Trade rumors surrounding the Cubs this offseason have been mostly nonexistent. Sure, they’ve signed some free agent pitchers, but we want trades! Unfortunately, this one sounds like it’s not going to happen.

The Phillies, interested in a right-handed batter to hit behind cleanup man Ryan Howard, talked to the Cubs about a swap of Domonic Brown for Alfonso Soriano but may still be slightly more inclined to sign a free agent, such as Cody Ross or perhaps even Josh Hamilton.

Phillies people are said to be split over how hard to try for Soriano, who had 32 home runs, 108 RBI and a .262 batting average with vastly improved outfield defense.

(snip)

The Cubs are believed willing to pay all but $10 million of the $36 million remaining on Soriano’s deal if they can receive good prospects back. The Cubs are all about gathering assets for the future.

With Soriano’s production last season, 2/$10MM seems like a steal, no? Another place that would seem to make sense for the Fonz is Houston, which is heading to the AL and needs a DH.

The Cubs previously shopped Alfonso Soriano to the Astros as a possible DH, but Houston doesn’t have enough money even with Chicago picking up the bulk of what is owed to him, tweets Danny Knobler of CBSSports.com.

Really? Houston doesn’t have $5MM a year to pay a DH? It looks like their top salary commitment for 2013 is Jed Lowrie at $1.15MM. How can they not afford Soriano?

» Continue reading “Cubs Wednesday Headlines: We Have A Rumor”

Travis Wood would like you to know that he doesn’t want to see Chris Rusin or Brooks Raley in next year’s rotation, either. He made his second consecutive strong start in helping the Cubs salvage a .500 road trip. Yes, the same road trip that started with the Cubs being swept in Washington and looking like they should be contracted. But back to Travis. Is he thinking about proving himself for next year?

“Like I said before, the ball’s coming out good. I’ve been able to locate pitches,” he said. “I just want to finish the season strong and show them I can handle a full season and everything and see what happens.”

Wood (6-11), who went 10 consecutive starts without a victory, has won back-to-back starts since, allowing a total of one run in 13 2/3 innings against the Pittsburgh Pirates and Astros, including a stellar 7 2/3 innings Wednesday.

As Gordo points out in the next paragraph, his ERA over his last five starts is 2.43. Unless his arm falls off, I find it hard to believe the Cubs will have five starters better than him on Opening Day 2013. Another player who came to the Cubs in the Sean Marshall trade played well in Houston (with one notable exception). Dave Sappelt got a chance to play after Bret Jackson hurt himself, and did some hitting.

“He’s proven one thing that we knew when we got him, about his bat,” manager Dale Sveum said. “I know he didn’t have that great a year in Triple-A, but he was swinging the bat pretty well the last month, and the bat has always been something that’s been appealing about him.”

And Alfonso Soriano made a spectacular play in the outfield (in addition to going 3-4).

“I don’t want to talk about MVP,” he said. “I just want to talk about my defense, that play that I made. That makes me more happy because I’ve improved my fielding and am proving to other people I can be a good outfielder.

“I’m working so hard with [coach] Dave [McKay] to prove to those people they’re wrong and I have the talent and ability to keep playing outfield.’”

Way to go, Fonz.

» Continue reading “Cubs Thursday Headlines: Travis Wood For Cy Young?”

Now that the Cubs are just playing out the string, you’d think one of their top objectives would be to keep their players healthy. It hasn’t worked out so well, as Bret Jackson is nursing a bruised knee incurred after colliding with the wall in Pittsburgh. Last night, Anthony Rizzo had his turn at colliding with another object, this time Astros’ first baseman Brett Wallace.

‘‘I was really stunned and dazed at first,’’ said Rizzo, who hit the ground shoulder-first. ‘‘Now I’m just more sore than anything.’’

Rizzo checked out OK with the Astros’ doctor, but he isn’t expected to play until at least this weekend because of the sore neck and upper back.

Mark Prior was going to be okay too. Now it’s going to be up to the likes of Bryan LaHair and Dave Sappelt to help the Cubs avoid 100 losses. At least until Friday.

‘‘Unfortunately, that’s not something you go into the season wanting to do, but that’s our goal right now,’’ Sveum said after the Cubs followed their modest four-game winning streak with a shutout loss, despite four errors by the Astros. ‘‘The guys have pride.’’

Alfonso Soriano said he already has started doing the math with the team and knows eight is the magic number for avoiding 100.

‘‘I think it’s important for the organization,’’ Soriano said. ‘‘And I’ve never been on a team that lost 100 games. When I retire, I don’t want to look back and think that I’ve been on a team that lost 100 games. It’s tough to win 100, so it has to be tough to lose 100 games.’’

Don’t worry, Fonz. We’re not blaming you.

» Continue reading “Cubs Wednesday Headlines: Cubs Lose, Rizzo Hurt”

The Cubs managed to win one more against the Astros yesterday, giving them the 2-1 series win. David DeJesus hit two home runs, Brett Jackson had two extra base hits (and two strikeouts) and so on. But there are other more important things to report today, such as Alfonso Soriano and Carlos Marmol clearing waivers.

Cubs outfielder Alfonso Soriano has cleared waivers and is eligible to be traded anywhere (provided he gives his approval), sources tell CBSSports.com.

And with Melky Cabrera now subject to a 50-game suspension for using PEDs, San Francisco seems like the perfect fit for a team that could use the Fonz. Except that he already turned down a trade to the Giants at the non-waiver trade deadline.

‘‘San Francisco is not good weather to play in,’’ he said. ‘‘I’ve never played on the West Coast, but we’ll see what happens. I want to talk to my family and see.’’

Soriano said he hasn’t been approached again by the Cubs about a deal.

‘‘Now there’s six weeks left to the season,’’ he said. ‘‘I’ll try to enjoy it with these young guys and see what happens in the offseason. I’ll just try to do the best I can and not think about trade deadlines.’’

Can anyone put together a series of film clips showing spectacular weather in San Francisco?

» Continue reading “Cubs Thursday Headlines: Thank God For The Astros”

Chris Volstad’s season of wonder for the Chicago Cubs continued Tuesday night. He’s now 0-9 with a 6.96 ERA after allowing four runs on nine hits in five innings to the Astros. And the Astros are worse than the Cubs. So Chris, what happened?

‘‘I pretty much hung a curveball to Wallace. Take away one pitch, and it’s 1-0 instead of 4-0, and the team is still in it. I executed pitches after that, and I feel that’s one of the big strides I made.”

But Dale Sveum begged to differ.

‘‘There was nothing real sharp,’’ Sveum said. ‘‘His off-speed stuff was getting hit pretty hard.’’

Then Rule 5 exile Lendy Castillo came in and gave up five runs in the seventh. But Brett Jackson got a hit!

‘‘There’s a long line of great players, including Hall of Famers Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays, who were 1-for-55 their first years in the big leagues,’’ team president Theo Epstein said. ‘‘We almost expect young guys to come up and struggle. It’s part of the growth process. It doesn’t make it any easier for them to go through, but it’s a natural step in a player’s development.

‘‘They come up and get humbled a little bit and make their adjustments, and maybe you have a chance to humble someone else down the line.’’

Thanks for making us feel better, Theo.

» Continue reading “Cubs Wednesday Headlines: Volstad Refuses To Beat Even Astros”

So am I the only one that feels like the Chicago Cubs  are a mirror image of our AAA Iowa farm system?

I’m sure it comes to no surprise to any of you that our big league team is a developmental team that our Front office has decided to use as a project team at the big level.

With no major acquisitions taking place except for stocking our farm team and I use that term lightly (Iowa). I actually for once am a bit shocked that our Brain Trust has not made a single move to land us any type of free agent player that could make an impact this year and for years to come.

It’s fully understood that we are rebuilding from the ground up but to me it’s seems like Theo/Jed have spent ALL of their time worrying about the future while not worrying about the here and now. We do play in the Major Leagues and put out a big league team everyday to play in front of 30-35 thousand fans.

What happened to the ballsy, surprise making trades that you made in Boston Theo?

When will we see a move that will knock our (Sox) off and leave us utterly confused at the same time? You did it in Boston, did you get scared?

» Continue reading “Cubs Live Game Thread: Feels Like a AAA Kind of Day…”

Remember when Travis Wood was horrible in Spring Training and we had wondered if any good return had been received in the Sean Marshall trade? Don’t look now, but young Mr. Wood threw 7.2 scoreless innings in the Cubs’ 3-0 win yesterday.

“I got sent down in spring training and put more work in at Triple-A and got some things right,” Wood said. “When I got my chance to come up I didn’t want to waste it, so I got after it.”

(snip)

“That’s the reason we traded for him,” manager Dale Sveum said after Wood threw 7 2/3 innings of shutout baseball against Houston on Sunday. “We gave up one of the best relievers in baseball for him. I knew that [talent] was somewhere in there, but since spring training he has made the adjustments. The confidence level he has now is off the charts.”

If you’re counting, that’s a current scoreless inning streak of 18.2.

» Continue reading “Cubs Monday Headlines: Yes, That’s A Sweep”

Even as the Cubs continue what we hope will be a march to 2013′s number one draft pick, we can still enjoy them beating the Astros, right? That’s just what happened yesterday, on the strength of Anthony Rizzo’s first home run as a Cub. In what could be the most surprising development of the summer, Carlos Marmol didn’t look terrible again when he came in to close out the victory. He’s been throwing more fastballs and throwing more strikes.

“There’s no question (the fastball has helped),” manager Dale Sveum said. “He’s throwing his fastball in the strike zone. If he doesn’t, it’s just missing and he’s able to come back and do some things. He’s still going to throw his slider, but his fastball is still going to be very important to be able to throw, especially the velocity. Hitters see 94, 95 (mph) and it speeds them up.”

And it makes things a bit easier for Dale with the rest of the pen, too.

“It gets the bullpen a little more stable with Marmol going back in the closer role and (James) Russell and (Shawn) Camp being able to mix and match in the seventh or eighth innings,” Sveum said. “(Manuel) Corpas has done a nice job against right-handed hitters, so you’re able to mix and match from the sixth through the ninth inning.”

I smell an 80-something game winning streak!

» Continue reading “Cubs Sunday Headlines/Game Thread: Astros @ Cubs, 1:20 Central”

It’s all about perception.

Take the number 8 for example. In some cases, it doesn’t seem too big. 8 days is barely longer than a
week. If you have $8 in your pocket, you can’t even get into a non-matinee movie. Hell, you couldn’t even fill the Supreme Court with only 8 judges (and before you ask, yes I had to Google double-check. I’m a terrible American…).

Losing 8 straight games though? While not as bad for a baseball team as it would be for an NFL team, it’s still pretty terrible. Mix in the fact that half those defeats came at the hands of hated rivals (White Sox, Astros), and things can start looking really bad, really fast.

But today is a new day! Travis Wood (0-0, 4.50) takes the hill at the Juicebox for the Cubs, and his chances of breaking the losing streak at 8 games is pretty good. As spotty as Wood has been in his major league career, he’s got some pretty nice numbers lifetime against the Astros (2.43 ERA, 1.18 WHIP). Although as we saw last night, the 2012 Astros can actually hit the ball pretty well, coming into tonight in the top half of the NL in runs scored.

» Continue reading “Cubs Live Game Thread: Beating The Streak”

Well, perhaps the Cubs CAN beat Houston, but they didn’t last night. Matt Garza and a brain-dead offense combined to wind up on the losing end of an 8-4 ballgame. And believe me, it wasn’t anywhere near that close:

Jason Castro and Chris Johnson each hit three-run homers off Matt Garza to power the Astros to an 8-4 victory Monday night over the Cubs, who lost their seventh in a row, a season high.

Once again, the Cubs couldn’t muster any offense against a starting pitcher, scoring all of their runs in the ninth.

“It’s unreal,” Cubs manager Dale Sveum said. “It’s almost a fluke not scoring any runs off a starting pitcher. I don’t know how many innings it is now.”

I do. It’s 137. Or at least it seems like that many.

» Continue reading “Cubs Tuesday Headlines: We Can Not Beat Houston”