This is a fantastic Q&A with Mark Shapiro who was the Indians GM for 9 years and is now their team president. Go read it all. Great stuff. I think more people will come. But the challenge is 2.2 million instead of 1.6 million doesn’t change the way we operate. Even that extra 500,000, 600,000 people, even if that’s $10-to-15 …
Epstein, Bush, and the coaching staff
Theo Epstein talked Cubs a year after his hiring was official. One year ago, the Cubs had one player who projected as part of the core Epstein and Co. are trying to develop and that was shortstop Starlin Castro. Today, Epstein said there are at least half a dozen in the organization, including pitcher Jeff Samardzija, first baseman Anthony Rizzo, …
An Upton family reunion in Chicago
While Brett Jackson will return to AAA next year thanks to a poor performance at the big league level, he will get another chance at some point. I'm just not sure it will be with this team. The Cubs have a couple very attractive options this winter. The first is free agent B.J. Upton who is almost certain to not …
Season in review: Alfonso Soriano
Alfonso Soriano's projections entering the season (below) weren't anything special. It was a slightly below league average wOBA with expected poor defense and baserunning skills. Overall, he was expected to be about as close to replacement level as possible. Projection PA H HR BB SO avg obp slg wOBA CAIRO 463 106 18 34 100 .249 .308 .446 .326 Guru …
OV's Free Agent Frenzy
We figured we may as well have a free agent contest this offseason. The winner will get 5 free subscriptions to Obstructed View along with bragging rights for a full calendar year. I took the top free agents from this article. I took out Dan Haren because I can't imagine his option not being exercised. Here are the top 15 …
AL Scout on A-Rod: I can't believe anyone would be interested
AL scout on arod: "I can't believe anyone would be interested." #114MIL plus #30MIL in milestone HR bonuses — Jon Heyman (@JonHeymanCBS) October 19, 2012 Every single year we hear about this. Player makes lots of money. Same player isn't worth what he's paid. Not even close. People say this player can't be traded. Every. Single. Year. Yet every single …
The fall of the mainstream media in baseball
The game's out there, and it's play or get played – Omar Little When I first started blogging after the 2003 season on an old Cubs blog and then later on Another Cubs Blog, there weren't many places you could go to get breaking news. If you wanted to read what's up with the Cubs, you were still stuck with …
Cubs acquire Marcelo Carreno from Tigers
Earlier today the Cubs completed the Jeff Baker trade with the Tigers as they acquired Marcelo Carreno. Fangraphs uses his first name, Josue, rather than the middle name, which I would guess is what he uses. The trade was announced on August 5th and it was reported at the time that the Cubs would receive 2 players to be named …
Season in review: Carlos Marmol
If I told you that in 2012 Carlos Marmol's final stats were like they are below, what would you say? 44 IP, 31 H, 29 BB, 60 K, 3 HR, 2.66 ERA, 3.25 FIP You'd say I was full of shit because that wasn't his final line, but that's what Carlos Marmol did after returning from his phantom injury in …
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: …