Category: chicago national league ball club

8 short

Isn’t it hilarious how the Vet’s Committee is now the ‘rigid gate’? It’s process, not the people.

If there isn’t a strong movement to overhaul the system in the next 60 days, it’ll be stuck like this.

Was at the bulls game tonight. not so good.

Ended up with 3 games, though I don’t trust ’em till the tickets are here in my hands.

Wednesday’s the day. I’m hoping for #10, but I dunno. He needs a big jump from last year.

Finally got the addition okayed. It’s going to mess up traffic till they get it fixed, but I’m glad everyone’s at least agreed.

Todd Hollandsworth apparently has incentive clauses? Anyone know anything? I’ll add next pass thru.

First game Friday. Can’t wait.

(600)

edit: Cubs.com notes the eminetly forgetable Steven Randolph is in the “make the 25 or risk being lost in waivers” situation as Dave Kelton. I think Randolph has a better chance of sliping thru waivers, at least in April.

Wait, you actually get to the ticket window and you only buy 2? That’s like telling the genie he can keep wish 2 and 3.

I’d say about 20% of the people in Chicago are actually working normally today.

Been on since 9:30. No dice. Worried that I’m going to get in, but I’m going to be actually working (or surfing) and miss it.

Decided to risk it all and step out for lunch and got a busy signal on the tickets.com phone number the 15 times I tried calling. And one of the computers I had waiting had crashed when I got back.

I think this is the first year the white sox tickets weren’t gone first, but I think weird things happen when the red sox win it all.

Killing time: Kyle Farnsworth has been replaced, Cubs.com suggests the mantle of Closer Of The Future be passed to vagabond Jermaine Van Buren. With that background, he’s more the Joe Borowski Of July, I’m thinking/hoping.

edit 1:37 Looks like the home opener, the other weekend sox game, and a STL game are gone too. Still not in. Somewhat heartened by only 7 games being gone (because it seemed like 25 were this way by this time last year), but kinda expecting a lot of games to start filling up quick.

Just noticed something: for the first game against the White Sox (05/20), the Cubs website lists WGN and Comcast picking up the game. How strange – I guess they’re going to try letting both annouce teams work a game for once. If ever you wanted to compare fan support…

(same is true for the 06/24 game)

I’m not reading any of the O’s/Cubs back and forths. Why would I. This makes for a lack of news to talk about.

I have a friend who’s as big a Moss fan as I am a Sosa fan. Haven’t heard from him yet. Not worried…yet. I think he probably likes the concept of the Raiders (and the division) but not the actual Raiders.

What do you not want to hear when your corner outfield positions should be open tryouts, and it’s the First Week Of Camp:

“At this point, there’s no room for an everyday player,” Baker said.

Re: Jerry Harriston Jr., but I’m thinking Jason better not get used to playing in March, because it ain’t happening the other months.

I’ve made the Nomar salary change on my own, but I’ll wait to post the next update till we start getting some cuts. It’s a weird deal, him getting some bonus money to start with, but I figure he wanted some extra cash for housing or something – plus, it’s not like he won’t lose much more than $250,000 in future earnings if he doesn’t make that 130 game plateau, so Nomar’s not really getting a deal here.

Speaking of:

Soccer moms, dads and kids should mark July 3 on their Cubs calender. The team will host a “Tribute to Mia Hamm” Day at Wrigley Field. Hamm, wife of Cubs shortstop Nomar Garciaparra, will be recognized for her accomplishments and accept a charitable donation from Cubs Care.

Before anyone calls this dumb, they gave out American Girl DOLLS last year and will again on 07/28. This is a million billion times better.

(warning: further pointless comments along lame Nomar/Mia joke lines may lead to ejection.)

They’re also jumping on a trend and doing a pink cap night on 09/17. Weird they’re going out of their way to appeal to women when really, they don’t need to go on their way to appeal to anyone.

Tickets go on sale at 10:00 tomorrow. I have no faith I’ll get some – I actually have no faith I won’t miss the time because of reasons outside my control (not that I believe the start time means all that much.) I’ll let you know what I get.

Updated the links: My plan is to do it every 21st, adding the new ones from cubsblogarmy.com. Of course, it’s the 24th and I’m just getting around to it. I may need to go back and shorten some names, so if things are funkily formatted for a while, I’ll fix it.

Got some pretty obvious plans of automating things I did last year, but we’ll have to see if I can finish this mySQL book first.

I thought I was done with this till first cuts, but business sure is picking up. (Try not think of the many moves Hendry might have done if he made the Sosa deal earlier.)

Personally, and let’s context it by me thinking Sammy could co-exist with the rest of the ball club this year, give the lack of an obvious closer, you might as well find out if Kyle could live up to his initial promise and give him first shot at closer. I mean, Corey’s a close comparable age wise, and they’ve given him plenty of chances to be the leadoff guy, but never really given Kyle one.

However, Hendry’s parting quotes

“He certainly had his moments when he could pitch very well,” Cubs general manager Jim Hendry said. “Maybe the consistency will be better for him in another location.”

Those words sound like a GM who did not have much enthuasim to bring back his player.

When I heard about the deal (txt message while driving – almost off the road), I figured it was a roster uncrunch. At some point this preseason, the Cubs have to lose a man on their 40 man roster, or they’ll be unable to keep NRI Scott Williamson, and they’ve very much like to have him rehab on their dime. (Any other NRI would require another roster move, so I don’t think it’s likely any of them make it.)

But this deal is not that deal, because one of the three people they’ll be getting back – Roberto Novoa – was on the 40 man and has to stay there. So expect one more move.

Given Kyle was unlikely to be back in ’06 – either he got bad and finally got ran out or he got good and a better deal from a team not as familiar with his failures – it’s nice we got something for him, even if I don’t expect any of them to turn out to much. I hope the PTBNL doesn’t change my mind on that.

The Tigers bullpen has a chance to be really good, if Percival doesn’t fall off and Kyle gets on one of his sane stretches and Uggie isn’t distracted. The Tigers bullpen has a chance to be really bad if Percival falls of like some expect, Kyle is Kyle and Uggie is too busy dealing with ransom demands.

Promotion: Figure Leicester gets Kyle’s spot on the roster, though it’s not clear. This is the thing with the Novoa pickup – even if he has pitches, he’s still going to behind Wuertz, SERGIO and maybe even Pinto in ‘right handers who might steal a spot on the roster’. The 15 taxi squad is skewed heavily towards pitching (10 of them, 1 C, 3 IF, 1 OF – and that’s Kelton, who’s only LF as far as they have to put him somewhere.) Things are going to get iffy if hitters get hurt, so you’d think if Hendry’s going after marginal people, he would’ve picked up a batter instead of a pitcher.

Other notes:

The Dave Hansen sign was added on my own copy, but not posted because it’s Dave Hansen. Same thing with the Catchers they NRIed.

Many uniform numbers added.

The 40 Man total salary is now down to 86.07. When I first ran the numbers on 01/21, it was 98.52. (A lot’s moved to Buy Out.)

Continue reading “the farns jumps shark, lands in detroit”

Carlos and the Cubs split the difference, while A-Ram got a little less than half. The idea is they’ll do a long term deal before the end of Spring Training.

Dave Hansen was given an NRI.

I’ve figured out my 40 Man problem; Scott Williamson is still a NRI. He’ll have to be put on the 40 Man to go to the 60 Day DL, I believe, so they may have to make a move before the end of spring training if they want to keep him around.

added six year major league free agency – I think. I don’t completely understand the rules governing service time (and it’s not like I can find something that actually lists days on the roster), but I think I’ve got general idea.

I’m least sure on Corey, but I believe he’s got 3+ years of service time despite having played in 5 seasons. It’s kinda funny that Corey and Prior are both up at the same time, because it feels like Corey’s been around forever and Mark still has the new car smell on him.

I don’t think Todd Wellemeyer has made a full season yet, but I may be wrong there too.

If it now says Arbitration, the club has the option to offer it, or release the player.

I rounded everything to one decimial, which turns out not to work very well with all the $50,000 contracts. I’ll go back to two next time (probably not until they start cutting people.)

Continue reading “carlos and a-ram sign”

ChiTrib

::sniff::

I am disappionted I found about this just now, and I’m nowhere near a place to get a Chicago Tribune. I really try to collect as little – don’t need any more baggage than I already got – but I think I would’ve held onto this one. PDF’s just aren’t the same.

I really should be sleeping or packing but I’m on a posting spree. I get driven to type when I read articles with lines like these. (ChiTrib). Thank god I wasn’t hope to watch this mess on Comcast.

1. Of course the fans are going to love me. They don’t even care if you strike out if the team’s winning.
2. “I understand a lot of people are going to say it’s Sosa for Hairston and two prospects,” Hairston said. “But the trade is very deceiving. I know some things went down last year with Sammy and the team and I just hope the fans will remember what Sammy did for the city before that because he was an icon. The two teams had totally different needs, and I look at the trade that way.”
3. This guy has had some mega-years, and last year he appeared to be back on the right track.
4. I know one thing
   

roster move you’re not think about: I’ve demoted David Kelton to Iowa squad, with Hairston taking his place. I bet he knows all the best restaurants in Des Moines.

21: In my ideal world, today or the first day of Spring Training, the Cubs announce they’re unofficially retiring 21, hanging it now and waiting till whenever Sammy is ready to do an official retirement/Sosa day. (And if Sammy wants to do it in the middle of December rather than during the season, fair enough.)

Realistically, I expect it to take a decade of wounds healing before the number is set to a foul pole, but no one will wear it between now and then.

Then again, I thought they were doing that with 17, and this list reminds me Bobby Hill and the immortal Calvin Murray have worn it since. I guess it’ll be up to Yosh.

Shell Games: Even though the 25 and 40 man totals have dropped, the saving in Sosa’s contract isn’t this season

Before: $17 million to Sosa
After: $16.15 million to O’s for Sosa

The discount comes in next season’s ledger; in the process of this trade, they’re moving $8 million in commitments (3.5 severance, 4.5 buyout) from ’06 to ’05.

This also means Cubs management has increased it’s payroll budget for ’05 by 3.7 to afford Burnitz. I think this is the rare occasion where fans wish the team did not find more money.

Hidden Costs: Crouthers and Fotenot were both listed on the O’s 40 man roster, and so they’ll have to be on the Cubs 40 man roster – but that can’t be correct unless there’s another move coming, because one space has to go to Burnitz. I think Crouthers might not actually be on the 40 man, but I’ve got no proof. (I’ll list him as an NRI-M till we figure it out.)

One bone of contention this off season was Jim Hendry’s roster management before the Rule 5 draft. Despite having one (I think – might have been two) open spots on the 40 man roster, he didn’t protect Andy Sisco or Luke Hagerty. Sisco, drafted by the Royals, was no surprise to be drafted (Hagerty, drafted by the O’s and traded to the Marlins, is coming off a major arm injury), so the reasoning for leaving him off the roster seemed a bit lacking. Until now, when those roster spots became necessary and filled.

I don’t think Jim Hendry went into his Rule 5 draft preparations thinking “I’ve got to leave some roster room in case I get some scrubs from the O’s”, but I do think he weighed the value of securing Sisco and Hagerty versus the cost of having to release/waive someone to pull off a multi player for Sosa deal before the season or not get all the players he wanted because of roster room. And it looks like he made a bad gamble.

It’s unfair to Hendry to describe the deal as “Sosa, Haggerty and Sisco for Hariston, Burnitz, Fotenot and Crouthers”, because that’s not the deal Hendry made Friday and Sisco and Haggerty could end up back with the team, maybe as soon as the end of Spring Training. However, in current roster terms, that is what has been done with the club, and it’s hard to think of it as a net positive.

(At first look, I’d much rather they would’ve gotten a low minor leaguer who could turn out to be something and could not, than these two. Hope they make me eat those words.)