While Brett Jackson will return to AAA next year thanks to a poor performance at the big league level, he will get another chance at some point. I'm just not sure it will be with this team. The Cubs have a couple very attractive options this winter. The first is free agent B.J. Upton who is almost certain to not …
Arbitration salary projections for the Cubs
MLBTR has posted their salary projections for the Cubs arbittation eligible players. The projections are done by Matt Swartz who did a bunch of math and came up with a system to estimate the value that each arbitration eligible player would receieve. First time: Luis Valbuena ($900K), Jeff Samardzija ($2.9MM), James Russell ($900K) Second time: Chris Volstad ($3MM) Third time: …
DBacks Looking for SS, Veteran SP, 3B
Awhile back we were kicking around trade ideas for Justin Upton from the Diamondbacks. GM Kevin Towers' postseason press conference confirms much of our speculation: Towers identified shortstop (no surprise), a veteran starter (mild surprise), third baseman (mild surprise) and bullpen help (no surprise) as his off-season wish list. I’m not sure if that’s in order of priority, but shortstop …
Profiles In Rebuilding- The Cleveland Indians
After Theo and Co. were hired at the end of last season, Cubdom was collectively filled with a sense of manifest destiny. A majority of us, I think, breathed a sigh of relief and started channeling our inner Alvin. Finally, a front office on the vanguard, saying all the right things about performance evaluation, rebuilding the organization from the ground …
Season in Review: Matt Garza
Following the 2010 season the Cubs decided to trade a bunch of players to acquire an overrated middle of the rotation pitcher in Matt Garza. Then he surprised many of us by having the best season of his career. His average WAR was 3.7 (5.0 fWAR, 2.5 rWAR, 3.7 WARP). His fWAR in 2011 was 1.9 higher than his previous …
Matt Garza hopes to return this season
Garza said his goal is to get back on the mound this season, despite there being no official timetable on his return. "I'm hoping," Garza said. "That's why I'm working my tail off. Doing everything I can." Garza hasn't pitched since he left his July 21 outing after three innings because of cramping in his right triceps. He threw a …
Series Preview: Cincinnati Reds (66-45) at Chicago Cubs (43-66)
Riding an eight game losing streak and consecutive sweeps on the west coast, the Cubs continue their upset bid to take the number one pick away from the Houston Astros. The Reds, meanwhile, are two and a half games ahead of the Cardinals and the still hanging in there Buccos. For all the slagging I like to do on the …
Let’s play “What if”
Starlin Castro has established himself at the big league level and he's going to get better. How much so? Who really knows, but even if he never got any better, he's still an above average shortstop currently making league minimum. Anthony Rizzo hasn't established himself as Castro has, but he's more than shown in his first couple months with the …
Trade Deadline Rumors (Rangers acquired Dempster???, Russell, Garza, Camp, Baker, Webster, BJ Upton, Hope Monster, Buster Olney’s twitter account, Soriano staying put)
This was posted earlier. Updates will be added for the next few hours (scroll down). According to Jon Heyman, Ryan Dempster has been traded to the Dodgers. More to come if it's confirmed. Dodgers getting Dempster…..final dotting of i's and crossing of t's being worked on…… — JIM BOWDEN (@JimBowdenESPNxm) July 31, 2012 Still no word on whether it's official or who may …
Podcasting the Cubs
Before gallivanting off to the hinterlands of Molina-esque interwebs, Berselius recorded a podcast with longtime reader, sometime commenter sitrick2. We talked the Cubs for about an hour, including talk of prospects, the Dempster situation based on what we knew on Tuesday (not much), and The Future. We also talked some Breaking Bad, Parks and Rec, and other TV stuff to …