I’ll be the first to admit that Kameron Loe was especially bad at baseball. I’ll  be the first to admit that I’m happy to see the back end of him (not literally). However, I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that Carlos Marmol continues to be employed by the Chicago Cubs. Not that I’m saying that should DFA Marmol (though I can see “they should DFA Marmol” from here), but perhaps this would be a good time to come up with a fake injury that allows Carlos to go somewhere and sit down for 15 days.

The rest of the story today is that Ryan Sweeney has been “selected” from Iowa, Rafael Dolis has been “recalled” from Iowa, and Dave Sappelt, he of the late-night Twitter misogyny, has been “optioned” to Iowa.

Ryan Sweeney is pleased to meet you

All of that wasn’t nearly as interesting as the text from a fan that overheard Jeff Baker screaming at some Wrigley employees who asked him for his name. “I played here for 5 years, you don’t know my name?!?” The only appropriate response, of course, would have been “I’m trying to forget it.” But, I mean, I get it. How would you feel if even the crappy Cubs didn’t want you? Jeff is probably dealing with a lot of rage.

» Continue reading “Chicago Cubs Monday Night Game Thread: Cubs Punish Carlos Marmol By DFAing Kameron Loe”

This is what we’re currently looking at here in Chicago:

Per Tom Skilling, we’re supposed to get as much rain in the next two days as we usually do in the entire month of April. The forecast includes “strong storms” all evening, followed by “heavy rain, thunder.” Translation: No window in sight. To be honest, I just can’t see this one getting played. In fact, I’m currently missing the pre-game festitivies that Bing invited me to because of the monsoon outside my window. Boo.

» Continue reading “Chicago Cubs Game Thread: Is This Thing Rained Out Yet?”

EMERGENCY UPDATE: Brent Lillibridge waived, Takhashi DFA’d, and Kevin Gregg (aka Groggles) is in the bullpen. Holy hell.

Before we get to the big return of Darwin Barney, I have an issue with Lance Berkman:

After 83 career games played at Wrigley Field, former Astro Lance Berkman is not fond of the Chicago Cubs’ home.

“If they’re looking for a guy to push the button when they blow the place up, I’ll do it,” Berkman said Monday to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “Chicago’s one of the worst places in baseball … really for anything,” he said.

It’s not easy to write about Cubs baseball today. It’s hard because sports play such a huge part in our society, whether we realize it or not. It’s how we work out our societal problems (see, e.g. Robinson, Jackie), how we escape from our daily lives, how we celebrate excellence and dedication, how we have fun.

There’s a certain kind of love peculiar to distance runners that I’ve never understood. Yes, we all get sick of their constant Facebook updates about how far they ran and how quickly, as well as their endless stream of finish line photos. And yet, I’ve always envied the pure joy they seem to get from running until your body can’t take it any more. Not to mention their slammin’ runners’ bodies. And I wished I loved anything as much as they seem to love to run.

Perhaps this is why yesterday’s events in Boston seem particularly heinous. It was an attack on a group of people, doing what they love to do, and their friends and families cheering them on. Running. Many of them for charity. Just running. Nothing more.

I’m not the kind of person to wax religious of philosophic when tragedy strikes. But I did post this on Facebook shortly after landing at O’Hare yesterday, based on the reactions I saw from people all over the world in Terminal 5:

Queen Mary I had 500 protestant priests burned at the stake. Genghis Kahn was said to have killed over 1,000,00 people in one hour. Hitler ordered the mass murder of millions. There have always been terrorists in the world. The fact that we’re increasingly appalled and intolerant of murder is a good sign for mankind.

Today, that’s the best I can do.

And I just want to add that I’m grateful and relieved that both flyball (who lives in Boston and runs) and Dani Holmes-Kirk, formerly of the Cubs’ front office who ran in the marathon, are both safe and sound this morning.

» Continue reading “Chicago Cubs Tuesday Headlines: When It’s Hard To Write About Sports”

We’ve been waiting on the Cubs to make official the signings of Carlos Villanueva and Scott Hairston. The catch to both was that there were no open spots on the 40-man roster, so two players would have to be chopped. The Cubs finally got around to chopping one of them Saturday to make the Villanueva signing official. In case you’d forgotten about Lendy Castillo, here’s some background:

Castillo began his career as a shortstop in the Phillies organization, but converted to a pitcher in 2010 and showed enough promise for the Cubs to select him in the 2011 Rule 5 draft.

The 23-year-old appeared in 13 games for the big-league club last season, suffering through a 7.88 ERA and 2.25 WHIP in 16 innings.

Castillo went on the disabled list May 11 with a groin strain and missed several months before being recalled in mid August. He had never pitched above the Single-A level before 2012.

Will Lendy stick with the organization or go the way of his Rule 5 predecessor David Patton? I doubt there are any teams dying to sign him, but you wouldn’t have expected any team to pick him in the Rule 5, either. As for Villanueva, in case you’d forgotten about him…

By placing him on waivers, the Cubs risk losing Castillo to another team, but it has cleared room for Villanueva, whose flexibility will come in handy on this year’s team. The former Blue Jay and Brewer has made 56 starts in his MLB career and 245 relief appearances, with a 4.26 ERA and 1.30 WHIP.

Welcome aboard, Carlos. At least you’re not Lendy!

» Continue reading “Chicago Cubs Monday Headlines: Carlos Villanueva In, Lendy Castillo Out”

I forgot today was Wednesday, so I’m a little late with headlines. It didn’t take long to scour the interwebs and discover that there isn’t much of anything going on, so we’re on to obsessing about Edwin Jackson.

The market for free agent starter Edwin Jackson has narrowed to the Cubs and Rangers, reports ESPN’s Jim Bowden (Twitter link).

It’s hard to get excited about Edwin Jackson, especially when it’s Jim Bowden reporting it. I’m fully expecting a mystery team to swoop in and grab him.

In the Cubs’ case, their pursuit of Jackson represents another sign that the team is prepared to spend significant money in on free agent pitching and their willingness to spend $77MM for Sanchez wasn’t just a singular offer for a particular player, though Jackson’s eventual deal will be much less than $77MM.

Theo and Jed just don’t want to be subjected to another round of Chris Rusin. And neither do we.

» Continue reading “Cubs Wednesday Headlines: Yes, It Has Come To This”

So this season will never end.  I’m just throwing that out there.  So drink up.

We have all been bashing and criticizing the Ryan Dempster trade but I’m over it for now.

Everyone has there opinion on how the trade went down but I have decided to just suck it up and move on.

What is relevant is that the back end of the season is now starting and we will see call ups and still more trade transactions. Alfonso Soriano will probably be put on waivers and clear them due to his large outstanding contract. At that point we will hopefully trade him and receive something decent in return.

This leads to a whole different saga of call ups and we will most likely see the likes of Brett Jackson and Josh Vitters. I will leave judgement up to you guys on whether or not those are good calls and who you think would be a proper call up. You are now Theo Epstein, what would you do?

Tonight we try to bang up the stinkin Dodgers and our lineup again looks like this:

1. David DeJesus, CF
2. Starlin Castro, SS
3. Anthony Rizzo, 1B
4. Alfonso Soriano, LF
5. Bryan LaHair, RF
6. Steve Clevenger, C
7. Darwin Barney, 2B
8. Luis Valbuena, 3B
9. Samardzija

Go Cubbies! And chug it down its fuckin’ Friday for chriminays sake!!!