10:59 pm CST tonight is the deadline for teams to fill out their 40-man rosters with players they want to protect from the Rule 5 draft next month.

With the trade of Aaron Heilman yesterday, the Cubs' 40-man roster stands at 33 players -- so they've got plenty of room to add players they want to protect. This article from the Atlanta Braves website gives some details on how this process works and also about some other upcoming deadlines.

The number of players added by tonight may also give us a clue as to upcoming trades or free-agent signings -- if the Cubs don't fill out the roster to the full 40-man limit, it may presage some acquisitions.

Post your guesses as to who the Cubs might add to the 40-man roster (or who -- cough Neal Cotts cough -- might be removed). Once the Cubs post the full list, I'll update this post, either later today or tomorrow.

UPDATE: From the press release today:

The Chicago Cubs today added five players to the 40-man roster, including left-handed pitcher John Gaub, right-handed pitchers Rafael Dolis and Blake Parker, catcher Welington Castillo and outfielder James Adduci. Chicago's 40-man roster now stands at 38.

Gaub and Parker are no surprise, as they were in the Arizona Fall League and expected to be in the mix for the 2010 bullpen. There are two open spots; this could portend a trade, a free-agent signing or possibly a Rule 5 pick the Cubs have their eyes on. Stay tuned.

I'm not sure I really have to convince anyone here of the premise of the headline of this article; numerous people have already posted here about how useful Curtis Granderson would be in the Cubs' outfield, and several traditional media articles in both Chicago and Detroit have discussed this possibility (and those are just three examples of dozens of such articles). Granderson himself is busy this winter pitching a reality TV series:

The Detroit Tigers player has agreed to host a TV and online series titled "Stadium Secrets" where he takes sports fans on an exploration of stadiums.

The concept is similar to Authentic’s "Cities of the Underworld" on History channel.

"Authentic will be providing an exclusive, VIP experience for fans everywhere – a behind-the-scenes journey that will be exciting for all of us. I am eager to begin working on this project and look forward to a successful partnership," Granderson said.

Sounds interesting. I'm hoping Granderson gets to explore Wrigley Field in detail starting next summer. In the meantime, after the jump I'm going to examine Granderson's numbers in detail, explain why he's a perfect fit for Chicago and the Cubs, and look at who the Cubs might have to give the Tigers in exchange.

Continue reading this post »

With all apologies due to BCB reader brian custer, a close friend of Aaron Heilman, he'll have to head to Phoenix to see his buddy pitch in 2010 -- the Cubs sent Heilman to the Diamondbacks today for two minor leaguers.

Personally, I'm happy about this -- Heilman did pitch a little better in September, which probably increased his trade value. This means it was a good thing that Jim Hendry didn't let him go for just the waiver price in August; at least a couple of minor leaguers will return. This also gives Esmailin Caridad and Justin Berg a better shot at making the 2010 bullpen; I like both those guys.

Details from the press release, after the jump.

Continue reading this post »

This remarkable photo, part of a photoset of Chicago pictures I acquired from eBay member "nicepictures" (who graciously gave permission to post it here), clearly shows something which a number of us who lived through that era knew -- that on many weekdays during the 1960's and 1970's, the Cubs often closed the upper deck entirely, since crowds were small enough to all fit downstairs. Lower grandstand seats (what we now know as terrace boxes and terrace reserved) were unreserved, so you could sit wherever you wanted, first come first served, and the Cubs didn't have to assign ushers (they weren't called "security" in those days) to the upper deck.

Click on the photo and examine it carefully; then go after the jump to find out when it was taken. If you want to guess yourself, don't click on the jump to find out the answer before you make your best guess!

Click on image to open a larger version in a new browser window. Depending on the size of your display and browser, it may require some scrolling. If you find it to be too large, click here for a smaller version.

Continue reading this post »

The Cubs announced their spring training schedule today; it includes 15 games at Mesa and 20 on the road -- the road games include the two previously announced games vs. the White Sox in Las Vegas and the two games announced yesterday vs. the Diamondbacks at Chase Field that will end the spring season on April 2 and 3. There are more split-squad games this year, due to the addition of the Reds to the Cactus League, making 15 teams in Arizona. From the press release:

Individual game tickets for the 2010 Chicago Cubs home spring training games at HoHoKam Park will go on sale Tuesday, January 5 at 10 a.m. CST on www.cubs.com or by calling 1-800-905-3315. The ticket box office at HoHoKam Park will open for the sale of individual game tickets beginning on January 12, 2009 at 9 a.m. MST.

Season tickets for 2010 at HoHoKam Park go on sale Monday, January 4 at 9 a.m. MST and group tickets go on sale Tuesday, January 5 at 9 a.m. MST at the HoHoKam box office or by calling 480-964-4467.

Fans may direct ticket and additional spring training questions to info2010@mesahohokams.com.

Complete schedule after the jump. This schedule will be placed permanently on the left sidebar.

Continue reading this post »

No surprise here, and the SBNation awards announced last week agree with both these selections.

Tracy got 29 of the 32 first-place votes. Two first-place votes went to Tony LaRussa and one to Joe Torre.

In the AL, Scioscia got 15 first-place votes, Ron Gardenhire 6, Joe Girardi 4, Don Wakamatsu 2, and one for Ron Washington.

BBWAA's NL Cy Young Award Winner will be announced tomorrow.

The Diamondbacks released their spring schedule today; included was the information that the Cubs will play the Diamondbacks in two exhibition games at Chase Field on Friday, April 2 at 8:40 Chicago time, and Saturday, April 3 at 3:10 Chicago time.

The last time the Cubs and D'backs played a similar exhibition schedule at the end of spring training was in 2003. The Cubs won both games and went on to make the playoffs. Just sayin'.

Greinke got only 25 first-place votes (of 28) -- why this wasn't unanimous is a little bit puzzling. Felix Hernandez got two of the others, and Justin Verlander the other one.

In a bit of strange scheduling, the NL Cy Young winner will be announced on Thursday; tomorrow, they'll reveal the Manager of the Year balloting.

This post will be geared towards trying to find a way to build a team that can compete in 2010. Now, here are the rules I'll impose on myself: I'll start with the same figure Al used in his post: $145M for the upcoming season. In terms of objectives, I've got to find a way to get the team to the 90-win plateau. Why? NL Central champions have averaged 92.7 wins and NL Wild Card teams have averaged 90.7. If the Cubs want a shot at the playoffs, they'll need to build a team they can expect to get to at least the 90-win mark. How do we measure/predict whether or not the team can expect to total 90 wins? There are a lot of ways to do this. However, the one that provides the best combination of ease and accuracy is to use projections of wins above replacement (WAR). (By the way, I strongly recommend reading the 14-piece work at fangraphs on WAR I linked to there. It's an easy read, and hammers home how simple and yet comprehensive the WAR methodology is.) The debate as to whether that's wise let's try to leave for another day. Let's just leave it at this: nothing is perfect, but I've got to use something to keep me honest in my expectations, and that's probably the most accurate, rigorous option available to me.

The Cubs find themselves in a precarious position. They've got a lot of money locked up in only a few players, and that leaves them with little financial flexibility, particularly in the short term. Unfortunately, they also don't have much inexpensive help coming from the minor leagues in the near term. Most of their top prospects are mid-range arrivals. You almost certainly won't see any of them starting the season with the big league club, but you may see them by late 2010 or early 2011. The question is this: how do the Cubs bridge the gap between their current roster and the one that'll include current Cub prospects? Follow me past the jump to find out...

Continue reading this post »

When I posted the results of the SBNation voting for various awards last week, I also posted the BCB ballots and the results of the voting. I thought that was a courtesy to you, the reader, and also informative.

The BBWAA, apparently, feels differently, or maybe it's MLB's fault -- it took me half an hour of searching, after the results came out, to find this single article which tells us that Randy Wells got a second-place vote and finished fifth.

I haven't yet been able to find any online source that has the table of voting. Seriously, how difficult is this? If I can do it, why can't MLB?

Regarding Andrew Bailey, he had a fine year but might not even have been the best rookie on his own team (Brett Anderson also had a good year, but finished fifth). I'd have voted for Gordon Beckham in the AL, myself.