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 [...]
The Cub farm system is alive and well in spite of all the talk about its having been “gutted” by the Garza deal. Below is a table of win-loss records at the four minor-league levels for the six teams in the NL Central. The Cubs do significantly better than their rivals in this comparison. The [...]
We are always looking for clues as to how the organization is doing and who’s up/down within the organization. One daily clue, of course, is who is playing at what position, both in the batting order and in the field. Since opening-day lineups represent a little more thought and planning than do the ones that [...]
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Posted 08 April 2011
† Phil
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lineup § prospect
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Also tagged: alberto cabrera, blake parker, brett jackson, chris rusin, greg rohan, jae-hoon ha, josh vitters, junior lake, kyle smit, marwin gonzalez, matt szczur, michael brenly, rafael dolis, rebel ridling, richard jones, rubi silva, ryan flaherty, trey mcnutt, welington castillo
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 [...]
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Posted 27 March 2011
† Phil
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Hendry § prospect § Running
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Also tagged: andrew cashner, brandon guyer, brett jackson, chris archer, d.j. lemahieu, darwin barney, fernando perez, james russell, jeff samardzija, josh vitters, marquez smith, marwin gonzalez, ryan flaherty, sam fuld, starlin castro, tim wilken, tony campana, tyler colvin, welington castillo
My recent post about Brandon Guyer and his fellow Tennessee speedsters included, as it turned out, a rash prediction at the very end. Here is that last paragraph: The real story to emerge from the minor-league campaign is that the Cubs needed a leadoff hitter and they now have Guyer, Campana and Jackson to choose [...]
The Cubs have any number of prospects having fine seasons, and so their choice of minor-league player of the year, Brandon Guyer, is noteworthy. If you glance at this list of former recipients of this award, you will see names that are familiar to Cub fans–Burke, Hoffpauir, Soto, Patterson (Eric), Dopirak, Choi, Jackson (Nic), Patterson [...]
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Posted 14 September 2010
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prospect
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Also tagged: blake lalli, brandon guyer, brett jackson, brian dopirak, eric patterson, geovany soto, kyler burke, matt spencer, micah hoffpauir, robinson chirinos, russ canzler, tony campana, tony thomas
Word was out last week that nineteen Cubs not currently on the 40-man roster have been invited to spring training with the major-league team. Infielders: Barney, Camp, Castro, LaHair, Lalli, Scales, Vitters Outfielders: Jackson, Snyder Catchers: Chirinos, Clevenger, Robinson Pitchers: Cashner, Coleman, Diamond, Kennard, Mathes, Perkins, Russell Say hello to your 2010 Iowa Cubs!–with the [...]
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, I [...]
If a prospect is someone who has a good chance of making the major-league team in the not-too-distant future, I like the chances of these four unheralded players. 1) Steve Clevenger. A converted shortstop, Clevenger is a good defensive catcher who throws out over thirty percent of runners attempting to steal. He swings a good [...]
One man’s injury is another’s opportunity. The Cubs were probably lucky to latch onto Ryan Freel just hours before Aramis went down; but Freel is something of a has-been, and ideally you would use the vacancy at third to give a farmhand some valuable exposure that is relatively low-pressure because unexpected. There are three infielders [...]