Cubs MLB Roster

Cubs Organizational Depth Chart
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 

 



 

Minor League Rosters
Rule 5 Draft 
Minor League Free-Agents

Colvin Four-Hit Day Not Enough to Lift Cubs to Victory

Tyler Colvin went 4-5 with two singles, an RBI triple, and a solo home run, but it wasn't enough, as the Cubs and the San Diego Padres played to a 2-2 tie in front of a Cactus League record crowd of 13,462 at Dwight Patterson Field at HoHoKam Park this afternoon in sunny Mesa, AZ.

 

. box score

The Cubs had chances to score against Padres starter Clayton Richard in the bottom of the 1st (runners on 1st and 2nd with one out, but Aramis Ramirez and Marlon Byrd struck out swinging), and then again in the bottom of the 4th (runners on the 1st and 2nd with no outs, but Geovany Soto rapped into a 6-4-3 DP and Mike Fontenot tapped out 1-3 to end the inning).

The Cubs finally did get on the board with one out in the 5th, however, as Tyler Colvin mashed a home run over the RF fence off Richard (who is a lefty, BTW).

Meanwhile, Cubs starter Carlos Silva was throwing five shutout innings, before allowing two runs in the 6th (the second run scoring after he had left the game) as the Padres took a 2-1 lead.

Facing a mostly minor league lineup, Silva allowed two runs on five hits (two triples, two doubles, and a single), while allowing no walks and striking out three (6/7 GO/FO). He also gave up a couple of fly outs to the warning track, but he (generally) threw strikes, and (at least through the first five innings, anyway) made good pitches when he needed them most.

RHP Esmailin Caridad relieved Silva, entering the game with one run in, one out, and Nick Hundley (who had just ripped an RBI double) on 2nd base. Caridad struck out Matt Antonelli, but Hundley stole 3rd base and scored on an errant throw into LF by Geovany Soto. (The run was earned because Caridad gave up what would have been an RBI single later in the inning). Caridad then retired the Padres 1-2-3 in the 7th (6-3, Ks, F-8)

For the day, Caridad went 1.2 IP (30 pitches - 21 strikes), allowing just the one hit, no walks, and two K's, but he did allow one inherited runner to score.

The Cubs tied it up in the bottom of the 7th against Padres RHRP Luke Gregorson (rumored to be a possble Cub trade target), as Mike Fontenot lined a lead-off single to left (his second hit of the day), and scored on a one-out triple by Tyler Colvin. But Jeff Baker and Derrek Lee were called out on strikes, leaving Colvin (representing the go-ahead run) stranded at 3rd.

RHRP Brian Schlitter was brought up from minor league camp for today's game and pitched the 8th (14 pitches - 8 strikes, 1/1 GO/FO), allowing an infield hit and a walk, while striking out one.

After struggling in yesterday's game (when he allowed three runs on three hits, a HBP and a HR), Cubs closer Carlos Marmol was brought into the game in the top of the 9th. He walked the first man he faced, but then got an out on a 1-4 SH, before striking out the last two men he faced (essentially blowing them both away). Marmol threw 22 piches (13 strikes) in his one inning of work.

RHP Jeff Stevens was also brought up to HoHoKam from Fitch Park today, and he threw a 1-2-3 10th (P-2, F-8, Ks), disposing of the Padres on 15 pitches (10 strikes). Stevens has pitched better since he was optioned to Iowa.

The Cubs had a chance to possibly win the game in the bottom of the 10th, as Tyler Colvin lined a lead-off single (his 4th hit of the day!), but Jeff Baker bunted into a double play, and PH Logan Watkins (up from Minor League Camp) struck out swinging.

The game was called after ten innings by mutual agreement.

Andres Blanco was in the Cubs original starting lineup today (batting 8th and playing shortstop), but he was replaced by Mike Fontenot prior to the start of the game. That's because Blanco was traded to the Texas Rangers this afternoon for a Player to be Named Later (PTBNL) or cash (usually $50,000).

Fontenot made an error (booted the ball) on his first fielding chance at shortstop in the top of the 1st inning, and then he was unable to throw out a batter on a grounder in the hole in the top of the 2nd (bouncing the ball to 1st), but he played flawlessly the rest of the way, handling four chances (one L-6, two 6-3, and a 6-4 FC).

The Cubs will play the Seattle Mariners tomorrow in Peoria, before returning to HoHoKam Park on Monday.

Comments

For the record, I still say getting rid of Blanco or not keeping someone like Barney on the team who can actually play SS is a mistake. And the never ending talk we heard all spring about how Castro is big league ready right now is a joke. Everyone seems to forget his 39 errors last year, which he proved this spring wasn't a mirage.

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

Maybe I'm being naive about the political realities of this situation, but it sounds like Selig believes that he and MLB are in charge of this legislation rather than the legislators. From what I've read, it sounds like Rep. John McComish and the other legislators are put off by the heavy handed way MLB has approached this. From an outsider looking in, it seems completely irrelevant that the other 14 Cactus League teams are against the tax. The state is levying the tax to build up money in a state-run fund that will ultimately benefit Cactus League teams. MLB teams are going to benefit from the tax. Why should they also be allowed to decide who is taxed to raise the funds?

The reason the Cardinals declined to reclaim Mike Parisi is that it costs $25,000 to reclaim a Rule 5 player, and because Parisi had been outrighted previously in his career, he has the right to refuse an outright assignment. So the Cards would have been spending $25,000 on a player who might opt to be a free-agent, and if that happened, they would have been out the $25,0000 AND the player. This way, they can spend the $25,000 they might have used to reclaim Parisi on a waiver claim where the player they claim will actually have to report to the Cardinals. As to why Parisi agreed to report to Iowa (and again, he actually has seven days to decide because he was outrighted during Spring Training), if he opted to be a FA immediately, he would receive no termination pay. By accepting the outright assignment, his contract remains in force and he can still be a FA after the end of the MLB regular season. (For that same reason, Parisi probably would have accepted an outright assignment back to Memphis, too, it's just that the Cardinals did not want to bet $25,000 that he would).

[ ]

In reply to by Hagsag

Submitted by Hagsag on Sun, 03/28/2010 - 8:30am. The next ten days should be real interesting. Not only at the major lge level, but also how the dominoes will fall at the minor lges. At least it seems that there are some decent dominoes in the minor lge system. ====================================== HAGSAG: For the first time in as long as I can remember, the Cubs have no use for minor league free-agents as roster filler at Iowa. They literally can staff the rosters of all of their full-season and short-season teams with organizational players, including several top prospects at various stops along the way. While the Cubs may not have as many Baseball America "Top 100 prospects" as some organizations (although the Cubs do have five), they have tremendous organizational depth at most all positions (the one exception being catcher).

[ ]

In reply to by Arizona Phil

The depth in the Cubs system is definitely striking. I was daydreaming about minor league prospects the other day, and I realized that the Cubs have essentially a full roster worth of minor league prospects who have a legitimate chance of being in the majors in some role in the next four or five years. Excuse the absurdly optimistic exercise below, but to illustrate, this would be the dream 2012 or 2013 roster, made of only homegrown talent--for those who actually don't feel like looking at it, there seem to be shitload of players with major league quality upside if not star quality upside (and I think that's why the Cubs farm system has climbed so many ranking systems): SS Hak-Ju Lee 2B Starlin Castro 1B Josh Vitters RF Kyler Burke CF Brett Jackson LF Tyler Colvin C Geovany Soto/Welington Castillo 3B Ryan Flaherty SP Carlos Zambrano, Randy Wells, Jay Jackson, Chris Carpenter, Casey Coleman, Chris Archer, Dae-Eun Rhee Bench: DJ Lemahieu, Logan Watkins/Darwin Barney, Sam Fuld/Brandon Guyer, Micah Hoffpauir/Blake Lalli, Welington Castillo/Chris Robinson. Bullpen: Carlos Marmol, Esmailin Caridad, Justin Berg, John Gaub, Jeff Samardzija, James Russell, Marcos Mateo, Rafael Dolis, Blake Parker, David Patton, Andrew Cashner

Hey Arizona Phil I was at the game yesterday. How many homeruns do you think Silva would have given up if the wind would have been blowing out like it does 90% of time. I thought he got hit hard just like when he pitched only two inings against the Reds last Sunday.

I'm listening to the Cardinals crush the Mets (Cubs not on yet) and they keep talking about Parisi who apparently is pitching in relief for the Cards. I could have sworn he was on the Cubs and was even the subject of a TCR article yesterday...turns out they have a guy named Pete Parise and they pronounce his name the same. What are the odds?

colvin should go to iowa & i'm not saying that just because i live there - what are the odds that a guy who hit .500 for a month in whatever circumstances stays hot, regardless of how much he plays? tell him, 'nice spring kid, you earned yourself a promotion; go take a walk or two in triple a'...even if all else goes according to plan [whatever that means], marmol & the pen will be the undoing of this team - i am already planning on a turn-off-the-radio strategy when marmol enters, before hughes says, 'time to fasten those seatbelts...'

[ ]

In reply to by Mike Wellman

First of all, if Colvin had spent spring training taking walks he WOULD BE at AAA and not on the team. Cubs minor leaguers have to hit their way on to the big club. The organization doesn't value walks at all. Never has. Look at this last year--- AAA Iowa: 13th/16 in team BB's AA Tenn: LAST in team BB's, SECOND in BA A+ Daytona: 10th/12 in team BB's A Peoria: 12th/14 in team BB's, FIRST in BA In a system like that, what exactly is another year in the minors going to do for his BB totals? Then, Name some Cubs minor leaguers who walked more that twice all spring training. Jackson, Snyder? 4 times each and then sent packing to minor league camp after a brief look. Fuld has 3. That's it. So, there's nothing alarming about Colvin not taking walks. Why should he now with so much on the line personally and when he's hitting everything they throw at him? Sure, Colvin isn't an OBP machine, but he does know how to take a walk once in awhile. It's not like he's another Josh Vitters.

[ ]

In reply to by navigator

Nothing alarming? Ok this is the part where people like me and others say the system is screwed up from the drafting to the coaches to the entire philosophy. Now this is the part where you name all the awesome Cubs prospects who have came out of that system since Mark Grace and suddenly you find it very alarming. Colvin is everything that is wrong with our system, but propped up on a pedestal as the benchmark for success. Just hit the crap out of the ball in A-AAA isn't good enough, you need to show skills to succeed in the majors, not just in AAA.

[ ]

In reply to by MikeC

"Ok this is the part where people like me and others say the system is screwed up from the drafting to the coaches to the entire philosophy." I agree that the current roster is not stocked with All Stars from the minors, however, you are one of the people that obviously refuses to see progress. Who are "the others" that are bashing the Cubs MiLB system? Can you show me some of them. For the year 2010? And, further, you and Tim Wilken bashers (he knows who he is) refuse to give any credit for at least the arrow getting pointed in the right direction - if not developing solid/useful MAjor League players (the MAIN objective of the minors), than developing players to the point that they are desired as trade pieces. Look - I plainly see that while the Tribune owned this team there have been problems drafting and developing, but I also now have seen progress under Tim Wilken's guidance. Things are improving. There are FOUR rookies that will be on the team, plus other players that are "home-grown-ish". You may want to also acknowledge the "others" that are considered "scouting experts", as well, that note the team's overall improvement of the entire farm system. We are all impatient with this god damned frustrating team, but I am personally more encouraged about player development than I have been in many years.

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In reply to by navigator

Was reading an article on Heyward and the 2007 draft was mentioned. Some interesting selections, as we all know the Cubs selected Josh Vitters at #3 and he is what in A ball still? Take a look at some of the ones that went off the board after him... Matt Wieters #5 Matt LaPorta #7 Jayson Heyward #14 We had a chance at Matt Wieters and we took fucking Josh Vitters? Why because of money? Were the #3 spending team in all of baseball but were cheap on signing drafted players? So i did a little digging around and came across this article which really doesn't surprise me, just reaffirms that we have had a shitty scouting department for years. http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/chicago-cubs-wrigley-bound/2009/11/the-… Baseball America came out on Friday with their draft spending list, a ranking of the total amount of money each major league team spent to sign the players they selected in June's amateur draft. The list is a subscription article, so I won't give away too much of it, but I'll let you in on one secret. The Cubs finished 26th out of the 30 clubs, with just over 4 million dollars spent. The 4 teams that finished behind them? 3 didn't have first round picks, and the 4th didn't sign theirs. So basically the reason a Matt Wieters type isn't going to be on our roster for the next decade is because we didn't want to pay 6 million for Wieters. Vitters got 3.2, and the rest of the money we easily throw away on the Aaron Mile's of the world. The Cubs need to stop being cheap bastards in the draft and select the best player, not the best player you can sign the easiest.

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In reply to by Dr. aaron b

Its not disingenuous, I was clearly exaggerating to make a point: even if one prospect picked below another does better than the higher one, that is not grounds for debasing the entire scouting department and minor league system. But for the record, while Pujols was not being talked about like Vitters/Weiters, he was an honorable mention pick for the All-USA Today team in 1997 and 1998. He was All-State in Kansas twice, led the team to the state championship, set American Legion records for home runs and RBI - in just over 60 games he had 35 HR and 124 RBI, while hitting nearly .600 - and hit .461 in his year of junior college right before the draft. So he was not obscure. In fact he had a ton of scouts come to his games, it's just that they didn't judge him well. As his college coach said: "I had scouts come to me the next year after the draft and tell me they didn’t turn him in as a guy worth drafting. They don’t know what the hell they’re doing here in the Midwest as far as drafting. There are some idiots here that think they know the game. It is damn ridiculous — 13th round."

[ ]

In reply to by MikeC

way to Fox News that one... the ranking and quote you used was for the 2009 draft which they got Brett Jackson for a cheap 972K(below slot) and before Ricketts took over and they clearly had a strict Trib draft budget. The Cubs also spent quite a bit more in the Pacific Rim than other teams (plus other signings in the Australia, Italy, and of course Latin America over the years). You need to compare total amateur signings (not just the draft) for a fair comparison. They were pretty low in total bonus money in the 2006 draft, but didn't have a 2,3 or 4th round pick. On the other hand, they gave Samardzija first round money that year and Huseby 1st/2nd round money. Logan Watkins was another player recently paid well over slot money(E-Pat, Gallagher are couple more off the top of my head). I don't have my BA prospect handbook in front of me, but I thought I recall in the 2009 version that they've varied quite a bit from year-to-year in draft bonuses from near the top to near the bottom. But I can't confirm that at the moment... Wilken says he just liked Vitters more and were worried about Wieters staying behind the plate. It's also when the team went up for sale, so I'm sure they cheaped out a bit on that one. Hopefully the Ricketts are serious about focusing on the best amateur talent. Of course, they could have easily had Chapman if they wanted to...so not a great start.

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

Fox News tells Fox News consumers things Fox News consumers want to hear... ...now if they could do that without making every other news organization seem like "evil liberals" then they might do a little more good in the world. It's amazing how many Fox News patrons think the AP is a liberal mouthpiece...hell, they think almost every news outlet is a liberal mouthpiece. It's a battle no one's fighting, though "one side" is gearing up to fight something that doesn't exist.

[ ]

In reply to by Ryno

If you look at the independent research of which networks lean what way, Fox News comes out as the one that leans mostly to the center (but still on the right side), while CNN and MSNBC tilt heavily into liberal territory. Along with CBS, NBC, and ABC somewhat. I think ABC was trending more to the center but leaning left. Just remember CNN's Anderson Cooper, who has no political dog in the fight he says, introduced the word Tea Bagger to the political discourse when describing Tea Party protests. That word has been picked up across the political spectrum to belittle the movement. And CNN was the one at an early Tea Party rally that tried to ask a question to a Tea Party person but wouldn't allow them to answer and the people around them kept telling the reporter to shut up if she wanted an actual answer. The reporter then feared for her safety because of the nasty evil Tea Party people/Theme the Democrats want to portray them as. And CNN just reported "dozens" of people showed up in Nevada where 20,000 showed up. And lets not forget CNN sold its political soul to Saddam Hussein for access while Fox News told Saddam he can shove it up his ass. They had to report what Saddam wanted them to report, or he would kick them out of Baghdad. CNN said no problem, we will be your propaganda mouth piece. But FoxNews is the stupid ones. And people wonder why CNN is in a free fall with losing viewers.

[ ]

In reply to by MikeC

But FoxNews is the stupid ones. And people wonder why CNN is in a free fall with losing viewers.
You are incorrectly assuming that cable news television viewers are a representative sample of equal parts liberal/conservative. This is wildly incorrect. Most people have moved on with their lives, but the tea baggers are bitching and moaning like spoiled babies. They're annoyed and watching Glenn Beck to feel better. It is extremely ignorant of the truth to say Fox News is anything but a conservative echo chamber. Even when I was a Republican and Conservative (and yes, I was one, not many years ago), I never once tried to convince anyone that Fox News was reporting unbiased news. And further, I can live with biased commentary shows, like Hannity, O'Reilly, Maddow, whatever, that's fine. We all know what they are all about, but when you let that slant affect your actual news reporting by having anchors take part in tea party demonstrations on-air, etc, etc: that is just reprehensible. Fox has left journalistic integrity behind long ago. But this is a big fucking stupid argument anyways, because Fox news is not the problem. How many independents do you think watch Fox news? The only problem I have are the whining douchebags throwing their freedom bricks through windows like they are performing some great patriotic service to our country by performing domestic terrorism. Obama won, you lost. You're just going to have to deal with the new legislation. You want to protest, take it to the polls like a big boy.

[ ]

In reply to by navigator

I don't know if I've mentioned this, but I looked compared Colvin's to Corey Patterson's minor league numbers the other day. As a set of statistics they have some similarities. Here are their BB/PA, K/PA, and BB/K , with Patterson first then Colvin: Corey Patterson: BB per PA: 129/1961= 6.58% K per PA: 379/1961= 19.33% BB/K: 129/379= .3404 Tyler Colvin: BB per PA: 105/1868= 5.62% K per Pa: 341/1868= 18.25% BB/K: 105/341= .3079 I didn't filter out Patterson's time in AAA in 2005, 2008 or 2009. He collected 543 of his minor league PAs in that time and put up respectable slugging numbers but his iso obp was not significantly higher than in previous times through the minors. There are significant differences between Colvin and Patterson, of course. Colvin doesn't have Patterson's speed and (I think) cannot quite match Patterson in his prime on defense. He could, however, exceed Patterson's best power year--2004 in which he hit 24 HRs. As a player, Colvin flat out has a better fundamental swing than Patterson does. He's not a dead pull hitter like Patterson was with the Cubs; he can drive the ball to left center and slash it down the line in left. My real point here is that we were all justifiably excited about Patterson when he was a prospect. In hindsight, we've all decided he was an awful prospect. But the really disappointing thing about Patterson at the plate was that he stopped developing and actually seemed to take steps backward when he hit the majors. Not everybody does that. Plenty of quality major leaguers improve upon their minor league rates during their careers in the majors. Colvin has a .798 minor league OPS right now. If, with the extra muscle, he can (eventually) maintain an OPS of .800 or higher, he'll be a quality major league CF, especially before he hits free agency and his cost starts to detract from his overall value.

[ ]

In reply to by Charlie

well the one thing Kotchman has going for him is putting the ball in play. I don't feel like doing a full study here, but at least in 2008 he drove in just under 17% of runners on base which is average to above average in a similarly big ballpark. With Ichiro and Figgins theoretically getting on-base in front of him, it's either gonna be a lot of double plays, hit or runs or RBI opportunities. Not the worse thing they can do, especially with an extremely low power lineup.

Jacque Jones(notes) has been told that he will not make the Minnesota Twins’ opening day roster. Jones hit .344 this spring with two home runs and three doubles. But manager Ron Gardenhire told him on Saturday that there wasn’t enough room for the veteran outfielder on a loaded Twins roster. Jones will finish out spring training with the team and travel to Minnesota to play in an exhibition game against the St. Louis Cardinals. After that, he will report to Triple-A Rochester. After playing in the independent Atlantic League in 2009, Jones signed a minor league deal with the Twins in February. He spent the first seven seasons of his career with the Twins before leaving in 2006 for the Cubs. He also played for Detroit and Florida in 2008.
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=AhZq1ar5X0UEQggZg6PlwEyFCLcF?slug… I had no idea. And he's hitting .344 this spring. So much for spring training stats.

So basically with Colvin on board, Fuld and Hoffpauir will be optioned to AAA and the last spot is between Casey and Millar with it presumably going to Casey given Arizona Phil's info on the team telling him to look for housing in Chicago. It will be interesting to see what they do with Millar and what he is willing to do.

[ ]

In reply to by The Real Neal

Wouldn't Texas just wait until the Cubs cut him loose? I can't imagine the Cubs taking Millar over Tracy.

to bat pitcher 8th, Cedeno will bat 9th... Iwamura to leadoff and McCutchen 2nd intriguing...

[ ]

In reply to by navigator

batting a pitcher 8th or 9th doesn't make a big difference imo the first time through the lineup, it's a good bet to kill a rally earlier than you'd like, for theoretically bigger gains the 2nd or 3rd time through. Batting McCutchen 2nd is a good idea though... it's a coin flip decision imo and the manager will catch more grief because it goes against the norm from the press and his own players when it doesn't work, like not using your closer in strictly save situations. The Cubs probably should have tried it when Soriano was hitting leadoff. LaRussa did it for most of '08 and the middle of '09. Macha tried it for a handful of games in '09 and Yost did it for like 2 months in '08. Be curious what their runs per game were like in each situation (small sample size caveat, other factors, etc)...

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

haha, Cards did it to get more ABs for Pujols. Pirates are doing it because their pitchers are better hitters than Cedeno.

[ ]

In reply to by Ryno

it's lame any way you mix it... it blows me away how people who claims to love stats can look at data that's directly affected by having a pitcher bat in front of a guy and turn it on it's head to mean nothing...even though it's based on that. the results seems more important than the logic behind it. we're not producing cancer and mental illness meds here... we're taking a mix of weak hitters and putting the weakest one up top without consideration of lineup construction at the bottom. people are well prepared to deal with middle-lineup guys, but the science behind the guys who aren't polished/predictable and are free swinging hackers is nearly pure ass...and playing loose with the things that allow these guys to produce is pure ass. the overall affect may be minimal, but we're talking about minimal producers anyway. most pitchers either take an out and/or move a runner (usually both if there's a guy on base)...you sure as hell don't want most swinging. hell, the ones that do swing that we celebrate have a hard enough time proving they should have a bat in their hands...

RBI double in the first off some joker named Fisher... Byrd hr as well, 3-0 Cubs after 1.

other than get getting caught 3 times stealing versus 2 successful steals, .408 BA with a .472 OBP at the moment for a guy that likes to pounce on the first fastball he sees, he should see plenty in the leadoff spot.

[ ]

In reply to by Charlie

been my impression that he doesn't miss a chance to swing at a fastball he likes... mind you, I don't care, although it might not be the best skillset for a leadoff guy that you want to work the count. He's not allergic to taking walks and no reason to let something you can handle go by. Nomar and Barrett were 2 notorious first fastball i see I'm swinging, but doesn't mean they chased a lot either. as long as he gets on-base at a .350 or higher clip...

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In reply to by Rob G.

I looked around for a place I might find statistics on that, because I'm honestly just not sure how much Theriot does that (I didn't intend to argue with you, I just thought you might have a statistic to report)--I couldn't find anything. Anybody know of a source that records that info?

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In reply to by Rob G.

Thanks, Rob! I knew that Theriot usually looks for a pitch up, but I wasn't thinking of that in relation to his tendency to swing at fastballs. But I do think there's a difference between swinging at fastballs and swinging at fastballs before he has a strike on him. Like I said, I don't doubt you--and you've done a good job cobbling together some other data pretty convincingly. (I wasn't about to do that leg work.) I'll keep an eye out this season. Maybe I'll tabulate a bit (I won't).

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In reply to by Ryno

Which one are you saying Theriot has? Because I'm ready to argue with you in either direction.

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In reply to by Charlie

He means "doing speed" not actually running fast. Rob G and I had this out last off-season. I settled for a pyrrhic victory that if he has speed it doesn't give any benefits on the field or running the bases so it's not really there. In 2003 some random scout had him timed quickly home to first was Rob's evidence to the contrary.

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In reply to by The Real Neal

and triples and stolen base attempts and the Cubs had him try switch-hitting to take advantage of his speed in the minors. Do you think Lou lets him run 30+ times a year because he's as fast as Soto? he's not Juan Pierre, he's not even a healthy Soriano, but he has above average speed for a major leaguer. It certainly isn't his baseball smarts getting him 20+ steals a year.

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In reply to by Rob G.

I can go with above average speed. But above average speed alone does not a base stealer make (while excellent or elite speed can make up for not getting good jumps--and on the other side of the coin, Bengie Molina isn't going to be stealing many bases no matter how well he reads a pitcher).

Baker, Fontenot and Byrd with home runs, Theriot 3/4 Berg goes an odd .1 IP, Marshall K's 4 in 2 IP, and Russell keeps his 0 ERA

Recent comments

  • crunch (view)

    yeah, for me this isn't about who's better at 3rd.  it's madrigal, period.  for me it's about who's not hitting in the lineup because madrigal is in the lineup.

    occasional play at 3rd for madrigal, okay.  going with the steele/ground-ball matchup...meh, but okay, whatever.

    seeing madrigal get significant starting time...no thanks.

  • Dolorous Jon Lester (view)

    Yeah I am very disappointed Madrigal is starting. He has no business as a starter. He is AAA insurance, a back up at best. Sure his defense looks fine because he plays far enough in that his noodle arm isn’t totally exposed. It comes at the cost of 3B range.

    He’s garbage, and a team serious about winning would NOT have him starting opening day.

  • crunch (view)

    in other news, it took 3 PA before a.rizzo got his 1st HBP of the season.

  • Eric S (view)

    With two home runs (so far) and 5 rbi today … clearly Nick Martini is the straw that stirs the Reds drink 😳

  • crunch (view)

    madrigal at 3rd...morel at DH.

    making room for madrigal or/and masterboney to get a significant amount of ABs is a misuse of the roster.  if it needed to get taken care of this offseason, they had tons of time to figure that out.

    morel played almost exclusively at 3rd in winter ball and they had him almost exclusively there all spring when he wasn't DH'ing.

    madrigal doing a good job with the glove for a bit over 2 chances per game...is that worth more than what he brings with the bat 4-5 PA a game?  it's 2024 and we got glenn beckert 2.0 manning 3rd base.

    this is a tauchman or cooper DH situation based on bat, alone.  cooper is 3/7 with a double off eovaldi if you want to play the most successful matchup.

    anyway, i hope this is a temporary thing, not business as usual for the rest of the season.  it will be telling if morel is not used at 3rd when an extreme fly ball pitcher like imanaga is on the mound.

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    There are two clear "logjams" in the Cubs minor league pipeline at the present time, namely AA outfielders (K. Alcantara, C. Franklin, Roederer, Pagan, Pinango, Beesley, and Nwogu) and Hi-A infielders (J. Rojas, P. Ramirez, Howard, R. Morel, Pertuz, R. Garcia, and Spence, although Morel has been getting a lot of reps in the outfield in addition to infield). So it is possible that you might see a trade involving one of the extra outfielders at AA and/or one of the extra infielders at Hi-A in the next few days. 

  • 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.