Brooks Baseball, with help from The Hardball Times, has created pitch f/x player cards. If you play around with Matt Garza's card you'll see that in his career he's thrown 4-seam fastballs 41% of the time. He threw the same amount in 2011 (40%), but the big difference was in sinker frequency. It's 26% in his career, but only 15% …
Corpas gone, Wood to 40-man, Josh Vitters
I had forgotten that the Cubs still needed to open a spot on the 40-man roster before they could add Kerry Wood. They did that yesterday when they released Manny Corpas. Corpas was signed in late December and it wasn’t even clear at the time if he was added to the 40-man. A little over a month later he’s gone. …
Matt Garza and Kerry Wood Updates, Cubs Sign Paul Maholm
David Kaplan is reporting that the Cubs and Tigers are “down the road” in trade discussions for Matt Garza. I have no idea what that means. I would expect them further down the road than they were in August. If the two teams are still talking I would expect them further down the road than they were three weeks ago. …
Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer have been busy
The Cubs were having a rather quiet offseason until December 23rd when they traded Sean Marshall. In a span of one month they’ve traded Marshall, DJ LeMahieu, Tyler Colvin, Carlos Zambrano, Andrew Cashner and Kyung-Min Ha. All of them except Ha were on the team’s 40-man roster. A new front office trading current players is nothing new. On July 5, …
Does Carlos Marmol have any trade value?
Since the Cubs are set to rebuild we may as well start taking a look at some of the players the Cubs might try to move in the next several weeks. Obviously Matt Garza has a lot of value. Sean Marshall was probably next on the list, but his value was limited. Off the top of my head I don’t …
Projected 2012 Roster
updated 1-13-12 The 2012 roster is taking shape and it’s not going to be an enjoyable season. The Cubs recently acquired David DeJesus and Ian Stewart. Yesterday they acquired Travis Wood. In the Stewart and Wood trades the Cubs have lost Tyler Colvin, DJ LeMahieu and Sean Marshall. Koyie Hill has been non-tendered and Reed Johnson was re-signed to a …
“You better know who your ninth starter’s going to be”
I’ve been a bit confused by one of Theo’s comments since taking over as President of Baseball Operations. “We need starting pitching. You can’t take your chances very seriously as a club if you go in to the season without, not just five guys you can point to, but six, seven and eight guys. You better know who your ninth …
Kerry Wood wants a raise, but is he deserving of one?
Jon Paul Morosi tweeted that Kerry Wood would like a raise. My first thought was this: why would the Cubs give him a raise if his only other option is to retire? Wood has said he’ll retire or play for the Cubs so I see no reason to offer more money than the $1.5 million he earned last year. My …