The Cubs promoted 20-year old Javier Baez to AA Tennessee this past weekend after a scorching half-season or so in Daytona. Baez's power output in the Florida State League was pretty incredible, as he hit 17 homers in a very pitcher-friendly league despite his young age. Last season, he hit 16 homers in 80 games spread between Peoria (in the …
2013 MLB Draft: who do you take?
The first round of the 2013 MLB Draft is on June 6th and we haven't written much about it lately. A few days ago in the comments, jtsunami (think it was him) mentioned that he might lean more toward Kris Bryant because of his 80 power. For those not familiar with the scouting scale, players are graded on a 20-80 …
Season in review: Ian Stewart
During the Winter Meetings the Cubs traded Tyler Colvin and DJ LeMahieu to the Rockies for Ian Stewart and Casey Weathers. Stewart would replace the departed Aramis Ramirez at 3rd base and would instantly be an upgrade defensively. That much we were sure of. Whether or not he would hit the ball much was something we'd learn throughout the season. …
Cubs “shifting gears” because we have to
According to Paul Sullivan, the Cubs are going to shift gears with regards to what they're doing at 3rd base. You're not alone if that doesn't make any sense. Sveum says they are "shifting gears" on playing time for Vitters. Valbuena to get bulk of starts down stretch. — Paul Sullivan (@PWSullivan) August 30, 2012 About 10 days ago this …
Revisiting the Cubs offseason transactions
Since the Cubs changed management this past offseason I thought it might be fun to look back at the transactions and see how they've turned out so far. Keep in mind these are a final analysis. There's still much time left for some of these deals to look different than they currently do. I considered breaking this into parts, but …
Projecting the 2012 Cubs: 3rd Basemen
So far we've looked at catchers, 1st basemen and 2nd basemen. 1st and 2nd base appear to be very weak for the 2012 Cubs and I can tell you before you read further that 3rd base is no different. The Cubs lost Aramis Ramirez to free agency who had been at 3rd since midway through the 2003 season. Before we …
Trusting Theo
The Cubs new President of Baseball Ops was one of the best GMs in the game. Their new GM was one of the best assistants in the game prior to becoming the GM of the Padres. He rebuild the Padres farm system in two years. The Cubs new player development director is also one of the better ones around. I …
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, …
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 …
Can the Oliver projected standings be right?
At the bottom of The Hardball Time’s Oliver forecasts page they have the 2012 projected standings. They were updated yesterday, but I know this was done before the Brewers signed Aramis Ramirez. National League Central Team Wins Losses CIN 90 72 STL 88 74 MIL 86 76 CHN 82 80 HOU 65 97 PIT 62 100 Oliver projects 1.2 WAR …