Category: chicago national league ball club

Wonder how Neifi went 6 for 8 in the double header?

Perez walked up to two reporters in the clubhouse Tuesday and said, “You know why I’m playing?”

Perez then flexed his muscles like Popeye and walked away without saying a word.

(ChiTrib)

Awesome. Good thing spinach isn’t on the banned substances list.

Comparing the USA Today salary numbers to what I’ve got. We’re actually in the same neighborhood, so I haven’t completely been wasting my time. Note they don’t count any of the buyouts, but they do count those on the opening day DL, so they’re a bit higher than the number listed for the 25 man roster.

Difference, small and not
– Veteran minimums are higher than guys without tenure, so Chad Fox is getting $575k and Scott Williamson is getting $500k.
– Barrett’s numbers were averages; it looks like it’s 3 1/3, 4, 4 2/3 in the contract.
– They still have A-Ram’s old contract or they only are counting half the signing bonus.
– LaTroy and Remmy’s numbers include incentive bonuses from last year; I consider that part of last year’s salary.
– Derek Lee getting 1/3 less million than I had.
– Leicester is getting under the minimum? Odd. Maybe I don’t understand the minimum.

The Cub Reporter walked thru the minor league rosters over here. (The problem with fifty people covering the same team is even if you have a good idea, three other people have it too.)

Around the minors

Finding box scores for these things are tougher than I’d expect.

Albuquerque 7 – Iowa 5: You’ve heard the Prior stuff already. The Des Moines report noted Ronny Cedeno starting off the season 4-4 with a HR; Iowa Cubs.com adds Greive also hitting a home run.

West Tennessee RAIN OUT Chattanooga: Apparently it was bad enough to cause some flooding in the West Tennessee area. They’ll kick off today instead, and make up the missed game with a double header on Thursday.

Tonight, the DiamondJaxx game is followed by a Micro Wrestling Federation match. Yes, midgets. I’m thinking not Tzuki.

Daytona RAIN OUT Brevard County: The story here is the FSL picking up right where it left off last season; at least this time it’s not Hurricane related. They’ll make up the game on June 1st.

Wisconsin 3 – Peoria 1: Cheifs got behind early, blanked by the starter, Mark Lowe, for six innings, squeaked out a run from the 9 hitter (Jose Rios) in the 7th, and had a runner on in the ninth – only to see Alberto Garcia get picked off. Ewww.

So, I’m messing with Google’s satellite maps, just looking for cool things to look at, when it occurs to me – ballparks are cool things to look at from high above. So, I made a list.

AL East
Camden Yards
Fenway Park
Yankee Stadium
Tropicana Dome
Skydome

AL Central
U.S. Cellular Field
Jacobs Field
Comerica Park
Kauffman Field
The Metrodome
(left side of Minneapolis was coming up oddly)

AL West
Angel Stadium of Anaheim – is there a motorcross event going on?
McAfee Coliseum
Safeco Field
Ameriquest Field in Arlington

NL East
Turner Field
Dolphins Stadium
Shea Stadium
Citizens Bank Park – picture is noticably old; lookat the not-build park.
Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium – very bright compared to the area

NL Central
Wrigley Field
Great American Ballpark – no map
Minute Maid Park
Miller Park – no map
PNC Park at North Shore
Busch Stadium

NL West
Bank One Ballpark
Coors Field
Dodgers Stadium
Petco Park – no centerfield wall yet
SBC Park – seems goofy to have an island of parking lots

Those which just have parking lots for neighbors seem sad and lonely.

Other places

Olympic Stadium – Montreal

RCA Dome – domes are very boring to look at; that’s the AAA Indy Indians ballpark to the left.

Elfstrom Stadium (Kane County Cougars)

Gateway Arch – this works better than I thought it would, because

Grant Park. The softball diamonds a bit south from here look neater, actually.

Doesn’t makes sense to do game by game reacts when the reacts are coming much later and after all those links have done it already (and likely better.) Unless something tweaks me into saying a lot more, I’m probably just going to look more big picture right now. Tougher to be instantly out of date that way.

Part of the big picture is to collate some of the data I’ve been posting in bits and pieces through the spring. Now that we’ve got a set roster, I’ve got a set page for it.

For all the talk about the Cubs being a top 1-3 team in the NL in salary, their opening day 25 man roster is actually a smidge under 80 million. They’re laying out over 20 million – 1/5 of the total team salary more to cover the guys on the DL and no longer on the team. (Not just Sosa; we’re paying more for Alou than we are for the two guys who are replacing him.)

Speaking of salaries: I’m not a huge fan of the A-Ram deal, mostly because the out clause after ’06 scares me. We’re either going to end up redoing this because it’s under market value (and risk losing him) or being stuck with him over market value the last two years. A-Ram wins either way, which is at least good for him.

On that contract page, you might also notice links to the Iowa Cubs and Peoria Chiefs rosters, in what appears to lineups. Do not take them seriously; I’m just picking the starters on press releases and stats from last year. I’ll be at least updating the rosters (and probably adding links to stats and such) through the season to keep track of things. The idea is to keep track of who’s where, and how they’re doing; I’ve got maybe one-tenth of that done.

I don’t plan on doing the other farm teams; I did Peoria because I’ll be seeing them, and I’m doing Iowa because we’ll all be seeing them at some point. But maybe when I have a working home computer and get really bored, I might figure something out.

If some other Cub fan sees this, let me know what else is worth adding. Some stuff (age) is obvious and I can figure enough to label the actual prospects, but I don’t know what else would be helpful.

And if someone can recommend a spreadsheet program without the ugly microsoft HTML markup, that’d be pretty near.

(quick Cub thoughts I never got to: it’s surprising Mitre got sent down, though I’m sure he would’ve gotten sent down in a week anyway when Prior came back. It’s nice for the Cubs Kelton did make it thru waivers, though probably not nice for Dave.)

Probably no live blog, because I’ll be driving during the first couple innings and it’s tough to type that way. And the dead computer.

Happy to see they managed to hang on to Kelton. Surprised Sergio didn’t make the team.

You know, it occured to me five minutes ago, I could actually really get behind a lineup of

RF Hairston
2B Walker
SS Nomar
3B A-Ram
1B D-Lee
LF Hollandsworth/Dubios
CF Patterson
C Barrett
P Z

Whatever the case, I think the key to the season is how much we get out of those corner outfield positions.

Hagerty returned to the Cubs.

Looks like Hendry’s plan to send a spy to the Marlins and figure out their secret Cub beating plans may pay off. And, we made some cash off of that – pizza party for everyone!

Cubs.com press release. Guess he didn’t want to go to Iowa. They’re 99% sure to be taking 12 pitchers now.

Williamson gets moved to 60 day DL, freeing up the spot for Chad Fox.

Edit: I saw a “SOX 1919” license plate last night. Completely confusing – is than anti-Sox or pro-Sox thing?

Getting Cliff Bartosh set off a chain reaction of moves:

– Stephen Randolph, he being the actual left hand pitcher with no options, I believe, was given his release. Hendry’s not afraid to ditch guys he’s gotten in trades, it appears. That clears up one spot on the 40 man.

– Will Ohman was assigned to Triple A, with the carrot of possibly be brought up later.

– Scott Williamson was upgraded to a major league contract, taking Randolph’s on the 40 man roster. He’ll vacate it at the start of the season to go on the 60 day DL.

Meanwhile, Cody Ransom, an NRI who’s name I’ve been mispelling all spring, gets traded to Texas for PTBNL, in a deal probably more about the Rangers not having to wait for waivers.

In more expected news, Angel Echervarria and Calvin Murray resume their roles in the Iowa Cub outfield.

People left in camp who I don’t have figured for a 25 man roster spot

– NRI P Chad Fox: this is more admistrative than logical; he’s obviously on the roster; I’m waiting to see someone (Kelton), anyone (Kelton) knocked off it for more than a day so he can take their spot on the 40. I’ve got both Wellemeyer and Leicester figured for the bullpen, and obviously he bumps one of their spots
– AAA? P Michael Wuertz: and he might bump out the other one. I’ve got no feel for how that last spot is going to play out, plus Prior being on the DL could create yet another spot.
– AAA 3B Dave Kelton. The Cubs.com notes had a story about Kelton’s wife and cat and dog, and their inablity to pack at this point. Carrie Muskrat probably should’ve rephrased it; they ought to be packing, there’s just no way of figuring their destination at this point.
– NRI 1B Dave Hansen: Dusty would love to bring him along as the designated PH. Problem is, there’s no room on the 40 right now, and there’s no room on the 25 if they’re starting off with 12 pitchers. What I figure will happen is they’ll ask him to go to Iowa for the first two weeks while the rotation is being fixed, put him on the 40 Man when Williamson is moved off of it to the 60 Man, and bring him up as soon as possible. (Yes, this could also be accomplished by cutting Macias.)

I don’t know if they’ll figure it all out before they hit Vegas. I think a lot of it depends on how if/when they find a taker for Kelton (or decide to cut bait); that’ll at least trigger the Chad Fox move.

Roster update follows.

Continue reading “Down to 30 (or 29)”

Royals made their cuts today. The big news is Pickering over Harvey, but as far as Cubs fans might care:

[Royals] seven-man bullpen is Jeremy Affeldt, Shawn Camp, Jaime Cerda, Nate Field, Mike MacDougal, Andrew Sisco and Mike Wood.

(KC Star)

It’s the Royals, they’re not going to damage their playoff chances by keeping Sisco around all year; showing enough in Spring Training to be worth the 162 game roster spot was the real hurdle. I’d be very surprised if he got returned.

Cubs trade A P Bear Bay for CLE LHP Cliff Bartosh

First thing I did was look him up in BP2005.

Good: He has had a high K rate (which fits in) and a low HR rate.

Bad: He’s a younger Remlinger – used as a situational lefty, he doesn’t really have a history of getting them out.

Eh. We’re going to be working on this situational lefty spot all year, I figure, and it would’ve been the same with Randolph or Ohman. (Assuming they have options – and now I’m faintly recalling Ohman might not. Hmm.)

I don’t put a lot of a value in Bay, because it’s a long road from single A to the Majors, which not everyone makes. Plus, they’re dealing from a strength.

40 Man Impact: He takes the empty spot gained by putting Vasquez thru waivers. That leaves no room free for Chad Fox, unless Dave Kelton is moved. It’s all but a sure thing Kelton’s gone – the only possible upsides is a trade for a marginal prospect, or him being slipped thru waivers.

Related: It was pointed out to me here that since Scott Williamson signed a minor league deal, he doesn’t impact the 40 man roster – he’s a veteran who’s agreed to be on Iowa’s roster, and Iowa’s DL. When/if he’s activated this system, it’ll become more of a deal.

Hidden Benefit: This must mean they’re expecting to use Rusch in the rotation at some point.

There was a crazy report on Comcast tonight about the Cubs bringing up *13* pitchers. I’m pretty sure I must’ve heard it out of context and the reporter meant “12 pitchers on the active roster and Mark Prior”, because it’s insane otherwise. Plus, the only guy who could be sent down is Dubios, and I believe BleedCubBlue. on him at least getting to ride the pine. (Should’ve believed him on Bartosh!)