McDonald hurt, fifth starter competition winding down James Mcdonald threw two pitches in his start yesterday, the second one to the backstop before being pulled from the game. The Cubs are calling it shoulder soreness, which is not great news for McDonald as he only pitched in six games last year because of shoulder problems. It looks like Chris Rusin …
OV Daily Facepalm
Weekend spring training recap Brett Jackson had a big day on Saturday, homering and driving in five runs. He also hit a double off Justin Masterson on Sunday before finishing his day with two more strikeouts. Travis Wood had a rocky first inning on Sunday, capped off by a 2 RBI double by Jeff Francouer (ugh), but settled down as …
OV Daily Facepalm
Lots of HRs, lots of walks Baez and Olt both hit bombs off of Randy Wolf (video here and here), a not uncommon occurance for Randy Wolf. Olt later hit another bomb against against a Mariners reliever. Likely fifth starter James McDonald issued five walks in 2 2/3 innings in his start last night. First round of cuts The first round of …
OV Daily Facepalm
WBBM favorite to land Cubs radio broadcasts, WGN radio's slow march to doom continues WGN exercised an out clause in their deal last year in an attempt to renegotiate, since they're supposedly losing a ton of money on Cubs broadcasts. According to the Trib's Ed Sherman, WBBM is now viewed as the front-runner. It feels odd seeing the Tribune reporting on …
OV Daily Facepalm
BA Review of Cubs international signings Ben Badler put up a recap of the Cubs international signings over at BA ($). Most of it is just a collection of scouting stuff we saw back at signing time, but still a good read since I don't remember any of it. Most of what seems new to me is where the signings are …
OV “Daily” Facepalm 03-07-2014
Minor League Camp is open 4 squads were on the field yesterday, Iowa down to Kane County. Full rosters courtesy of the inimitable Arizona Phil. A few words: Due to numbers, some people are a fair bit higher than they will be when the season opens. This is because some of the fringe talent is still in major league camp, and …
OV “Daily” Facepalm 03-05-2014
Castellanos on waivers Alex Castellanos was just put on waivers for the second time this year. I wrote about it the first time, concluding: I'm not saying that Castellanos could ever start for the Cubs (though I'm not sure he's not better than Sweeney), but he makes so much sense as the RH side of the CF/RF platoon, someone who could …
OV “Daily” Facepalm
Ted Lilly Added to Cubs front office Ted Lilly signed on with the Cubs FO as a special assistant, and should be around as an instructor in spring training as well as doing some scouting and stuff during the season. Even though he struggled with injuries last year and retired this offseason, he might still have been good enough to …
“Daily” Facepalm 11.26.13
Anything happening with Samardzija? Tom Loxas reported that the Cubs and Jays might be close last weekend, but since then nothing as happened, and other sources (i.e. Julie's) say not much is happening. I don't really see much happening either. Still, Loxas's sources seem to think that the Cubs want to get some resolution on Samardzija before Thanksgiving/the Winter Meetings Cubs …
Semi-annual Facepalm – 11.21.2013
Fielder who can't field now Ranger with no range (h/t to Sam Miller for that headline) Huge trade, both in landscape and girth, as Detroit swaps Prince Fielder for Ian Kinsler from the Rangers. This is a really interesting trade, and one that I think makes both teams better. First, the outlays: Detroit gets Ian Kinsler (16/16/14/11/12[5]). They also send …