There are 6 Cubs players who are out of options meaning they cannot be optioned to the minor leagues. They would have to be placed on waivers instead. Those players are: Michael Bowden, Welington Castillo, Rafael Dolis, Jeff Samardzija, Luis Valbuena and Travis Wood. There are no concerns that Jeff Samardzija would need to be optioned to the minors, but …
2013 PECOTA Projections
The 2013 PECOTA projections are out and I thought I'd post some of the Cubs below. Since you have to be a subscriber in order to download the spreadsheet, I'm only going to include PA and wOBA, which I calculated using the basic formula. For pitchers I'll only show IP and FIP (I calculated this too). 2013 PECOTA Projections for …
It’s time to get excited about the 2013 Cubs
Spring training is just around the corner and the 2013 Cubs are set to kick off their Cactus League schedule on February 23rd. It's a split squad game and the game against the Angels will even be televised on WGN. It's not until April 1st that non-practice games will be played, but it's time to get excited. They might be …
Cubs signed Jeff Samardzija and James Russell
It was reported yesterday that the Cubs signed Jeff Samardzija and James Russell to avoid arbitration. The Cubs signed Matt Garza yesterday and earlier this week they signed Luis Valbuena. Those were the only four players the Cubs had eligible for arbitration. The Jeff Samardzija contract is worth $2.64 million and they signed James Russell for $1.075 million. Totals for …
Luis Valbuena avoid arbitration with Cubs
The Cubs have signed Luis Valbuena for $930,000, which is about $930,000 more than he deserves. Then again, the Cubs have few options at 3rd so maybe Valbuena is worth $930,000. Valbuena hit .219/.310/.340 in 303 plate appearances with Chicago this past season while playing second base and third base. The 27-year-old was first time arbitration eligible as a super …
How many games will the 2013 Cubs win?
Over at The Cub Contrarian, Kyle used an estimated WAR for players to get a team win total. I thought I'd do the same thing, but I'm going to do it two ways: projections and my wild ass guesses. Wild Ass Guess Catchers: Welington Castillo (1.0), Dioner Navarro (negative infinity) I could easily see Castillo being a 2 WAR player, …
Tommy John Surgery, The Hardball Times Annual and Scott Baker
I got the Kindle version of The Hardball Times annual for my birthday and the first thing I wanted to read was the article about Tommy John surgery. It looked at whether pitchers get back to the level they were at pre-surgery and when that is. They also looked at what the shelf life is for a pitcher who had …
Cubs offseason begins now
The end of the World Series marked the start of the baseball offseason. We'll hear tons of rumors over the next few month, some of them may even have to do with the Cubs. Most of them won't and most of them will be nonsense, but it's still fun. In the past this time of the year was quite busy. …
Arbitration salary projections for the Cubs
MLBTR has posted their salary projections for the Cubs arbittation eligible players. The projections are done by Matt Swartz who did a bunch of math and came up with a system to estimate the value that each arbitration eligible player would receieve. First time: Luis Valbuena ($900K), Jeff Samardzija ($2.9MM), James Russell ($900K) Second time: Chris Volstad ($3MM) Third time: …
Trade Deadline Rumors (Rangers acquired Dempster???, Russell, Garza, Camp, Baker, Webster, BJ Upton, Hope Monster, Buster Olney’s twitter account, Soriano staying put)
This was posted earlier. Updates will be added for the next few hours (scroll down). According to Jon Heyman, Ryan Dempster has been traded to the Dodgers. More to come if it's confirmed. Dodgers getting Dempster…..final dotting of i's and crossing of t's being worked on…… — JIM BOWDEN (@JimBowdenESPNxm) July 31, 2012 Still no word on whether it's official or who may …