The Cubs have prospects?

The Cubs have prospects!!!!

At least at 1st base:

Once upon a time, first base was a place where one could find some of the best hitting prospects in the game. It’s where a team would want a middle-of-the-order run producer. While the names on this year’s Top 10 first-base prospects list might eventually be those types of players, it is lacking on high-end Top 100 Prospect-type players after the first three names on the list.

1. Anthony Rizzo, Cubs: Rizzo’s big league debut in 2011 may not have gone very well, but that didn’t mean his left-handed bat wasn’t still in high demand. Cubs general manager Jed Hoyer, who helped draft Rizzo in Boston and then traded for him while the GM in San Diego, acquired him in Chicago during the offseason. A solid defender at first, it’s Rizzo’s power bat (51 homers and 200-plus RBIs over the past two seasons in the Minors) that is his calling card. Look for him to make some adjustments and be ready for the big leagues in 2012, even if he starts the year in Triple-A behind Bryan LaHair.

(snip)

10. Dan Vogelbach, Cubs: Coming out of high school, Vogelbach was on radars because of his light-tower power from the left side. It’s legitimately plus-plus, and he can hit it out to all fields. Vogelbach is not an all-or-nothing swinger, either, and his advanced approach should allow him to be a fairly complete hitter. Non-athletic would be a kind way to describe Vogelbach’s body type in high school, but he’s already trimmed down as he prepares for his first season of pro ball.

So . . if I’m reading that correctly . .  and I think I am . . . the Cubs have not zero, not one, BUT TWO of the top 10 prospects at 1B?

What team is this? Where am I? What year is it?

I don’t understand.

» Continue reading “Cubs Weekend Headlines: The Cubs Have . . . Prospects?”

At the end of the regular season, there weren’t many of us who thought Carlos Pena would be offered arbitration. As things unfolded, it was made known that Pena was seeking at least a two-year contract, and likely wouldn’t accept arbitration from the Cubs. That scenario has come to pass.

Carlos Pena will not accept arbitration, according to a report Wednesday. MLB Network’s Jon Heyman said Pena will be going back on the market. In his one season in Chicago, Pena batted .225 with 28 homers and 80 RBIs. The deadline for players is 11 p.m. CT Wednesday.

And while the Cubs are stocking their coaching staff with former Brewers, the Brewers are looking at a former Cub at the hot corner.

The Brewers are reportedly interested in Ramirez, 33, who won his first Silver Slugger award this season, batting .306 with 26 homers and 93 RBIs, and is considered the top free agent third baseman available. Ramirez’s agent Paul Kinzer has said his client is looking for a multi-year contract.

I’m not eager to see Aramis stay in the division. Hopefully he ends up in the AL.

» Continue reading “Cubs Wednesday Headlines: Winter Meetings Mania”

This is the time of year I start to feel like a truffle pig, rooting around for any tiny bits of valuable information about the Cubs. We’ve got a few little bits of information today. We’ll start out with Tweetin’ John Heyman, who was busy mentioning Carlos Pena and Aramis Ramirez in tweets.

Cubs first baseman Carlos Pena is unlikely to accept the club’s arbitration offer, tweets Jon Heyman of Sports Illustrated.   Heyman writes that the Type B free agent should be able to land a multi-year deal after hitting .225/.357/.462 with 28 homers in 2011.

So everyone who didn’t like the prospect of Carlos Pena back at first shouldn’t worry about it, I guess. Before we get to Ramirez, there’s a bit about Mike Quade, who just loves managing so much that he couldn’t bear to be away from the game.

More from Christensen as he writes that before hiring Gene Glynn as their Triple-A skipper, the Twins spoke to recently dismissed Cubs manager Mike Quade, who was a top minor-league manager before landing the Cubs‘ job.  Quade wasn’t interested, as he’ll still be drawing a paycheck from the Cubs for 2012.

Oh, Mike. But enough of Quade, on to Ramirez. The market for him has been quiet so far, but things might be heating up. Take it away, John Heyman.

#tigers have inquired on aramis ramirez. Good fit. Would be major offensive upgrade.

Considering the alternative is Brandon Inge, I’d agree with Heyman.

» Continue reading “Cubs Monday Headlines: Rooting Like A Truffle Pig”

We’re still waiting on official word from anyone that Theo Epstein is now the GM of the Cubs. We know it’s not a question of if, but when, so why the hold up?

A major league source said late Thursday one of the holdups is the Cubs’ insistence on paying only cash for compensation while the Red Sox are adamant on receiving a player or a package of players.

Talk-show host John Dennis of WEEI-AM 850, the Red Sox’s flagship station, echoed the Tribune’s source during an appearance on “Chicago Tribune Live” Thursday, saying his sources told him the first day of negotiations did not go well and the two sides weren’t close to reaching.

So the prospect discussion has returned. Looks like this could take awhile, folks. But Keith Law thinks the wait will be worth it.

Cubs fans should be excited about Theo Epstein’s “ability to turn the Cubs’ baseball ops department into a process-oriented, professionally run organization. You can’t run a baseball team the way they were run 20 or 30 years ago. It’s a business now, one where smart decisions based on sound processes are necessary and innovation is increasingly critical.”

He also thinks the Cubs shouldn’t be worried about giving up their top prospect for Theo.

Law describes Brett Jackson (taken 31st overall by the Cubs in the 2009 amateur draft) as a “non-star prospect” and thinks he would be fair compensation to be sent to the Red Sox as compensation for Epstein.

But he’s good looking!

» Continue reading “Chicago Cubs Friday Headlines: Waiting Is The Hardest Part”

Matt Garza made the last home game of 2011 memorable by pitching a complete game. But Aramis Ramirez once again stole the show.

“I went to the Cubs Convention in January because I knew this could be my last year here,” Ramirez said. “I had never been to the Cubs Convention before so I did it for the fans and how much I appreciate how much they did for me.”

Ramirez and his agent Paul Kinzer told ESPNChicago.com that they will test the free agent market after the season. Ramirez took in possibly his last Cub home game on the bench, nursing a strained right quad.

“I don’t say it’s a sad day, but it was different,” Ramirez said. “The chances of coming back here don’t look very good right now.”

Carlos Pena, will Ramirez’s decision affect what you’ll do for next year?

“I think looking at the thing objectively maybe, maybe [Ramirez will affect his decision],”. Pena said. “But the kid in me says what everyone else does has no impact on what my decision will be. I have a tendency to follow the kid in me rather than the analytical part.”

So that’s why he always has chicken fingers, no matter what restaurant we go to.

» Continue reading “Cubs Thursday Headlines: Cubs Don’t Ruin Last Home Game”

You may have heard yesterday that Carlos Pena had been put on waivers, and had been claimed by the Yankees. Don’t expect him to be going anywhere.

“It’s very flattering to see the interest, but it’s even more flattering to see how the Cubs pulled back and retained me,” Pena said after the Cubs’ 3-2 win over the Atlanta Braves on Wednesday.

(snip)

“We were able to talk today,” Pena said. “The conversation was to reassure me how much they think of me. I told him how much I appreciate being a Cub and how much pride I take wearing the uniform. Regardless of what people were saying or what I was hearing, I said that I’m wearing this uniform and that’s my entire eternity right here.”

Entire eternity? Wow. Carlos is dedicated. What does it mean that the Cubs don’t want to save a million dollars for the rest of the season? Not that any of us were still holding out hope, but it probably means we can kiss any chance at Prince Fielder or Albert Pujols goodbye. Keeping Pena now appears to mean that the Cubs hope to retain him next year. I suppose there are worse options if they’re not going all in for Fielder or Pujols.

In other news, Randy Wells didn’t suck last night.

“This one feels pretty good,” said Wells (5-4), who missed two months with the injury. “I still won’t make any excuses for it, but it definitely was a hard thing to come back from. I think the biggest thing obviously is the physical health, but besides that the confidence, cutting the ball loose and having the confidence that it’s going to carry and stay on the line that you want it to. Every start the confidence starts to come back and start to feel better.”

Way to go, Randy!

» Continue reading “Cubs Live Game Thread: Pena Stays Put”

Sorry, early risers, but my sleepiness overcame the alarm today, so you’re getting a late-morning edition of headlines today. I hope you can all forgive me. The Cubs managed a face-saving win in St. Louis last night, but I’m more interested in what Jim Hendry said about his inactivity at the trade deadline.

“Obviously, what we needed to do for sure was to trade Fuke,” Hendry said, referring to Kosuke Fukudome. “That was important because you have somebody behind him that we needed to play in Colvin. We tried to stay on top of some things today, maybe try to trade some people that might not be back next year for sure. Those things didn’t work out.”

They probably didn’t work out because he was trying to trade only the players no other would want, Jim. I’m thinking John Grabow here. As it turns out, Jim wasn’t expecting anything big to happen, so at least he didn’t disappoint himself.

“I wasn’t expecting, like I told you the other day, a high percentage or likelihood of something significant being done. So you do the best you can. A lot of things can still happen. Last year, I think we made two trades in August, (Mike) Fontenot and Derrek Lee, one the 11th, one was the 18th and got some certainly respectable prospects back. I think the days are gone where it has to be done by the deadline or everybody gets all…if you didn’t do something by 3 o’clock, this is a disaster or that’s a disaster. I don’t put much stock in that. The guys we kept are for the most part guys that still have a chance to be involved next year. If we do make a trade or two in August, that’s still no more or less significant that if we made them today.”

Oh good. So you can still unload Grabow and Koyie Hill in August. That makes me feel better. Finally, Jim gives us the real reason he didn’t trade Carlos Pena.

“There’s not somebody waiting to take his place for next year in-house like Tyler is hopeful to do that in the outfield in moving Fuke,” Hendry said. You have to look at it that way, too.

“The other factor, if you get a second-tier or two prospect back and you already have people better than that in your own system, then you really haven’t done anything to help the organization, and then you’re also put in the spot where if you add minor-league players today, that means somebody’s going to be sent backwards in our system or eliminated. That’s just the way I looked at it.”

It turns out the mediocre prospects being offered for Pena aren’t any better than the mediocre prospects we already have. I get it.

» Continue reading “Cubs Monday Headlines, Late Edition”

If you didn’t watch yesterday’s game, I don’t think there are words that can describe the massive wild fire that enveloped the Cubs. I suppose you could sum it up with this: they went  ahead 5-0 and lost 13-5. The key play in the game was a potential double play grounder that would have gotten the Cubs out of the fifth inning, but instead saw Matt Holliday fly out of the baseline to take out Starlin Castro. Instead of a 5-3 lead, they walked out of the fifth with a 10-5 deficit. So, Starlin, was it a dirty slide?

“He’s out, he’s real out of the base (line),” Castro said. “He wasn’t trying to touch the base.”

Asked if it was a clean slide, Castro said no.

“He slid hard, real hard,” he said. “It’s not clean.”

“Not much to talk about,” Quade said. “I disagree with Derryl and Derryl’s assessment that it was a clean play. I think that’s why they have the rule in place.

“I don’t think there was an attempt at the bag. He got a pretty good piece of Castro as well. It’s a huge play, obviously, in the game, too. It gets us out of there with a 5-3 lead, too. Disagree a bunch, obviously. Fortunately, Starlin’s OK.”

Despite Mike Quade’s insistance two days ago, it appears as though the Cubs aren’t quite ready to storm up into the division race quite yet. Does that mean we’ll see a three-day fire sale by Jim Hendry? That’s already been ruled out. Will anyone be traded? Probably not. But one man has the intestinal fortitude to say that something needs to be done with this wretched franchise. That man? Carlos Zambrano.

“I do want to stay here; I do want to stay here,” Zambrano said. “But at the same point, I want this team to make some change. If we want to win here, we need to make some changes. If I have to go, I have to go. I still have the Cubs in my heart. If the change has to be me, that’s OK.”

Zambrano said the Cubs have not approached him about waiving his no-trade clause. He has $18 million coming next year with a vesting option for 2013.

“No, they haven’t (asked), and I don’t want to talk about a trade,” he said. “If it comes, it comes; we’ll think about it if they say something.”

So what kind of change does Zambrano have in mind?

“Change,” he said. “Change. Change. A lot of change. A lot of change to win. Change.”

Our very own good luck charm will be throwing out today’s first pitch, and we hope that means the first three game win streak for the Cubs this season. But first things first, we have news on the trade front, or non-trade front. Patrick Mooney of CSN wants you to know that Aramis Ramirez and Carlos Pena will be back next year.

It’s unclear how good the returns would even be for two-month rentals like Aramis Ramirez and Carlos Pena. But it doesn’t look like this weekend will be their final games at Wrigley Field in a Cubs uniform. They may have even played their way into the organization’s plans for 2012.

So the Cubs won’t be contending with the same first and third basemen as this year! Isn’t that exciting?

Anyway, today’s game features starters Jordan Lyles (0-5, 4.55) and Matt Garza (4-7, 3.80). Game time is 1:20 Central, and can be seen on WGN. Lineup after the jump.

» Continue reading “Cubs Live Game Thread: Can Julie Bring Three-In-A-Row?”