Carlos Silva is going to be our fifth starter.
No, it’s no official yet, but are surely as I knew Silva would pitch the game of his life yesterday, my spidey senses are once again tingling. Some might say It’s a Way of [L]ife.
“This means that decisions remain tough and we have to figure it out, and we’re thrilled that guys are competing and making it tough,” Quade said. “We’ll see how this plays out, and I’ll milk it as long as I can, to be honest.”
Silva, competing with Andrew Cashner and Braden Looper for the final spot, took to heart some advice from pitcher Ryan Dempster.
“Today he said, ‘I don’t want you to give me 100 percent, I want you to give me 80 percent,’” Silva said of his conversation with the Cubs’ Opening Day starter.
No, it’s actually not a difficult decision at all, Mike. I mean, for anyone other than the Cubs. Then again, most other teams don’t jerk their prospects around the way the Cubs do. In fact, for most other major league clubs, I think Cashner to the rotation and Silva to DFA would be a no-brainer.
Alas . . I’ve moved on from Anger to Depression, and I’m very much looking forward to acceptance. My only hope now is that the Cubs will send Cashner to Iowa to get some innings, Silva will have a red-hot April, and the Cubs will be able to trade him to some hapless team that has no idea what they’re in for. Â Of course, if Silva has a red-hot April, Hendry will never trade him in a million years.
Is it too early for a drink?
The Cubs continued to pare down their roster yesterday, banishing several players to the minor league camp:
MESA, Ariz. — The Cubs trimmed four pitchers from the Spring Training camp roster, including lefty Scott Maine and right-hander Justin Berg, on Wednesday.
Maine and Berg were optioned to Triple-A Iowa, while Todd Wellemeyer and Angel Guzman were both assigned to the Minor League camp. Guzman is rehabbing from right shoulder surgery and scheduled to throw in a game next week. Wellemeyer was a non-roster invitee, and has pitched in three games, his last on March 12. He had been slowed by a sore right hip but the Cubs would like to get him one more inning in a Cactus League game before spring ends.
“I look at [Wellemeyer] the same as I look at Augie [Ojeda],” Cubs manager Mike Quade said. “They’re valuable pieces of the organization. Them trying to get ready quickly and having them regressing is not going to help anybody.”
I’m pretty sure that neither Augie Ojeda or Todd Wellenmeyer are “valuable” pieces of this organization, but whatever. In other news, Â I’m beginning to seriously doubt Quade’s evaluation skills.
Moving on to some good news, the nice people at Forbes Media were kind enough to send me an article ranking the most valuable teams in baseball. Guess where the Cubs rank? No. . Â come on, guess!
FOURTH! The Chicago Cubs are the FOURTH most valuable team in baseball, behind the Yankees, Red Sox, and Dodgers.
The Cubs first season under the Ricketts family was chaotic on the diamond. The team won just 75 games, six fewer than 2009, and manager Lou Piniella abruptly quit in the middle of the season. Average attendance at Wrigley Field slipped to an average of 37,814 in 2010, 900 less per game than the previous season. The drop in performance was not the result of penny pinching, as the team’s payroll increased $5 million and at $146 million was the third highest (behind the Yankees and Red Sox). For 2011 the team has gotten creative on packaging tickets by offering a “Pick 13″ plan, which includes the right to purchase tickets for games against the White Sox, Yankees and Cardinals.
It’s a really interesting read, with all kinds of charts and graphics. Seriously. . Â check it out.
Today the Fourth Most Valuable Team In Baseball takes on the TENTH Most Valuable Team in Baseball (the White Sox) at 4:05 pm CT. You can watch the game for free on CSN or ESPN2. See how great it is to have the Fourth Most Valuable Team in Baseball? They can give away baseball for free!
Julie, when are you going to take your spidey senses on the road?? You can make some mad money with those talents.
they only tingle when the Cubs are doing something stupid. Which is all the time these days.
You know Quade has to talk the company line about this. If it was just up to him and the new pitching coach What’s-his-name, it probably wouldn’t be a hard decision. I’m guessing given the amount of money stuffed into ol’ Number 52′s uni, one or more Ricketts’ will have a say on his ultimate disposition.
that’s SUCH a stupid reason to start someone.
No argument here.
Sunk costs. Cubs management should look into it. Silva gets the $$$ no matter what happens, so the $$$ shouldn’t figure into the decision.
Does it look bad if they dump him and he succeeds elsewhere? Sure. But it looks worse if they don’t and he continues to treat the pitching mound like a puppy treats your carpet.
I was tingling yesterday too. Wasn’t my spidey senses though.
I actually don’t have any anticipation that Quade will be the next great manager. Never have, never will. One month with a team that had nothing to compete for does not instill great confidence. Sure they won a bunch of games late in the season, congrats. But as long as we have the same people pulling the player personnel strings, were not going to improve.
And we all better hope Silva doesn’t have a great first month, Hendry might sign him to an extension and give him a no-trade clause.
Well put, unfortunately – I would love to feel more excited about Castro, Colvin, new coaches, etc., but as long as the upper management stays put, I can’t help but feel pessimistic. Damn…
This is the point I keep making. The Cubs are acting like this team is going to compete. They’re not. So you might as well run the kids out there and let them play.
Seriously, I don’t know any other team that makes such stupid decisions.
Yeah, it’s as if they think CUBS fans will suddenly jump ship in the face of a 90+ loss season! Half-assed rebuilding efforts don’t end up building anything at all – I agree that they should jettison payroll (when possible) and see if our prospects are suspect…
Mets?
haaaaaaaaa. since they cut Perez and Castillo. . . no.
The is one bright spot in Silva being in the rotation- one of the LA television channels showed footage of Silva, and one of the sportsfools remarked that the Angels should look into trading for Silva as he would shore up their pitching rotation. So, just maybe, the Cubs can dump him off before he reverts to form and scares away all the other teams…
Perfect! The Angels could also use a backup catcher (think Toethumbs) – hell, maybe even throw in Spellcheck…
Don’t tease me.
Where there’s spring, there’s (a little) hope.
It doesn’t matter if Silva pitches well or not…it is stupid for them to keep him either way.
As far as the Cubs are concerned, the $5.5 million they owe Silva this season is lost.
On top of that, Silva’s replacement on the roster would end up being a kid making the league minimum (Cashner).
Silva is not going to be on the Cubs next year…even if he wins the Cy Young. And this IS a rebuilding year despite what bullshit Jim Hendry and Tom Ricketts say to the press.
It is better for the Cubs to literally ‘give’ Silva away to another team and let a young kid (who will be on the roster in 2012) prove that he can be a starter at the major league level.
Look, Silva a good trade off for Milton Bradley even if Silva never played a single game in a Cubs uniform. In the end the Cubs saved $10 million over what was owed to Uncle Milty. But the time has come to cut off the final losses from that Bradley signing and look toward the future.
Bruce Miles Tweets:
#Cubs roster cuts: Bobby Scales, Scott Moore, Matt Camp, Augie Ojeda and Fernando Perez.
You left off DeWitt.
Right??? You left him off???
(shakes head sadly)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_exermAXkU
/\
/ \ me (minus the hard-boiled eggs part)
“like”
(for some reason the buttons don’t work for me anymore)
They do.. after refresh. Our page caching script (which doesnt work, ha) keeps the ajax from doing its thing.
Refresh and you’ll see.
Ready for some more good news?
FanGraphs ranks the Cubs 2nd to last in baseball operations:
http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/2011-organizational-rankings-19-chicago-cubs/
Thanks to Manu for posting this on FB.
Thanks for that, Miss Sunshine.
as long as we’re going to be stuck with Silva, let’s have some ideas for his walk-up music. Assuming he can stay in the game long enough to bat.
Theme from “Jaws”?
suggestions from Twitter:
“Eat It”
“Beat It”
“Fat Bottomed Girls”
“Suicide is Painless” (theme from MASH)
“Crazy”
and this: http://bit.ly/16LvgT
“Creep” by Radiohead…
Of course, that led me right to “Loser.”
“I Feel the Earth Move”
Smashing Pumpkins — “Zero”
Best one yet from Twitter: “C” is for “Cookie.”
Hee hee hee.
How about the “I can change!” song Saddam sings in the South Park movie? (Or would that be better for Big Z?)
I think it should be the Laurel and Hardy theme…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIhBJ9Xify4
Hooray!
My kiwi is back!
That sounds dirty.
After CTL tomorrow night (eeeeeeeek!) I’m going on You and Me In the Morning on WCIU Monday morning to talk a little Bulls basketball.
Don’t you feel honored to even KNOW me?
If I wasn’t already on the floor right now, I’d grovel.
Darwin Barney and Reed Johnson make the opening day roster.
Let’s hear it for REEDZ and, uh, Darney!
It’s almost time for Cubs-White Sox! Hurry up and get here!
Every time I got to cubs.com I see the Cubs news item: “Silva makes Cubs’ fifth-starter decision tougher” and get frightened after absorbing only the first 4 words.
Garza looks like the Garza we thought we were getting and the Cubs are hitting! 2-0 Cubs in bottom of the 2nd.
Marlon Byrd just told the camera that Barney is the Opening Day second baseman. I wonder if Quade knows this?
Soriano homers. 4-1 Cubs in the bottom of the 4th.
I feel like we’re all hanging out here, waiting to hear whether a relative has died or not…