We’re about a month away from the playoffs, or the “end of the season,” if you prefer …
- The Cubs have decided to pass on the opportunity to give former Cub Adam Greenberg an at bat this year, as we discussed yesterday. ”Adam made the big leagues based on merit in 2005,” Cubs GM Jed Hoyer told the Tribune in an email. “While it is unfortunate he got hit in his first at-bat, he is in the Baseball Encyclopedia as a major leaguer and he should be incredibly proud of that. We wish him the best, but there are no plans to add him to the roster now or in the future.” So, that’s that, as far as the Cubs are concerned. I asked Matt Liston, the man driving the project, for his thoughts on the Cubs’ reaction, and he was undeterred. “Despite today’s response from the Cubs, they are one of the most cherished teams in all of sports,” said Liston. “They have great ownership, and I believe they will see this as a wonderful opportunity to do something for the good of the game. My hope is the Ricketts family will step up to the plate for Adam Greenberg and we’ll see him get his at bat at Wrigley this October.” It seems unlikely at this point, but maybe the Cubs will do something for Greenberg – a first pitch, bring him out at a game, etc. Who knows. I think I’d like to see it.
- The Cubs are still struggling with the decision on when to shut down Jeff Samardzija, whose 165.2 innings already this year are more than he’s ever thrown before at the professional level, and far more than the 88 innings he threw last year. “You know there are certain people that are very important to this organization going forward and you’re not going to put anybody in harm’s way either,” Dale Sveum said. “It doesn’t make any sense.” Sveum added that he’ll meet at some point with Cubs brass to make a decision, which could come soon. As I’ve said repeatedly before, I have a very hard time seeing the Cubs let Samardzija go more than a couple more starts. There is nothing to be gained, and the potential – however small – for something significant to be lost. He’s had a great, successful year. Let’s wrap it up, and turn an eye toward next year.
- Speaking of Samardzija, Jonah Keri notes that last year, the pitcher’s daytime numbers were terrible, despite his overall solid year. This year, his daytime numbers are excellent. I don’t know that Keri is implying the “thing” that folks tend to imply when they point out daytime numbers in Chicago, but it is certainly possible that Samardzija has done something to better prepare himself for day games. Or, of course, he’s just a better starter than he is a reliever, particularly during the day. (Edit: Holy smokes, talk about a mis-read. Keri was comparing Samardzija’s day/night splits for this year only, and Samardzija has been far better at night than during the day. That’s all.)
- In case you didn’t know what injury took down Daytona shortstop prospect Arismendy Alcantara, it was a broken foot. We knew he’d injured his leg, and that it was serious enough to warrant Javier Baez coming up to take over full-time at short, but we didn’t know exactly what the prognosis was. Fortunately, it’s good – although he went down back in July, the Cubs decided to take it easy with his healing process, and will instead feed him a steady diet of instructional ball and then winter ball this offseason says Phil Rogers. Lost amid the myriad positional prospects in the Cubs’ system, Alcantara is a legit prospect going into 2013. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him get serious top 10 consideration.
- The Cubs have now used a team record 52 players this season. That is a staggering number – more than two 25-man rosters’ worth, or 12 more than an entire 40-man roster. Crazy.
- Cubs GM Jed Hoyer is settling in, buying a $2+ million house in Lincoln Park.
- Kane County fans are excited by the prospect of the Cubs’ A-ball affiliation coming their way.
- The MLBullets at BCB take note of the Yankees’ long, far tumble – from 10 up to tied in the AL East.
Pretty sure Keri was comparing Samardzija’s day/night splits for this year…not 2011 daytime vs. 2012 daytime. He was great in night starts this year; not so much in day starts.
Thanks, ahoak. Whew. That was a serious mis-read on my part.
ps…I enjoy the blog!
Now that Peoria’s season is over, when can the Cubs start negotiating to move their affiliation to Kane County?
If I’m not mistaken, affiliation contracts expire in November or December, and then there is often a big shuffle that goes on – sometimes into January.
I believe there’s a window for negotiation that opens in mid-September for about 2 weeks.
Alacantra would probably be in the 9-11 range for me. Not that I matter.
Oh, you matter. And that sounds about right.
The cool and hard part about the top 10 this year is that there are a lot of guys who could fit there, and they would for a lot of other teams as well. The last number of years the 5-10 range has been pretty meh. But this year it is pretty exciting, especially when you get to the 8-12 range and you probably have guys like Amaya, Alacantra, Maples, Underwood, McNeil, and others that you could all make an argument for.
And Johnson? Wells? Blackburn?
I didn’t intend for that to become a litany of obnoxiousness – just happened naturally. Which I think is exactly your point.
I had originally thought of Blackburn and Johnson higher but as I tick in my head yeah you are probably right. Not sure what I would do with Wells at this point. I find it odd that he rested and didn’t have TJS surgery. I would have ranked him a bit lower like Whitenack after last year because of injury but he didn’t have surgery, so is he healthy? Don’t know.
Wow it is going to be fun to try and make a list, especially when you add Vizcaino and Paniagua to it. Also Vitters could make it interesting based on the number of AB’s he gets. Szczur could drop a bit. What do you do with Lake? Fun, fun, fun.
I think Liston is a lot more interested in promoting himself than Greenberg. Good on Hoyer for refusing to take that bait.
I’ve corresponded with a Matt a bit, and I don’t think that’s the case. He is – not unlike me – simply a huge Cubs fan who likes to incorporate his fandom into his work where possible.
Why not shut Shark down right now? He’s already doubled last yrs. innings. Hell, throw Greenberg out there on the mound in his place.. Who cares.
to be honest I think shutting down Shark now is a fine idea. What do you have to gain at this point letting him pitch?
Because I need him to start with fantasy playoffs starting and what not.
You should let the Front Office know about that–they’ll need all the important information they can get before making this decision.
Out of curiosity Brett, why haven’t they brought Wells back to the big league team? I figured he would have been one of the first ones. Or did I miss something with him recently?
I believe he got hurt and maybe had surgery.
Definitely got hurt, not sure we heard about surgery or not.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=randy%20wells%20elbow%20surgery&source=web&cd=4&cad=rja&ved=0CDQQFjAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bleachernation.com%2F2012%2F07%2F25%2Frandy-wells-had-elbow-surgery-and-other-bullets%2F&ei=qWRHUMrDMYSG8QTuzIH4Dg&usg=AFQjCNExHvJhFGTBZEQMYFwLemyfy-QGug
Ha.
Heh. I knew I was confident about the injury …
I knew that if he’d had Tommy John or something of that level of severity, I would have remembered off-hand. The timing of that news, though, was pretty unfortunate for remembering – it came the same day as the Braves saying they’d “moved on” from Ryan Dempster, and amidst our frantic hope that Matt Garza would make a start before the Trade Deadline.
Phil had a nice quote in the comments that sums this up …
“Randy Wells could have performed brain surgery on Pat Quinn this morning, and still nobody would pay attention.”
Thanks. I guess I missed that news. Or read it and didn’t care enough to keep it in the memory bank.
I think we should put out the all pathetic lineup. Who would be in it?
Mather
Vitters
Campana
Clevenger
Dolis
Volstad
Who else?
With all the call ups, i noticed that Soler is on the 40man roster, could he possibly be called up too? just kinda curious about that…
I think Adam Greenberg has a better chance of getting at bats in Wrigley this year. There would have to be numerous injuries (we are talking about 10-15 guys getting injured) before Soler gets called up this year as he is just now adjusting to playing baseball in America.
If he absolutely dominates the minors next year, then there is a 1-1,000,000 chance he gets a Sept callup.
He could be (but won’t be), anyone on the 40man roster can be called up.
Jed is reinvesting the koolaid drinkers cash back into the community with that $2M house purchase.
check
Crikey, your (and others’) constant disparagement of your fellow Cubs fans is incredibly fracking tedious to wade through. This “kool aid drinkers vs. Theo/Jed haters” thing is playyyyyed out, man. Just give it a rest. Go watch the Bears or something. I can’t imagine why you fellas keep posting essentially the same comments over and over and over again, just to tweak people. There should be a name for that kind of activity…
We could invent a term, something like “trawling”. No, that’s not quite right.
How about twilighting? Two equally repugnant things.
maybe trolling? I think trawling would be the Bostonian version
And yet you yourself constantly respond to such posts, with endless comments about “drivel” and such. If it’s played out, then ignore it and STFU.
But how could I hold myself above the fray without displacing you on your lofty perch?
I never made the slightest pretense of holding myself above the fray. I like the fray. You were the one telling other people to give it a rest while yourself doing anything but that.
should give greenberg a spot in this years rotation,or bullpen. cant do any harm…really im joking but serious…but j/k
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