Category: chicago national league ball club

Updated post trade. Actual post follows when I don’t have to HTMLizie line breaks.

Continue reading “post 21 contracts”

most shocking turn of events in the Sosa trade saga yet: it took till Tuesday before we heard from Mark Grace. (SunTimes) Did they find time to imply (Grace thinks) Sammy used steroids? Of course! There’s always room for pie.

After Sandburg left (first time), you had Sammy fans and you had Grace fans. You had to pick one – this was as necessary a decision as Sox or Cubs. Grace was cool and hit a lot of doubles and all and I guess if you wanted to hang out in a Northside bar for five hours, he’s probably your guy. I was a Sammy fan – actually, I was more of Sosa apostle at that point, relentlessly talking him up to increasingly disinterested people – “this year, he’s going to go 30, 30, and under 10 (errors)!” It was kinda based on the kinda statistically analysis I’d just giggle at nowadays, but a lot just on faith I had in Sammy.

Still do.

Anyway, as a Sammy fan, this stock Grace article always just gets me annoyed with him – he’s still bitter the organization choose Choi over him (or at least pretended to), not to mention Sammy over him, and he always sounds like a crank.

It wouldn’t be any different than normal, but there’s already spinning going on in the local media – “we might have enjoyed the 62 home runs, but we weren’t really a fan of Sosa back then, because he walked out later – we were already Grace fans, because he won a title later!” – which is beyond lame.

I think, before I somehow turn this into a race thing, I should get back to my point, which is Don’t Interview Mark Grace About Sammy Sosa (or Choi.)

Far more affected my life: no more Dave Otto? I’ll miss his above averageness and his best quality: not being Joe Carter. (Also the random train rides.) Do not bring back Bielecki again. Please.

Bad time to turn the world off for a day. Bad bad time.

Okay, first thoughts. Calm, rational, reasonable, emotionless THIS SUCKS THIS SUCKS THIS SUCKS THIS SUCKS THIS SUCKS THIS SUCKS THIS SUCKS thoughts, no problem

I refuse to believe some settlement could not have been worked out with Sosa this season. Yes, it would have been a distraction, but there are always going to be distractions during the course of a 162 game major league season. Plenty of teams have done fine with malcontents, and I don’t believe that would’ve been Sosa’s aim for this season – he’d just been a loner (in public – he’d still have friends) on the way out, trying to prove himself for the next contract. It would’ve been an awkward situation, but not an impossible one.

Given that belief, I think the deal is a bad one for the Cubs. They’re saving $9 million, but they’re getting a backup utility man when they already have too many backup utility men, and two minor leaguers I don’t have much confidence in. Most of that saving in cash will go directly to a man (Burnitz? Wilson?) who can’t be expected to do as well as Sosa, so it’s not like we’re saving a lot of money here to use at the deadline; it’s just going to be a player exchange when we’re done.

It would seem a lot better if Magglio was still available and we could sign him. That’s not the case. Everyone else free is obviously a tier lower than Sosa – so we’re dropping a level in production for three players who may not make any impact. It couldn’t have been that bad with Sammy, right?

I didn’t want it to end like THIS. I was hoping for everyone to reach an workable arrangement, Sammy would have a better year while the spotlight was moved over to this group of Cub heroes, with the fans warming back up to him (both sides knowing it’d never be the same) and Sammy making two or three memorable plays down the stretch and the playoffs before thanking fans for supporting him as he slipped out the door. He didn’t even have to come to the victory parade.

He never got a chance to make it up to everyone; a Sammy Sosa game winning play would’ve healed wounds no staged and scripted press conference could touch. And we’ll never see him in a Cubs uniform again – he’s going to be with the O’s this year, and he’ll be with someone else next year.

I know he walked out on his team.
I know he used a corked bat.
I don’t understand how this could’ve happened.

Would you trade the blue from the uniforms?
Would you trade Wrigley Field?
How could you trade Sammy Sosa?

From 1993 to 2002, Sammy Sosa was as much the Identity Of The Cubs as the Blue and Wrigley. Or at least the part of the identity which were not losers. He carried the franchise thru some awful, pathetic attempts at baseball teams, carrying the hope of the fans with him. Maybe the team wasn’t good enough to win over the course of the season, but any day, Sammy might change that for his team. And we all loved him for it.

Those days were perpetually warm, sunny and bright summer days. Today

I dunno. I dunno.

This sucks. Everything.

More later when I’m sane.

(ie: the last real news till Veteran’s Committee Day or shocking personel move)

– Kerry’s the Opening Day starter. Same as last year. While being the #1 starter is overhyped, it’s of slight importance to him, because it may mean another start for a guy who’s just starting his next contract run. Kerry needs 400 IP in the next two years to vest his 2007 option.

Kerry’s innings per year:

98 166 IP
99 000 IP
00 137 IP
01 174 IP
02 213 IP
03 211 IP
03 140 IP

As you can see, he’s only pulled off 400 IP in two years once. He’s got to get back to an injury free status for tow complete years to pull it off.

– Corey’s the leadoff man. Do you think they actually write the “Corey’s learning the little things it takes to be a compentent leadoff man this Spring Training”, or they just have a form and fill in the blanks?

I’m taking May 5th as the day Todd ends up there instead.

– Dubios and Hollandsworth are your LF combo. Dusty even acted like there’s a chance he’d play Dubios more than once a week!

BPro’s PECOTA numbers went up – today? I guess, they stopped e-mail me their newsletter at some point and I’m missing thing. What’s intersting, and probably not something worth holding them to, is Dubios’ predicted VORP was about the same as Alou’s.

Which isn’t saying much, becuase both were down from Alou’s 51.5 this past year.

(My subscription ends in a few days – I think I’m renewing just because I need idle work reading material – but I think ought to give money to people who aren’t asking for it first.)

Wish the numbers were freely distrubted, just because I’d like to walk thru the major changes from last year’s 2004 and figure out which side is better

2004 Alou + A-Gone + Ordonez + Neifi + Nomar vs 2005 Nomar + 80% Todd + 20% Dubios

(I’d do it just for myself, but it’s not as fun if I can’t talk about the results.)

I think, because Nomar was here at the end, we don’t take into account how much of an increase having him here all year will make – we were getting negative results for quite some time there, and a marginally all-star will be a huge increase.

And still, I fear the formula’s better for 2003.

Anyway, getting back to Jason – like for any Dusty rookie, it’s imperative he have a hot Catcus League season, or he’s going to be buried on the bench.

What the Cubs really need isn’t Magglio Ordonez – it’s a Time Machine to go back to 1988 and pluck out Ricky Henderson.

– There’s orginizational discord about the closer. Jim Hendry and others seems to think Ryan Dempster is going into camp as the Guy, but Dusty’s pretty set on giving LaTroy another shot.

I think that’s a lot to do with it – Dusty feels he’ll lose LaTroy if he has to start another season thinking about the last, and maybe you can’t trust him as the second guy, while you can perhaps with Ryan.

It’s a debate which probably doesn’t miss a lot – there’s no reason to think either is Eric Gange (no matter what comparisions the press can work up), but no one’s going to be as bad over the course of the season as Hawkins was the last week. They’re not going to be top of the line guys, but they’re going to be competent, and that’s all we really can expect.

No talk about Joe is probably a bad sign.

– Ryan Dempster is a funny guy. And yay for that.

– Rusch doesn’t automatically have the 5th starter locked…which is probably just an escape clause if the bullpen seems to have no good left handed specialist and the young starters win Dusty’s affections. Not happening.

Speaking of bullpen lefties, Phil Rogers on WGN Radio, before the convention, mentioned that Will Ohman is expected to be on the team at this point. A bit of a surprise, but he did well in winter ball.

– Lots of people talked things about Sammy Sosa, and nothing much new was said. There will be rumors about a deal till September 1st, but one looks unlikely. There will be a meeting between now and Spring Training between Sammy and members of the Cubs, and there probable will be a team meeting about the whole situation the first day of the season.

Which means more people talking and nothing really is resolved. This story will get cycled around, with the same body and nothing added or learned, as the Big Cubs Story until about the third time Sosa comes to Chicago as a member of another team, and we’re on pace for that to happen sometime in 2007. Wheeeee.

I’m guessing, in one of those meetings, Sammy will make a non-apology apology, pay (some of) his fine and give up his ‘C’ in an act of contrition. Someone will be named as Captain in his place, but not until he’s gone. Sammy won’t talk to the media much, except an occasional “I’m ticked about the fans booing me and would be happy to play [insert city here]” angry mumble. And nothing much changes. Wheeeeeeeeeeee.

Updated! With NRI’s! And lots of help from TCR – I guess that’s why they’ve got all the links

Continue reading “contracts plus NRI”

This was an awesome idea I had, until the Cub Reporter beat me to it. Darn their intellegence.

Anyway, just to be different, this is a look at not just this year’s contracts, but the length of all contracts – half ripping off the no longer updated Dugout Dollars site.

I’d like to add in the full length of club control (the Keltons to the Pintos) for the players just getting to option years, but tracking down that info is a pain I haven’t gotten to yet.

What strikes me is there’s very little long term deals on the board. Only 7 players (plus those club control guys) are signed for next year. Though Sammy will probably be making the most money of anyone on the team without being on the team. (His ’06 figure includes his signing bonus, oddly and weirdly.)

Also, the Carlos offers surprised me (I was thinking $5 mil, given what’s happened in free agency this year), so obviously I’m not comparing him correctly.

Ready? Pray for decent formatting.

Continue reading “Current Cubs Contracts”

Today’s the day where both sides exchange/announce arbitration figures, and since everyone has to commit to a number, they can figure out how close they are and how willing they are to just split the difference and get it done.

Done:
Corey – 1 year, haven’t heard terms
Kyle – 1 year, >$2mil (slight increase over last year)

Still left:
A-Ram (trying to work out a deal – something along the lines of 3 to 5 for $8 to $10)
Barrett
Zambrano

I think Hendry wants to get these done now for sanity reasons, but it also helps if he goes to the Cubs Convention if he could say “I didn’t break the bank to go after Beltran/whoever because I was sure we’d have to break the bank to keep the team together – and look, we DID.”

Barrett and Carlos are due in for the Cubs Convention this week, so they may get something done. I think Z’s going to be the hardest one, though, because you’ve got the pitcher looking back at a top level performance versus the managment looking back at young pitchers who flame out after top level performances.

Cubs.com Q &A

With Ryne Sandberg making it into the Hall of Fame, do you think the Cubs will be retiring his No. 23 any time soon?
— Elizabeth K., Naperville, Ill.

The Cubs will likely make an announcement at this weekend’s Cubs Convention regarding Sandberg’s number. We’ll keep you posted.

Sure sounds like a yes to me! They’re going to need more foul poles.

43 days till the Vet Committee’s ballot is announced…

SunTimes, 01/18

As for free-agent outfielder Magglio Ordonez, the Cubs will consider him only if Sosa is traded and they don’t get an outfielder in exchange. They haven’t even investigated Ordonez’s physical status with his troublesome knee.

Just for a moment, let me point out That Sucks.

Someone’s got to get to Dusty during the convention, and remind him Todd wears down after long stretches. He’s gotta play Dubios at some point.

Probable 25 man

01 2B Walker
02 CF Patterson
03 SS Nomar
04 3B A-RAM
05 RF Sosa
06 LF Hollandsworth
07 1B Lee
08 CA Barrett

09 SP Prior
10 SP Maddux
11 SP Wood
12 SP Z
13 SP Rusch

14 IF Perez
15 LF Dubios
16 CA Blanco
17 UT Macias
18 ?? Kelton?

19 RHP Dempster
20 RHP Hawkins
21 RHP Farnsworth
22 LHP Remlinger
23 RHP Borowski/Leicester?
24 LHP Ohman/Vasquez/Koronka?
25 RHP Wuertz/Mitre/Guzman?

Last year, they really had no slots up for grabs in Spring Training. There’s at least four this year.

That bench looks awful weak. They need one more guy.