Tom Ricketts keeps making it harder and harder to mock him. I mean, he pretty much shut us all up when he went out and hired away the top baseball executive available (and one of the top guys alive) to pull the team out of its nosedive into the ground. He's showing that he understands the concept of a sunk …
Evaluating the Cubs likely lineup
It's hard to believe that February is here, which means pitchers and catchers will be reporting to Mesa in a couple weeks. The position players won't be far behind. It's particularly hard to believe because the Cubs didn't have an active offseason. Not once have I actually looked forward to watching Cubs baseball. I have looked forward to watching baseball, …
Daily Facepalm 2.1.12
Garza arbitration hearing set for Friday Matt Garza's arbitration hearing is set for Friday. The Cubs offered $7.5m and Garza asked for $12.95m. We haven't heard any rumblings about a settlement, but that doesn't mean much given the Cubs reporters' access to this front office. No word from ace Cubs reporter Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe either. Image of …
Daily Facepalm 1-31-12: Um . . .
UPDATE: Yankees Hire Jim Hendry According to Bruce Levine, the New York Yankees have hired Jim Hendry as special assistant to Brian Cashman. Good news, Yankees. there will always be doughnuts. LOOGY The Cubs signed ex-everything left-handed reliever Trever Miller to a minor league contract, and he'll be yet another non-roster invitee to spring training. Just to give you an …
Projecting the 2012 Cubs: Catchers
The past few years I've done posts for each player, but this year I'm going to do it by position. It's a little more than 9 weeks until the season starts so about one of these per week will get it done by the time the season starts. The starting catcher will be Geovany Soto and one of Welington Castillo …
70-win 2012 Cubs
On RLYW, SG ran the code to create his own Marcel projections since Tangotiger has yet to publish them. He then simulated the season and the Cubs finish 5th in the NL Central, 4 games ahead of the Astros. The forecast has the Reds winning the division with 89 wins, which is tied for second in the NL with the …
DFP 1-12-30: He Saw It All
In Peace Henry Widegren was the rarest of Cubs fans. A lot of people can say they’re the biggest fan or the craziest fan or the fan least likely to succeed (I’m not sure why people would say such things, but they can without any real basis for dispute), but Henry could boast of something few people alive can compare with: …
More on Theo Epstein compensation
Nick Cafardo hears from one AL executive that the compensation for Theo Epstein will likely be significant. 10. The Cubs and Red Sox will soon meet with a representative of the Commissioner’s Office or the commissioner himself to discuss the Epstein compensation issue. The best school of thought on this comes from an AL GM who is not associated with …
30 years ago yesterday the Cubs acquired Ryne Sandberg
Chris Jaffe over at The Hardball Times posted an article yesterday on the 30th anniversary of the Ryne Sandberg trade. And one more thing: DeJesus was several years younger than Bowa. To be precise, he was seven years and one month younger. Thus even though Bowa had the reputation and the name value and the Gold Gloves, in order to …