Daily Facepalm 3.26.12

In Facepalm, News And Rumors by berselius35 Comments

Obstructed View Daily Facepalm

Anything interesting happen over the weekend?

Eh. Dempster was knocked around in a minor league game yesterday, but who knows if he was working on something. I missed yesterday's game, but apparently Joe Mather had a Johnsonian/Fuldian incredible catch in CF.

Is there a Cubs game today?

It's going on right now, apparently. The Cubs are playing the Padres. Len and Mick have the call on mlb.com. Bryan LaHair just doubled in Starlin Castro for the Cubs first run.

MLBTR Cubs offseason in review

Tim Dierkes over at MLBTR just posted his offseason in review piece for the Cubs. They break down the moves that impact the 2012 roster, but there's not much to say about it. This team is going to stink. The biggest move by far was snagging the Superfriends, and we're just waiting to see everything pay dividends down the road. Money quote:

 It'll be interesting to see how they react this summer or in the 2012-13 offseason if the Cubs are better than expected this season.  When Hoyer's Padres exceeded expectations in 2010, he didn't deviate from his long-term plan, avoiding trading top prospects at the deadline and following through on the Adrian Gonzalez trade after the season.  I expect something similar from the Cubs, who still have a few decent trade chips.

Recent mostly meaningless transactions

Possibly slightly less meaningless transaction

The Cubs signed Shawn Camp to a minor league deal. Camp recently released by the Mariners, who said they wanted to get younger. Camp has been a solid reliever for the past few years in the AL East. He's a ground ball pitcher with a career 4.12 FIP (3.99 xFIP), probably better than most of the scrubs the Cubs have competing for those spots. It might be too late in the spring but I'm hoping he lands a spot.

The Cubs lineup is nightmare fuel for Dale Sveum

Dale Sveum says he's losing sleep over lineup construction. In the end lineup construction is relatively meaningleess, provided your pitcher isn't batting first, but it's an unenviable position to decide in which order to put all of the Cubs square pegs into the round holes of the lineup. A quote from this article also prompted a thread at Tango's blog about the fragile egos of players with respect to lineup positioning.

Rotation, most of bullpen set, then not set

Dale Sveum said during an interview with Jim Bowden early this weekend that Chris Volstad had one a rotation spot, then backed off the comments later that day. It looks like the rotation is going to be Dempster, Garza, then Samardzija, Volstad, and Maholm in some order. Marmol, Wood, Russell, and Dolis seem to be locked into the bullpen, and also implied Coleman is probably headed to the pen as well. The process of elimination says Randy Wells will probably get the long relief role for now, and the last spot could go to Lendy Castillo. Camp was signed since that report came out, and he's probably a better pitcher than everyone on this list except Marmol.

Tempering Kerry Wood expectations even further

Muskat has a blog post up about Kerry Wood's spring. He's only made four appearances, pitching 3 2/3 innings. He's slowed it down this spring, and has mentioned havign back spasms already. Everyone is bending over backwards to say the back stuff isn't the reason for this. On the less pessimistic side, a vet like Kerry Wood shouldn't need much time to get ready. It sounds like he's been pitching plenty on the side and just needs a little more work on his breaking ball. Given his role it's not like they need to stretch him out, or work on more than those two pitches.

Image of the day

"Minor League Guy" is the Cards #2 prospect, apparently.

Share this Post

Comments

  3. Mercurial Outfielder

    He’s slowed it down this spring, and has mentioned havign back spasms already. Everyone is bending over backwards to say the back stuff isn’t the reason for this.

      Quote  Reply

    0

    0
  11. Rice Cube

    Paul Maholm has walked two today. I wonder if that killed his chances at the rotation (even though he’s already been announced as the fifth starter).

      Quote  Reply

    0

    0
  15. GBTS

    D.C. dudes: I’m expanding my apartment search, is there a general direction from downtown where I should not look? Pretty much as long as its near the metro, I don’t care. Just don’t want to find myself in the D.C. equivalent of Little Village.

      Quote  Reply

    0

    0
  26. mb21

    Rice Cube wrote:

    Perhaps time to think about this aggressive baserunning thing.

    No, it takes hundreds of outs on the bases to figure out a true talent level for baserunning. Pitching on the other hand, you only need a handful of innings to figure shit out.

      Quote  Reply

    0

    0
  30. Mercurial Outfielder

    Kerry Wood pwns the beat guys:

    Wood claimed he’s taken off for a week at a time during previous spring trainings. He said he’s had no physical issues, other than a back problem he said occurred early in camp. Wood has a long history of injuries, including recurring back problems.

    Was he surprised his inactivity has become an issue?

    “With you guys? No, not at all,” he said. “It only took you guys a week to notice I wasn’t out there. You guys are right on top of it.”

    (dying laughing)

      Quote  Reply

    0

    0

Leave a Comment