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 …
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 …
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. …
How much ass could this Cubs team suck if this Cubs team could suck ass?
Short answer: probably not much more ass than they sucked last year. After all, the Cubs have lost 101 or more games only 2 other times in franchise history. It's not easy being as bad as the 2012 Cubs were. Long answer? The 2012 Cubs joined the 1962 and 1966 teams as the only ones in franchise history to lose …
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 …
Cubs sign Dioner Navarro, Garza cleared to resume something
Continuing with the Cubs tradition of signing relatively safe picks for next to nothing, the Cubs have signed Dioner Navarro to a 1-year, $1.75 million contract. SportsBettiing.ag might say this is a good sign, but I'm just wondering why they're paying him that much money. ; Dioner Navarro spent most of 2012 in the Reds minor leagues and signed for …
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 …
Baseball Prospectus Top 10 Cubs Prospects
Baseball Prospectus has released their version of the Cubs top 10 prospects. 1. OF Albert Almora 2. SS Javier Baez 3. OF Jorge Soler 4. RHP Arodys Vizcaino 5. 1B Dan Vogelbach 6. OF Brett Jackson 7. RHP Pierce Johnson 8. RHP Duane Underwood 9. 3B Christian Villanueva 10. RHP Dillon Maples Jason Park is very high on Almora and …
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. …
Roster Reshuffling update
The Cubs have transacted half a zillion minor moves in the last week. We'll take a page from Phil Rogers and use the +/- system, because it actually means something in this context (i.e., how many roster spots are open). Outrighted to Iowa (i.e., off the 40-man) RP Blake Parker SP Justin Germano OF Joe Mather RP Marcos Mateo SP Jason …