Matt Garza says he's ready to pitch and guarantees he'll be ready on opening day. Garza said he has had no problems since he started throwing earlier this month. "If spring training started tomorrow, I would be ready to go," he said. "I'm not ready to pitch six innings today, but I will be ready to go when the season …
“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 …
Walking someone when it doesn't matter (as much)
For each pitcher from 1993-2011 with at least 5,000 Batters Faced, I've added up the average growth in run expectancy per NIBB. The average increase in RE for an NIBB over that period was .323 runs, which jives with Tango's findings here. There were 175 pitchers in the sample, with a standard deviation of .013. The pitcher who gave up …
Dave Cameron on the Edwin Jackson signing
Dave Cameron wrote a bit about the Cubs signing of Edwin Jackson. Here's part of it. But we should note that Edwin Jackson makes them better, and this price for Edwin Jackson is still completely reasonable based on his established performance level. That the Cubs aren’t yet obvious contenders shouldn’t cause us to tell them to stop trying to improve. …
Most outstanding career
Tango set up a poll for the most outstanding career if you'e interested.
ASU was the problem, not the Cubs
From Brett: According to KTAR in Arizona, Mesa Mayor Scott Smith had some interesting thoughts on the disintegration of the ASU/Cubs plan to share the new facilities being built for the Cubs in Mesa. According to Smith, contrary to ASU’s accusations, it was the University, and not the Cubs, who became unreasonable and difficult to deal with. Smith says that …
Javier Baez injures thumb, probably done in the AFL
Javier Baez injured his thumb on Saturday and is likely not to play again this season. CHICAGO — Shortstop Javier Baez, the Cubs' top prospect, may be done for the Arizona Fall League season after injuring his left thumb on Saturday. Baez, who was playing for the Mesa Solar Sox, was removed from Saturday's game after suffering the injury. Jason …
Mark Shapiro: one win in free agency is $9 million
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 …
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: …
Cubs prospect all-stars
Milb.com is doing a series that lists the best prospect at each position. The Cubs were up yesterday. It's a pretty good list, but this was a head-scratcher. Utility — Anthony Rizzo, Iowa (70 games), Chicago (87 games): Despite playing only 70 games for the Triple-A Cubs, Rizzo led the organization with 23 homers and drove in 62 runs while …