Cubs MLB Roster

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37 players are on the MLB RESERVE LIST (three slots are open)

Last updated 11-17-2023
 
* bats or throws left
# bats both

PITCHERS: 20
Adbert Alzolay 
Michael Arias
Javier Assad
Ben Brown
Jose Cuas
Kyle Hendricks
Porter Hodge
* Bailey Horn
Caleb Kilian
Mark Leiter Jr
* Luke Little
Julian Merryweather
Daniel Palencia
Michael Rucker
* Drew Smyly
* Justin Steele
Jameson Taillon
Keegan Thompson
Hayden Wesneski 
* Jordan Wicks

CATCHERS: 2
Miguel Amaya
Yan Gomes

INFIELDERS: 8
Nico Hoerner
Nick Madrigal
* Miles Mastrobuoni
* Matt Mervis
Christopher Morel
Dansby Swanson
Luis Vazquez
Patrick Wisdom

OUTFIELDERS: 7
Kevin Alcantara
Alexander Canario
* Pete Crow-Armstrong
Brennen Davis
# Ian Happ
Seiya Suzuki
* Mike Tauchman

 



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Game 149 Thread / Brewers @ Cubs (1 of 3)

Game Chat | Press Pass | BR Preview

SP *C.C. Sabathia
SP Ryan Dempster
(NL)
9-0, 1.59, 102 K, 21 BB, 102 IP
15-6, 3.02, 173 K, 74 BB, 190.2 IP
       
CF
Mike Cameron
LF
Alfonso Soriano
2B
#Ray Durham SS Ryan Theriot
3B Ryan Braun 1B
Derrek Lee
1B *Prince Fielder
3B
Aramis Ramirez
SS
J.J Hardy
C Geovany Soto
RF Corey Hart RF Mark DeRosa
3B *Craig Counsell
CF Reed Johnson
C
Jason Kendall
2B Ronny Cedeno
P *C.C. Sabathia
P Ryan Dempster

 

The last homestand of the regular season and the Cubs will be looking to clinch a spot in the playoffs in front of their home fans and secure their second straight division crown. Dempster goes tonight hoping to take sole possession of the Cubs win lead over Ted Lilly, who tied him yesterday with 15 (Zambrano has 14).

New Brewers manager Dale Sveum leads the troops into Wrigley and will get to send Sabathia and Sheets in the first two games. That should make him look like a geniuis. Sabathia has started 13 games for the Brewers, all good enough to be considered quality starts. The Cubs though are 28-14 versus lefties this year and 14-5 at home. My, how times have changed for our Cubs.

As I mentioned earlier, if the Cubs sweep the Brewers, they'll need the Marlins to win at least one versus the Astros over the next  3 games to clinch. If they can take two out of three, that'll give them the weekend to finish the job before they have to head out on the road again.

Comments

Cheers to Rob G the only one smart enough to know that Astros need to lose also for Cubs to clinch. Jeers to all Chicago media who believe a sweep alone wins the division.

This may be a stupid question, but if the Brewers don't make the wild card and Mets/Phillies join the Cubs/Dodgers do the Cubs play the NL East wild card in the NLDS?

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

The rule makes sure that two teams from the same division don't have to play eachother until the championship series. Here's why that is a good idea: Those teams quite often play themselves at end of the season (MLB schedule makers try to make that happen, at least). You want the Cubs to end the season with 3 at Milwaukee, to then play 5 more versus Milwaukee? Say you have a division that's top two heavy, and the bottom is crap, sort of like how the AL East has been over the last 10 years, and other division where winner comes out of a dogfight of a bunch of 90 win teams. Or this year, he two best teams in the league are in the same division but some other team has a cakewalk through their crappy division (Red Sox, Rays, Angels), the Red Sox or Rays would get punished by having to play eachother in the first round.

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

I think we should go back to just having an NL East and NL West. Make the schedule unbalanced in terms of East/West so we get more games against more teams, rather 500 series against the Pirates. Then take the top two teams from each division and re-seed according to record for the playoffs. Personally, I'm sick of the NL Central. It sucks that we have more teams than the other divisions, and I'm sick of playing the Pirates and Reds 36 times a year (despite padding our record). The Cardinals and Brewers are both nice rivalries, but it would be nice to establish/renew some new/old ones as well. Also, it's not like the travel schedule would be much different considering every team in the East is at most a 2.5 hour flight away.

Howry booed off the field again. Since the trade Eyre has 11 IP and a 1.64 ERA, in 10.2 IP Howry has a 6.75 ERA. I'm not sure there is even a reason to put him on the playoff roster at this point.

From Rob Neyer's Chat Today: Josh DC: Clearly the Cubs are the favorites in the NL right now, but who do you like to challenge them in October? Dodgers? Mets? Phillies? Brewers? What will be their biggest obstacle? Rob Neyer: Rich Harden's body. If that doesn't get in their way, the Cubs may breeze into the World Series Ok, we now know who to blame if we don't get there...

best thing besides the win tonight was handing CC what will likely be his only lost of the season. Although kind of a BS loss when he gives up 3 runs but his team scores 4. Yes, I know the rule, but just one of the many reasons that W-L totals for pitchers are sketchy.

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

Well the season isn't over yet, but the thing that makes them 'slam dunks' ironically is their win/loss records. Webb showed us how to cough up a Cy Young over a period of 6 days, let's see if these two guys can finish the deal. Lincecum versus Johnson, Thursday night should be a good watch for you leftist coasters. DBacks will be trying to get Webb back in contention by knocking Lincecum around, pitching with four days rest after a 138 pitch start. At least with Prior the Cubs were in contention.

Bob Howry, 7th inning of a one-run game... Knock it the fuck off Lou.

[ ]

In reply to by Chad

the answer I so often used with Dusty....anyone else.

Guzman or Samardzija would be my top choices...but honestly, anyone else. I don't give a fuck anymore. Howry's been shit all season, please get the Steve Eyre treatment.

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

To even be considered for the playoff roster, Guzman needs to prove he can throw two days in a row. But Lou doesn't seem inclined to give him a chance. Guzman pitched an inning on 9/2 and another 2 innings on 9/5, so he hasn't seen the mound in 8 games. Maybe with a 9 game lead, we'll start to see more of him. I'd like to see him get a chance to pitch his way onto the playoff roster.

[ ]

In reply to by Timmer

It's not 'proving' he can throw two days in a row, it's being allowed to throw two days in a row. Not sure I agree with having to be able to pitch on consecutive days to make the playoff roster anyway. There are a lot more off days during the playoffs. Wood, for example, was on the post season roster last year.

They should use Guzman in these games coming up. it seems like the Golden Domer is 2-0 to every batter. Guzman had better control in the minors. See if it can translate to the majors. And Real Neal, I don't care who owns the stock, if a business gets big enough to have a major ripple effect if it fails, it knows it can count on the government to bail it out. That, combined with the outrageous salaries of CEOs, CFOs etc., takes risk out of the endeavor for the decision makers. Might be one of the reasons the American car companies lag so far behind in innovation and stayed addicted to the crack of the SUV for so long. Don't worry, Washington will be bailing them out too soon. Sorry to go off on an economic rant. I'll banish myself to a virtual corner for a while.

[ ]

In reply to by The Real Neal

I'd be very interested in hearing how the average Fortune 500 CEO is any more greedy than the Scott Boras's and Arods of the world Who said CEOs were more greedy? Nice strawman. Though, to be fair to athletes, athletes are at least much more limited in terms of the number of years that they can earn money, at least in that specific career. And the vast majority of professional athletes, even in the major sports, will not become anywhere close to the mega-millionaires that Arod, Boras, or Fortune 500 CEOs do.

[ ]

In reply to by big_lowitzki

Some things that may have eluded you, Dave. This is a baseball blog. If you're going to complain about greedy millionares, it would be more appropriate to complain about the ones involved in baseball here, right? You should figure out what 'Strawman' means before you start throwing the term around like a 4th grade spelling bee champion. Speaking of Strawmen, though, there average MLB player makes more in his career than the average CEO/CFO. But don't let me confuse facts with your typical socialist drivel, rant on!

[ ]

In reply to by The Real Neal

This is a baseball blog. For being a baseball blog, you sure bring up politics a lot. You should figure out what 'Strawman' means before you start throwing the term around like a 4th grade spelling bee champion. WTF? I know exactly what it means. The definition of a straw man:
A "straw man" is an informal fallacy which is committed whenever someone argues against a position which the other person does not actually hold.
Which is exactly what you did. You shot down an argument that was not made in order to make some kind of point that Alex Rodriguez and Fortune 500 CEOs are similar. Speaking of Strawmen, though, there average MLB player makes more in his career than the average CEO/CFO. First, I was explicitly referring to Fortune 500 CEOs, was I not? But good job at changing that to all CEO/CFO's. And, by the way, that would be another strawman. It is always easier to argue against arguments that are not made. And do you have a source for your statement? Because the average length of an MLB career is 5.6 years (source). The average salary in MLB this year was around $3 million (source). Very roughly, we can say that the average current MLB player will make about $15 million in his career. That is very rough, but I would argue that it would be fairly accurate. The average CEO pay, in 2005, was $11.8 million per year (source). That would mean that a CEO would have to just work 2 years as a CEO to make more than the average player in MLB. But don't let me confuse facts with the ignorant bull shit that you make up.

Random thoughts: - In the 2 big games against the unbeatable monster that was CC, Sori was huge. Big leadoff hits in both games to set the tone and shatter his aura of invincibility. I was at the ballpark last night: - Prince's first HR was the hardest-hit HR I have seen live. Holy mackeral. - Fukudome's AB against CC may have been the worst MLB AB I have ever seen, live or otherwise. What's worse than "compeltely overmatched". Heard the first smattering of Fukky boos last night. - Wrigley on a perfect September night, great ballgame, crowd buzzing, great defense by both teams, Wood vs. Prince to end it -- can't beat it.

Recent comments

  • Cubster (view)

    I blame Jason Schmidt’s 3/44

  • Craig A. (view)

    Was all that stuff with the Blue Jays just to squeeze an extra $10 million/yr out of the Dodgers?  It's more than enough to cover his California income taxes!

  • crunch (view)

    unless he pitches into his late-30 that is gonna sting.  a 70m DH...ow.

    it's great to take care of 2 roster spots in 1 player, and i'm sure the team will cut into the pay with the amount of merch/etc he can sell just by being attached to the team....but yeah, i'm not mad the cubs didn't go that extreme.

  • WebAdmin (view)

    Shohei Ohtani to join Dodgers according to ESPN. 10 years for $700 m
  • Cubster (view)

    I'm getting the feeling that Todd Walker might be a Shaw comp. A valuable hit first player but limited albeit not awful on defense. Hopefully, he has more upside. Not a bad floor if Steve Garvey is his ceiling.

  • Wrigley Rat (view)

    AZ Phil - If that's the level of return, I would want NO part of that trade to Cleveland for Clase and Bieber. I have some faith that the Cubs have a strong plan for which prospects they will keep (even if they dangle them in trade talks) and which they will move, because they have plenty of solid prospects they can trade but they shouldn't be trading any of the ones they hope will be future core players. Some guys are redundant, so I hope they choose the right players to keep and the right players to move. It's always important for a team to know its own minor league players better than scouts from other teams (obviously), but I don't think that's always been the case for the Cubs and many other clubs. 

    Cubster - I watched an interview with Carter Hawkins a couple days ago where he said that although Morel hasn't gotten into any Dominican games at 1B, the Cubs did send coaches down with Morel to work on first base skills during practice. So he is developing those skills, whether the Cubs end up using him there or not will probably be dependent on a lot of factors including how those coaches think he looks at the position while training. 

  • tim815 (view)

    He could still play SS at Double-A, but Vazquez, Hoerner, and Swanson are much better defensively, arm strength or not. I'd be good leaving Shaw at SS with McGeary and Ballesteros around, but by the first of June (?), 1B might make sense in DM.

  • crunch (view)

    i have no reason to see a problem, it just seems like it's his most obvious reason to give pause on him at 1st.

    the cubs situation dictates 2nd/SS isn't an option.  his arm dictates 3rd isn't an option.  1st or CF seems to be his best path and he's only played CF in summer ball back in highschool/college...and of course PCA is a better + closer to the bigs CF.

    it's a lot safer to say he's made for 1st than it is he's made for 3rd.  even as a SS his arm is weak, and it's not like his glove is so great he needs to stay in the middle-IF.

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    CRUNCH: Steve Garvey (one of Shaw's comps as a hitter) was a 5'10 right-handed throwing first-baseman with a rag arm. Jeff Bagwell (another Shaw comp) was a 6'0 right-handed throwing first-baseman with a rag arm. Carlos Santana (who played 1B for Counsell in Milwaukee last season and is an above-average defensive first-baseman) is 5'11. It's not like Shaw is 5'7 or 5'8. I don't really see the problem. 

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    CUBSTER: It's not that Matt Shaw can't play SS (or 2B). Shaw was a SS his last two years in college at Maryland and apparently was OK defensively. It's just that there are certain throws a big league SS has to make (the backhand / flat-foot throw from deep in the 5.5 hole and the leap & change direction throw after fielding a ball up the middle after ranging to his left) that you might not see every game. So while he might appear to be passable at SS, over time the below-average arm at SS will catch up with the player and cost the team runs. 

    Shaw is a good fielder so he could play SS (like Ryan Theriot did) and you would just live with the below-average arm strength that would rear its ugly head every now & again, because he is a plus-plus hitter. But the Cubs have Dansby Swanson locked-in at SS through 2029, so Shaw won't be playing there even if he were to improve his arm strength and remake his throwing mechanics.  

    As far as second-base is concerned, that would seem to be Shaw's best position, because the position requires a plus-glove but not a plus-arm. Nico Hoerner is presently the Cubs' 2B and is signed through 2026 (although he does NOT have "no trade" rights, so he could be traded at any time). So Shaw could move to 2B in 2027 after Hoerner's contract expires (presuming Hoerner does not sign another extension in the meantime), or the Cubs could preemptively trade Hoerner at some point prior to the conclusion of the 2026 season and install Shaw at 2B before 2027. 

    The thing is, the Cubs have three other prospects who also project as second-basemen, including Top 10 prospect James Triantos, Top 10 prospect Jefferson Rojas, and Top 30 prospect Pedro Ramirez. So while Shaw could very well eventually be the Cubs second-baseman, there are other legit candidates who could eventually take-over the position after Hoerner departs. But for second-base to open up before 2027, Hoerner has to be traded.  

    As far as third-base is concerned, the Cubs already have a Top 15 prospect (B. J. Murray) who plays 3B and plays it well, and he should be considered the Cubs third-baseman of the future (possibly as soon as sometime during the 2024 season). Also, I don't think that Christopher Morel has the "touch" required to play 3B (he is an athletic and rangy player who plays like the proverbial "Bull in a China Shop" or like a point guard who plays too fast and turns the ball over too much), while Shaw simply does not appear to have the arm strength required to play 3B. It is true that Nick Madrigal has made himself into an above-average defensive-third baseman, but I would not be too quick to generalize and say that because Madrigal did it, that anybody can do it. Also, 3B requires different perception, reaction, and tracking skills than does SS and 2B (which is why a lot of catchers can often play 3B fairly well), so not all middle infielders can play 3B well-enough to be an MLB-regular at the position. 

    The one position that is wide-open on the Chicago Cubs going forward is 1st base. Matt Shaw is a plus-fielder with a below-average arm but with a plus-plus bat, so he could be a fit at 1st base. Sort of like Padres first-baseman Jake Cronenworth, but Shaw has a higher ceiling as a hitter. If the Cubs were to move Shaw to 1st base in Spring Training 2024 and presuming he is able to play the position without difficulty, he could be in Chicago by the end of the 2024 season. I understand why the Cubs might think about Christopher Morel as a possible first-baseman because they want to get his power into the lineup any way they can, but Morel's two best attributes are HR power and raw arm strength. He is a rangy infielder (not needed at 1st base) with a plus-arm (also not needed at 1st base), but he also doesn't have the "flyhawk" skills needed to play CF. Morel's best position would be LF, but Ian Happ is firmly ensconced there (with a full "no trade") through 2026, which makes Morel a prime trade chip to be used to acquire pitching (or maybe a catcher).  

    As far as Matt Chapman is concerned, I would hope the Cubs don't sign him. It's not just losing the draft pick (Chapman got a QO from the Jays) or that he blocks B. J. Murray long-term, because that wouldn't matter if Chapman is still the hitter he was earlier in his career. But after a red-hot April last year he fell off the table at the plate the last five months. Granted he is a Gold Glove-quality defender at 3B, but you're essentially getting Patrick Wisdom offensively, and so he is not worth the financial investment (money & years) and losing a draft pick on top of it if you sign him. 

    If the Cubs don't sign Ohtani, Yakamoto, or Bellinger (and I am becoming increasingly pessimistic that they can), I would hope that they will sign position player free agents only to one year deals (with maybe a second year option) that can be easily moved at the Trade Deadline, and then get ready to unleash the youth (PCA, Shaw, Caissie, Ballesteros, Murray, et al) in 2025 (or perhaps even over the last two months of the 2024 season, if the Cubs are not in contention). 

    As for possible free agents the Cubs might target, Brandon Belt and Carlos Santana (who played for Craig Counsell in Milwaukee last season) would provide some LH power at 1B & DH (Santana is an above-average defensive first-baseman, and Belt still hits RHP very well).  

    I can see the Cubs maybe acquiring a pitcher like Tyler Glasnow in a trade and then signing him to an extension (Glasnow has the same agency representation as Kyle Hendricks, so an extension should be possible), which would not be the case with Corbin Burnes or Dylan Cease (both are Boras clients).   

    I think in part because of the Carter Hawkins connection with Cleveland, even more-likely than a trade for Glasnow might be a trade for SP Shane Bieber (a post-2024 FA but as a Rosenhaus client he should be open to signing an extension) and closer Emmanuel Clase (signed through 2026 with club options both in 2027 and 2028). The Guardians need power hitters and the Cubs have Christopher Morel, although Morel would not be anywhere near enough to get both Bieber and Clase (or to get Glasnow if the trade is with the Rays). If the trade is with Cleveland for Bieber and Clase, the Cubs would probably have to give up some combination of Christopher Morel, Owen Caissie, Moises Ballestereos, Kevin Alcantara, Jefferson Rojas, and/or James Triantos (probably three from that group), one Top 10 pitching prospect like Ben Brown or Jackson Ferris, and an MLB-ready reliever with closer potential like Daniel Palencia or Luke Little.