When Chicago Cubs general manager Jim Hendry set out to trade suspended outfield pariah Milton Bradley this off-season, he must have known he had relatively little chance of obtaining much in return. Bradley was ready to depart his seventh team in ten big-league seasons, and all but one of the divorces had been messy affairs.
Considering his predicament, then, Hendry could have done worse than he did. Chicago acquired pitcher Carlos Silva, a contractual pariah with the Seattle Mariners, and saved money in doing so.
But what to expect of Silva in 2010? Not much, by most estimates. The hefty right-handed hurler ...
Seven-and-a-half million dollars is a lot of money to pay to a relief pitcher who walked a career-high 4.98 batters per nine innings in the previous season.
That is especially true if the reliever in question also struck out a career-low 7.09 strikeouts per nine innings in that season.
Yet general manager Jim Hendry and the Chicago Cubs made just such an investment this winter when they inked left-handed hurler John Grabow to a two-year pact.
It is easy to see what Hendry and his team see in Grabow: Indeed, Grabow's surface-level numbers are stellar. His 148.1 innings over the past two seasons ...
It's hard to know what happened, exactly, but Mike Fontenot's career fell right out from under him in 2009.
Fontenot, who will turn 30 in June this year, entered last season as the Cubs' starter at second base. While many players and fans missed the affable Mark DeRosa's clubhouse presence, Fontenot's 2008 season provided ample evidence that DeRosa's on-field skill set was expendable. In 284 plate appearances, Fontenot batted .305/.395/.514. Those are star-caliber numbers, and while it was apparent to all that another such performance was unlikely, his future as a late-blooming left-handed hitter looked bright.
Handed the starting job on a ...
Angel Guzman is a star-crossed young man.
Injuries have hampered the development of this talented right-handed Venezuelan hurler throughout his career.
Finally, in 2009, he overcame them, stepping brilliantly into the setup role in Chicago's bullpen.
He struck out 47 and walked just 23 in 61 innings, and he allowed the ninth-lowest line drive rate among Major League relievers, according to fangraphs.com.
Fate intervened again this winter, however, as Guzman's brother and best friend were gunned down by unknown shooters in their increasingly crime-ridden hometown of Caracas. To add to that enormous and inestimable loss, Guzman then found out (upon reporting to Cubs camp) that ...
Contrary to popular belief, right fielder Kosuke Fukudome of the Chicago Cubs is not a bad hitter. Though just a .258 career hitter, Fukudome's on-base percentage in two Major League seasons is a more than respectable .367.
Popular belief has a funny way of creeping into Chicago's front office, however, and so GM Jim Hendry went out this winter and procured reinforcements.
Xavier Nady, 31, played in just seven games last year before a serious elbow injury claimed his season.
He still received a World Series ring from the eventual champion New York Yankees, but there was barely a whisper of talk that the ...
In the bleak mid-winter of February in Chicago, it is hard to imagine that baseball's Opening Day is less than seven weeks from this gray, wintry afternoon on the shores of Lake Michigan.
Such is the case, though, and so, as pitchers and catchers congregate in Arizona to prepare for the upcoming 2010 season, it is time to look at some of the most pressing questions facing the Cubbies this year.
1. Who will fill out the back end of the starting rotation?
With left-handed ace Ted Lilly out until at least the end of April, Chicago has only three starting rotations ...
In 2007, Tom Gorzelanny won 14 games and threw more than 200 innings of very solid baseball for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He was among those named on the final vote fan ballot for All-Star honors.
However, the 201 2/3 innings Gorzelanny threw that year were nearly 50 more than he had ever thrown in one season before. The next season, the effects of that abusive jump became apparent. In 21 starts, he logged a 6.66 ERA and walked more batters than he whiffed.
By the beginning of the 2009 season, the Pirates had essentially given up on Gorzelanny. He pitched in only ...
Marlon Byrd is a boulder of a man.
That was my first observation, as I watched the new Cubs center fielder take his place along the balcony at the team's 25th annual Cubs Convention. The 6'0", 245-pound veteran outfielder has the physique of a power hitter, where once there was the slender build of a speed-oriented fourth outfielder.
Fueled by his transformed musculature, Byrd bashed a career-high 20 home runs and a career-high 43 doubles in 2009, and comes to Chicago riding three straight seasons with an OPS north of .800.
There is no question that Byrd, 32, has lost a step in ...
Since Ryan Dempster became a starting pitcher for the Chicago Cubs at the beginning of the 2008 season, he has logged 406 2/3 innings. He has a 3.30 ERA, two-and-a-half times as many strikeouts as walks, and 28 wins.
More tellingly, Dempster has allowed the third-lowest contact rate in the league over the past two seasons. That statistic has obvious value, but to emphasize its meaning, the two men who stand higher are CC Sabathia and Tim Lincecum.
Once a pudgy and erratic closer, Dempster has become disciplined, methodical and precise. A quirky adjustment to his delivery eliminated opponents' ability to pick ...
On the evening of March 31, 2008, Kosuke Fukudome was the toast of the Chicago baseball world. The Cubs stood at 0-1 after a heart-breaking loss to the Milwaukee Brewers.
Fukudome, however, had overwhelmed in his American debut: he went three-for-three, with a walk, a double, and a game-tying three-run home run in the bottom of the ninth inning.
One game into his four-year, $48 million contract, Fukudome seemed poised to become a star. The 323 games since have not gone nearly so well.
Fukudome has a career batting line of .258/.367/.400, making him a dead-on average hitter in the National League over the ...
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