It’s always nice to see the Cubs make a splash in the Dominican or Venezuela. They signed Enrique Acosta for $1.1 million. The full scouting report is here (subscribers only). He’s ranked 9th. Acosta, who is represented by Rob Plummer, has one of the best bats in the Dominican Republic. Acosta, 16, has a short load and gets his hands …
Midseason look at the Cubs top prospects, part 1
I figured now was a good time to post something about the Cubs top prospects since it’s past the midway point in the full minor league seasons. The short-season teams just got under way. I’m using Sickel’s top 20. I’m breaking this into three parts. I’ll cover 11-20 here and then 1-10 while the final part will focus on players …
World Series Champions and biggest payroll
Just thought this graphic was cool (click on it to view a larger image).
Is Mike Quade in over his head?
I’ve argued with Mercurial Outfielder on here that there’s no reason to think Mike Quade is in over his head. Hardball Talk now has an article up titled Cubs manager Mike Quade is in over his head. Here’s why. At least he sort of admitted after the Cubs’ latest loss Friday. “This one is on me,” Mike Quade said after …
The Obstructed View t-shirt winner is…
jherky. Suburban Kid looked to be the winner entering the bottom of the 13th, but thanks to Reed Johnson, Darwin Barney, an intentional walk to Starlin Castro and a 3-run home run by Geovany Soto, jherky wins. He, along with Megan, both predicted the Cubs would go 11-18 in the month of June. Megan predicted 95 runs scored and jherky …
There’s still nothing wrong with Ryan Dempster
On April 26th I wrote an article about why there was nothing wrong with Ryan Dempster despite his 7+ ERA. This was an article that I took a little heat for two days later after Dempster had the worst start of his career. Considering that I looked at the available information and compared it to league norms or his career …
Contest down to 4
UPDATE: Megan is also still alive. Everyone who entered a prediction to win an Obstructed View shirt has been eliminated with the exception of Suburban Kid, ACT and jherky. Let’s go over the possibilities. If the Cubs win, jherky wins. If they don’t, he’s out. If they lose today then it goes to the first tiebreaker between SK and ACT. …
Looking Back at the Matt Garza Trade
I was none too happy when the Cubs traded for Matt Garza in the offseason. It wasn’t that I didn’t like Garza. He was a good pitcher about equal to Dempster and Zambrano so that would obviously be good if you can add a starter like that to any rotation. However, I hated what the Cubs had to give up …
Mike Quade is an all-star
It’s true. Since Jim Riggleman called it quits, Mike Quade has replaced Riggleman as a coach for the NL All-Stars. The only question at this point is, what Cubs player is going to be forced into the All-Star game because of a silly rule? My money is on Sean Marshall.
Contest update
In early June we set up a contest where the winner would win an Obstructed View t-shirt. All you had to do was guess what the Cubs record in June was going to be. The tiebreakers were runs scored, runs allowed and the number of hits by Starlin Castro. With 5 games left in the month, I thought I’d post …