Cubs opening day roster finalized

In Commentary And Analysis by berselius43 Comments

Alberto Cabrera DFA, Brian Schlitter takes final spot

With the bullpen sorted out (for now), the Cubs opening day roster looks like:

It seems like Schlitter's been around for quite a while – I had to check to see if this was a different guy (I remembered him as a lefty). He's had a bit of an odd transaction history. The Cubs picked up Schlitter from the Phillies for Stevie Eyre back in 2008, and he was called up in mid 2010 only to be shut down with a shoulder injury after only three games. He came back in July and was shelled again in garbage time against the Brewers before being sent down again. He was put on waivers in the offseason and was claimed by the Yankees, released by the Yankees, then claimed by the Phillies, then shut down with an elbow injury. The Commissioner's office then sent Schlitter back to the Cubs because the injury was ruled to have happened when he was with them. The Cubs DFAd him at the end of the season, and he's been in the minors ever since.

I guess this means he still has options, as only one was burned in 2010. He and Grimm seem like the prime candidates to be sent down when Arrieta returns.

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  1. GW

    Michael Taylor was DFA’ed by the A’s, as expected. Wouldn’t be surprised to see the Cubs make a move. On the other hand, he’s not from the Red Sox organization, so that’s one strike against him.

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  2. Aisle424

    When one of Epstein’s hires told scouts they’d be using Microsoft Excel for scheduling, one asked, “Sorry, but what is Excel?” When McLeod took over player development, just eight of 24 area scouts had email linked to their smartphones. “Hendry is a great guy, but this was the Stone Age,” says a player-development source no longer with the team. “A report would be, ‘Plus-plus makeup — I love this kid.’ What does that even mean?”

    I mean, we knew it was bad, but holy shit.

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  3. Aisle424

    You can probably list Olt as 1B/3B. I have a feeling he’ll spell Rizzo occasionally especially when they want to rest his shoulder but have his bat in the lineup.

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  10. JimL

    I believe the backup catcher is John Baker, not John Buck.

    Not that it makes one little bit of difference or anyone really cares.

    I think that other than Rizzo, Castro, Castillo, Shark, and perhaps Lake everyone else should just have the name “Smith” on their jerseys. Maybe they could play in red Star Trek uniforms.

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  12. dmick89, Sweatpants Guru

    JimL wrote:

    I think that other than Rizzo, Castro, Castillo, Shark, and perhaps Lake everyone else should just have the name “Smith” on their jerseys. Maybe they could play in red Star Trek uniforms.

    I love that idea.

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  18. Suburban kid

    @ Jordan:
    Yeah, I have no reason to doubt that at all.

    But I don’t think the Cubs scouting ranks are/were alone in any backwardness.

    On the other hand, maybe the Excel crack is a bit gratuitous. I’m pretty sure scouts can still do their job without it, and they were only going to be using it for scheduling — not any metrics or ranking (let alone complex equations).

    The other criticism was quite disturbing, however, it might have been cherry-picked for dramatic effect.

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  19. GW

    Yeah, I don’t doubt it. The makeup comment was probably in the summary portion of the report. I’m sure there were more informative details in the report itself. And the lack of video isn’t too surprising. It takes a fair amount of infrastructure to add that for every player.

    I’m glad they are modernizing all of that stuff now, but I don’t have any illusions that it will lead to dramatically better results. The biggest difference, in my opinion, will probably come from added staff and allowing the team to see players more often.

    Also, keep in mind that the overhauled approach would have led them to pass on Javier Baez.

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  21. dmick89, Sweatpants Guru

    Do people really believe they didn’t know what Excel was? Who doesn’t know what that is these days? It was pre-installed on Windows machines and there was a little shortcut icon on everyone’s desktop. There’s not a person who has bought a computer who doesn’t know what Excel is. I also seem to remember this being pre-installed on early Apple computers.

    If this comment was said by someone who hasn’t been in the Cubs organization since 1995 then I could buy it, but no one since. I knew what Lotus was when I was 10. I know a lot of my friends did not, but it’s not like spreadsheet software is new.

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  23. GW

    @ dmick89, Sweatpants Guru:

    There are plenty of people working in specific fields who have never had the need to use it, I’m sure. And scouts have traditionally been one of those fields. That said, I’m guessing whoever said it had heard of Excel at the very least and was just making a joke that played to the old stereotype. (Like the famous Gary Hughes joke about DIPS and chewing tobacco). Bad move on his part, but it probably got some laughs.

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  25. GW

    The thing I don’t think people realize is what being great at drafting really means. Finding a player like Will Middlebrooks in the 5th round is an enormous, unqualified success. But will anyone be surprised if Middlebrooks turns out to be a 1 WAR player or worse over the next few years? The thing is, even if he does, it will still have been a fantastic pick.

    If, hypothetically, Baez turns out to be a star, the Baez over Spangenberg decision by the previous front office will likely turn out to be a worth more than 3 “good” drafts by the new front office. If Almora tops out as Matt Szczur and David Dahl turns into a top 30 outfielder, that decision will likely trump any good calls made by the front office over the entire rest of that draft, and maybe the next few. The same thing could happen with Kris Bryant and Jonathan Gray. And the thing is, any of those things could happen just by random luck.

    I’m thrilled that the front office is looking for every possible edge. (And super-bummed that doesn’t include picking up players who may or may not turn down a qualifying offer). The bottom line, though, is that they still need to get very lucky to have any hope of a “steady-stream” of prospects graduating, as they claim to be targeting.

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  29. dmick89, Sweatpants Guru

    Speaking of Shameless, this season has been a let down IMO after last year’s excellent season. I still enjoy it, but it’s been a lot more difficult to watch. Not that it’s not something I don’t want to see, but nothing is going their way.

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  30. Mercurial Outfielder

    Barry Larkin thinks the home plate collision rule distracts “the flow of the game.”

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  38. Suburban kid

    [img]http://community.us.playstation.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/110553iD8F00941ED094CFA/image-size/original?v=mpbl-1&px=-1[/img]

    Berselius, did you forget something?

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