Building A Cubs Champion: 2010 Edition
by Al on Nov 6, 2009 9:15 AM CST
in The Next 100 Years
409 comments
Last year about this time, I made this post discussing what I thought should be the makeup of the 2009 Cubs.
Brave, isn't it, of me to post that link when I'd just as soon forget about it. I was shouted down and laughed at (people are still giving me grief for the Kevin Millar thing, and they were absolutely correct), and had the Cubs put that 25-man roster on the field last April, they'd undoubtedly have had a much worse season than they did in real life (case in point: Alex Hinshaw, who I thought was an up-and-coming LOOGY, threw only six major league innings in 2009, posting a 12.00 ERA).
So let me go about this project this year in a different sort of way. A year ago (actually, October 20, 2008 was the date I wrote the post about my proposed 2009 roster) we were all still stunned and angry that the 97-win team that had dominated the National League all season went three-and-out in the playoffs. This was before Lou's "we've gotta get more lefthanded" mantra led us to the Milton Bradley disaster, before popular favorites Kerry Wood and Mark DeRosa were traded, and a lot of us were wondering, "How can we make a team that good into one that will win 11 games in October?"
Jim Hendry and Co. were asking themselves the same question, obviously, but came up with the wrong answer. Without rehashing what we've rehashed all summer long, clearly, it didn't work -- and not just because of Hendry's moves, but because players like Alfonso Soriano, Geovany Soto and Mike Fontenot seriously underperformed their 2008 numbers by considerable margins and for various reasons, and because Aramis Ramirez, who is the Cubs' best hitter, missed 50 games with a dislocated shoulder and wasn't at full strength the rest of the season, eventually playing in only 82 games.
I believe in what new owner Tom Ricketts said at his introductory press conference: that the Cubs already have the talent that can win the World Series, and only need a few tweaks to bring the club back to pennant-contending level. I'm also going to assume that what we've heard about player payroll is correct: that it will be increased, if only "slightly", from 2009, and thus will wind up at (approximately) $145 million. That will rank third in baseball, behind the Yankees and Red Sox.
Thus, instead of trying to build a roster simply by picking pieces from here and there, let's use that $145 million to put together a winning team.
409 comments | 0 recs |
Ted Lilly Gets Scoped - Updated
by Al on Nov 5, 2009 7:42 AM CST
in News
141 comments
Well, here's a bit of a surprise. Ted Lilly had shoulder surgery today, per Carrie Muskat's blog:
Cubs pitcher Ted Lilly underwent a left shoulder arthroscopy and debridement on Tuesday by noted orthopaedic surgeon Dr. Lewis Yocum in Los Angeles. During the surgery, Yocum found no major damage to Lilly's shoulder and the procedure consisted of a washout and clean up of the shoulder. The procedure took approximately one hour to complete.
Lilly will immediately begin an aggressive range of motion and strengthening program. A timetable for a throwing program will be set when he's re-examined after Jan. 1. Typically, recovery time for a procedure such as this would place Lilly's return to the Cubs rotation within the month of April.
UPDATE: More after the jump.
141 comments | 0 recs |
Will The Yankees Choke? World Series Game 6 Preview, Phillies vs. Yankees, Wednesday 11/4, 6:57 CT
by Al on Nov 4, 2009 11:09 AM CST
in Game Threads
197 comments
This is the first World Series that's gone this far in six years, since 2003 -- also involving the Yankees, who lost to the Marlins in six games that year.
Joe Girardi, whose management of his pitching staff has come under justified criticism during the postseason, will roll the dice and have Andy Pettitte start on three days' rest tonight -- something Pettitte hasn't done since 2007, and that was a strange circumstance where he threw four innings in a start, pitched an inning of relief with two days' rest, then started again with one day off. (See Pettitte's 2007 game log for details; it happened in April.)
Pedro Martinez will go for the Phillies. Pedro pitched well enough to win in game two; that day, A. J. Burnett shut the Philly offense down. Meanwhile, the Phillies hit Pettitte pretty hard in game three on Saturday; Jayson Werth homered off him twice and Pettitte also issued three walks in six innings, throwing 104 pitches, a Zambrano-like outing. If the Phillies are patient tonight, I believe we'll see one last 2009 game tomorrow, and Girardi will have to go with yet another pitcher on three days' rest, CC Sabathia, going on three days' rest for the second time in this series after having not done that all season. Sabathia is approaching 270 innings pitched this season; that might be too many even for a "horse" like him.
It'd be nice to see a seven-game World Series, no matter who wins. We don't get to see enough winner-take-all games in baseball; in the last ten seasons, going back to 2000, there have been only 13 such games in all the playoff rounds, out of 70 postseason series.
197 comments | 0 recs |
You May Notice Something Different About BCB This Morning
by Al on Nov 3, 2009 9:02 AM CST
in Meta BCB
275 comments
Early this morning, the SB Nation tech team rolled out some layout and font changes to BCB and the other SBN sites.
I'd like your feedback on how it looks, and I'll make sure the tech folks have a look at your comments.
Note: they are already aware of the spacing -- or, non-spacing -- issue between paragraphs in comments, and are working on a fix.
275 comments | 0 recs |
Cubs Negotiating Multi-Year Deal With John Grabow
by Al on Nov 2, 2009 5:25 PM CST
in News
219 comments
Per Bruce Levine, the Cubs and John Grabow continue to discuss a possible multi-year contract:
Agent Paul Kinzer represents Grabow, who would be the team's left-handed set-up man and a possible back-up closer in the event Carlos Marmol is injured or needs a day off.
The two sides are talking about a two-year deal for anywhere between a total of $6.5 million and $7.5 million. Grabow's people would like a vesting option for a third year added to the contract.
219 comments | 0 recs |
The Season May End Tonight: World Series Game 5 Preview, Yankees vs. Phillies, Monday 11/2, 6:57 CT
by Al on Nov 2, 2009 1:00 PM CST
in Game Threads
107 comments
Grudgingly, I give the Yankees credit. Every time they've needed to come up with a big hit in a key situation in this series -- in fact, in the entire postseason -- they've done so. George Steinbrenner & Sons have bought themselves a championship this year, if they win tonight, by buying CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira, two of the most important components of this Yankee team.
Still, they have to get past Cliff Lee tonight first -- and Lee has been the best pitcher in the 2009 postseason, winning three of his four starts, throwing two complete games, and allowing only two earned runs in 33.1 innings. I think we'll have at least one more game after today, game six in New York on Wednesday, because I think the Phillies will win tonight. And after that, who knows? Both Andy Pettitte and CC Sabathia would have to pitch on short rest in games six and seven -- unless Joe Girardi wants to give Chad Gaudin a start, something I'd think would be about on par with Joe having both his arms sawed off.
Coming back from a 3-1 deficit in the World Series has been accomplished five times: 1925, 1958, 1968, 1979, and 1985. There have been 36 seven-game World Series that ended up four games to three, so based on history, there's about a one-in-seven shot for the Phillies to pull off the comeback.
I hope they do -- not only because I've been rooting for them, but because there hasn't been a seven-game series in seven years and I'd like to see one.
107 comments | 0 recs |
Replay Review, Your Table Is Ready: World Series Game 4 Preview, Yankees vs. Phillies, Sunday 11/1, 7:20 CT
by Al on Nov 1, 2009 11:00 AM CST
in Game Threads
100 comments
In a roundabout way, perhaps we can thank Fox-TV for the latest evidence that replay review is not only useful, but necessary in modern-day baseball.
Last night's hit to the deep right-field corner by Alex Rodriguez, correctly ruled a home run after replay review, hit a TV camera that would not have been there during the regular season. The umpires had discussed this before the game had even begun:
Umpiring crew chief Gerry Davis said that the umpires had already determined while inspecting Citizens Bank Park prior to the game that a ball hitting the camera would be a home run. "Because we cannot control what the cameraman does with the camera, one of the specific ground rules is when the ball hits the camera, home run," he said.
And that made it easy. Four of the six umpires left the field; Fox showed all of us the monitor (geez, could they have made it any smaller?) on which the umpires review the play, and after a delay shorter than the ones in which Fox shows us those endlessly repetitive and ridiculous Blackberry ads, they returned, correctly calling it a home run. The Gordon Edes Yahoo column linked above quotes baseball's fearful leader:
Even as his umpires have come under unprecedented fire this October, baseball commissioner Bud Selig said he is reluctant to expand the use of replay.
"The more baseball people I talk to, there is a lot of trepidation about it and I think their trepidation is fair," Selig said in New York Tuesday. "I don’t want to overreact. You can make light of that but when you start to think you’re going to have more intrusions, it’s something that you have to be very careful about. Affecting the game on the field is not something I really want to do."
You don't want to affect the game on the field? You mean, you'd rather have your umpires make wrong calls, take hits and possibly runs and wins away from teams, and apologize profusely later, than get it right with a minimum of fuss? What kind of idiotic thinking is this?
Replay review is used in the three other major sports, with zero ill effects and, generally, praise for getting calls right. There is NO reason not to use it in baseball for everything except ball and strike calls (mostly because doing that would slow the game down untenably). This is particularly true since the current system of home run replay is not only used as it was last night, but also to determine, if questionable, whether a ball that has HR distance is fair or foul. How is this different than reviewing whether Joe Mauer's hit in Yankee Stadium in the division series is fair or foul? Why do one and not the other?
My proposal, which I know has been echoed or expanded on by many others here, is after the jump.
100 comments | 0 recs |
Same Time, Next Year: World Series Game 3 Preview, Phillies vs. Yankees, Saturday 10/31, 6:57 CT
by Al on Oct 31, 2009 3:00 PM CDT
in Game Threads
29 comments
With the new hope engendered to Cubs fans after the Ricketts family was introduced as new owners yesterday, perhaps we can be forgiven if we dream -- just a bit -- about the potential for the Cubs to be in the World Series a year from now.
Meanwhile, there's a chance of rain in the Philadelphia area this evening -- as if there haven't been enough weather problems with the postseason already this year. The Good Phight wonders if this will change the Philly rotation.
And in addition to the World Series going on at Citizens Bank Park, Pearl Jam is appearing at the nearby Spectrum (in the final event at that arena which hosted the Flyers and 76ers for decades), with their show scheduled to begin at the same time as the game. Not only that, there's still a chance that Philadelphia transit workers will go on strike tonight at 6 pm.
Meanwhile, here's an article looking at the Cubs' ownership change from a business standpoint that gives us a first idea on how much Wrigley Field renovation and debt service might cost:
Thomas Ricketts spent $845 million for, among other assets, a baseball team that in a good year will record a profit of around $30 million.
The new owner of the Chicago Cubs will have to repay loans of $425 million he obtained for the purchase. That's an expense the Cubs' seller, Tribune Co., never had.
He'll have to look at costs of Wrigley Field renovation to facilities that sorely need improvement -- and to create revenue. Ricketts said he's looking at work spread over five to seven years and costing "significantly less" than $200 million.
Jeff Passan at Yahoo keeps the pressure on, calling again for replay review to be instituted. Couldn't agree more, after two more bad calls on Thursday night.
29 comments | 0 recs |
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NL Central Standings
| W | L | PCT | GB | STRK | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
St. Louis
|
91 | 71 | .561 | 0 | Lost 6 |
|
Chicago
|
83 | 78 | .515 | 7.5 | Lost 1 |
|
Milwaukee
|
80 | 82 | .493 | 11 | Won 3 |
|
Cincinnati
|
78 | 84 | .481 | 13 | Won 2 |
|
Houston
|
74 | 88 | .456 | 17 | Lost 3 |
|
Pittsburgh
|
62 | 99 | .385 | 28.5 | Lost 2 |
(updated 11.7.2009 at 4:23 AM CST)
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