In the aftermath of the recently announced deal with the city to renovate Wrigley Field, Theo Epstein spoke to the media about its potential benefits to the team: Our payroll now is third in the division. That’s fine. But it should be first in the division. So this is one of the ways that we’re going to get there. It …
Mark Appel Could Pitch in the Majors This Year
Keith Law, ESPN super-scout, has been talking 2013 draft lately. I happened to hear him on two podcasts today; he spent a few moments talking specifically about Mark Appel (at approximately the 40′ mark). Appel has been discussed around here of late. If I had to bet on who the Cubs will end up with at #2, he would be atop the list. Law …
Jim Leyland Just Wants to Chillax
From the "some of us suspected this all along" department: The Tigers have yet to name a closer for the upcoming season. Rookie favorite Bruce Rondon has been erratic this spring, with quality setup men Joaquin Benoit and Phil Coke performing reasonably well. A trade is also a possibility, and Carlos Marmol's name has come up.* *Obligatory Cubs tie-in Typically when managers …
The Cubs Have Tried to Extend Jeff Samardzija Twice
John Heyman passes along a few nuggets today with respect to the Cubs' efforts to extend Jeff Samardzija. JefF7 is three years from free agency, and the Cubs have apparently made two distinct efforts to extend him, to no avail. The two are apparently far enough apart that talks are on hold. We have had some word about this previously, …
No Geeks Allowed: Sabermetrics on the Field
There are at least a dozen major league teams that gobble up sophisticated analysts from all corners and use them in any way they can conceive of to improve their valuation of personnel. For years, I wished that the Cubs would be one of those teams, and now that they are, I couldn't be happier about it. But it's not …
Cubs Sign Scott Hairston
The Cubs have come to an agreement with outfielder Scott Hairston on a two year deal that could be worth up to six million dollars. The signing was originally reported by Ken Rosenthal and has since been confirmed by Bruce Levine. 2013 will be Hairston's 33 year old season. His career has consisted of mostly part-time work, first with Diamondbacks, …
DBacks Want To Trade Upton or Kubel by Friday
Folks involved in this process believe that the D-Backs want to make a decision on trading Kubel or Upton by Friday.
— Buster Olney (@Buster_ESPN) January 23, 2013
The Next Generation of Cub Players and Plate Discipline
The Cubs Convention took place this past weekend. OV's own Aisle424 was present and will summarize his thoughts on it shortly (I think). In the meantime, Josh has already weighed in. Bruce Miles was all over the goings-on, as well, and his twitter feed is well worth checking out. A couple of highlights: Sveum: Campana "has a really hard time …
Rethinking Pitching Philosophies, Derek Johnson, and Carlos Gomez
Cubs Den has a post up drawing attention to a Baseball America article on changes in the Cubs’ organizational philosophy related to developing pitching talent. The BA piece focuses on new pitching coordinator Derek Johnson, formerly the pitching coach at Vanderbilt, which famously produced David Price, Mike Minor, Sonny Gray, and many others on his watch. Johnson is of the …
“This, man, I was just jerking myself off.” An FJM retrospective
The Classical has put together an extended interview with Ken Tremendous, dak, and Junior chronicling the history of Fire Joe Morgan. My wife and I took a trip, I think, to Buenos Aires. And we were in the airport… we were getting on the plane and a guy came up to me and said, “Hey, I just want to tell …