lined single to center to bring Cleveland to within a run, at 8-7. However....)

5. The 10th...

After a rain delay postponed the start of the tenth, Schwarber singled, Bryant hit a sacrifice fly to advance the pinch-runner Almora, Rizzo got an IBB, and then a go-ahead RBI double by Zobrist and RBI single by Montero gave us an 8-6 lead.  Carl Edwards Jr. and Mike Montgomery nail down the save, in a nail-biter, as we hang on to win 8-7.  A 10th-inning, Game 7, World Series victory on a rally started by a guy who missed the entire season from game 3 to the start of the world series, and saved by a couple of untested young relievers. But perhaps most indicative of what this year has been all about, eight different Cubs drove in an RBI, in a true team effort. After the game is over we learn the players called a meeting during the rain delay. David Ross gets carried off the field on Rizzo's and Heyward's shoulders, after the preliminary on-field celebrations.

All your best-team-in-the-world details, below...