Tag Archives: jeremy papelbon

Rule 5 draft preview

The Rule 5 draft will take place next Thursday, December 10, on the last day of the winter meetings in Indianapolis. Arizona Phil has a list of Cub players eligible to be drafted–and lost to another team–that he maintains in the right margin of The Cub Reporter website. Of the names on that list, [...]

2009 pitching prospects

Prospects are ranked according to my Marmol Index, strikeouts-per-nine-innings minus hits-per-nine-innings.
These are the best arms in the Cub minors, not necessarily the best pitchers. For one thing, I don’t use walks in the formula, although I list walks and calculate K/BB. Perhaps the Marmol Index slants toward relief pitchers, who throw harder when they’re out [...]

Marmols in the making?

Lou said recently he was not averse to “bringing up some young kids with good arms and seeing what they can do.”
If Lou wants to make the rounds of the Cubs’ farm teams and bring back quality arms, he should send a bus. It’s early, but right now the Cubs appear to have a slew [...]

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 [...]