Reed Johnson is Headed to the Dodgers
Once the Chicago Cubs signed Xavier Nady, the writing was on the wall with respect to free agent outfielder Reed Johnson. And now, according to Ken Rosenthal, Johnson is being targeted hard by the Los Angeles Dodgers, and is likely on the way there soon.
Johnson is a quality reserve outfielder, who will be missed in that regard. But if the choice was Nady or Johnson – with apologies to Reed’s legion of fans and spectacular chin hair – the Cubs made the right choice.
Mark Prior is Still Coming Back
Eventually, for it to be called a comeback, you have to, you know, come back.
Just because you haven’t heard Mark Prior’s name in a while — like possibly since 2006 — doesn’t mean the one-time Cubs prodigy is retired. Heck, no. Prior won’t even turn 30 until this September. And he’s carefully working his way back from his second shoulder surgery, trying to make one more comeback.
It’s slightly more than 20 months since Dr. James Andrews performed that most recent operation, to repair a torn shoulder capsule. Now Prior’s agent, John Boggs, tells Rumblings that Prior is throwing off a mound in California, trying to ease his way back to health.
“Mark has been through so many timelines, at this point I’m almost allergic to the word,” Boggs said. “But he’s out there. He’s getting himself ready. And when he’s ready, I’m sure you’ll hear a lot about him. Then we’ll invite teams to come watch him throw. And hopefully, he’ll be the next Ben Sheets.” Jayson Stark.
Sheets was rehabbing for a year and was never really out of baseball. Prior hasn’t pitched in the bigs in three years. There’s a difference, and it’s undeniable.
We tend to scoff at Prior’s comeback efforts – and we probably deserve to, having been particularly burned – but it’s ironic: this week the Cubs are going to scout Noah Lowry, and many fans were excited about the prospect of landing Lowry on a low risk deal. Lowry hasn’t pitched in the majors since 2007, and when he did, he was never even close to the pitcher that Mark Prior was. Yet we still get a little excited.
So maybe a Mark Prior comeback isn’t as ridiculous as it sounds.
Xavier Nady Passes Physical, But Might Not Be Ready for Start of Season
Xavier Nady, whom the Chicago Cubs signed earlier this week, passed his physical yesterday, and officially inked his one year, $3.3 million deal with the Cubs. The physical, typical for all signings, was a slight concern this time, as Nady is recovering from his second Tommy John surgery, and essentially did not play last year.
Apparently he’s physically satisfactory to the Cubs, but commensurate with the news that he’d passed the physical came the news that he might not be fully-recovered to start the season – we hadn’t heard that before.
Nady’s status for the start of the season is uncertain as he’s only currently throwing 120 feet in a graduated recovery from the elbow injury that limited him to nine games in 2009.
Nady, who was cleared by Cubs doctors after spending Thursday undergoing exams at Northwestern, says he feels no pain taking batting practice and is encouraged about his chance to contribute in April.
“I’m pretty excited,” he said during a conference call. “The elbow’s been doing well, progressing … I feel like my best years are yet to come. I feel like I’ve improved every year, have a better understanding of what I need to do.” …
Hendry said the Cubs will be careful with Nady in spring training. “We’re in no rush at all for him to put excess effort into throwing in spring training,” he said. “We just want to do the best things to assure he can be health not just this year but the rest of his career.” Chicago Breaking Sports.
You have to wonder if this means that, for the first part of the year, Nady will largely serve only as a pinch hitter. You can be assured that, whenever he does get into the starting lineup, teams are going to run on him like crazy until he proves he can throw.
You Are Cleared to Resume Hating Jim Edmonds
Remember when Jim Edmonds was a star for the St. Louis Cardinals?
Grr. We hated that guy. He was so … douchey. And so … cocky. When Carlos Zambrano threw at him – twice – Edmonds totally deserved it. Grr. We hated that guy.
But then, after being cast off by the San Diego Padres, the Cubs signed Edmonds to a low risk, low money deal. Then, to everyone’s surprise, he actually produced. And it really stuck in Cardinals fans’ craws.
Hooray! We loved that guy!
Still, it felt … wrong. We’re a fickle sort, sure, but such instantaneous love for a guy we’d been trained for so long to hate was difficult to process.
Well I have good news, fellow Cubs fans: Jim Edmonds is making a comeback with the almost-equally-hated Milwaukee Brewers. Grr! We hate that guy!
Edmonds, 40, signed a minor league deal with the Brewers yesterday, who will have until late March to either place him on the Major League roster (and pay him $850k), or release him. At which time we can make a decision, again, as to whether he’s a good guy or a megadouche.
Baseball Prospectus Projects the 2010 Cubs to Suck
We’re coming up on Spring Training, which means it’s time to start prognosticating. For us here at Bleacher Nation, it means our series of posts about why each team in the National League Central is going to suck (are you getting excited?).
But Baseball Prospectus has jumped the gun on projecting the entire NL Central to suck this year, including the Chicago Cubs. BP puts together projected W/L records for every team in the majors based on the component pieces of their team.
The good news is that BP sees the St. Louis Cardinals winning just 79 games, and the Brewers winning just 81. The bad news is that they see the Cubs winning just 76 games – finishing 10 games under .500. They’ve got the Brewers winning the division with their .500 record, topping the Cardinals, Reds, Cubs, Astros, and Pirates, in that order.
The key to the Cubs’ projected struggles? Nope, not the offense, which they project to be average. It’s the pitching and defense: the Cubs are expected to give up the third most runs in the entire National League. Finally someone has noticed the potential pitching disaster looming for the Cubs.
Is the Cubs’ Farm System Finally Good?
Since the days that Mark Prior emerged as the top prospect in all of baseball (those days didn’t last long, since Prior made his Major League debut so soon after he was drafted), the Chicago Cubs have languished in the bottom half of baseball when it came time to rank farm systems.
But we all sensed something developing this past season – buzz. Cubs prospects were finally getting buzz at a national level, and more than just the one or two that seems to be compulsory for every team.
And now, with organization rankings emerging, our sense that things had improved is confirmed: Keith Law has ranked the Cubs’ system as the 7th in all of baseball, noting that the Cubs have “hit on several top draft picks under scouting director Tim Wilken as well as a couple of later-round finds, but the system is led by 19-year-old Dominican shortstop Starlin Castro, who is already in Double-A.”
Law has also listed his top 100 prospects in all of baseball, and the Cubs landed four on the list. Castro starts things off for the Cubs at number 12, where he is Law’s top shortstop prospect in baseball. Josh Vitters comes in at number 30, and pitchers Jay Jackson and Andrew Cashner round things out at 50 and 79, respectively.
Eric Byrnes Hearts the Chicago Cubs
The Arizona Diamondbacks designated highly-compensated but under-producing outfielder Eric Byrnes for assignment two weeks ago. Soon, he’ll be a free agent who can be signed for the Major League minimum, and according to newly-signed Cub Chad Tracy on XM Radio, Byrnes is hoping that signing team will be the Chicago Cubs.
Byrnes has long been a rumored favorite of Cubs GM Jim Hendry’s, and there was a time when we speculated that he might go after Byrnes to fill the Cubs’ fourth outfielder spot. But then came the much better Xavier Nady.
So even if Byrnes is interested, would the Cubs be? In theory, they’ll carry five outfielders, but it’s long been presumed that the fifth outfielder would be Sam Fuld. Byrnes is an adequate defender, but Fuld is a plus defender. Byrnes has a track record of success hitting at the Major League level, but that was three years ago. Fuld has more recently had success hitting at the Major League level, albeit in limited duty.
It’s hard to imagine the Cubs bumping Fuld in favor of Byrnes, but if all Byrnes can find is a minor league deal and Spring Training invite, there’s no risk in extending him that offer. That said, it’s hard to imagine some team not finding a bench spot for Byrnes.
(h/t CCO)
Reliever Joe Nelson Wants to Be a Chicago Cub
The Chicago Cubs continue to look for a reliever, but maybe they should just let the reliever come to them.
Free-agent pitcher Joe Nelson, who has made 101 appearances over the past two seasons, has expressed an interest in the Cubs.
Nelson, 35, is seeking an opportunity to be a late-inning reliever and help a young staff.
Nelson had a 2.86 ERA with Florida and Tampa Bay in 2008-09. He has allowed only 74 hits in 94 innings while striking out 96. His best season was in 2008, when he posted a 2.00 ERA in 59 appearances with the Marlins. He also has pitched for the Braves, Red Sox and Royals. Chicago Breaking Sports.
Nelson has had a bizarre professional career, having not really broken through until age 33 with the Marlins. He pitched in the bigs in 2001, 2004, and 2006 with an assortment of teams, with long minor league stints in between, before having a dominating year in 2008 for the Marlins. He was good, but not great, last year for the Rays. Given his erratic career, he’s unlikely to get a big money deal – just a one-year, small money deal. It might not even be a big league contract.
And by the way: could there be a guy who better proves that middle relievers are a total crapshoot?
