January 2010
You are browsing the archive for January 2010.
Time for a Grain of Salt: Ben Sheets “All But Signed by the Chicago Cubs”
Occasionally, you stumble across a rumor that knocks you on your backside. Sometimes, the rumor is nothing more than a single statement – one that you hadn’t seen anywhere else. And sometimes, the statement is in a publication not intimately tied in with the team you’re following. But you let yourself get excited anyway. The [...]
Tom Ricketts Hearts Jim Hendry
General Manager Jim Hendry has presided over an unprecedented – in modern times – era of success for the Chicago Cubs. So you’d think that fans would be satisfied, and would be looking forward to many years of Hendry in charge. Not so. Hendry’s success has coincided with an unprecedented shift in Cubs’ spending habits, [...]
The Cubs Lost in 2009 Because They Were Fat – Now They’re Not
Conditioning in baseball is a funny thing. For every athletic freak, there are plenty of David Wells and Cecil Fielders out there who don’t really need to do the whole “being in shape” thing in order to be successful. For the Chicago Cubs, conditioning issues popped up repeatedly in 2009: Alfonso Soriano’s legs turned on [...]
Jim Hendry Hearts Relievers: Cubs Remain Interested in Kiko Calero
Chicago Cubs general manager Jim Hendry continues his search for a right-handed veteran reliever, and one name that has popped up from time to time is Kiko Calero. It’s popping up again because the Cubs are interested if the money is right. Calero, 35, is a free agent after putting together a very good 2009 [...]
Eric Byrnes for Cubs’ Fourth Outfielder?
Chicago Cubs general manager Jim Hendry has long had an affection for Eric Byrnes, despite his having fallen off a cliff in recent years. So with the Arizona Diamondbacks in a roster crunch, and interested in dumping Byrnes, the Cubs were rumored to be looking at picking up Byrnes in a salary dump from the [...]
Cubs Are Interested in Jermaine Dye
A new name has entered the Chicago Cubs fourth outfielder dialog: Jermaine Dye. Long believed to be seeking a starting gig, it’s possible that Dye would accept a reserve role with the Cubs. The Cubs are looking into former White Sox outfielder Jermaine Dye, sources confirmed Wednesday, but they can’t promise Dye as much playing [...]
Is Naples the Future Cubs Spring Training Site for Realsies?
Rumors are swirling that the Chicago Cubs have decided on their Spring Training future, and the future is Florida. The Cubs likely will leave Mesa, Az. for Naples, Fla., for spring training barring the state of AZ coming up with unforseen money. Bob Nightengale. You may recall that several months ago, folks were suggesting that the [...]
The Cubs Will Win This Year Because Marlon Byrd is a Nice Guy
Get ready to be overloaded with “addition by subtraction” type optimism pieces as we gear up for the 2010 Chicago Cubs season. The Cubs, apparently, are going to win eight to ten more games in 2010 simply by virtue of not having Milton Bradley on the team anymore. I question the statistical legitimacy of such [...]
