Chicago Cubs catcher Geovany Soto will have season-ending surgery on his right shoulder, according to MLB.com. Soto, 27, was baseball's best offensive catcher when healthy this year, and will be ready for spring training nest February.
During the team's final two weeks, however, backup Koyie Hill will see the bulk of the playing time, according to Cubs manager Mike Quade. Here enters the controversy.
Hill, 31, has been predictably abysmal this season. His somewhat overblown defensive prowess has never been enough to offset his offensive helplessness: Over the past two seasons, only two players (well-known stinkers Jeff Mathis and Willy Taveras) have ...
When the Arizona Diamondbacks drafted Barret Loux with the sixth overall pick in the 2010 MLB amateur Draft, many said the move was aimed at saving money: Loux was projected to go later in the first round, and was reportedly willing to sign for a smaller bonus than any other promising prospect Arizona could have had in the sixth slot.
Unfortunately, Loux and the Diamondbacks parted ways with no agreement last month, after a thorough physical and MRI revealed risk factors in Loux's elbow and shoulder with which Arizona was not comfortable. Normally, failure to sign in situations like this would ...
This might be hard to believe, but Sean Marshall has probably been better than most Chicago Cubs fans think this season.
Marshall, who turned 28 last month, has had a marvelous season in the Cubs' bullpen in 2010.
His 6-5 record reflects the confidence both Lou Piniella and Mike Quade have shown in Marshall, using him in tie games 21 times and on back-to-back days 25 times.
Yet there are numbers in Marshall's stat line this season that leap off the page unexpectedly.
He has nearly 11 strikeouts per nine innings, good for 13th in baseball. Largely because of that newfound whiff ability, Marshall ...
Offensively, Tyler Colvin and Alfonso Soriano have been very nearly the same player this season. The two outfielders' batting averages, on-base percentages, slugging averages, and walk rates have hovered within very narrow margins of one another for the past two months:
Category Tyler Colvin
Alfonso Soriano
BA 0.251 0.258
OBP 0.306 0.32
SLG 0.497 0.502
BB% 6.9 7.9
K% 28 24.9
BABIP 0.293 0.294
Speed Score 6.6 4.8
Here are the differences between them:1. Colvin, 25, has superior speed. This may be apparent. Soriano is 34 and has been slowed by leg injuries since arriving in Chicago in 2007. ...
It's not as though Carlos Marmol throws 100 miles per hour. It isn't as though he can pinpoint the ball on either corner, or change a batter's eye level at will. In fact, if any hurler in the game's history has been more frequently guilty of "throwing" rather than "pitching," he will need to submit himself for review. Carlos Marmol just goes out, toes the rubber and lets go of whatever may be in his right hand when he finishes his improbable delivery. Yet, it works. After a 2009 that seemed to portend an end to the reign of terror ...
With speculation rampant that the Chicago Cubs will pursue a starting pitcher in free agency this offseason, an implicit question presents itself: who will be the odd man out? To accommodate the faceless newcomer, after all, someone will have to move from the team's current rotation to the bullpen. Who ought that to be?
Let us begin by dismissing the notion, still prevalent in some circles, that the team will or should trade Carlos Zambrano. After a disproportionate punishment for a messy dugout brouhaha in June, Zambrano has recovered nicely and has earned his spot in next year's rotation. Ryan Dempster, ...
Beginning at about the end of the Lou Piniella era on August 22, rumors began to swirl about the Chicago Cubs' intention to sign at least one free-agent starting pitcher this offseason. Despite rampant and persistent whispers that the team will try to trade starter Carlos Zambrano, a deal does not appear likely—and would be a colossal mistake, anyway. Therefore, the team's hefty payroll obligations will prevent Chicago from bidding aggressively on on the market's lone superstar, Rangers ace left-hander Cliff Lee. Nor, it would appear, is the organization sufficiently stocked with young arms as to be able to afford ...
With the Detroit Tigers far removed from playoff contention this September, speculation has already begun about the futures of some of the team's free agents-to-be. Among these players, the most desirable by far is third baseman Brandon Inge.
Inge, 33, signed a four-year, $24-million contract in December of 2006. It will expire at the end of the year, however, and Detroit may already have Inge's replacement in-house: the team traded for versatile infielder Jhonny Peralta in July, and have an option to keep him for 2011. Peralta has cranked seven home runs in 35 games since coming over from Cleveland.
Inge's 2010 season has ...
Inconsistent.
To sum up the Chicago Cubs of 2010 in one word, that word is the clear choice. Until a seven-game skid from late July into early August, the team had not won or lost more than four games in a row all season. They have played 31 games decided by six or more runs, going 11-20. In their 47 one-run games, they are 17-30.
It is somewhat unfair, however, and certainly not constructive, to simply dismiss Chicago as having had a bad team. That is not the case.
In the first half of the season, Chicago could not score enough to win. Third baseman ...
With just one month remaining of the misery that has been the 2010 season in Lakeview, the Chicago Cubs are 20 games below .500. On Monday night, despite holding a special ceremony to honor newly-inducted Hall of Fame outfielder Andre Dawson, the team played to the emptiest Wrigley Field in nearly three years: A crowd of less than 30,000 fans.In truth, it is not only the losing that has driven the fans away, but the fact that the team plays a sloppy, often unwatchable brand of baseball. No team in baseball has committed more errors; no National League team has stolen ...
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