Of course any bit involving the concluding game between the Melbourne Aces and the Perth Heat is off topic, right? No Cubs prospects play for either team. None were even in the league this year. What could be further from off topic?
http://www.minorleagueball.com/2012/2/11/2790606/new-cubs-draft-strategy-player-development
Just cross linking to a fanpost on minorleagueball.com, as this topic may have interest to people on this site too. The topic is what type of players can we expect the new front office to draft as opposed to the Hendry era.
This discussion could also apply to the international free agent market, players to be acquired in trades, and potential free agent targets.
After reading www.bluebirdbanter.com, the Toronto Blue Jays sbnation site, where rec'd comments turn blue with a little Maple Leafs logo replacing the thumbs up, I have created an extension for this site to do the same, except with a little Cubs logo replacing the thumbs up. Props to jmsmorris at BBB for the idea!
via www.sikids.com
Much has been written about the Cubs' chances in 2012 on this website and others. The consensus is that this will be a rebuilding year and the team won't really be good again for a couple of years. I would prefer to look at this year as a "building" year rather than rebuilding. To me, rebuilding is what the Pittsburgh Pirates are doing and have been doing for the last 20 years. They have something in common with the former Soviet Union in that both are fond of the "five year plan". Basically, this means that every five years you come up with a new plan. I don't think the Cubs are going to need that long to get back to being a playoff team.The Houston Astros will be moving to the American League West next year which will make the National League Central a five-team division rather than a six-year one. Right now the two best teams in the division are the St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers. The Cincinnati Reds should be better this year and they've got a lot of talent. I expect the Pittsburgh Pirates to be better this year and the Houston Astros to finish last. As for the Chicago Cubs, my prediction is that they will finish 78-84 in fifth place. I agree with most fans that this will be a tough season because the team won't be making the playoffs, but I think that unlike past seasons that we will soon begin to see reasons for hope in the future as evidenced by the future becoming the present.
I am confident in new manager Dale Sveum being a leader. This team had a manager last year, but it did not have a leader. Nowhere was this more evident than in comments last week by Mike Quade who responded to Dale Sveum's quote about the Cubs being held to a higher standard this year. Quade said, "Maybe I'm being an idiot, but I thought we gave a pretty damn good effort every night. I don't know, maybe that was [Sveum's] philosophy or a backhanded shot. I didn't hear that." Is it any wonder why this guy was fired? Keep in mind, folks, this was the guy who was hired over Ryne Sandberg, Eric Wedge, Bob Melvin and others. Quade went on to say, "If comments are made...there's no reason for anybody to do anything but look forward. I can't be bothered because I was pretty damn happy. Did everybody run out every ball? No. That's going to happen with a lot of people [on a lot of teams]. I thought [Aramis] Ramirez gave a helluva effort last year. Maybe because it was contract year, I don't know." And therein lies the problem with the 2011 Cubs. Yes, that's going to happen with a lot of people on a lot of teams, Mike. But that doesn't mean that YOU have to accept it. You as a manager should want to hold your team to a higher standard and that is precisely what Dale Sveum is going to do this year. I will miss Aramis Ramirez's power this year, but I won't miss his lackadaisical attitude. I also won't miss Carlos Zambrano's "Jekyll & Hyde" act. Now, if only the Cubs could find a way to get rid of Alfonso Soriano.
It won't be easy to watch the 2012 Cubs at times and I'm sure that there will be more than a few people on this website and others calling for Dale Sveum to be fired and proclaiming "Jedstein" as a "failure". Cubs fans are impatient and understandably so. We're like the car in the race that breaks down and has to watch all of the other cars pass us by. But if there is any silver lining it is that the team has new management and real leadership for the first time in a long time. I believe that Theo Epstein is the best front office hire the Chicago Cubs have made since they hired Dallas Green in 1981. As hard as it may be to believe, that was 30 years ago. 1982 was not a very good year for the Cubs as they went on to finish 73-89. However, you've got to start somewhere and some of the guys on that team would later play big roles on that 1984 ballclub that won the division. The team that we see right now is going to look a lot different in a couple of years. The farm system will be rebuilt and I believe that within a couple of years that it will be ranked as one of the top 10 farm systems in Major League baseball. We're going to see young guys come up from the farm system who have learned the "Cub Way" and this philosophy will be witnessed in the chemistry and attitude in the clubhouse and on and off the field. It will eventually lead the team to the playoffs and we will have a manager and a front office that has already been successful in bringing one "cursed" team a World Series championship. I am confident that this and even better things will happen in Chicago. We don't have to compete with the New York Yankees in our division. Within a couple of years, the St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers will be the ones rebuilding. And then it'll be our time and we will be a perennial contender that expects to win every single year. Hope springs eternal!
Obviously Alfonso Soriano does not deserve to make $19 million this year or next, or even the following year. If he didn't make so much money then we probably wouldn't need to debate it, but here we are seemingly stuck.
If you were going into a room what would offer him? Would it be a one year or multiple years? At his age I would probably offer him a one year deal worth $4.5 million. Why? He still has some value and well I have to since we are stuck with him until TheoJed locate another team willing to take him on. He doesn't play the greatest defense and according to his Baseball Reference WAR this is about what he was worth last year. He doesn't hit for average, get on base all that much, but his bat still has a little power. How consistent he can remain in this category remains to be seen.
Us as fans miss all the behind the scenes happenings with the Cubs. I would still think that TheoJed have had some conversations about what they can or will do with Soriano. Obviously they can't lower his contract, but they can trade him. I saw an interesting deal proposed on Clubhouse Confidential the other day and thought hey it could happen. The Soriano talk is about 1 min in, right after they propose trading Hanley Ramirez for Miguel Cabrera.
So, what will the Cubs do with Alfonso Soriano? I find it hard to believe he will play out the remaining years on his contract and move onto a new team if he could find a taker. I do feel that TheoJed will find a team to take him, probably in the AL so he can DH. It might take someone getting hurt before a team is in need. Like Fielder signing with Detroit after Victor Martinez goes down.
This is the beginning of my 9th year as a portable vendor at Wrigley. Orientations for the 2012 concessions and merchandise vendors are about half over.
Anyone left worth going after?
From my worst calculations, there appear to be 52 free agents left on the market. There's only another month or so til Spring Training gets in full swing. Other than pitching, which Theo/Jed said they would like more of, is there anybody out there that the Cubs should go after on the market? It seems from their organizational chart that the answer is probably a resounding ‘no,' but I just wanted to field the question.
Hey, everyone. It's your always-absent "statistical editor." I'm going to try to be around more often, and thought this would be a good reason to jump back into the BCB-seas. I'm re-starting things with this Fan Post on the Cubs recent signing of Gerardo Concepcion, who was the rookie of the year in the Cuban National Series. Nice, right?
For those that don't know/remember me (I don't blame you), I come at things from a statistical angle. So the first place I tend to look are the numbers. And here are Concepcion's (h/t to yankeeanalysts for the translations):
| Age | W | L | ERA | G | GS | IP | H | R | ER | HR | BB | SO | H/9 | BB/9 | SO/9 | FIP |
| 18 | 10 | 3 | 3.36 | 21 | 16 | 101.2 | 103 | 42 | 38 | 6 | 43 | 53 | 9.1 | 3.8 | 4.7 | 4.75 |
Yuck. Read on to find out why these numbers seem terrible to me, and to find out why I still like this signing, despite the numerical warning signs.
Let me be the first to say i love what Theo and Jed are doing with the team. I am excited about the future. Rizzo, BJax, Sczcur, Baez, Carpenter, Mcnutt, Torreyes, Vitters, Concepcion to name a few. Some of these Theo and Jed have brought in and some they inherited. I wasn't quite sure about Ricketts taking over the team but the Theo hire in my opinion was about as good as a decision as i could have asked for. For the sake of discussion WHAT IF Ricketts would have never let Jim go and hired Theo? If Hendry had still been running the show this past offseason with Prince and Albert being out there demanding alot of money, would Jim have pulled a "Soriano Deal" and strapped us for years to come?. Or on the other hand could landing one of those big fish plus another player or two worked out for us?(short term that is). Spring training can't get here fast enough!!!!
Analysts and commentators frequently rave about a player’s ability to hit to the opposite field. Extreme pull-hitters are often knocked by many fans who consider hitting to the opposite field a key indicator of a great hitter. However, some of the best hitters in the game - Albert Pujols, Alex Rodriguez, Ben Zobrist, Carlos Beltran, Paul Konerko, Mark Teixeira, and Ken Griffey Jr. - could be considered pull-hitters: hitters who have pull rates above the 84th percentile, or one standard deviation above the mean, among all players. Thus, I wanted to understand the value of hitters with extreme split tendencies versus hitters without any extreme split tendencies, (spray hitters).
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