Cubs MLB Roster

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40-Man Roster Info

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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Rule 5 Draft 
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Game 80 Thread / Cubs @ White Sox (1 of 3)

Game Chat | Press Pass | BR Preview

SP Ryan Dempster
SP
José Contreras
  9-2, 2.63, 85 K, 38 BB, 102.2 IP

6-6, 3.96, 56 K, 26 BB, 97.2 IP
       
DH
*Kosuke Fukudome
SS
Orlando Cabrera
LF
*Eric Patterson
C
*A.J. Pierzynski
1B
Derrek Lee LF
Carlos Quentin
3B
Aramis Ramirez RF
Jermaine Dye
RF
*Daryle Ward
DH
*Jim Thome
CF
*Jim Edmonds
3B
Joe Crede
C
Geovany Soto
1B
#Nick Swisher
2B
*Mike Fontenot 2B Juan Uribe
SS
Ronny Cedeno
CF *Dewayne Wise

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's time for Round Two of the Cubs versus White Sox, a.k.a. Team Inferiority Complex.

The Cubs go with a lineup that's long on lefties and rich on suck. Fontenot? Cedeño?? Ward in the field??? Lou is clearly trying to win the game with one hand tied behind his back, thus completely demoralizing the hosts.

Dempster, who yielded just one run (though 10 hits) to beat the White Sox on Sunday night, gets the nod against Contreras, who the Cubs undressed last Saturday (9 ER, 10H allowed in 3.1 innings).

Every drunken lout who stumbles into the park today wearing a CUCK THE FUBS t-shirt will point out that Dempster hasn't won a game away from Wrigley Field. If you're at the game and can stand to get next to the drunk, point out that Dempster, while 0-2 on the road, has a 2.48 road ERA (5th best in the NL), has held road opponents to a measly .194 batting average, and the bullpen has cost him at least a couple victories. I bet that'll shut the lout right up!

Aramis Ramirez, who torched Sox pitching for 4 HR and 8 RBI last weekend, has also enjoyed great success against Contreras: 7-for-14, 4 HR, 10 RBI.

Though U.S. Cellular Field has been one of the homer-happiest parks in the game, when the Cubs swept the home team there last June, they did so by scores of 5-1 (WP: Zambrano), 2-1 (Wuertz), and 3-0 (Marshall).

Presumably, Cub pitchers had no pig-sized rats running through the bullpen to distract them.

Comments

Is it true that Lou signed Soto up for the Futures Game, Homerun Derby and Celebrity Softball game for the All Star game?

I've got a really bad feeling about this series. It's hard for a starter to beat a team in back-to-back outings, and Demp is already suspect on the road. Gallagher is the X-factor. Marshall hasn't shown us anything yet. The nice thing about having expectations this low is that they have a good chance of being exceeded. :-)

[ ]

In reply to by Jace

The major league record for a season is 36 by Jim Rice. Lee's on pace. His previous career high was 18 with the Marlins in 2001. The GIDP in the first inning was tolerable, but the GIDP in the third inning was the biggest play of the game; Contreras was on the ropes after walking the previous two hitters. For an experienced hitter with a nice opposite-field stroke like Lee, he became pull-conscious and hit two grounders to the left side. (Off the subject, but did anybody listen to the Farmer-and-Stone radio call? Does everything that Steve Stone says sound incredibly arch and sarcastic? I'm as sarcastic as the next guy, but geez ... Still think that Harry was the best broadcast partner that Stoney had or will ever have because Harry reined him in.)

[ ]

In reply to by Mitterwald

Yes, Stone is one smug fellow and coupled with Ed Farmer, who tries to be smug but is simply dull...well, that's one tough listen. The other thing I have noticed about Stone is his obsession with predicting the next pitch or predicting the outcome of the at-bat if a certain pitch is thrown. WSCR feeds this with their promo spots to plug the Sox broadcasts. More often than not, they feature Stone forecasting the result of an at-bat—"This guy is a great double-play candidate; if Buerhle keeps the ball down, the Sox are going to turn two..."—followed by a call by Farmer in which Stone's predicted result happens, and Farmer congratulates his partner.

I thought Stone was fine, not brilliant, when he called the Cubs. That ridiculous business with Chip Caray and Kent Mercker and Dusty Baker left Stone with a much inflated sense of self-importance and no job. I think he always fancied himself a GM candidate and/or team owner, neither of those things came to pass, and now he's just a pompous jerk. Another reason to hate the Sox.

I haven't been seeing many games lately, but I see a lot of fielding errors from Mr. Patterson. What flavor (drops, bad throws) and how ugly have they been? And is he starting to make Mr. Murton look any better in the field?

cubs using hector carassco as a starter tonite.

Any Comments? Unranked Hitters in the System with MLB experience/no longer prospect/Unranked 1.Felix Pie (CF) 2.Ben Broussard (RF/LF/1B) 3.Jason Dubois (LF/RF) 4.Andres Torres (OF) 5.Sam Fuld (OF) 6.Jake Fox (c,1B,OF) 7.Josh Kroeger (RF/LF) Top 10 Cubs Hitters Prospects 1. Josh Vitters (3B) - Age 18 2007 3rd Overall Pick 341/378/512 in 41 ABs in Rookie ball. 2. Eric Patterson (2b,OF) - Age 25 2004 8th Round 273/342/394 in the majors. Only time will tell if he can hit major league pitching. 3. Wellington Castillo (C) - Age 21 2004 NDFA 288/332/407 overall and 321/397/554 with 3 HRs in 17 games at Double A. 4. Ryan Flaherty (SS,3B) - Age 21 2008 Supplemental 1st round 263/364/632 in rookie ball through 19 ABs, Career .349 at Vandy with 14 HR is 63 games as in his final year. 5. Tony Thomas (2B) - Age 21 2007 3rd Round 277/327/435 with 6 HR and 12 SB at High A 6. Tyler Colvin (OF) - Age 22 2006 1st round. 237/307/365 at double A. BA 299/SLG 488 last year in 125 games with 16 HR. 7. Josh Harrison (2B) - Age 20 2008 6th round 364/464/500 with 4 SB in 22 ABs at rookie ball 8. Steve Clevenger (C) - Age 22 2006 7th Round 314/408 at High A. He hit 340/378/441 last year. 9. Marquez Smith (2B,3B) - Age 23 2007 8th round. 310/364/505 through 73 games at low A. 10.Luis Bautista (C,1B,DH) - Age 23 2007 32nd round 310/368/558 through 32 games at low A. 11.Rebel Ridling (1B/DH) - Age 22 2008 25th Round 414/471/690 The power speaks for itself. 12.Ryan Harvey (OF) - Age 23 2003 First Round. 240/304/435 overall 270/337/528 at High A. The leash can't be that long. 13.Nate Spears (2b) - Age 23 305/405 at Double A Acquired in the Corey Patterson trade. 6th year of minor league ball. 14.Jovan Rosa (1b,3b) - Age 20 2006 22nd Round 288/357/400 at low A. 15.Ryan Keedy (1B/DH) - Age 22 2008 16th Round 393/484/464 in 9 games at rookie ball 16.Josh Donaldson (c) - Age 22 2007 Supplemental 1st Round. 221/284/366 at low A through 57 games. 335/460/590 last year in 53 games. 17.Joseph Adduci (OF) - Age 23 312/396 at high A. Playing in his 5th minor league season.

Three clarifications in case anyone is confused: 1. Eric Patterson is not an outfielder. 2. Derrek Lee is not an All Star this year. 3. Despite today's drubbing, the Cubs are still on a 100-win pace. I'm not at all surprised to see the boys lose today. The Sox were royally embarrassed last weekend, so they had something to prove today. Plus, it's really difficult for a pitcher to beat the same team in back to back starts. Now, a prediction: 7 inning quality start from Gallagher tomorrow, followed by Zeus & KW. Cubs win, retaining their amazing streak of not losing 3 in a row. Sunday scares the hell out of me.

I may pitch for the I-Cubs today as they play a DH w/ Albuquerque for second straight day...swept last night's w/ Hector Pipo Carrasco making his first start & throwing six shutout innings while fanning 10 in the nightcap [the old guy has only allowed 4 runs in his last 25 innings spread over 13 apps.]- Hoffpauir has homered each of the last two days, Ben Broussard is hitting .200 & pulling down a $3.8M paycheck & the Notre Dame WR is throwing tomorrow afternoon; hope to have a look @ him; hope he's not still a deep threat...Dallas McPherson homered for the 7th straight game - leads pro ball w/ 28 - in the opener for the Isotopes, then sat out the nightcap...

23 year old right handed reliever Richard Parker pitched a scoreless inning last night in his Iowa Cubs debut. Promoted from Peoria -- skipped both Daytona and Tennessee -- maybe on a fast-track to Wrigley?

don't know about a fast track for Parker; think the I-Cubs are just scrambling through a glut of games brought on in wake of Iowa floods; they also called up an INF [Simokaitis] who was hitting .185 @ AA...

Submitted by Eric S on Sat, 06/28/2008 - 8:25am.

23 year old right handed reliever Richard Parker pitched a scoreless inning last night in his Iowa Cubs debut. Promoted from Peoria -- skipped both Daytona and Tennessee -- maybe on a fast-track to Wrigley?

==================================

ERIC S: Peoria closer Blake Parker was moved up to Iowa because Peoria was the closest Cubs farm team to Des Moines and Iowa needed a pitcher STAT!

Parker is a converted catcher (although he did pitch in HS), and will likely get returned to Peoria (or he might get assigned to Daytona) once he isn't needed any longer at Iowa.

Parker was the EXST Cubs C-1B-DH and clean-up hitter a year ago, and was converted to pitcher the day after he hit a walk-off GS HR.

Like that scene in The Natural where Roy Hobbs is standing on the mound with a baseball and his teammate is standing at home plate, and the teammate says "Show me what you got," and Roy proceeds to throw the ball past the hitter with such velocity that it gets stuck in the screen at the back of the batting cage. That's sort of how it was that Parker got converted to pitcher.

Park was just throwing off the mound for fun at the end of BP at Fitch Park, and Boise pitching coach Tom Pratt saw him and told him to try that again with the radar gun turned on, And he consistently hit 93 with a fastball that moved, and a decent breaking ball to go with it!. So he immediately was asked to give up catching and become a pitcher. And he's been on the fast track ever since.

The Cubs one day may have half their pitching staff composed of catchers who'd been converted. I love it, true innovation from an organization that rarely showed any original thinking in the past.

Thanks for the follow up Arizona Phil and Mike W -- geographic explanation makes sense for sure. Not a bad debut, hope Parker keeps it up! Was surprised to see Simokaitis get the promotion too.

Recent comments

  • 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.

  • Childersb3 (view)

    Seconded!!!

  • crunch (view)

    another awesome spring of pitching reports.  thanks a lot, appreciated.

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    Here are the Cubs pitchers reports from Tuesday afternoon's Cardinals - Cubs game art Sloan Park in Mesa:

    SHOTA IMANAGA
    FB: 90-92 
    CUT: 87-89 
    SL: 82-83 
    SPLIT: 81-84
    CV: 73-74 
    COMMENT: Worked three innings plus two batters in the fourth... allowed four runs (three earned) on eight hits (six singles and two doubles) walked one, and struck out six (four swinging), with a 1/2 GO/AO... he threw 73 pitches (52 strikes - 10 swing & miss - 19 foul balls)... surrendered one run in the top of the 1st on a one-out double off Cody Bellinger's glove in deep straight-away CF followed one out later by two consecutive two-out bloop singles, allowed two runs (one earned) in the 2nd after retiring the first two hitters (first batter had a nine-pitch AB with four consecutive two-strike foul balls before being retired 3 -U) on a two-out infield single (weak throw on the run by Nico Hoerner), a hard-contact line drive RBI double down the RF line, and an E-1 (missed catch) by Imanaga on what should been an inning-ending 3-1 GO, gave up another run in the 3rd on a two-out walk on a 3-2 pitch and an RBI double to LF, and two consecutive singles leading off the top of the 4th before being relieved (runners were ultimately left stranded)... threw 18 pitches in the 1st inning (14 strikes - two swing & miss, one on FB and the other on a SL - four foul balls), 24 pitches in the 2nd inning (17 strikes - three swing & miss, one on FB, two SPLIT - six foul balls), 19 pitches in the 3rd inning (13 strikes - seven swing & miss, three on SL, two on SPLIT, one on FB - three foul balls), and 12 pitches without retiring a batter in the top of the 4th (8 strikes - no swing & miss - four foul balls)... Imanaga throws a lot of pitches per inning, but it's not because he doesn't throw strikes...  if anything, he throws too many strikes (he threw 70% strikes on Tuesday)... while he gets a ton of swing & miss (and strikeouts), he also induces a lot of foul balls because he doesn't try to make hitters chase his pitches by throwing them out of the strike zone... rather, he uses his very diverse pitch mix to get swing & miss (and lots of foul balls as well)... he also is a fly ball pitcher who will give up more than his share of HR during the course of the season...   
     
    JOE NAHAS
    FB: 90-92 
    SL: 83-85 
    CV: 80-81 
    COMMENT: Was called up from the Hi-A South Bend group at Minor League Camp for the day... relieved Imanaga with runners at first and second and no outs in the top of the 4th, and after an E-2 catcher's interference committed by Miguel Amaya loaded he bases, Nahas struck out the side (one swinging & two looking)... threw 16 pitches (11 strikes - two swinging)...   

    YENCY ALMONTE
    FB: 89-92 
    CH: 86 
    SL: 79 
    COMMENT: Threw an eight-pitch 5th (five strikes - no swing & miss), with a 5-3 GO for the first out and an inning-ending 4-6-3 DP after a one-out single... command was a bit off but he worked through it...   

    FRANKIE SCALZO JR
    FB: 94-95
    CH: 88 
    SL: 83
    COMMENT: Was called up from the AA Tennessee group at Minor League Camp for the day and worked the 6th inning... got the first outs easily (a P-5 and a 4-3 GO) on just three pitches, before allowing three consecutive two-out hard-contact hits (a double and two singles), with the third hit on pitch # 9 resulting in a runner being thrown out at the plate by RF Christian Franklin for the third out of the inning... 

    MICHAEL ARIAS
    FB: 94-96
    CH: 87-89
    SL: 82-83
    COMMENT: Was called up from the AA Tennessee group at Minor League Camp for the day and allowed a hard-contact double on the third pitch of the 7th inning (a 96 MPH FB), and the runner came around to score on a 4-3 GO and a WP... gave up two other loud contact outs (an L-7 and an F-9)... threw 18 pitches (only 10 strikes - only one swing & miss)... stuff is electric but still very raw and he continues to have difficulty commanding it, and while he has the repertoire of a SP, he throws too many pitches-per-inning to be a SP and not enough strikes to be a closer... he is most definitely still a work-in-progress...   

    ZAC LEIGH: 
    FB: 93-94 
    CH: 89 
    SL: 81-83 
    CV: 78
    COMMENT: Was called up from the AA Tennessee group at Minor League Camp for the day and tossed a 1-2-3 8th (4-3 GO, K-swinging on a sweeper, K-looking on another sweeper)... threw 14 pitches (11 strikes - one swing & miss - eight foul balls)... kept pumping pitches into the strike zone but had difficulty putting hitters away (ergo a ton of foul balls)... FB velo is nowhere near the 96-98 MPH it was a couple of years ago when he was a Top 30 prospect, but his secondaries are better...   

    JOSE ROMERO:  
    FB: 93-95
    SL: 82-84
    COMMENT: Was called up from the Hi-A South Bend group at Minor League Camp for the day and worked the 9th (14 pitches - only six strikes- no swing & miss) and allowed a solo HR after two near-HR fly outs to the warning track, before getting a 3-1 GO to end the inning... it was like batting practice when he wasn't throwing pitches out of the strike zone...

  • crunch (view)

    pablo sandoval played 3rd and got a couple ABs (strikeout, single!) in the OAK@SF "exhibition"

    mlb officially authenticated the ball of the single he hit.  nice.

    he's in surprisingly good shape considering his poor body condition in his last playing seasons.  he's not lean, but he looks healthier.  good for him.