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

Giants Wear Their Hitting Clothes at Indian School Park

Gustavo Cabrera singled twice, doubled, and drove-in two runs, Jarrett Parker, Angel Villalona, and Tyler Horan contributed RBI singles to a four-run 3rd, and Giants hitters collectively belted out 17 hits, en route to a 9-7 victory over the Cubs in Arizona Instructional League action this afternoon at Indian School Park Field #1 in Scottsdale.


Mark Malave stroked two RBI singles, Trey Martin singled twice, scored a run, and drove-in another, and Giuseppe Papaccio and Jordan Hankins each hammered an RBI double for the Cubs in a losing cause.

16-year old Venezuelan shortstop Gleyber Torres made his profesional game debut today, playing shotstop for three innings and getting two at-bats. He struck out his first time up (an ugly swing on a 3-2 breaking ball), and grounded out 4-3 in his final AB. He had one defensive chance and threw the ball away.

Torres was rated the #2 International prospect by Baseball America this past summer before signing with the Cubs on July 2nd ($1.7M bonus). The Cubs also signed the #1 rated 2013 International prospect (16-year old Dominican OF  Eloy Jimenez - $2.8M bonus), and he is at Instructs, too, although he has yet to play in an AZIL game.    

RHP Armando Rivero got an inning of work in today's game, in preparation for the start of the Arizona Fall League (AFL) season next Tuesday. (He is one of four Cubs pitchers who have been assigned to the Mesa Solar Sox). The 25-year old righthander's fastball was consistently clocked at 95-96 MPH today, and he used his hard splitter as his "chase" pitch. 

Rivero was the closer for Industriales in Serie Nacional (the Cuban major league) for several seasons prior to defecting in 2011. He signed with the Cubs this past March ($3.1M signing bonus), and spent the 2013 season getting into playing shape (he hadn't piched competively since 2011) and then moving rapidly up through the pipeline, before finishing the season at AA Tennessee. Rivero had the fourth-highest K/IP rate in the organization.  

Rivero will almost certainly get an NRI to Spring Training, and I would say as things stand right now, he has a reasonable chance of making the Cubs Opening Day 25-man roster as a member of the bullpen. Depending on how things develop, he could even conceivably win the closer's job.  

Here is the abridged box score from today's game. (Cubs players only). The game was stopped an inning early when the Cubs ran out of pitchers, plus after 3-1/2 hours of baseball in the hot afternoon sun (this was one of the longest Instructs games I've witnessed) following 2-1/2 hours of field instruction in the morning, everybody just wanted to go home. 


CUBS LINEUP
:
1. Kevin Encarnacion, DH #1: 0-4 (4-3, F-9, K, HBP, K)
2a. Trey Martin, CF: 2-3 (K, 1B, 1B, R, RBI)
2b. Rashad Crawford, CF: 0-1 (BB, K, RBI)
3. Jeffrey Baez, RF: 2-5 (1B, F-7, K, 3-U, 1B, R)
4a. Mark Malave, DH #2: 2-3 (6-4 FC, 1B, 1B, 2 RBI)
4b. Giuseppe Papaccio, PH-DH: 1-2 (K, 2B, R, RBI)
5a. Jesse Hodges, 3B: 1-3 (K, 6-4 FC, 1B, RBI)
5b. Jordan Hankins, 3B: 1-2 (K, 2B, RBI)
6a. Frandy de la Rosa, SS: 0-3 (4-3, L-9, K)
6b. Gleyber Torres, SS: 0-2 (K, 4-3)
7a. Kelvin Freeman, 1B: 0-1 (E-6, BB)
7b. Ben Carhart, 1B: 0-3 (3-1, F-9, L-5)
8a. Charcer Burks, LF: 0-2 (6-3, F-7)
8b. Jose Dore, LF: 0-2 (BB, K+WP, P-3, R)
9a. Danny Lockhart, 2B: 1-2 (1B, 1-6 FC, R, SB)
9b. Gioskar Amaya, 2B: 1-1 (BB, 1B)
10a. Cael Brockmeyer, C: 0-0 (HBP, BB, 2 R)
10b. Tyler Alamo, C: 0-1 (K, HBP)

CUBS PITCHERS:
1. Jose Rosario: 2.0 IP, 1 H, 1 R (1 ER), 1 BB, 1 K, 1 GIDP, 4/1 GO/FO, 26 pitches (14 strikes)
2. Daury Torrez: 1.1 IP, 7 H, 4 R (4 ER), 1 BB, 1 K, 1 HBP, 2/1 GO/FO, 34 pitches (22 strikes)
3. Armando Rivero: 1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, 1/0 GO/FO, 15 pitches (9 strikes)
4. Tyler Ihrig: 2.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R (1 ER), 1 BB, 4 K, 1 WP, 1 PO, 1/0 GO/FO, 42 pitches (29 strikes)
5. Scott Frazier: 0.2 IP, 4 H, 3 R (3 ER), 0 BB, 1 K, 1/0 GO/FO, 26 pitches (18 strikes)

CUBS ERRORS:
1. SS Frandy de la Rosa - E-6 (fielding error allowed batter to reach base safely)
2. SS Gleyber Torres - E-6 (throwing error on infield single allowed batter to advance an extra base)

CUBS CATCHERS DEFENSE:
Cael Brockmeyer: 1-1 CS

ATTENDANCE: 11 (mostly scouts)

WEATHER: Sunny, cloudless, and breezy, with temperatures in the 90's 

 

Comments

Don't worry, Gleyber, I'm sure others have had worse debuts. None coming to mind, though.

AJ Hinch's name thrown into the manager pool by Rosenthal

Brief tenure with DBacks, current Padres assistant GM

Josh Johnson has elbow arthroscopic surgery to remove spurs. Welcome to the Cubs JJ.

if you're not following the twitter sidebar, Cashman says they'll give Girardi every reason to stay in NY and one report says they won't give him permission to talk to other clubs unless it's certain he's not coming back.

here's rotoworld's blurb on JG:
Andrew Marchand of ESPN New York was told by a source that the Yankees will not give the Cubs permission to talk to Joe Girardi unless their negotiations break down.
Girardi is under contract with the Yankees until October 31 and they will attempt to get something done as soon as possible. Yankees general manager Brian Cashman already met with Girardi on Monday and he's scheduled to meet with his agent on Wednesday.

[ ]

In reply to by Cubster

I expected as much. There is not much intrigue or incentive for him to come anymore. They had their chance and hired Lou instead at the time. Girardi's agent is doing the smart Anibal Sanchez thing and will make an unbelievably sweet deal for Joe that I would expect him to accept - provided he declines TV for now. I will look forward to the Cubs selecting a San Diego or Boston cronie and keep the track record intact. Go Cubs!

E-Man...the next best available old Cub catcher is between Randy Hundley or Koyie Hill EJax could use the extra 5 mph to his fastball with KH

[ ]

In reply to by Doug Dascenzo

scott servais is already an assistant GM in LAA. damon berryhill is managing somewhere in the rookie leagues... michael barrett is somewhere knocked unconscious because a candy wrapper blew near his skull, so he's not available.

CRUNCH: Scott Servais is the Angels' Assistant GM in charge of Scouting & Player Development, and Bobby Scales is the Angels' Player Development Director. 

BTW, when Scales was with the Cubs, everybody was always saying how Hendry & Fleita wanted Scales to take a minor league manager job in the Cubs organization, but Scales wanted to keep playing as long as possible (he even played in Japan one year). And so now he has a gig better than minor league manager.   

Speaking of the Angels minor leagues, I always enjoy going to Diablo Park and seeing Bobby Knoop and Marcel Lachemann (Rene's brother). Both of them are what's called "Special Assistant to the General Manager," which means they can pretty much come & go as they please and they work with various young players and try to help them improve.

Knoop and Lachemann are both about 90 years old (OK maybe not quite that old), but they're both out there most every day in their baseball uniforms, Knoop hitting ground balls to the infielders and Lachemann (in full catcher's gear!) working with the catcher's on blocking pitches in the dirt or catching pop ups.

Knoop has a special "director's chair" that he sits in and reads the newspaper when he takes a break. 

Tom Trebelhorn has a similar job with the Giants. Treb almost got thrown out of yesterday's Cubs-Giants instructs game for razzing the umpire (some Richie Cunningham who is probably all of about 21 years old) from the bench while the actual Giants manager was out talking with the umpire about the play (which was clearly a blown call that went against th Giants). 

UMP (yelling back to Trebelhorn): "I'm talking to this guy right now, OK?"

TREB: "Hey. You umpire, I coach."

I was half-expecting him to pull a Javier Baez and say "... and I can do whatever the fuck I want," but he didn't. 

But the young players really seem to get a kick out of the Old Timers. They'll listen to them even when they otherwise don't listen to anybody else.

m.byrd HR's on his 1st ever postseason AB...reaches on error in his 2nd AB. cozart's fielding error turning a DP into runners on 1st/3rd has led to a run on a sac fly. not fun times for CIN...who are down 0-3 in the bottom 3rd.

[ ]

In reply to by crunch

cueto done after 3.1 after giving up a double that knocked around off umpire tim timmons (which, thankfully for timmons, would have been a double anyway). s.marshall in...to give up a RBI double. 1-4 cin/pit. ibb mcclutch, bb morneau...and marshall is done with 1 out and bases loaded. btw, he went 3-2 on 2 of 3 batters faced (other was ibb)...but none of the strikes he earned on the 3-2 counts were swing-and-miss...all foul contact. btw, PNC park is absolutely slam full of people...even standing room is packed.

ah, Reds losing, maybe next year Dusty...but probably not.

also, must-win game, not sure what he was saving his pen for...Cueto obviously didn't have it today....of course neither did Marshall.

Snake-bitten!

reds had 2 players with .330+ ob% this season...both well over .400 ob%, though (choo/votto)...and a really crappy hitting bench. SP + pen were near immaculate...only 1 regular with a 4.00+ ERA and it was a reliever (ondrusek). no regular, pen or SP, with a whip higher than 1.26 (also, ondrusek). j.broxton stunk it up a bit, but he was only around a bit under 2/3rd of a season for 30.2ip. spotty hitting makeup with a good chunk of 20-30HR and doubles power...very awesome pitching makeup. i didn't realize how iffy the bats were or how awesome the pitching was until i checked it out.

via rotowurld...via heyman... "CBS Sports' Jon Heyman reports that the Cubs are expected to contact Padres vice president of professional scouting A.J. Hinch about their managerial vacancy."

[ ]

In reply to by QuietMan

i heard a matt williams rumor (not from a major news outlet), but it doesn't make much sense. he's pretty much on tap to be the manager-in-waiting for ARZ somewhere down the line, but more importantly to the situation of him maybe leaving, he owns a minority share of the dbacks. some are linking the not-yet-but-expected-to-be-fired mike scioscia, though that's speculation without much legs...unlike the girardi situation.

[ ]

In reply to by Carlito

dusty could take a team to the world series in a sweep the whole way through and fans would complain how another manager could have won the WS in 2 games rather than 4. it was funny watching twitter tonight...while PIT fans were talking about their players, CIN fans were talking about the manager. before 1st pitch it was "omfg ludwig is batting 2nd wtf dusty" and after the 2nd inning it was "omfg why didn't arroyo/bailey/leake start this game wtf dusty" that said, he's under contract for 2014 with 3 postseason appearances in the past 4 years so he's probably safe. also, lulz dusty coming back to the cubs...dale has a better chance...hell, AZ Phil has a better chance =p in all seriousness...i like the current "you can't have girardi" NYY posturing + "other candidates that won't cost much loot" options this whole thing seems to be moving towards.

wow...this year vs lefties f.lirano allowed only 17h in 130ab...and only 2 were xbase hits...both doubles. .131/.175/.146 slash...OPS .321 take that koufax.

Re: Girardi I am now on the CRUNCH bandwagon and acknowledging that a Manager is only gonna win 2 or 3 games the entire season for his club. But, can also be responsible for losing much more than that. And, with that said, I really don't think it makes a difference who they hire knowing the crap they have to put on the field and on the mound.

[ ]

In reply to by The E-Man

In game decisions might only lead to a couple wins, but off the field decisions are much more important than that. Crap load of players credit their coaches/managers for helping them with swings, getting through slumps, etc. Tinkering with Castro failed, but it's helped a lot of other players.

[ ]

In reply to by The E-Man

How on earth do we measure something like that? Where does +2 or +3 come from? Is Cleveland's roster that much better this year than last? I think a manager has a lot more influence that can be reflected in a chip full of stats, and I'm no Luddite. He sets the tone for a team, he can push a specific style of play, and he can influence the morale of the team as a whole, just to name a few. In terms of direct impact by his strategic moves, sure, he has almost zero impact because things will cancel each other out. Sveum had all the excitement of a piece of dried toilet paper dragging along someone's heel as they exit the bathroom. I can't help but think just having a more rah rah guy alone would add some positive impact on a young club.

[ ]

In reply to by Old and Blue

What do you mean "things will cancel each other out"? I don't get that. How can it be that from year to year, Jim Tracy was either a "genius", or "terrible"? He managed the Pirates and now they finally have success. The Rockies. however, were good and then stunk. Both teams he managed. Is it any coincidence that the only former Cub manager to get hired after he was let go by the North Siders (that I can remember) is Dusty? After what we have seen under Sveum, why could Theo not have hired Ryno? The whole thing is a mess imo.

http://espn.go.com/new-york/mlb/story/_/id/9758268/joe-girardi-new-york… "Chicago fired Dale Sveum on Monday, and sources say that Cubs ownership views Girardi as someone who can help put a jolt into fan interest in the team. The Cubs' attendance has declined in each of the past five seasons, at a time when the organization is trying to rebuild and probably is at least two or three years away from contending again. Hiring Girardi in anticipation of increased fan interest could be more financially efficient for the Cubs than pursuing big-money free agent players." I would be happy to sign Giradri, but I would rather not get in a bidding war, and certainly don't this the interest attendance will pay for his salary.

I don't put a lot of stock in managers, but a bad leader is always going to be difficult to overcome. And as much as we all bag on Dusty, because he truly is one of the worst in-game managers baseball has ever seen, he seems to be pretty great and all the stuff that happens before and after the game (well except talking to the media)...but players love him and I think it's fair to say he may not extract more out of what's given to him, but he rarely gets less than what is given to him. Say what you will about 2004, but that team was pretty decimated by injuries and was in it at the end...he may not have the illusive clutch factor for a manager if such a thing exists (I don't think it does), but there have been worse managers. The in-game stuff is the stuff we all see and dissect though, so he gets unfairly docked by everyone.

As for 2-3 wins a manager can give or takeaway, there's probably some truth to that with in-game decisions and lineups and so on...but I think the impact on an organization overall is a lot tougher to measure.

 

 

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

Those are some pretty rosey glasses regarding 2004. It was one of the most talented lineups the Cubs have ever fielded, and they essentially collapsed in a fury of infighting and petty distractions with the Steve Stone war and other such silliness when they should have been concentrated on the field. Dusty's use of LaTroy Hawkins alone might have gotten the average manager fired, but his blame game regarding the media and his own announcers, coupled with an epic failure to seal the deal in the final week made for a pathetic job performance ledger. That said I agree he must be good at the player manager relationship and other off-screen intangibles.

[ ]

In reply to by Carlito

obviously any late season meltdown is gonna look bad and plenty of blame to go around including Baker, but '09 Tigers were pretty bad as well and no one thinks less of Leyland.

Cubs in '04 underperformed their Pythagorean record by 5 games, could be the managing, the bullpen or just bad luck.  Could be just the 2-3 games a year his in-game managing probably does cost a team. But for whatever Baker may have cost the team in September, he probably deserves equal (or at least some) credit for them to even be in that position in September.

I'm no fan of his, but he's certainly demonized worse than most managers. I understand why, epic playoff and late season collapses and poor in-game managing are easy targets, but it certainly misses a lot of the nuance of the job.

He's probably not as bad as we'd like to believe, but we're all happy he's gone (or at least should be).

[ ]

In reply to by Carlito

latroy was the best pitcher in the pen in 04...kent merker close enough to call it even. i still don't get this thing with dusty where he does seemingly normal/not-controversial stuff, but it becomes world-ending stuff. you'd think j.macias got d.barney amount of ABs a year rather than less than 200ab a year in any season he played for the cubs...or that there was some stud (or even promising) SS neifi was blocking on the team. we put up with ramon martinez + a.gonz for years before that. it would have been nice if the cubs kept r.guiterez, but he ended up going into a career ending injury spiral after he was let go to free agency.

[ ]

In reply to by crunch

I think you both make good points and I am sure Dusty was better than *I* give him credit for . . . Also crunch, it was fairly dramatic that year and not just towards Dusty. There was tons of intensity towards everyone. It's not every year a very popular announcer gets ousted because of a fight with a manager etc. maybe it makes more sense to question the intensity of Cubs' nation in general (which is perhaps easy to explain when one really weighs the WS drought pressure etc) but Dusty was not the greatest strategist, was very defensive and reactive and that isn't really anyone else's fault. You may be right about his effect on the ball field being exaggerated but he made his bed in the way he was treated and it had to do with performance and attitude and not much else. They didn't meet expectations and he was the manager. He was also pissy, defensive etc and that doesn't fly when you don't deliver. Not saying it's right, but there it is.

Brewers placed a bunch of guys on waivers today including B. Lalli and Mat Gamel....wouldn't mind if Cubs took a chance on Gamel. Coming off knee surgery and arb eligible, but will be 27 next season with good minor league numbers, was going to b their starting 1bmen last year.

Don't ask me where he's going to play, but figure that out in spring training, played mostly 3b in minors and then 1B, a handful of games in outfield.

Recent comments

  • 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.

  • crunch (view)

    dbacks are signing j.montgomery to a 1/25m with a vesting 20m player option.

    i dunno when the ink officially dries, but i believe if he signs once the season begins he can't be offered a QO...and i'm not sure if that thing with SD/LAD in korea was the season beginning, either.

  • crunch (view)

    sut says imanaga getting the home opener at wrigley (game 4 of the season).

  • crunch (view)

    cubs rolling out the who's who of "who the hell is this guy?" in the last spring game.

  • videographer (view)

    AZ Phil, speaking of Jordan Wicks having better command when he tires a bit, I remember reading about Dennis Lamp 40 years ago and his sinker that was better after 3 or 4 innings when he would tire a bit and get more sink with a little less speed on the pitch.  The key for Lamp was getting to the 4th inning.