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Carlos Marmol’s 2011 campaign was a disaster. His 2012 season was equally awful. Why would the Cubs stick with Marmol as their closer? Marmol has one year left on his three-year contract ($9.8 million) with the Cubs. While fans may want him gone now, his trade value is virtually nonexistent. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Marmol thought he was already traded to the Angels last year. He would have worked in the bullpen rather than as the closer with the Angels, however. If the Cubs want Marmol to have trade value as a closer, they need him to perform in ...
Spring training has been officially underway for a few days and some of you just might not know who those players walking around with numbers such as 70, 67, and 71 stitched to their jerseys are. But as random as their jersey numbers are, the player’s presence at spring training is not. Some of those players are the organization’s best and brightest overall and positional prospects taking part in their first or second big league spring training. While others, yes, are simply trying to earn any sort of contract. The following players lie somewhere in the former. This list is ...
The Chicago Cubs' overall goal is to win a World Series someday.But that can wait. There are more pressing matters to attend to for the time being, such as figuring out this spring just who the heck is going to play where when the regular season starts.The Cubs don't have too many position dilemmas to resolve over the next few weeks, as their infield, outfield, starting rotation and bullpen are pretty well set. But as Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune outlined last week, they do have some question marks at third base, at the back end of their starting rotation ...
The Cubs future looks bright. In their compilation of Top Prospects for 2013, Baseball America named four Cubs to the list: Javier Baez, #16; Albert Almora, #33; Jorge Soler, #34; Arodys Vizcaino, #83. And, wouldn’t you know it, three of the four received invites to Spring Training; along with Junior Lake and a handful of other prospects. But the four “baby bears” are not expected to break camp on the MLB roster. If forced to wager a bet at which had the best chance, smart money would be on Vizcaino—but even then the odds of that are worse than the ...
According to a recent poll conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute, one quarter of Americans believe God influences sporting events. Needless to say, if this truly is the case then God clearly has favorites. In fact, some teams have suffered so much over the past couple of decades that you sometimes wonder if the only possible explanation could be divine intervention. Here’s a list of the 10 most tormented teams in professional sports.Begin Slideshow
They say “hindsight is 20/20.” But what about foresight? Does that score somewhere around 20/1200 on the Snellen chart? The evidence—an article of mine published last September—would suggest to the affirmative. Granted, some of my predictions are correct, or will turn out to be correct, and deserved of a self-congratulatory pat on the back. But, boy, some are outright swings and misses. The September version of the predicted 25-man roster was riddled with terrible selections: Bryan LaHair, Joe Mather, Ryan Dempster, Chris Rusin, and Josh Vitters along with then-predicted free agent acquisitions Humberto Quintero and Geoff Blum, to name a ...
In just one year together, the duo of Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer have transformed the Chicago Cubs.The team went from a middling franchise, with money tied up in overpaid, old assets at the big league level (and not much in the farm system), to one of the most intriguing minor leagues in all of baseball. The team spent big money to add high-profile Cuban slugger Jorge Soler into a mix that also includes highly-touted 2011 first-round pick Javier Baez and last year's top pick Albert Almora. In addition to spending in the draft and international market last year, the Cubs made ...
The Cubs are still in the process of retooling their farm system. The organization has some decent prospects at the higher levels of minor league baseball, but most of their best prospects are plying their trade at the lower levels. There are a handful of Cubs minor leaguers that you will see in Mesa, but in all likelihood the more notable prospects—Junior Lake, Jorge Soler, Christian Villanueva, Javier Baez, Arodys Vizcaino—will not make the Opening Day roster. That is, however, not to say that once Spring Training concludes they will return to the teams with which they finished the 2012 ...
The Cubs are still in the process of retooling their farm system. The organization has some decent prospects at the higher levels of minor league baseball, but most of their best prospects are plying their trade at the lower levels. There are a handful of Cubs minor leaguers that you will see in Mesa, but in all likelihood the more notable prospects—Junior Lake, Jorge Soler, Christian Villanueva, Javier Baez, Arodys Vizcaino— will not make the Opening Day roster. However, that is not to say once Spring Training concludes they will return to the teams with which they finished the 2012 ...
2012 Record: 61-101 (fifth in NL Central, missed postseason) Key AdditionsSP Edwin Jackson (FA), SP Scott Baker (FA), SP Scott Feldman (FA), SP Carlos Villanueva (FA), RP Kyuji Fujikawa (FA), RP Hisanori Takahashi (FA), OF Scott Hairston (FA), OF Nate Schierholtz (FA), IF/OF Brent Lillibridge (FA), C Dioner Navarro (FA), RP Dontrelle Willis (FA), OF Darnell McDonald (FA), OF Brian Bogusevic (FA), SP Zach Putnam (Waivers) Key Losses1B Bryan LaHair (Release), SP Chris Volstad (Waivers), SP Randy Wells (FA), RP Manny Corpas (FA), OF Joe Mather (FA), UT Blake DeWitt (FA) Projected Starting Lineup1. CF David DeJesus (.263/.350/.403, 9 HR, 50 RBI, 76 R)2. RF Nate ...
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