Monday is the first day of Major League Baseball's three-day First-Year Player Draft.
There are 50 rounds stretched out over those three days and, from the somewhat limited research that I was able to do, it seems that five or six players, on average, from any given team's draft class will eventually reach the big leagues.
Of course, that doesn't take into account that teams typically only sign a little less than 30 of their picks every year. Most teams will probably draft one future major leaguer (maybe even two) that they won't sign.
That means that baseball fans can probably expect to ...
I recently wrote an article comparing the Cubs' two leadoff hitters, Ryan Theriot and Kosuke Fukudome, in which I ultimately came to the conclusion that Theriot was the better option to hit atop the batting order in large part because Fukudome might find himself on the bench before too long.
Shortly thereafter, Lou Piniella decided to replace Theriot at second base with Mike Fontenot and said the move might "be more than a one day thing." Suffice it to say that I wasn't feeling too smart when that news came across the wires.
I'm not against the move.
Fontenot is a good ballplayer ...
Three players have started a game atop the Cubs batting order this season: Ryan Theriot, Kosuke Fukudome, and Marlon Byrd.
Theriot has led off 38 times, Fukudome 10 times, and Byrd once heading into Saturday's game against the Cardinals.
Among those who follow the Cubs, the choice between Theriot and Fukudome is a contentious one. Neither is the ideal choice for a leadoff hitter, but for a team without any better candidates, they have their own advantages.
Looking at this year's numbers, Fukudome is clearly better at drawing walks. While Theriot walks in only 3.4 percent of his plate appearances, Fukudome boasts a ...
The Cubs have an interesting situation on their hands.
Carlos Marmol, Sean Marshall, James Russell, and now Jeff Stevens are all pitching well coming out of the bullpen. In the rotation, each of Ryan Dempster, Randy Wells, Carlos Silva, Tom Gorzelanny, and Ted Lilly's seasons have been solid overall.
At the moment, Dempster and Lilly are coming off of really good outings while Gorzelanny and Wells are coming off pretty bad outings. Silva's due to start on Saturday.
Carlos Zambrano hasn't exactly been setting the world on fire as either a starter or reliever this year, but he'll be returning to the rotation ...
I know that the Cubs' bullpen has struggled.
Through 45 games, they have combined for an ERA of 4.81 and opponent average of .251 in 119.2 innings. In fact, those numbers give the bullpen a little too much credit.
Carlos Marmol, Sean Marshall, and James Russell have carried the group. They've combined for an ERA of 1.97 and an opponent average of .185 in their 59.1 innings of work, good for almost half of the bullpen's total innings.
Without the aforementioned trio, the bullpen has combined for an ERA of 7.61 and an opponent average of .306 in 60.1 innings.
Moving Carlos Zambrano to ...
FOXSports.com's Ken Rosenthal wrote an article Monday in which he explained why he thinks the Chicago Cubs should let manager Lou Piniella go.
Bruce Miles of the Chicago Daily Herald wrote a blog later that day that included the following quote from Cubs general manager Jim Hendry:
"I'm absolutely completely confident in Lou Piniella," he said. "I've never any thought about Lou not being the manager here this year. I have complete faith in the coaching staff, also. I have no intention of making any changes at all."
Unless the firing of Piniella follows the precedent Starlin Castro's call-up, ...
On Wednesday, Carrie Muskat wrote an article in which she said that "There are no deals pending, no scouts scouring other rosters to find help."
It wasn't a quote from Jim Hendry. It was just a line added into the article between quotes from the Cubs' general manager.
More specifically, it came immediately before the following quote from Hendry:
"There really isn't anywhere to look," Hendry said. "I would think our position players are not a weakness at all. We're just in one of these funks where we can't get over the hump and get runs in. It's not for ...
If you've been paying any attention to the Cubs recently, you probably have a pretty good idea about the current state of their roster.
Eight players (Alfonso Soriano, Carlos Zambrano, Aramis Ramirez, Kosuke Fukudome, Derrek Lee, Ryan Dempster, Ted Lilly, and Carlos Silva) are making over $10 million, combining for $113.625 million this season alone. Seven of those players either have no trade clauses or 10/5 protection rights.
Soriano, Lee, and Fukudome are 34 years old; Dempster and Lilly are 33; Ramirez and Silva are 31; and Zambrano is 28.
Then there's John Grabow, 31, who is making $3.75 million this season; Xavier ...
When the Ricketts family started the process of deciding between sites in Naples, FL and Mesa, AZ for the Cubs' new spring training site, it really didn't matter to me which one they chose.
I've spent most of my life living in the Tampa Bay area (about 150 miles north of Naples), but I was born in Mesa and return there every year to watch the Cubs in spring training.
To me, it was a win-win scenario.
Either the Cubs stay in my native land or I swap out airfare for gas money.
Then the process began to unfold:
There was unnecessary tension from ...
To preface my thoughts on this subject, it should be clear that "might" is a key word in this discussion. Moving Carlos Zambrano to the bullpen might work.
The truth of the matter is that the Cubs are in a very difficult situation.
Yes, you could very easily say that they've put themselves in this very difficult situation, but that is completely irrelevant to the issue at hand.
To start things out, let's just take a look at what the Cubs had to take into consideration.
Ted Lilly, who has been a consistently effective starter for the Cubs since joining the team in ...
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