I had to get your attention somehow

In Friday’s post we saw some quotes from Theo Epstein about the current state of the Cubs and the plan for the future. He talked for 40 minutes on Thursday, so today I’ll bring you some more of what he said. It’s hard to find any positives from the 2012 season, but it could be that we’re just focusing too much on the 101 losses.

“Maybe we’ll look back on it as the year in which Anthony Rizzo and Jorge Soler and Albert Almora joined the Cubs,” Epstein said. “Or the year in which Javier Baez took a huge step forward, or the year in which Darwin Barney proved himself as an elite second baseman, the year in which Dale sets the tone.

“There were a lot of positives that don’t resonate right now quite as much, because I think we’re all swimming in what it feels like to lose 101 games.”

We probably won’t look back at 2012 as the year that Chris Volstad, Chris Rusin, Brooks “Boo Radley” Raley or Jason Berken started their dominating Cubs careers. Jed Hoyer said the team would be active in free agency this winter and Theo echoed that sentiment.

‘‘There are going to be a lot of teams looking at a pretty limited field,’’ Epstein said. ‘‘I don’t think there’s going to be great value to be had out there. But I think there’s some quality, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see us sign a free agent or two for our rotation.’’

(snip)

‘‘If there’s the right player at the right contract, even at a significant length, if we believe in that player and we believe it’s a good investment, we won’t shy away from it,’’ he said.

That being said, without much hope of being contenders the next couple years, it’s hard to see any contracts for more than two or three years being given out this winter.

» Continue reading “Cubs Monday Headlines: Theo, AAA Free Agents And More!”

Randy Wells had a bit of a struggle last night, leaving the game in the fourth inning after allowing four runs. Among those who scored was Joe Blanton, who Randy walked on four pitches. How do you feel about walking the opposing pitcher, Randy?

“Obviously the walk to the pitcher is unacceptable and it makes me want to throw up,” Wells said. “I made a pretty decent pitch to Rollins and he just kept it fair. But that has nothing to do with it. It was downhill before that even happened.”

Dale Sveum, how did that inning make you feel?

“It was too bad because he was pitching pretty well and he just couldn’t even find the strike zone,” manager Dale Sveum said. “Things were looking good going into that inning and the lineup was set to just run right through it and he couldn’t even get through the pitcher without walking him.”

So you feel sad and angry? Us, too. Back to you, Randy. What exactly happened?

“It’s mindboggling to me,” Wells said. “I can watch the tape and see but it’s obviously a mechanical thing. Runners get on and the tension gets high and you kind of rush and speed up and I’m just burying [pitches in the dirt] that aren’t even close. You have to make pitches when your back is against the wall and I didn’t do it tonight.”

(snip)

“I had a pretty good changeup going,” he said. “The gameplan was working. I just got away from it and lost command of the changeup. I threw way too many, back to back. I brought the hitters back into the count and didn’t make the pitches when I had to.”

Oh, Randy.

» Continue reading “Sunday Headlines & Game Thread: Cubs @ Phils, 12:35 Central”

Get used to it.

Ehhhhhh.

Everything was pretty cool for the first three innings, but Randy Wells shattered our illusions when he handed the Phillies a four-run fourth. Both sides would add a run later in the game, which culminated in a 5-2 Cubs loss.

Starlin Castro and Bryan LaHair put the Cubs on the board the first chance they got. Castro lined a single and stole second (he nabbed two tonight, giving him 10 on the year), setting him up to score on LaHair’s double. Wells proceeded to cruise, holding the Phillies hitless through three.

But Randy lost it in the fourth. He faced eight Phils and surrendered four runs on three hits before he was lifted in favor of Michael Bowden, who mercifully killed the inning. Bowden went a total of 2.1 innings on mop-up duty and gave up another run in the sixth.

The Cubs staged a rally in the eighth, when Tony Campana, pinch-hitting for Shawn Camp, singled and later scored on Castro’s fielder’s choice. That was all they would get, though. Phillies starter Joe Blanton dominated Chicago, striking out eight over seven and a third innings.

In fact, the Cubs just sucked at the plate tonight, managing only six hits over the course of the evening and striking out a grand total of 11 times. As for walks, well, excuse me for a moment while I go sob in a corner.

Steve Clevenger, as you may have heard, flew back to Chicago to have treatment for the tightness in his side. Geovany Soto was scratched last-minute with back problems, giving us the pleasure of a Beef Castle start tonight. Unfortunately, it didn’t amount to much: 0-for-3 with a strikeout. Here’s hoping he heats up, because he may be all we’ve got for a while.

Hope for All CubKind Matt Garza faces Kyle Kendrick tomorrow at 1:35. Should you desire to view the contest, you may do so on WGN.

We’re now 16 games into the 2012 season. The Cubs are currently 4-12, which is good for a .250 winning percentage. To top things off, Johnny Cueto slmost broke the team’s best player in the seventh inning of yesterday’s loss.

In the seventh inning Sunday, Castro was drilled in the left elbow by a pitch from Reds starter Johnny Cueto. He immediately went to the ground, holding his arm, and received a visit at home plate from a member of the training staff as well as manager Dale Sveum.

After about a minute, Castro convinced everybody he was fine and advanced to first base.

“I feel like it broke my whole arm,” Castro said. “But after going to the ground and then running the bases, the hurt was gone. I feel good.”

After watching the video, I can’t imagine that Starlin’s elbow/arm feels anything but good right now. There’s an audible clunk as the ball hit him. But Starlin’s a tough guy.

“A little bit on top; not right on the bone,” he said when asked where the ball made contact. “I’m very good. I’m ready for tomorrow, of course.”

And he did manage a triple in the 9th inning off former teammate Sean Marshall.

“Obviously he had one heck of an at-bat there off [Reds reliever Sean] Marshall and hit a triple,” Sveum said. “He was fine. I think he was a little more shocked. I don’t think it quite got him on the bone, it got him more on the flesh, thank god.”

That will be one ugly bruise today, no matter where it hit him.

» Continue reading “Cubs Monday Headlines: Cueto Tries To Break Castro”

With the departure of Marlon Byrd, all of Cubdom is wondering when Brett Jackson will be patrolling center field on the North Side. Jed Hoyer wants us to know that we’ll see him when he gets here. And that won’t be right now.

“Brett’s playing hard and all the reports on what he’s doing in Iowa are good,” Hoyer said. “He’s still early in his Triple-A career. He hasn’t had that many plate appearances down there. He still has work to do. We feel he’s a big part of our future but I wouldn’t read into anything as far as timing.”

And to anyone paying attention this year, it should come as no surprise that the Cubs have been trying to trade Byrd since spring training.

“The slow start didn’t play any part at all,” Hoyer said. “We had talked about a deal [with the Red Sox] at the end of Spring Training. Our feeling was we’ve been trying to acquire relief pitching since the end of the winter. We felt like an area we have some surplus with young players we want to play is in the outfield, so that was a big part of it.”

So we’ll probably see Tony Campana scampering around Wrigley for awhile. Speaking of young Cubs, Starlin Castro made errors six and seven yesterday.

“Sometimes when I make errors, it’s tough for me,” Castro said. “[I think] that’s not gonna happen because I work too much on my defense. But I’m still working, concentrating, I’ll be good on my defense too.”

Keep on keepin’ on, Starlin.

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

None of us think the Cubs will be any good this year. There are probably few of us who don’t expect Carlos Marmol to implode in spectacular fashion every time he steps on the mound. But Chris Bosio doesn’t want any of us worrying about Carlos.

“Carlos has been fine,” Bosio said quickly when the subject of Marmol was broached.

Then Bosio went on to display his difficulty with subject/verb agreement.

“There has been a couple of instances where we got beat in the 3-4 hole where he’s giving up ground balls and that’s all we can ask of him,” Bosio said. “Once the balls get put in play, we want our guys to get early outs and in this case there are a couple of balls that have snuck through the infield. That’s going to happen.”

All we need to worry about with Marmol are the grounders he induces making it into the hands of our reliable fielders. I feel so much better.

» Continue reading “Cubs Tuesday Headlines: Bosio Says Marmol A-Okay”

Shockwaves were sent through the Cubs blogoshpere and twitter yesterday when it was announced that Randy Wells would be sent to Iowa to be in the starting rotation there. Before he started investigating the Des Moines nightlife, he took time to talk to the media and showcase his knowledge of clichés.

“I’m not going to sit here, lie and be the guy that says he is not disappointed ” Wells said. “I am, but it is what it is. It’s a point of your career where you have to buckle down. Maybe it is a wake-up call to see it’s not that easy to stay here.”

That’s good Randy. You worked buckle down and wake-up call in there. Anything else you can think of?

“It makes you stronger,” Wells said. “You go through these things, and as bad as that feeling in your stomach is, anger or disappointment or whatever it is you have to get past it.”

Well done, Randy. Strength through adversity. The other surprise of the day was the decision to send Wellington Castillo to Iowa.

“Welington Castillo was probably the most difficult [decision], and one where you had to make him understand that he’s an everyday catcher and will make a lot of money and probably play in All-Star Games,” manager Dale Sveum said. “He just needs to go down and play every single day.”

The only spots now still up for grabs are in the bullpen. More on that after the jump.

» Continue reading “Cubs Friday Headlines: Randy Wells Cliché Machine”

We’ve known for awhile that the first three spots in the Cubs’ 2012 rotation would be taken by Ryan Dempster, Matt Garza and Paul Maholm. We learned last week that Jeff Samardzija is all but a lock for the rotation, leaving Randy Wells and Chris Volstad in a fight to the death for the final spot. Dale Sveum appears to have decided who’s filling that final spot.

Manager Dale Sveum told SiriusXM radio’s Jim Bowden there’s “probably” one rotation spot open and that Chris Volstad is already in. After Bowden tweeted the remark, Sveum tried to clarify matters.

“His name came up,” Sveum said. “But there’s nothing etched in stone there. What I said was ‘Obviously if he keeps throwing the ball the way he’s throwing the ball, he’s going to be hard to keep out of the rotation.’ It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out.”

Randy Wells hasn’t allowed a run in four outings so far this spring. How does he feel about being the odd man out?

“I’m more of a ‘whatever they want me to do’ kind of guy,” Wells said. “I’d be disappointed. It has been three years in the rotation … but it could be a new challenge, something exciting. … Either way you’re going to have to make adjustments. If I do end up in the rotation, I’ll try to do better and have a better year than last year.”

Maybe it’ll be better because he can sleep off his hangovers in the bullpen.

» Continue reading “Cubs Sunday Headlines: Rotation Taking Shape”

Randy Wells came into spring training competing for a rotation spot for the first time since his rookie year of 2009. He furthered his chances with a good performance yesterday, pitching a scoreless 2 2/3 innings.

“I didn’t throw a whole lot of breaking stuff,” Wells said. “I really worked on my fastball command, my sinker and was able to get ground balls. When I did get guys on I was able to get a ground ball and that’s the one thing I’m taking away from today. I have some stuff to work on – the changeup, the slider – but each outing the slider’s getting better. The changeup, I don’t have a feel for now but that will be the focus of my next side session.”

Just keep working Randy, and not going out late the night before you start. On the other hand, Travis Wood is appearing more and more likely to start the year in Iowa. He allowed 6 runs on 6 hits in 2 1/3 innings.

“It’s typical to say it’s early and you’re working out all of the kinks but it’s time to go,” Wood said. “I still have three or four starts left and I have to show what I can do then.”

(snip)

“I feel good, the arm feels great, I feel healthy,” Wood said. “It’s just time to really get after it.”

Yes, Travis, it is. Better get to workin’.

» Continue reading “Cubs Thursday Headlines: Wood Bad, Wells Good”

Yes, it’s only Spring Training. Yes, by the 7th inning, Hawk and Stoney were referring to unknown Cubs players by their numbers. And yes, wins probably won’t be so easy to come by for the Cubs during the regular season. But it’s always fun to beat the White Sox, especially when said win is accompanied by Hawk Harrelson’s futile insistence that the White Sox are oh-so-good and that Robin Ventura is EXACTLY the best manager the White Sox could have hired.

I enjoyed it.

Edgar Gonzalez, Marlon Byrd, and power-hitter Steve Clevenger homered off the White Sox, lifting the Cubs to a 5-1 victory over the Sox at Camelback Ranch.  Travis Wood had a decent start for the Cubs, allowing only 3 hits over 2 and one-third innings, though the box score doesn’t show how many warning-track fly balls he gave up. Because let me tell you, there were more than a few. Randy Wells sparkled in relief, pitching two and two-thirds scoreless innings. I can’t remember the last time I used the word “sparkle” to describe anything having to do with Randy Wells.

Check out the full box score here.

» Continue reading “Cubs Saturday Headlines: Cubs Beat Sox Into Submission”