Remember the Chris Carpenter who was the other Chris Carpenter? He’s the one the Cubs sent to the Red Sox last year as compensation for Theo Epstein. He then was hurt, there was speculation about the Cubs knowing, etc. etc. Well, young Mr. Carpenter was recently designated for assignment by the Red Sox.

Former Chicago Cubs reliever Chris Carpenter could end up back with his former team after the Boston Red Sox designated him for assignment.

A source with knowledge of the situation indicated the Cubs would be interested in signing him if he is put on waivers.

Carpenter was the final compensation that the Red Sox received for allowing former general manager Theo Epstein to leave in order to become the Cubs’ president of baseball operations.

Poor Chris was a casualty of the Mike Napoli signing. The Cubs won’t be able to just snatch him up, though.

The Red Sox have 10 days to trade Carpenter before they must put him on waivers. If no club claims Carpenter, Boston could re-sign him to a minor league contract.

Like Boston, the Cubs also have a full 40-man roster, which would most likely preclude a trade between the clubs.

He had a tough time of it in six major league innings last season, walking 10 and striking out only two. He also gave up six runs in those six innings. His minor league numbers looked much better, with 25 strikeouts in 21.2 innings with only 10 walks. It appears as though he can still pitch (with control problems), but wouldn’t it just be cool to reacquire the guy that was compensation for Theo?

» Continue reading “Cubs Wednesday Headlines: Chris Carpenter Rumors!”

There was some intriguing news that came out of this weekend’s Cubs Convention, most notably the proposed $300 million renovation the Cubs have planned for Wrigley Field. If you’d like to see some images of the proposal, click here. The team changed course and announced that they’ll no longer be seeking any public funding of the renovations.

On these conditions: The city lift restrictions on game-day use of Sheffield Avenue, game times for certain days and large-scale signage behind the outfield.

 (snip)

But the shift away from an attempted money grab from a financially strapped city has given Cubs officials renewed optimism that they might get cooperation from City Hall in time to start work on the five-year project this fall.

That requires getting permit and zoning approval for some of those projects this spring, explaining the full-court press the team applied Saturday.

‘‘One of the ways we look at it is treat us as a private institution,’’ chairman Tom Ricketts said. ‘‘Let us go about doing our business, and then we’ll take care of ourselves.

It seemed that last winter, whenever we wanted legitimate rumors about the Cubs, we had to turn to the Boston Globe’s Nick Cafardo, who had better information than any of the Chicago beat writers. It hasn’t been quite as bad this year (other national writers are getting in on the act), but today’s only Cubs news come from Cafardo. He spoke with Theo Epstein, who talked a bit about the strides that have been made since he showed up on the North Side.

“We’re certainly farther along than we were last year at this time,” said Epstein. “When we got here, we identified one core player [Starlin Castro] and now we can look around and see Anthony Rizzo, Darwin Barney, Jeff Samardzija , and others. We do have more positional prospects than pitchers, so we felt Jackson will be with us for many years to come.”

Epstein is hoping his top prospects — namely outfielders Jorge Soler (a Cuban defector), Brett Jackson, and Albert Almora , shortstop Javier Baez , and pitcher Arodys Vizcaino — will all be in the majors together by 2015. First baseman Rizzo is already there.

It sounds like Theo knew what he was getting into when he took the Cubs job, but found out that we Cubs fans were a different breed than he has previously encountered.

» Continue reading “Cubs Monday Headlines: Nick Cafardo Newest Cubs Beat Writer?”

The Cubs officially announced the signing of the Edwin Jackson contract yesterday, the four year, $52 million deal we’ve heard about already. What we didn’t know was that the Cubs were concurrently pursuing Anibal Sanchez and Edwin Jackson.

The deal was consummated after GM Jed Hoyer and manager Dale Sveum met with the free agent right-hander in Newport Beach, Calif., at the same time that the Cubs were courting free agent Anibal Sanchez. Cubs chairman Tom Ricketts and Theo Epstein met with Sanchez in Florida. Both Jackson and Sanchez fit what the Cubs were looking for — young, durable pitchers who they could build around. Epstein’s meeting with Sanchez was leaked; Hoyer’s was not.

“It’s hard to sign free agent players in general and we knew we were going to go after both guys,” Hoyer said. “We did a better job hiding our (meeting with Jackson).”

Maybe Theo’s valet is the leak? Either way, Jackson was flattered that Jed and Dale would fly all the way to California just for him.

“I figured if they were taking the time to fly out and talk to me – regardless of what happened – they definitely had a strong interest,” Jackson said. “The only thing I could control was that conversation we were having at the time. That’s all I was worried about.”

And Dale Sveum used his undeniable charm on Edwin’s soon-to-be-wife.

“From what I was told, Dale was Dale,” Jackson said. “He definitely had an influence on my fiancée. She knows a little about baseball, but she’s learning. She was like: ‘I like him, even though he didn’t say much.’ We had a good aura with those guys and it was a pretty good feeling walking out of the room.”

» Continue reading “Cubs Thursday Headlines: Welcome, Edwin Jackson”

After the flurry of activity surrounding Anibal Sanchez and the “he is/might not be/definitely isn’t” news, nothing else has appeared on the radar for the Cubs. But the dust settled on the Sanchez situation and we were given more clarity about what happened in the Sanchez negotiations.

Epstein had made his way to Miami to negotiate with pitcher Anibal Sanchez and his agent Gene Mato.

Although initial reports had Sanchez accepting a 5-year, $75 million contract with the Cubs, the agent and the player were able to up the ante with Detroit, agreeing to a 5-year, $80 million deal to return to the Tigers.

According to sources, Epstein and team chairman Tom Ricketts made an impressive presentation to Sanchez, promising that as a Cub he would be the ace of the staff and treated like royalty, compared to being the fourth starter on the American League champion Tigers. Sanchez, who was originally signed by the Boston Red Sox as a free agent, was impressed and ready to take the plunge, according to a source.

The Tigers’ original offer of four years, $48 million was pushed to a final offer of 5 years, $80 million, the source said.

At that point, Sanchez turned down the Cubs’ offer of $77.5 million, and the 28-year-old pitcher returned to Detroit.

So, with the help of the Cubs, Sanchez and his agent made out like bandits. Good for them. At least we won’t have to cringe quite as much every time Tim McCarver calls him “Annabelle”.

» Continue reading “Cubs Monday Headlines: Nothing To See Here”

The Cubs welcomed their newest free agent signing at a press conference at Wrigley Field Friday. Japanese right-handed reliever Kyuji Fujikawa met with the press and told them how easily he was sold on pitching for the Cubs.

He visited Chicago and Wrigley Field a few weeks ago, and was sold on the city and the ballpark then.

“From that day on, in my head, it was ‘Cubs, Cubs, Cubs,’ and that’s how everything came through,” Fujikawa said.

Isn’t he worried that the Cubs already have a closer (for now)?

“[He wanted] a chance to have a meaningful role and do his job,” Theo Epstein said of Fujikawa. “That’s all he said. He said, ‘My job is not closer or set-up guy, my job is to help the team win and do what the manager asks of me’ and that’s the only time it came up in the discussion.”

Did they give him extra money to say that? Also, Fujikawa will wear number 11, and will have to live up to the standards set but such Cub greats as Rey Sanchez, Jeff Kunkel, Luis Salazar, Ivan DeJesus and Blake DeWitt. Why did he choose no. 11?

“I was No. 22 with the Hanshin Tigers,” Fujikawa said, “but to have a better career than No. 22, I went younger with No. 11. I asked for 11 and it was luckily open.”

Okay.

» Continue reading “Cubs Monday Headlines: Fujikawa Introduced At Wrigley”

The Cubs entered the offseason with plenty of needs, not the least of which was starting pitching. Their first free agent signing just happens to be a starting pitcher, Scott Baker. He signed a one year contract yesterday worth $5.5 million, with an additional $1.5 million in possible performance bonuses. How did the Cubs get him at that price? He’s coming off Tommy John surgery.

“He’s put the work in to get himself on an excellent timetable so he’s got pretty much every day plotted out from here through Spring Training,” said Theo Epstein, Cubs president of baseball operations. “If things go perfectly, he’ll be stretched out to five or six innings for that first week of the season.”

The Cubs won’t rush Baker, who has pitched all or part of seven seasons with the Twins, from 2005-11, totaled 28 or more starts in three straight seasons, 2008-10.

Baker was already beginning to throw and said his plan is to use the Spring Training starts as part of his rehab process. He did get interest from other teams, including the Twins.

“It’s a big season for me personally coming off an injury,” Baker said. “I wanted somewhere where my family could enjoy and we could have a lot of fun and I could help the team be productive.”

So, lame starting pitchers are the new market inefficiency?

“You don’t set out looking for Tommy John guys,” Epstein said. “The reality is it’s not exactly a buyer’s market for pitching so you have to take your risks. Do you want to take a risk on a guy with bad makeup? Do you want to take a risk on a guy with bad command? Or do you want to take the risk on a guy you really believe in who is coming off Tommy John surgery and has appropriate value points? I think we’re very comfortable placing our bet on Scott Baker.”

I guess they are.

» Continue reading “Cubs Wednesday Headlines: All Hail Scott Baker”

There have been various rumors bandied about so far this off-season about free agents, trade possibilities and the like. One such vague trade rumor floating around has been the possibility of Justin Upton coming to the Cubs from the D’Backs. Theo Epstein says don’t get your hopes up about any wild trades.

“[We’ll] try to identify possible trade fits,” team president Theo Epstein said Wednesday. “But I don’t think it’s the type of offseason where we have potential fits with 25 of the 29 other clubs. We’ll pursue everything, but realistically I think our fits might be narrower this year. [We’ll] try to use that as a strength, turn it into an advantage and focus on the free-agent market.

“We’re going to have a pretty well-defined trade market really quickly, because we don’t have unlimited assets to deal. We don’t necessarily have redundancies at positions in the big leagues or at the upper levels.”

Maybe he’s just tempering our hopes so that we’ll be super excited when he pulls off the trade that will bring the Cubs the 2013 World Series crown.

» Continue reading “Cubs Monday Headlines: Cool Your Jets On A Blockbuster Trade”

Not only does Darwin Barney win Gold Glove awards, he speaks for Starlin Castro. Of course, the words he attributes to Starlin are only laudatory.

“As happy as he is about the work he has done, we have spoken about who he wants to be in the future,” Barney said “One of the best things he did say to me that made me feel really good is he said, ‘Hey man, you’re the best defensive player I have ever seen and I want to be like you.’ Coming from a guy who has every tool in the bag means a lot. We are good friends and I hope our relationship keeps getting better and better.”

He’s totally my best friend and like, he said that I’m the best defensive player in the WORLD. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn from Darwin that Starlin said he has the best fashion sense and singing voice of any player he’s ever seen. But they’re working together to become the greatest double play tandem the world has ever known.

“We decided early on in spring training that we were going to work hard together to be the best that we can up the middle,” Barney said. “Our goal is to be the best around, and that is what we are working towards. In the future, we will have to get better together and hopefully that is what we can do.

I hope so, too. And I hope Starlin can show you a thing or two about hitting.

» Continue reading “Cubs Thursday Headlines: Barney Speaks For Castro”

Friday will be the one-year anniversary of Theo Epstein becoming president of baseball operations for the Cubs. He already regrets coming to Chicago, if only for the loss of his youthful appearance.

“I have a lot more gray hair now than I did a year ago — my wife reminds me of that all the time,” Epstein said. “I do feel really energized by a lot of the things that are going on here.”

He walked into an organization that had one young impact player on the Major League level and a whole lot of unknown behind him. Theo feels better about the state of the organization today.

“I also wake up every day and recognize we lost 101 games and understand how painful that was for everybody, including me, and that provides further motivation to get out of this position that we’re in,” he said. “I think there were a lot of positives. That core, at least in my mind, went from one player to half a dozen, and if we can do that again in 2013, and we look up and we have close to a dozen players in our core, I’ll feel great about the overall health of the organization.

“I also want to make the playoffs and I understand that’s a big challenge, so I hope we hit on a few guys this winter and get off to a good start and we have one of those unexpected seasons.”

The Cubs might win the World Series next year!

» Continue reading “Cubs Wednesday Headlines: Encouraging Words From Epstein”