We hear a lot lately about the Cub minor leagues being barren of talent except at the lower levels. This note is struck mainly in the blogosphere but it really started in Boston when the Red Sox and Cubs were negotiating compensation for Theo Epstein. This was Nick Cafardo in the Boston Globe last October: [...]
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Posted 22 August 2012
† Phil
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prospect
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Also tagged: andrew cashner, brett jackson, chris carpenter, chris rusin, dj lemahieu, hayden simpson, javier baez, jeff samardzifa, john stockstill, josh donaldson, josh vitters, ryan flaherty, tim wilken
This old Colvin watcher picked a good night to take in a Nats game. If you watch Colvin nowadays, you get an answer to the question, what could he do if he had an approach? It looks like somebody with his new team advised him to stop “protecting the plate,” or whatever euphemism you like [...]
A few months ago I wrote in these pages that there is a secret to hitting, and that Tyler Colvin, “lacking either the native intelligence or the proper coaching, has not been able to follow the clues that lead to that secret.” Rudy Jaramillo was Colvin’s only hitting instructor with the Cubs, just as he [...]
“If 0-2 and 1-2 are bad luck for every hitter (except Prince Fielder), the secret to hitting would be to prevent those counts from turning into an at-bat.” If Tyler Colvin’s first full year in the majors, 2010, had been a college course–call it Hitting 101–he would have aced the qualifying exam (spring training), gotten [...]
If fans were expecting a shakeup after Tom Ricketts took over as chairman of the Cubs late in 2009, they had to wait until the third week of August 2011 to learn that general manager Jim Hendry had been terminated a month earlier. (Hendry was held over for a month to attend to unfinished business, [...]
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Posted 26 September 2011
† Phil
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prospect § Ricketts
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Also tagged: andrew friedman, brett jackson, darwin barney, gary hughes, hak-ju lee, jae-hoon ha, jim hendry, josh vitters, oneri fleita, starlin castro, tim wilken, tom ricketts, tony campana
After consulting, apparently, the Mayan calendar, baseball’s cognoscenti determined that Sunday, July 31st, would be the end of the world for the Chicago Cubs, coinciding with the major-league trading deadline; or, less metaphorically, that the Cubs’ GM would dispose of every remotely tradeable player on the team just before being disposed of himself. Management would [...]
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Posted 07 August 2011
† Phil
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Hendry § prospect § Quade § soriano § trade
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Also tagged: alfonso soriano, aramis ramirez, brandon guyer, brett jackson, carlos pena, darwin barney, geovany soto, jeff beliveau, jim hendry, marlon byrd, mike quade, ryan flaherty, starlin castro, tim wilken
Here are a few predictions about various Cub players and about the team as a whole in 2011. Some of this might sound more like admonition than prediction, more a question of what the team should do than what it will do. But I am prognosticating, not giving advice. I have confidence in Cub management [...]
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Posted 01 April 2011
† Phil
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Hendry § prospect § Running § soriano
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Also tagged: aaron shafer, alfonso soriano, brett jackson, carlos zambrano, david cales, jeff baker, jeff beliveau, josh vitters, kosuke fukudome, marquez smith, michael brenly, rebel ridling, ryan flaherty, sam fuld
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, steve clevenger, tim wilken, tony campana, welington castillo
Maybe it strikes you the same way: prospect-ranking websites seem to me to be overly numbers driven and amateur-draft driven, and insufficiently eyeball driven. I write about Cub prospects on a regular basis, and never set eyes on any of them unless they happen to show up on WGN on a Sunday in March during [...]
With the late-July trading season approaching, the usual rule applies that you trade older, more expensive players at positions where you have a surplus. While I hope they make a few deals, this team does not need to be “blown up,” as some fans are saying. The Cubs won’t make the postseason, and the team [...]
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Posted 01 July 2010
† Phil
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Hendry § Piniella § prospect § soriano § trade
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Also tagged: alfonso soriano, andrew cashner, brett jackson, carlos silva, d.j. lemahieu, derrek lee, geovany soto, jim hendry, jody davis, joe carter, joe girardi, lou piniella, marlon byrd, micah hoffpauir, rafael palmeiro, rebel ridling, robinson chirinos, sean marshall, shawon dunston, starlin castro, ted lilly, welington castillo