Bleed Cubbie Blue

Cubs Sale Update

2008-12-01T20:55:56Z

The Tribune reports this afternoon on the new round of bidding:

At least three prospective buyers have submitted a new round of bids to Tribune Co. for the Chicago Cubs, one of professional sports' trophy franchises.

Chicago real estate investor Hersch Klaff; the Ricketts family, founder of online brokerage TD Ameritrade Holding Corp.; and a group led by Marc Utay, a New York private equity investor, delivered their proposals by the Thanksgiving deadline, according to sources involved in the negotiations.

The name Marc Utay is new to me -- I don't recall his name being mentioned in the first round, and don't know anything about him. If you're wondering what's up with Mark Cuban, the article says:

It was unknown at the time this report was filed whether two other prospective buyers -- Houston businessman Jim Crane and Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks basketball team -- had submitted new bids.

While Cuban has expressed ardent interest in the Cubs, he has not been active in the sales process for months, according to a source. His chances to buy the team took a hit when federal securities regulators charged him last month with insider trading.

I still believe the Ricketts group is the one that will eventually end up with the Cubs; the Ricketts family, though living now in Omaha, has Chicago roots and from what I have heard, would stand back, let the baseball people run the show and open up the purse strings. As ever, we await further developments.

Official Kerry Wood (And Others) Arbitration Deadline Day Thread

2008-12-01T14:09:55Z

Today is the deadline for major league teams to offer arbitration to their free agents -- 10:59 pm Central time, specifically, so we may not hear specifics till tomorrow.

photo via assets.espn.go.com

So does Kerry Wood get offered arbitration? Yes. No. Maybe. You can bet that if he is offered arb, he'll accept -- and don't assume that's a budget-breaker, either. Wood wants to remain a Cub -- we all know that. It's more than possible he'll take less than an arbitrator would award to do so. The deadline for Wood to accept arb, if offered, is next Sunday, December 7.

What will be more interesting to see is whether other players, particularly, as noted in Ken Rosenthal's article above, Adam Dunn, are offered arbitration. It's possible the Diamondbacks will want to keep him; we'll see after today.

Other Cub rumors are summarized neatly in this Dave van Dyck article, in which he says, basically, nothing's happening right now and isn't likely to until the winter meetings get under way next week.

Use this thread for arbitration and trade discussion today. I'll update the post with any new information if it comes in during the day.

2009 Cubs Schedule Update

2008-11-29T14:00:07Z

The schedule with game times was published in the December issue of Vine Line, which those of you who subscribe (or get it because you are a season ticket holder) should have received in the last few days.

I've updated the BCB tentative schedule with all the available game times; the Cubs website has not yet been updated. Click on the link for all the available game times as of now. All times listed on the BCB schedule are Central time. (As of Saturday morning, these times were not yet listed on the Cubs website.)

Notes:

The Cubs will have a nighttime season opener, 6:05 Central time, at Houston on April 6. I have adjusted the countdown clock on the right sidebar and the game time on the left sidebar.
There are 26 night games listed; the Cubs are permitted 30, by city ordinance. The ESPN Sunday night schedule has not yet been set; you can presume that the Cubs will be chosen for at least a couple of home Sunday nights (April 19 and July 12 vs. St. Louis and August 30 vs. New York are possible dates). Teams can appear a maximum of five times a year on ESPN Sunday games (that limit doesn't apply to other ESPN dates).
There are 26 Saturday dates. Only eight of them currently list game times. Teams can appear eight times on Fox Saturday games; those dates will be chosen later.
There are two discrepancies between the Vine Line schedule and schedules posted on other teams' websites. The Vine Line schedule says the August 21 date at Los Angeles is "TBD". The Dodgers website says it's at 7:10 PDT (9:10 CDT). And, the Vine Line schedule shows the September 7 game at Pittsburgh as 6:05 CT; the Pirates website says that Labor Day game will be at 12:35 EDT (11:35 am CDT).
The Cubs have only one of the dreaded night-game-on-the-road-day-game-the-next-day-at-home trips in 2009: a night game at Houston on June 11, and a day game on June 12 vs. the Twins at Wrigley Field. There's also a night game at Colorado (7:35 CT) on August 10 and a home game the next day, but the August 11 home game vs. the Phillies is a night game.

Isn't it nice to hear those summer dates and think about baseball in the cold of late November? I'll continue to update the schedule as I get more times, and hope to confirm the tentative spring training schedule sometime next week.

The Cub Can Of Worms: Mel Rojas

2008-11-28T15:00:05Z

This is a cautionary tale that has a happy ending. First, searching for images of Mel wearing a Cubs uniform -- his tenure was so bad in Chicago that I couldn't even locate a decent one, so enjoy this picture of him in Expos garb.

via www.baseball-almanac.com

The caution, of course, is "Don't assume that by signing an 'established' closer, that you're actually going to get someone good". During the 1990's, the Cubs did this time and time again; before Rojas was signed on December 10, 1996 they had done it three other times: with Dave Smith before the 1991 season, with Randy Myers before the 1993 season and with Doug Jones prior to the 1996 campaign. Only Myers had any success on the North Side -- the others were horrid.

You wouldn't have guessed that Rojas was about to stink the joint out, either; he had just turned 30 and had two good years closing in Montreal. In 1996 he had 36 saves with a 3.22 ERA and struck out 92 in 81 innings, walking only 28 and allowing only five homers.

The 1997 season started and as soon as you could say "jimriggleman", came to a screeching halt. The Cubs lost a NL-record 14 straight games to start the year; Rojas didn't even get a save opportunity till the season's 19th game. He blew that one, giving up two 9th-inning runs to turn a 3-2 Cubs lead into a 4-3 loss. OK, so the winning run scored on an error; maybe it wasn't all Mel's fault.

It got worse. By June 5 he had five saves -- and four blown saves; the June 5 blown save was particularly spectacular. With two out and two on in Philadelphia with the Cubs leading 8-5, Rojas served up a three-run homer to Mike Lieberthal; the Phillies won in the 10th. After managing to save four games at the end of June and beginning of July, he gave up another three-run homer in the ninth inning with two out on July 15 at Wrigley Field, this one to Houston's Bill Spiers, turning what looked like a 3-2 Cubs win into a 5-3 loss. By the time he blew another lead on July 30 in Atlanta, by giving up two consecutive hits after a leadoff triple and an out, he had been getting regularly booed every time he appeared on the field at Wrigley.

You can justifiably criticize Ed Lynch for most of his tenure as Cubs GM -- but in dumping Rojas, Brian McRae (who had also worn out his welcome in Chicago after two decent years in 1995 and 1996) and Turk Wendell to the Mets, Lynch made his best deal as GM, and acquired two players who played key roles in the 1998 wild card year: Lance Johnson, who did decent work as a platoon CF, and Mark Clark, a serviceable inning-eater (sort of the Jason Marquis of his time). So, Mel's acquisition did have a happy ending, from a Cubs point of view, at least.

Meanwhile, Mel got even worse in his very first game as a Met on August 9, 1997. Entering a 3-3 tie with Houston in the top of the 9th, Mel gave up a triple, single and walk before he got anyone out; after another single, Jeff Bagwell hit a three-run homer off him. His Mets ERA (5.13) was even higher than his Cubs ERA (4.42). After an even worse year in 1998 (6.05 ERA, 1.69 WHIP), the Mets somehow managed to get the Dodgers to take him in exchange for Bobby Bonilla, who was also nearing the end of a good career. Mel threw 14 innings for three teams (the Dodgers, Tigers and Expos) in 1999 with an 18.00 ERA and was done.

Lynch signed one more "established" closer -- Rod Beck, who did a good job in 1998, but got hurt and was traded before the next year was over. After that, Rick Aguilera was acquired by trade and also stunk; Tom Gordon did an OK job for the year and a half he was a Cub, and the next closer who was successful after that was Joe Borowski, who had been rescued from the scrap heap.

All of this is one more reason to keep Kerry Wood. Homegrown. Had a good year. Isn't too old. His arm seems sound. Bring him back.

Happy Thanksgiving...

2008-11-27T11:00:06Z

... from BCB:

The Very Last Thing I Will Ever Post On Jake Peavy (Or Not)

2008-11-27T03:00:47Z

Barry Rozner weighs in on the Peavy mess, with a convoluted trade scheme that made my jaw drop lower and lower with each succeeding paragraph.

I'll spare you reading it if you don't want to by saying that the summary of all the players involved in Rozner's fantasy would be something like this:

Cubs get: Jake Peavy and Brian Giles

Padres get: Jason Marquis, Sean Marshall, Felix Pie, Josh Vitters, Ronny Cedeno, Jose Ascanio, Mike Fontenot and Sandy Koufax (OK, yes, I made that last part up).

Besides the fact that Giles isn't leaving San Diego and that the Padres would have little use for Marquis and that Vitters is really the one and only blue-chip prospect the Cubs have, we have the little matter of Lou stating the other day that the Cubs aren't looking for starting pitching any more. And as we have been discussing in various threads over the last couple of days, what Lou wants, Lou generally gets.

Usually Mike Downey, Phil Rogers or Rick Morrissey would be in contention for writing the dumbest Chicago newspaper sports column of the month. But Barry, you win. This is nonsense. Book it: Jake Peavy and Brian Giles will not be wearing blue pinstripes in 2009.

And with that, goodnight. And Happy Thanksgiving.

Another Kerry Wood Clue

2008-11-26T14:45:25Z

This one from SI's Jon Heyman:

Mets GM Omar Minaya today began reaching out to the agents for free-agent closers Francisco Rodriguez and Brian Fuentes, SI.com has learned. The Mets are intent on landing an elite closer after their bullpen was the main culprit in their second straight September disappointment. It is believed Rodriguez is favored slightly over Fuentes, but they consider either pitcher an excellent candidate to take injured closer Billy Wagner's spot.
The Mets seem willing to consider Kerry Wood, as well, but have concerns about his past health issues.

The Rangers, Indians and perhaps Brewers are among other teams that may be in the market for a closer.

(emphasis in bold italics added by me)

It may be that the Cubs have the same concerns, although I don't quite understand that after Wood has been completely shoulder-healthy since August 2007 (his DL time in 2008 was blister-related; his arm was sound). Still, that doesn't explain why the Cubs wouldn't consider offering Wood an incentive-laden contract which would protect them in case of injury; it seems as if Wood would accept such a deal. I don't see Kerry going to Texas or Cleveland (he's expressed an interest in staying in the NL), and the thought of him in a Milwaukee uniform makes me cringe.

As ever, we await developments.

MLBTR Updated Cubs Rumors

2008-11-25T22:15:13Z

Tim's a good guy and I believe he has good sources. Thus I post his information from this afternoon as a source of starting discussion.

The two most interesting points, in my opinion, are:

There are no perfect fits for the right field vacancy, and the Cubs are willing to sacrifice some defense to add that middle of the order lefthanded hitter.

That, unfortunately, has Raul Ibanez written all over it. And:

Teams around baseball are wary of certain Type A/B free agents accepting offers of arbitration. Expect the Cubs to figure out where Kerry Wood stands before deciding whether to offer.

You could call this the "Greg Maddux Clause", because after 2002, when his second five-year deal with Atlanta expired, the Braves intended to let him go. They offered arb as a courtesy and Maddux accepted; the $14.8 million he got is, I believe, still the record for the largest arbitration settlement. That was for the 2003 season, the year he lost to The Former Employee in the NLDS in one of the better postseason games I've ever seen.

At the very least, there is some new information in Tim's post. Have at it.

Put The Peavy Rumors To Rest... Forever

2008-11-25T19:01:19Z

This isn't according to me, it's according to Lou:

If there were any lingering questions about whether the Cubs had pulled back from pursuing San Diego ace Jake Peavy in a trade, manager Lou Piniella answered them this week.

The Chicago Sun-Times' Gordon Wittenmyer asked Piniella at an event in Chicago on Sunday whether the Cubs were still pursuing starting pitching in the wake of their four-year contract extension with free agent right-hander Ryan Dempster.

"No," Piniella was quoted as saying in Tuesday's Sun-Times. "Starting we don't need. We're set. We've got six good starters, and they're all experienced. Getting Dempster back was the key. We're in good shape with our starting pitching. Bullpen-wise, [we're looking for] possibly one more experienced pitcher. We've got a lot of young kids out there."

So Kevin Towers can posture any way he wants. Peavy's going somewhere else. Here's Wittenmyer's full article. I will resist the urge to say "Told you so."

2009 Cubs Spring Training Tentative Schedule

2008-11-25T14:46:32Z

UPDATE: This schedule is tentative and may have some adjustments before the Cubs officially announce it.

Note: Daylight Saving Time begins Sunday 3/8. Prior to 3/8 all games begin at 2:05 CT; on 3/8 and after, games begin at 3:05 CT. Exceptions are noted.

Wed 2/25: vs. Dodgers at Mesa
Thu 2/26: vs. Brewers at Mesa
Fri 2/27: vs. Rangers at Surprise
Sat 2/28: vs. White Sox at Mesa
Sun 3/1: vs. Padres at Peoria
Mon 3/2: vs. Diamondbacks at Mesa
Tue 3/3: vs. Athletics at Mesa
Wed 3/4: vs. Indians at Goodyear
Thu 3/5: OFF
Fri 3/6: vs. Dodgers at Mesa
Sat 3/7: vs. Brewers at Maryvale
Sun 3/8: vs. Rangers at Mesa
Mon 3/9: vs. Royals at Mesa
Tue 3/10: vs. Mariners at Peoria
Wed 3/11: OFF
Thu 3/12: vs. WBC at Mesa
Fri 3/13: vs. Mariners (ss) at Mesa
Sat 3/14: vs. Angels at Mesa
Sun 3/15: vs. Diamondbacks at Tucson
Mon 3/16: vs. Brewers at Maryvale
Tue 3/17: vs. Dodgers at Glendale
Wed 3/18: vs. Giants at Mesa
Thu 3/19: vs. Mariners (ss) at Peoria
Fri 3/20: vs. Padres at Peoria
Sat 3/21: vs. White Sox at Glendale
Sun 3/22: vs. Mariners at Mesa
Mon 3/23: vs. Athletics at Phoenix
Tue 3/24: vs. Rockies at Mesa
Wed 3/25: OFF
Thu 3/26: vs. Giants at Scottsdale (9:05 CT)
Fri 3/27: vs. White Sox at Mesa
Sat 3/28: vs. Rockies at Tucson
Sun 3/29: vs. Indians at Mesa
Mon 3/30: vs. Royals at Surprise
Tue 3/31: vs. Angels at Mesa
Wed 4/1: vs. Athletics at Phoenix
Thu 4/2: vs. Indians at Mesa (2:05 CT)
Fri 4/3: vs. Yankees at Yankee Stadium, NYC (6:05 CT)
Sat 4/4: vs. Yankees at Yankee Stadium, NYC (12:05 CT)

Most interesting notes: the schedule is a week longer this year to take into account the WBC. The 36 games (including the two in NY) is, I believe, the most ever. Note the three off days, two more than usual. Finally, though the Cubs will be playing two split-squad Mariners teams, there will be NO Cub split squads (at least, none listed on the schedule linked above).

A Few Words About FanPosts And FanShots

2008-11-25T14:20:53Z

Since it's a slow holiday week, I thought I'd post a few things about FanPosts and FanShots, what the difference is, and what's suitable for each. There seems to be a bit of confusion -- one reader here posted that he thought "FanShots" was for posting photos you take yourself. While you can do that (although we can't host your photos; you'll have to use something like Flickr or Photobucket), there are many other good uses for FanShots.

FanPosts are like the diaries used to be under the old BCB format. They're intended to be on a topic that hasn't been covered in, say, the last few days or a week, or something new to the site. If you're thinking about posting something about a topic you've read about on one of the mainstream sports sites -- please check the FanPost recent list on the right sidebar to see if your topic has been covered recently, or use the search function at the top of the right sidebar. If a FanPost gets hundreds of comments -- like this one about Kerry Wood did -- then it would be OK to start an overflow thread like we do for gameday threads, because at that point the post might start taking too long to load.

FanPosts have to have a minimum of 75 words. If your FanPost has a paragraph that looks something like this:

words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words words

... that's there just to bring it up to the minimum, then it's probably better off in the FanShot section.

Some examples of well-written and thought-out recent FanPosts on interesting topics are here, here, here, and here. If I left yours out, that doesn't mean it wasn't good -- just wanted to give some quick examples.

If you something you want to post, and it's related to a recently discussed topic -- such as Kerry Wood being told goodbye, or Ryan Dempster signing -- please take a look at the posts on those topics first. Your thoughts, in that case, might be better as a comment under one of those posts, unless you have some sort of new angle that hasn't been posted yet on that topic. Just saying "I'm going to miss Kerry too" wouldn't be considered a "new angle".

FanShots are for things that aren't long enough for a full FanPost, for example, if you find a link you think is interesting but don't have anything more to add. Good examples of FanShots that have links in them are this one and this one. Or, it could be a photo you find on the internet. Take a look at this one and this one. You can use it to embed and post YouTube (or other) videos. Here's one I posted last month.

You can also use the Recommend feature on FanShots and FanPosts to put them in the Recommended lists, which moves them to the top of each section and keeps them there longer. It takes four recommendations for a FanPost and three for a FanShot to get them in the Rec lists. You can also recommend a comment -- this feature is sort of hidden, which is why a lot of people haven't used it yet; under each comment there's a link that says "Actions" -- click on that and you'll get the option to recommend a comment. Trei and the tech team say they're working on making this easier to use (more obvious) in the future. A comment takes 4 recs to get it "recommended" -- if this happens, the comment turns green and gets a big star next to it. Similarly, if you want to flag a comment as inappropriate, you can do that in the same way; it takes 4 flags to turn it red and put a little flag next to it.

When you are posting, just below the post box there is a link you can click, highlighted in yellow, that says "Show Editor Help". The Editor Help will appear to the right of the posting box and has a short tutorial on how to use the editing features available here. Once you've looked through this you can click the "X" at the top right of the editor help box to restore the other options. I would encourage everyone to use the team and player name boxes; adding these to your post will create links to teams and players you mention in your posts. You can do the same for events (meaning, in general, specific games -- click on "Attach Event" when you are making a post to see how it works) and also add tags (separated by commas if you have more than one).

I hope this clarifies what should go in each section and how you can make better use of the features available. This community has become the great place it is because of your participation. Please don't take this as criticism -- it's intended to help you with some guidelines, to encourage more participation and to avoid duplication of topics, especially over the winter when we have no games to discuss. Enjoy and dive right in!

Here's How Rumors Get Started

2008-11-24T20:02:56Z

Let me preface this by saying that I met Rob Neyer last year at BlogWorldExpo, have enjoyed all his books, and generally think he's a knowledgeable baseball writer. On his blog today, there's this almost throwaway paragraph:

According to this unsigned article, the Mets are interested in signing Trevor Hoffman or Kerry Wood as their new closer, and perhaps "acquiring a set-up man such as Colorado's just-acquired Huston Street in a trade."

The "unsigned article" he refers to is this one from the Poughkeepsie Journal. The article's primary topic is the Mets' apparent interest in Trevor Hoffman:

And according to one baseball executive, the Mets’ discussions seem to be leading them away from the top candidates and instead toward the possibility of signing San Diego’s Trevor Hoffman and acquiring a set-up man such as Colorado’s just-acquired Huston Street in a trade.

Following me so far? The only mention of Kerry Wood in that article is here, in a single sentence:

The belief is that a Hoffman or Kerry Wood can be had for a less-pricy, shorter-term deal than the price tags expected for [Francisco] Rodriguez or Brian Fuentes.

Now does that in any way say that the Mets have expressed interest in Wood or contacted him? It appears to be nothing more than speculation from the writer (who, as Neyer says, isn't even named), who needed another name to throw out there because just mentioning Hoffman isn't enough.

Now, someone might see Neyer's post -- or this one -- and send it to MLB Trade Rumors, where it would take on a life of its own. Now, we happen to know, thanks to a BCB reader, that Wood was spotted on a plane heading to NYC last week. So perhaps the Mets do have some interest, and given the state of their bullpen, if true it's not surprising.

But the Poughkeepsie Journal article has no facts, just guessing. And that seems to be the case for the source of a great number of baseball signing or trade rumors these days.

Here's another good example: this cubs.com article about the Mark Teahen rumors, being discussed at length in this FanPost. The relevant passage in that article is:

Kansas City "is focused" on Cubs left-hander Sean Marshall and infielder Mike Fontenot while discussing a possible trade for outfielder Mark Teahen, according to the Chicago Tribune.

And what was this Chicago Tribune article? (cubs.com didn't even bother to link it!) It was in the "Whispers" sidebar to Phil Rogers' column yesterday -- not even in Rogers' main column! Here's what Rogers wrote:

Kansas City is focused on Sean Marshall and Mike Fontenot in talks with the Cubs about Mark Teahen.

That's it. Nothing more. No sourcing, no quotes, nothing more than "is focused".

Personally, I think these breathless rumors should be left to simmer for a while. Most of the Cubs' best deals have been the ones that no one hears about before they happen.

The Cub Can Of Worms: Oscar Zamora

2008-11-24T14:20:29Z

When the pitch is so fat
That the ball hits the bat
That's Zamora

-- sung to the tune of "That's Amore"

If you're not old enough to remember, Oscar Zamora was a smallish (5-10, 178) righthanded reliever for the mediocre-to-bad Cub teams from 1974 to 1976. A native of Cuba, he languished in the Cleveland and Houston farm systems for nine years, and was purchased by the Cubs on June 17, 1974 and installed as a sometime middle reliever, sometime closer (though closers in those days had different roles than today, often going two or three innings).

He had a decent year in '74, with a 3.12 ERA in 83.2 innings, and 10 saves, which, amazingly enough, led that 96-loss team.

But the next season and in '76, even though the team was a bit better, Oscar was awful, posting ERA's north of 5 each year (and in June '75 alone had three horrendous outings on June 4, June 13, and June 25, those three accounting for more than 25% of all the earned runs he allowed that year). This led to the little song you see at the top of this post being sung by many fans.

He wasn't any better in 1976. In early August manager Jim Marshall ran a bit short of pitchers when the Cubs had back-to-back doubleheaders in Montreal (due to two rainouts in May), so Oscar was pressed into service as a starter in the second game on August 7. He got pounded for eight hits and six runs in less than three innings, was sent to the minors and eventually signed as a free agent with the Astros, for whom he had 10 bad appearances (7.20 ERA) in 1978 and then was done.

But I'll bet you didn't know -- I didn't till I started looking for more background on Oscar for this post -- that he threw a perfect game in the minor leagues, for Triple-A Oklahoma City against Denver. No, I'm not making this up. It was a seven-inning perfect game, the second game of a doubleheader. Oddly enough, it was on the same day -- September 2, 1972 -- that Milt Pappas came one strike away from perfection for the Cubs. Several future major leaguers were on the Denver team that Oscar threw the perfecto against, including Pete Mackanin, Jeff Burroughs and future Cub Lenny Randle. (The "Steve Greenberg" listed in that boxscore is Hank Greenberg's son, who eventually founded Classic Sports Network, later sold to ESPN, and CSTV.)

Think The MLB Blackouts Are Going Away? Think Again

2008-11-23T14:00:06Z

Bud Selig said they had to go. The owners said they were going to redraw the ancient and arcane "territorial map" that had, among other things, six teams claiming parts of Iowa as a "home" territory and six others at home in Las Vegas -- neither place has an actual major league team within hundreds of miles.

But if you thought 2009 would bring you, as it was supposed to, the opportunity to watch any MLB game as long as you were willing to pay for it, Maury Brown at Biz of Baseball says the Powers That Be seem to be in no hurry:

MLB owners, yet again, tabled restructuring the local and regional television territories for the league at today's quarterly owners meetings in New York, and in doing so, leaves an arcane and convoluted system in place just before the MLB Network launches on January 1.

The commissioner’s office has proposed an adjustment that will involve clubs losing a territory or market if they do not broadcast within it. Currently, markets such as Las Vegas sees six clubs claiming the television territory, including the A’s, Giants, Padres, Angels, Dodgers, and Diamondbacks.

The issue will not be broached again until the next quarterly meetings by the owners in January.

Unless the league makes a provision, the ranks of those that will be faced with the "blackout blues" will grow exponentially as the new television network for the league reaches 50 million homes next season. MLB Network plans on broadcasting 26 games each season.

Click on map to open a larger version in a new browser window

The way I read this, you'll see blackouts worse than the Fox Saturday nonsense, unless the owners address this in January. I've written about this many times, and I'll keep doing it, not that they're going to listen to me, but maybe if enough people push this issue, they'll actually do something about it. It's real simple, as I wrote above: if you are willing to pay to watch a baseball game, you should be able to do so, whether you are in Chicago, Des Moines, Las Vegas, Kathmandu, or on Mars.

Fix it, Bud. Now. It's about 20 years overdue.

Hat tip to Rob at 6-4-2 for the Biz of Baseball link.

The Cub Can Of Worms: Fred McGriff

2008-11-22T14:00:07Z

This FanPost titled "Fred McGriff to the Cubs?" from a few days ago, in which digitalbenjamin asked everyone to post what they thought were the Cubs' worst acquisitions, inspired me to open the Can of Worms about Fred McGriff himself -- a player who put up significant numbers, yet in some ways it seemed he was never even here.

photo via thediamondangle.com

In 2001, the Cubs decided to cut ties with Mark Grace after, supposedly, Grace refused to take a lesser role and mentor Hee Seop Choi, the organization's top first base prospect at the time. Choi clearly had talent, but at the end of the 2000 season was only 21 years old and had played only 36 games above A ball -- probably at least a year, maybe two, from being major league ready. He had only 13 spring training at-bats before being reassigned back to the minor league camp.

To hedge their bets, the Cubs acquired Matt Stairs and Ron Coomer in the 2000-2001 offseason, and both saw time at first base during the first half of the 2001 season, along with Julio Zuleta, whose biggest contribution was lightening up the atmosphere in the clubhouse. After a 4-0 loss to Arizona on May 18, Zuleta decided to take a page from the movie "Major League":

"It worked," Zuleta said. "I put the bat bone (rubbed on bats to smoothen them) in the middle of a plate and put a banana and apple and orange around it. Then I got some Flexall from the trainers and ... some newspaper and burned it. I made it up as I went along. The bats got hot and everyone started hitting."

Whatever the reason, the Cubs won 12 in a row after Zuleta's "ritual" -- their longest winning streak since 1945. And Zuleta's own bat went cold, resulting in him being sent back to the minors -- for good -- on June 26.

Still, even though they were in first place all of June and into July, GM Andy MacPhail insisted they needed to upgrade at 1B. Stairs and Coomer were doing a good job, but Good Ol' Andy set his sights on Fred McGriff, then playing for his hometown team in Tampa.

The deal took more than three weeks to finish. McGriff had a no-trade clause and let it be known that he didn't want to leave his family in Tampa, thus giving rise to a nickname among some of us in the bleachers: "The Family Man". Then we heard he didn't want to play in all the day games at Wrigley Field... new nickname: "The Prince of Darkness".

Finally, on July 27 the deal was done (maybe this was a precursor of how hard MacPhail would be to trade with once he became Baltimore's GM). The Cubs sent Manny Aybar and a PTBNL (who turned out to be Jason Smith) to the then-Devil Rays for McGriff, whose first Cub game was a nationally-televised ESPN game on Sunday night, July 29. He took the field to a huge ovation and walked, singled and scored a run in 7-5 Cub win.

And... the team fell right into the tank. Standing 60-43, 3.5 games in first place when The Family Man took the field for the first time, the Cubs went 28-31 the rest of the way and finished third, even though McGriff's numbers with the Cubs were almost identical to what he had put up in Tampa (lower BA, but higher SLG).

The next year, McGriff again hit reasonably well, but the Cubs were awful, losing 95 games and finishing last, and rather than put Choi, who had been recalled in September, in the lineup every day to see what he could do, interim manager Bruce Kimm left The Prince of Darkness in the lineup. Why? To give him a shot at his 10th 30-homer season. After Fred finally hit this milestone blast (in a 5-4 loss at Pittsburgh on September 22, nine days after hitting his 29th and a full month after his 28th), he made only one token PH appearance the rest of the year, closing a sorry chapter in Cubs history. The Cubs were 95-126 with McGriff on the roster.

Oh, and The Family Man? Where did he go after leaving the Cubs via free agency after the 2002 season?

Los Angeles, more than 2,500 miles from home. He left the Cubs with 478 career homers, at age 38. But he slumped in LA, was benched and finished 2003 with 13 HR. Going home again to Tampa, where he hoped to reach 500 HR with his hometown team, he hit .181 with 2 homers in 27 games and was released on July 28, 2004, seven homers short of 500 and probably forever short of the Hall of Fame induction he thought he would clinch with that milestone homer that never happened.

Good, I say. McGriff's lackadaisical attitude with the Cubs makes most of us wish he had never been one. He did play in five postseasons and has a ring from the 1995 Braves, and put up good postseason numbers (.303/.385/.532 with 10 homers in 188 AB) -- but I'd be hard-pressed if you asked me to remember any one of them..

Cubs Ticket Prices Likely To Remain The Same In 2009

2008-11-21T13:35:32Z

So says Cubs Chairman Crane Kenney:

"We'll certainly want to keep a good number of our seats flat in ticket prices," Kenney said. "We'll look throughout the inventory to see whether there is the ability to increase the price in certain areas, but this is a tough economy for our consumers, as well as our sponsors and our fans. We recognize that. We don't want them to view our ticket prices as a burden."

Good. Ticket prices were already second-highest in baseball, on average, behind the Red Sox -- and the Red Sox, whose model Kenney says he wants to emulate, froze ticket prices for 2009. Times are tough; the article goes on to say that the current economic climate may reduce the price that Sam Zell will get when the team is eventually sold:

Dave Novosel, a debt analyst at Gimme Credit, said in a research note Wednesday that he has revised downward the franchise's expected sales price. "Our initial estimate that Tribune would generate proceeds of roughly $1 billion from the sale of the Chicago Cubs was eclipsed by the credit crisis," he wrote.

Notwithstanding the unintentional humor in the name of the firm quoted ("Gimme Credit"??), that's likely correct. However:

Decisions about ticket prices today affect revenue projections on which bidders are estimating the value of the franchise. If the Cubs freeze ticket prices, that would drive down the price of club, said a person close to one bidder who wanted to remain anonymous because the sales process is ongoing.

As always, we await further developments.

The 12,785th Update On The Cubs Sale

2008-11-20T03:40:11Z

Yet another deadline has been set for more offers to be submitted to Sam Zell and Tribune Co. for the sale of the Cubs:

Bidders for the Cubs have until Dec. 1 to submit offers, Major League Baseball said Wednesday after a meeting of its ownership committee.

Bob DuPuy, baseball's chief operating officer, said representatives of four bidders have met in New York in recent weeks with officials from the commissioner's office, MLB's Internet company and the sport's new television network.

The team was put up for sale in April 2007 when Tribune Co., the Cubs' owner, announced it was being acquired by real estate developer Sam Zell. DuPuy said the latest deadline was set by the Tribune Co.

"Bids are expected the week after Thanksgiving," DuPuy said. "Mr. Zell claims the team is for sale and they're moving forward."

I especially like that last part: "Mr. Zell claims the team is for sale." As if they don't really believe him. Clearly, Tribune Co. is in serious financial trouble, as is the entire newspaper industry (not to mention many other sectors of our economy) and the fact that Zell and Tribco have debt service payments due soon is well known.

Still, whether or not the completion of the sale of the team will happen by Thanksgiving (as one rumor had it) or Christmas (said another) or the Twelfth of Never (as many pop singers might have said) is still a matter of YGIAGAM (Your Guess Is As Good As Mine, for those not big into acronyms).

We, as always, await further developments. Prediction: when this deal finally gets done, it will be the Ricketts family of Omaha (whose fortune was made in owning the Ameritrade online brokerage) who will be the new owners.

Book Review: "The Best Team Ever"

2008-11-19T15:37:00Z

Alan Alop and Doc Noel's "The Best Team Ever" is the novelized story of the 1907 Cubs, the first Cub World Championship team.

But it is so much more than that. It's told, in part, by supposed "journals" left by a rookie pitcher for that team, Blaine "Kid" Durbin, a lefthanded pitcher who got into only 11 games that year (and only five of them as a pitcher; he played the others as an outfielder). But the way the fictionalized Durbin tells the story, it's about far more than baseball. Naturally, there are stories of the best-known Cubs, Tinker and Evers and Chance, but also quite a bit about pitcher Jack Taylor (who's portrayed as a hard-drinking, hard-swearing prankster), Johnny Kling (who held out until almost the time the season started, after which Chance was so mad at him that he barely let him play till May, explaining his total of only 104 games played), and many others.

In addition to well-researched descriptions of baseball in that era -- I especially liked the authors' use of period terminology (among those: calling spring training the "Practice Season", and calling what we would term a .356 batting average "356 percent") -- there's a parallel story of what living in Chicago was like in 1907. We meet many lowlife characters who haunted the city's many saloons and brothels, and there's a story of a young woman who is making her way to Chicago from Iowa to make a new life after all her family dies, who is kidnapped and forced into prostitution. Both real and fictional characters inhabit this part of the story, seamlessly weaved into what becomes not only a thriller, but a love story.

It begins before the season even starts, with Durbin meeting Cubs owner Charles W. Murphy in his ornate downtown Chicago office to sign a contract (for more money than Durbin, who was from a small town in Missouri, could have imagined). It takes you through the "Practice Season", which was held in those days at the West Baden Resort in French Lick, Indiana -- not much warmer than Chicago, based on the narrative. The team travels through various cities playing exhibition games with the local teams -- remember, in 1907 you likely had never seen a major league game unless you lived in one of the ten major league cities (Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Detroit, Cleveland, Washington, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and St. Louis), and teams frequently did trips like this "coming north" from spring training, even as late as the 1960's. They also played exhibition games during the season for extra money; the novel tells of the Cubs playing a black team, the Leland Giants, and some repercussions from that in those less-enlightened days, and has quite a bit about the World Series and how the Cubs approached playing against Ty Cobb, someone most of them had never seen play before that October. You'll find out about how players in that era, much rougher men than the ones who play today, routinely cheated on the field, largely because most games were umpired by only one man, who couldn't possibly see everything.

The story also involves another real-life celebrity from that era, a traveling magician named Howard Thurston; I'll leave it to you to find out how he was involved, and how it ends up. I highly recommend this novel to anyone interested in Cub, baseball, Chicago or American history. It's fiction, true: but realistic enough that it gives an excellent portrait of what life, and baseball, was like 101 years ago.

Cubs AFL Report: Solar Sox 13, Javelinas 6

2008-11-18T04:30:05Z

MESA, Arizona -- The grass was a little browner than I remembered it from last March, scorched by the summer Arizona sun.

But parking's free, and it costs only $6 to get in -- sit anywhere -- so why not? I headed over to Ho Ho Kam Park Monday afternoon to take in the AFL game between the Mesa Solar Sox (comprised of prospects from the Cubs, Phillies, Braves, Marlins and Tigers) and the Peoria Javelinas (taking their players from the Mariners, Rays, Yankees, Brewers and Reds). A Javelina, apparently, is some sort of wild pig, as shown by their logo:

Personally, I like the Solar Sox logo (at left) better.

The PA guy (not Tim Sheridan, who does the Cubs' spring games, but someone else) laid a little joke on the small assemblage when announcing the attendance: at first he said "13,297", then adjusted it to 297 (and that must have included the 15 or so scouts, both teams and the employees behind the one concession stand that was open, and though the ticket price was cheap, the food was not: full major league prices for the limited selection). Those of us enjoying the above-average 78-degree game-time temperature and completely cloudless skies saw the Solar Sox beat the Javelinas 13-6 in a game that wasn't that close -- it was 13-0 Mesa at the end of the fifth inning, and then Mesa relievers gave up three homers and six runs over the last four innings. More on this later.

I'll talk more about the Cubs involved in this game in a moment, but the story of the game was Atlanta pitching prospect Tommy Hanson, a 22-year-old, 6-6 moose of a guy who throws bullets and has a nasty breaking ball; he threw five shutout innings, allowing one hit and two walks and striking out ten. It's no wonder that the Padres spent a good portion of the last couple of weeks trying to pry him away from the Braves in the Jake Peavy negotiations. Nor is it surprising, given the talent I saw today, that the Braves said no way. Hanson, though he spent 2008 split between the Carolina League and the Southern League, might be ready for a shot at the Atlanta rotation in 2009.

The Solar Sox scored first; Matt Young, another Atlanta prospect, led off the game with a walk (there were 12 walks in all in the game, which made it drag at times); next up was the Cubs' Nate Spears. After faking a bunt, then taking a pitch:

Spears swung at the next pitch, and on this swing (the catcher is faking a throw to second as the runner had taken off):

... he smacked a two-run homer, his first in the AFL, down the right-field line. Spears later singled, struck out, walked and flied to left, going 2-for-4 with two runs scored and two RBI. Personally, I like Spears; he's hitting .338/.457/.500 and has split his time between SS and 2B almost equally during the AFL season. I am well aware cough Sam Fuld cough that AFL stats don't necessarily translate into major league success. However, I think Spears at the very least will get a spring training invite and possibly as much as being added to the 40-man roster (after the Rule 5 draft) with a chance of making the major league team as a reserve infielder.

The Solar Sox added two more runs in the third off Peoria starter Alex Periard (from the Brewers; he was less than impressive, walking four and allowing eight hits and six runs in 3.2 innings). Steve Kahn (Mariners) came in and promptly gave up a single and a walk to load the bases, and another Atlanta prospect, third baseman Van Pope, hit a grand slam to the right-field berm (sorry, Ballhawk, the berm was officially closed, although that didn't stop a couple of people from trying to run after the six home run balls hit out there -- even though they had the sprinklers going in right field most of the afternoon).

The Cubs' other position prospect who played in Monday's game was Darwin Barney, a fourth-round pick out of Oregon State in 2007. This faked bunt attempt:

... eventually resulted in Barney grounding into a 5-4-3 double play (on a subsequent pitch). Barney grounded out three times, popped up and walked in his five times up (he hit ninth in this DH-used game).

Cub pitching prospects didn't do very well. Rocky Roquet, rather old for this league and his level (he turned 26 two weeks ago and has never pitched above Double-A), relieved Hanson and allowed three runs (two earned, thanks to a throwing error by Spears) when Yankee prospect Juan Miranda slammed a three-run homer. All three outs recorded by Roquet were on deep fly balls.

And Esmailin Caridad, who had one appearance for the major league Cubs in spring training in 2008, didn't distinguish himself, either; after retiring the first two hitters in the 8th inning on lazy popups, he issued a walk and then Miranda hit his second homer of the game. Caridad throws pretty hard for a guy his size, only 5-10, 195:

Finally, the hitting coach for the Solar Sox is someone you might recognize:

In the AFL many of the coaches and managers serve as base coaches; Peoria's manager Daren Brown (who manages Seattle's Triple-A team at Tacoma) coached third, while former Cub Ozzie Timmons coached first. For Mesa, manager Rocket Wheeler didn't coach, which left first-base coaching duties for various players who weren't in the game, and third-base coaching for Ryno. I was sitting in the first row behind the Peoria dugout and overheard, toward the end of the game, and also toward the end of his conversation, one of the Peoria coaches, who I thought I recognized, telling either one of his players or one of the other coaches -- I couldn't tell which -- that Mesa's hitting coach was "Ryne Fucking Sandberg". (There was, apparently, a reason for this reference, but I didn't catch it.) Then I figured out who uttered that profanity... Peoria pitching coach Ted Power, onetime closer for the Reds who was, briefly, in spring training with the Cubs (and I believe, Sandberg's teammate), trying to hang on in March 1994.

Baseball. Love it. Glad to have seen a ballgame in mid-November. Can't wait for spring training!

All photos by Al Yellon

It's Official: Cubs To Help Open New Yankee Stadium

2008-11-17T23:58:55Z

As rumored a few weeks ago, the Cubs will play in the first two games at the new Yankee Stadium, two exhibition games the weekend before the regular season begins:

The Cubs and Yankees will play the first exhibition games at the new Yankee Stadium on April 3 at 6:05 p.m. CT and April 4 at 12:05 p.m.

"The Cubs are thrilled to be the Yankees' first opponent in the new Yankee Stadium and are honored to take part in this historic event," said Cubs chairman Crane Kenney. "[Cubs manager] Lou Piniella and eight of our players had the honor to partake in All-Star Game festivities that helped say farewell to Yankee Stadium last summer, and we look forward to participating in the opening of the Yankees' new ballpark next spring."

While it's an honor to be so chosen, it's a lot of travel -- to go from Mesa on April 2, to New York the next day, play two games in less than 24 hours, then on to Houston for Opening Day.