The Cubs have signed Luis Valbuena for $930,000, which is about $930,000 more than he deserves. Then again, the Cubs have few options at 3rd so maybe Valbuena is worth $930,000. Valbuena hit .219/.310/.340 in 303 plate appearances with Chicago this past season while playing second base and third base. The 27-year-old was first time arbitration eligible as a super …
Nick Cafardo on the Cubs and a Matt Garza non-rumor
MLBTR led to me this article by Nick Cafardo, which talks a bit about the Cubs. “We’re certainly farther along than we were last year at this time,” said Epstein. “When we got here, we identified one core player [Starlin Castro] and now we can look around and see Anthony Rizzo, Darwin Barney, Jeff Samardzija , and others. We do …
How many games will the 2013 Cubs win?
Over at The Cub Contrarian, Kyle used an estimated WAR for players to get a team win total. I thought I'd do the same thing, but I'm going to do it two ways: projections and my wild ass guesses. Wild Ass Guess Catchers: Welington Castillo (1.0), Dioner Navarro (negative infinity) I could easily see Castillo being a 2 WAR player, …
An updated look at the 2013 rotation
The Cubs finalized contracts with Edwin Jackson and Carlos Villanueva today, which gives the Cubs something like 18 starters. I lost count. The good news is that Edwin Jackson is actually good unlike the other 22 starters they signed this offseason. Jackson has been underrated for some time and that's in part to how miserably he performed when he reached …
Edwin Jackson Signs
Patrick Mooney was first with the news, and the usual suspects seem to be in agreement, though we at Obstructed View reserve the right to retract any and all free agent signing stories up until opening day. The deal is 4 years, $52 million and does not include a no-trade clause, per Heyman. Brief thoughts on the deal, in the …
An early look at the 2013 rotation
Assuming health, the Cubs rotation appears to be set with Matt Garza, Jeff Samardzija, Travis Wood, Scott Baker and Scott Feldman. I was curious what we could reasonably expect from this group next year and decided to use the CAIRO projections to calculate percentile forecasts. Before that, there's been some recent talk about how this rotation is better than last …
Daily Facepalm – 11.8.12
The Cubs may or may not be discussing Justin Upton with the Dbacks. It could go either way. Basically all there is to this report is Rosenthal saying that the Dbacks are having "active discussions" about Upton. One of his sources said that there's an 80% chance that he gets traded this offseason, though obviously the FO is denying this. …
Cubs interested in Brandon McCarthy and Shaun Marcum
We first heard about the Cubs possible interest in Brandon McCarthy a couple days ago and Gordon Whittenmeyer is confirming the Cubs interest, as well as throwing another name out there: Shaun Marcum. With starting pitching the Cubs’ primary focus again this winter, they already have expressed interest in Athletics right-hander Brandon McCarthy, who was having a good season until …
Cubs offseason begins now
The end of the World Series marked the start of the baseball offseason. We'll hear tons of rumors over the next few month, some of them may even have to do with the Cubs. Most of them won't and most of them will be nonsense, but it's still fun. In the past this time of the year was quite busy. …
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, …