When last we left Chicago Cubs pitcher Matt Garza, he was getting his nose all bent out of joint because people (notably Brett over at Bleacher Nation) had the unmitigated gall to discuss his injury status on the internet. THE HORROR. You don’t know him! You don’t know his life! Stop talking about his arm! Only HE can talk about his arm, you bunch of jerks. Who the hell do you think you are, anyway?
Oh. I guess now we can talk about it.
Tell me this doesn’t look like Matt Garza. It totally does.
Cubs starter Matt Garza grabbed his left side and let out a yelp during his first live batting practice session, and was forced to cut things short.
Cubs trainer PJ Mainville walked out to the mound to check on Garza, and the two walked back to the clubhouse.
Cubs manager Dale Sveum called the injury a mild lat strain, and said it would be evaluated on Monday.“It has subsided and he seems to be doing a lot better now,” Sveum said.
Well, it’s subsided in the sense that he’s no longer yelping and grabbing his side. We still don’t know if he can pitch. But for crying out loud, don’t talk about it on the Twitter. Matt doesn’t like being discussed on the Twitter. In an unrelated story, Travis Wood was seen walking around all day with a huge smile on his face.
While I hate to be the one to point out the obvious, without a healthy Matt Garza in the starting rotation, I get a lot less excited about the Cubs’ starting pitching. I also get less excited about being able to flip Garza for some prospects at the trade deadline. So let’s all get out the Haitian rum and chicken bones and say a couple of prayers for Garza’s speedy recovery, shall we?
Speaking of the internet, the story that had everyone sticking their heads in their respective ovens last night was the speculation that the Chicago Cubs might leave WGN entirely after their contract with the station is up in 2014.
Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts is always looking to increase the team’s revenue sources, and now it appears likely the team will wave goodbye to their longtime TV home when its contract ends after the 2014 season.
Ricketts declined to address their plans on Sunday, except to say a discussion on rights fees will begin in 2013.
“Obviously local media rights have been increasing in value,” he said. “Hopefully at some point we will be able to get more value for our media rights. It’s just something that’s playing out over time.”
By way of full disclosure, I work for the Chicago Tribune, who also owns WGN. And while I have no insider information on what’s going to happen between the Cubs and WGN, I’m not sure why this is so surprising to so many. Most games are on Comcast Sportsnet these days, anyway, and the number of games on WGN has been diminishing over the years. Sure, we all loved the days of coming home after school to find the Cubs on good ole Channel 9, but this hasn’t been the reality of Cubs baseball for many years.
The payoff? Having their own YES-style network could vault the Chicago Cubs into elite company when it comes to revenue and payroll, and frankly, I’m willing to give up a bit of my childhood nostalgia in order to see this team compete year-after-year. And, if I’m being honest, the people who aren’t willing to give that up love warm, fuzzy feelings more than they love winning Chicago Cubs baseball.
And while we’re on the subject of destroying our childhood memories and everything good about life, Tom Ricketts needs everyone to calm down about night games and signs. At least for now:
Ricketts said the Cubs will not be adding more advertising signs this season, nor will they play more night games.
The club chairman met with the media after talking to Cubs players. His message to them?
“My message to the team, well, it’s real Knute Rockne stuff, real emotional — I think there were some tears in there,” Ricketts said, joking.
Oh, to have been a fly on the wall for that.
Finally this morning, all the beat writers are giggling over this:
MESA, Ariz. — About halfway through Cubs manager Dale Sveum’s speech prior to the first full squad workout on Sunday, the players started to take off their jackets to reveal bright orange hunting gear tops. Then, they put on the orange caps.
“Of course, they gave me one with a target on it,” Sveum said, chuckling.
The quick clothing change was a humorous response to Sveum being accidentally shot by Hall of Famer Robin Yount while the two were quail hunting in Arizona before the Winter Meetings. Sveum was hit in the ear and back.
Is it just me, or is this team not even very good at making fun of people? I mean, this joke is okay, but there’s so much more you could do with someone being accidentally shot by Robin Yount. This roster continues to disappoint.
If you haven’t been paying attention thus far, Theo knocked off Jed in the bunting tourney (then was knocked out himself by wunderkid Scott Harris), live batting practice started yesterday, and we have inter-squad games this Thursday and Friday. Per Carrie Muskat:
The Cubs will play intrasquad games Thursday and Friday, with Chris Rusin, Cory Wade, Trey McNutt, Nick Struck, Robert Whitenack and Rafael Dolis scheduled to pitch Thursday. Brooks Raley, Drew Carpenter, Hector Rondon, Dayan Diaz, Alberto Cabrera, Michael Bowden, Blake Parker and Jensen Lewis were slated to pitch Friday.
And here I was hoping the Cubs would forget about Brooks Raley. Foiled again.
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that people are upset over the Cubs maybe not being on WGN anymore, but…why does anyone care? WGN (and the Tribune), while vaulting the Cubs into the national spotlight years ago and generating more fans nationwide (not sure where that gets you, but ok) has cost the club a hell of a lot more lately than a bad contract for a bad left-fielder (who still hits 25-30 HRs a year).
But yayyyyyy WGN!
It’s sentiment like that which perpetuates the lovable loser stigma that the intelligent/frustrated are desperately trying to shed.
This is exactly my point. People care more about the Cubs of their youth than they do about the current, craptacular team on the field. It’s ridiculous.
That’s just dandy. First MLB blacked out all games via the internet on WGN. Then the Cubs began to cut the number of games they showed on WGN. After that the Cubs set-up a deal with Comcast & WCIU, which cut the number of games shown on WGN even more. You have to keep in mind that not all Cubs fans live in the Chicago area & WGN was the pretty much the only way to watch a game, unless you bought the MLB Package from your cable company. I guess that will leave me only with Rangers, Astros & Cardinal games to watch if a deal with WGN cannot be reached. I guess it sucks to be a Cubs Fan in Oklahoma or anywhere else that isn’t in the Chicago Metro Area.
I get that. I really do. But it’s just not the reality of baseball anymore. And trust me, the Tribune doesn’t have the dough to pay Ricketts what he’s going to want to broadcast 162 games.
I want everyone to have access to Cubs games. Truly. My anger is aimed more at those who live in Chicago and don’t want the Cubs to leave WGN just because they’ve ALWAYS been on WGN.
But what about “Go, Cubs, Go” where it says, “you can catch them all on WGN???” Steve Goodman’s DEAD dammit, WE CAN’T CHANGE THE LYRICS!!! Plus, “you can catch them all on Comcast Sportsnet” doesn’t have the same ring to it.
THINK OF THE KIDS!!!!!1
Don’t they usually break away and we don’t hear the crowd sing the song after a win except on WGN.
In the end I don’t care.
I grew up reading the boxscore and putting the game together the following morning.
And I follow the score on my phone.
I watched fewer games last year than I have in a long time.
I cut down bigtime when DirectTV signed that mega-deal with MLB. I could see where this was leading. And I’ve cut down more the last few years.
The bucks these companies have to pay the teams has to come from somewhere.
Sure there’s advertising revenue but it also has to come from our pockets.
I will be ok until someone pays megabucks for the rights to boxscores. And then I have to pay to read them. And don’t put this past anyone or any team to do this.
There are dozens of McCourts out there conniving myriads of ideas to squeeze every last buck out of us for parking rights and God-knows what else.
They already tried that — MLB sued newspapers back in like the 50′s. MLB lost, because you cannot copyright facts.
I too live in Oklahoma. What pisses me off is I do buy the almost 200 dollar extra innings package, I pay for internet, I buy Cubs merchandise, I go to games when I can etc etc……….Then after all of that I get blacked out because of Astros, Rangers, and Cards and Saturday games because of Fox. Really and truly the EI package aint worth a shit.
If a fan is willing to pay, he/she should be able to watch every game.
Right, and this is an issue that MLB has with fans all over the US. Their blackout rules are terrible.
Seems like its getting worse every season.
This is why I only buy the Gameday Audio package. There are no radio blackouts.
MLB.tv and a VPN account gets you everything but national broadcasts. I don’t really care who is handling the production end of televising the game, I just watch the Cubs for the incredible product being showcased on the opposing teams.
Eh, who am I kidding? I still miss Harry.
And Steve Stone.
I have fond memories of Harry all red-eyed and thick-lipped,blubbering with happiness when the Cubs won a particularly exciting game.
And Steve smiling good-naturedly, standing next to him waiting to say his part.
Thank you…
I completely agree. Other teams have to compete to make money. Not the cubs. They can count on their idiot fans to keep showing up to that dump of a stadium and watching on WGN win or lose. The team doesn’t have to compete to make money, so why should it?
Did you just call me an idiot?
Indirectly.
which brings me back to what I was saying when the Cubs were looking for a Brenley replacement.
Why would anyone want the job when they probably won’t have the job after 2 years?
There was an interesting story out this weekend that Brenley actually planned on coming back and was shocked by the terms of the deal WGN put in font of him. Let me see if I can find it.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/chi-brenly-20130216,0,6552534.story?track=rss
Don’t worry Julie cubsluvr found it.
I forgot I was supposed to be looking for it. Ha.
They can publicly say whatever they want but announcers are there because the Cubs ok’d them. If WGN goes, the announcers will be taken to whatever other station the Cubs are on.
The Chicago Tribune and WGN are going to be able to tell whoever takes over the games who will be in the booth?
I don’t think so.
They can certainly suggest it but that’s as far as it goes.
No the Cubs will be able too. Its been said that Cubs announcers don’t work for the Cubs they work for WGN/Comcast and thus the decision is theirs about who they hire. I disagree…The Cubs make that decision IMO. That’s why I don’t get the whole Brenly saying he didn’t sign cause he didnt know if he would have a job in 2 years. Cubs will be on some station and the announcers will carry over.
I think the article was fairly clear of Brenly being told there was no guarantee of a job after 2 years.
I can only speak to the WGN radio side of things, but that decision was all WGN’s.
You’d think that 3 TV contracts are better than 1, but I guess not. WGN would take a serious hit in carriers, I would imagine. Can’t see why you would continue to have WGN if there were no Cubs games. WGN also made a name for itself with the Bulls games in the ’90s. I’m a Cubs fan from Central Indiana bc of WGN.
Peter Ligouri, the new head of the Tribune, came from F/X. There’s a lot of speculation that the Tribune wants to turn WGN into more of an F/X, AMC sort of channel.
Oh, so they want to run westerns,zombie shows,and shows set in the 60′s about white guys?
If they air Cubs games on F/X, I won’t have a problem with it. Other than that…
I should clarify that I’m not against nostalgia. I think it’s nice to reminisce. This would certainly be an appropriate forum to do it. I left New York years ago, and I don’t feel like I have any God-given right to watch the Yankees on basic cable every night. Baseball is a product. Product consumption costs money.
Look at it this way…if you live out of town, at least you get to dictate whether or not you spend your money on Cubs broadcasts. Folks in Chicago that have cable but don’t particularly care for baseball (misguided though they may be) are going to pay even more for the Cubs than they do now by way of rising cable rates after the Cubs cash in.
You pay for it anyway, folks. At least in Oklahoma they’re probably only getting billed for the Thunder.
Being stuck in L.A., my choices will be to pay more to getMLB Network,move so I can get satellite tv,or give one of you my mother, then I can move to a state where I can watch the Cubs on Comcast,or a Fox sports channel…
What your best offer on the mother?
And MLB.tv premium with a VPN account like HideMyAss comes out to about $30 something per month. I know we would ideally like to get all the MBL non-national televised games for free, but a buck a day is pretty hard to beat.
Tony Campana traded to the DBacks for pitchers Eric Leal and Jesus Castllo. REACT.
I was wrong on both counts. I had “bag of used balls” and “fungo bat” in the office pool.
I assume on-deck circle donut weight and cleat wrench.
http://www.chicagonow.com/cubs-den/2013/02/the-cubs-trade-tony-campana-to-the-dbacks-for-2-dsl-pitching-prospects/
Looks like we got one helluva deal….wow great job Jed!
Pitching prospects for the win. I guess the Dbacks view Campana as gritty.
Considering all the other moves the D-Backs have made this year…it’s pretty consistent. They’ve been going after less talented, “gritty” players pretty much since Kirk Gibson became their manager.
I consider Campana a AAA player at best. To get a couple of 17 year old pitchers out of the deal is not bad.
Looks like Towers made a Hendry move here. These kids look to have a real shot at being something.
I still can’t figure it out. They traded two young arms for Tony Campana? I don’t . . I mean .. . what did they thin . . . I mean . . do they think . . .
This is the part where the NBA Draft guys start talking about “tremendous upside potential” on a guy who has none.
They like his spunk…
If you add his total stolen bases less caught stealing to his OPS it is over 1000.
Campana is a VALUABLE player.
Could you post the formula you used to get your calculation? Slugging percentage is Total Bases/At Bats. Campana had 52 Total Bases and add another 30 for his stolen bases. This would raise his SLG to .471, but you should subtract 3 bases for his Caught Stealing so it’s now .454. That’s certainly a big improvement over his traditionally calculated .299 SLG. OBP is hits + walks + hpb/plate appearances. I’m going to subtract 3 hits for his caught stealing. This lowers his OBP to .281, add his recalculated SLG and I get a total of .735. That’s nowhere near 1.000. But to be honest I don’t Campana can maintain that level of performance hitting or stealing bases if he played more (he can’t hit lefties at all) and he is a poor defensive outfielder as well.
I’m not sure what planet you were able to make that determination on…but there is no way on Earth under any calculation that anyone could make it out that Campana has an OPS over 1.000.
I swear, I cannot take another person on Twitter crying about Campana being traded. Just unbearable.
I got an easy solution for ya.
I know I’m late to the party on this…but a few words about the WGN/Tv contract talk…
First off, we all know that there is, at least at some level, some wish be the Cubs to start their own network. The issue with doing this actually has nothing to do with the WGN contract. The real issue is with the Cubs commitment to CSN. If I’m not mistaken (and I often am), the contract with CSN requires the Cubs to remain 26% shareholders in the station and to keep a majority of the games on the network until 2019.
Now the original WGN contract ran through 2022, which, but the Cubs had and opt out on that contract. I’m not sure if their is an opt out on the CSN contract, but for the Cubs to do so, they would not only need to pay some penalty, but they would need the White Sox, Bulls and Hawks to buy up their share of the network.
My guess, at this point, is that the Cubs will sign a short term deal with WGN at some elevated price until the date that they will be able to exit their CSN contract.