Tag Archives: james russell

View from the Potomac*

My wife and daughter and I went to the Saturday and Sunday games at Nationals Park. Bryce Harper sat on Saturday (and the night before) with an ingrown toenail. Sunday he was oh for two with two walks. Feldman gave him one walk, Russell the other. Both pitchers have pinpoint control but had no intention [...]

The coach behind the plate

If you watched James Russell protect a Cub lead by throwing a scoreless seventh inning against the Reds on Saturday (4/21) during the recent homestand, you might remember a couple of highlights. One, Russell pitched out of a men-on-second-and-third, no-out jam that was not of his making. (Campana lost the leadoff fly ball in the [...]

2011 roster

I believe that, ultimately, Tim Wilken saves the Cubs, so my assessment of the 2011 Cub roster coming out of spring training would have to begin with the question, How did the Wilken guys do? They did pretty well. Of course, I would prefer that Brandon Guyer, fifth-rounder in 2007 and Cub minor-league player of [...]

November prospect watch

Several Cubs have been performing well in the just-completed Arizona Fall League season and also in winter ball in Mexico and Venezuela. On the hitting side, I would single out Brad Snyder, Robinson Chirinos, Starlin Castro, Josh Vitters, Matt Camp and Andres Blanco. player team g ab r h 2b 3b hr rbi bb so [...]

A team to watch

Many Cub fans saw the report recently that their team was 27th in organizational talent rankings according to Baseball America. Observant fans know, however, that there was a lot of healthy ferment last season in the Cubs’ lower minors, and that the high-A Daytona team, for example, won the Florida State League championship with outstanding [...]