Cubs MLB Roster

Cubs Organizational Depth Chart
40-Man Roster Info

40 players are on the MLB RESERVE LIST (roster is full) 

28 players on MLB RESERVE LIST are ACTIVE, and twelve players are on OPTIONAL ASSIGNMENT to minors. 

Last updated 3-26-2024
 
* bats or throws left
# bats both

PITCHERS: 15
Yency Almonte
Adbert Alzolay 
Javier Assad
Jose Cuas
Kyle Hendricks
* Shota Imanaga
Caleb Kilian
Mark Leiter Jr
* Luke Little
Julian Merryweather
Hector Neris 
* Drew Smyly
* Justin Steele
Jameson Taillon
* Jordan Wicks

CATCHERS: 2
Miguel Amaya
Yan Gomes

INFIELDERS: 7
* Michael Busch 
Nico Hoerner
Nick Madrigal
* Miles Mastrobuoni
Christopher Morel
Dansby Swanson
Patrick Wisdom

OUTFIELDERS: 4
* Cody Bellinger 
Alexander Canario
# Ian Happ
Seiya Suzuki
* Mike Tauchman 

OPTIONED: 12 
Kevin Alcantara, OF 
Michael Arias, P 
Ben Brown, P 
Alexander Canario, OF 
Pete Crow-Armstrong, OF 
Brennen Davis, OF 
Porter Hodge, P 
* Matt Mervis, 1B 
Daniel Palencia, P 
Keegan Thompson, P 
Luis Vazquez, INF 
Hayden Wesneski, P 

 



 

Minor League Rosters
Rule 5 Draft 
Minor League Free-Agents

Bill James 2010 Projections for Cubs

Fangraphs is once again going to list the projections on their player pages from a variety of sources, Bill James, CHONE, Marcel....maybe more. Bill James projections are up first and here's how the Cubs ranked by wOBA and their 2009 wOBA (explanation of wOBA here). I'll try and expand when new projections are released. Age is their 2010 playing age. You can click on their names to get their full slash line predictions and more.

Player
Age
2009 wOBA
Bill James 2010 wOBA Projection
Derrek Lee
34 .412 .386
Aramis Ramirez
32
.392
.375
Jake Fox
27 .332 .375
Milton Bradley
32
.345
.365
Geovany Soto
27 .310 .362
Micah Hoffpauir
30
.315 .350
Kosuke Fukudome
33 .346 .349
Jeff Baker
29
.338 346
Alfonso Soriano 34
.314 .346
Mike Fontenot
30
.296 .334
Ryan Theriot
30
.318
.319
Sam Fuld
28
.367 .317
Tyler Colvin
24 .205 .316
Reed Johnson
33
.321 .312
Aaron Miles
33
.212
.300
Koyie Hill
31
.279
.289
Andres Blanco
26
.271 .285

For the pitchers, here's their projected ERA and FIP (explanation of FIP here).

Player
Age 2009 ERA
2009 FIP
2010 James Projected ERA
2010 James Projected FIP
Carlos Zambrano 29 3.77 3.61 3.60 3.90
Ted Lilly
34 3.10
3.65
3.76
4.30
Ryan Dempster
33
3.65
3.87
3.83
3.92
Randy Wells
27
3.05
3.88
4.16
4.10
Sean Marshall
27
4.32
4.19
4.06
4.34
Tom Gorzelanny
27 5.55
3.91
4.11 4.01
Jeff Samardzija
25 7.53
5.90
5.44
5.47
Carlos Marmol
27 3.41
4.06
3.45 4.00
John Grabow
31 3.36 4.20
4.00
4.17
Aaron Heilman
31
4.11
4.37
3.88
4.25
Angel Guzman
28
2.95 4.44 4.03
4.11

Alright, nothing too surprising in any of these numbers, although I can't tell you how much it makes my heart flutter to see the Cubs highest paid position player in the middle of the offensive pack. 

Two pitchers stood out to me...Gorzelanny and Guzman. I was a bit down on Gorzelanny but his peripherals were pretty strong last year...9 K/9 rate and a 1.15 HR/9 to go with a 3.26 BB/9 rate. Definitely a legitimate 4th/5th starter candidate with an even higher ceiling considering his age and the very nice 2007 season he had. Guzman on the other hand, had a mere 6.93 K/9 rate last year with a 3.39 BB/9 rate with a miniscule .209 BABIP. A little luckier than I had previously thought, but he does keep the ball in the park and the James projections do expect an increase in his K/9 rate...although no guess on when he'll hit the disabled list.

Anyway, they're merely projections, nothing to take too seriously. They sure didn't nail Soto, Soriano or Fontenot's demise last year, so just consider it some fun off-season fodder.


Be sure you don't miss Arizona Phil's Top 15 prospect list...

Comments

Not to start the whole sabermetrics argument here again, but do we really need more stats? How many ways to do we to show that Soto had a bad year, or that Sori struggled most of the year?

[ ]

In reply to by JohnT

there's always room for well-calculated and reasoned stats....

nonetheless, wOBA is basically OPS but with the proper weight between OBP and SLG and boiled down into one easy to understand number. All the cool kids are using it today...

-edit- and of course it was listed on the Fangraphs pages with the James predictions, making it easier to type that one number then the entire slash line or trying to figure out the eqA or whatever..

for the newbies, .330 is considered league average wOBA.

The problem I see with wOBA is when you look at the Cubs 2009 and Bill James 2010 projections you're led to the conclusion, Woah! If we can get rid of one guy it needs to be Theriot.

Do Bill James or any of these other wizards who project next year's performances ever go back and post how they did over the previous year so we have some idea if any of these projections are ever close to accurate?

they're just projections, take some numbers, run a formula on them weighing whatever the individual system believes deserves to be weighed (K rates, BB rates, BABIP, whatever, last 3 years, last 5 years, etc.) and spit out something...

[ ]

In reply to by Rob G.

Hendry knows what a "career year" is, right? How 'bout "fluke"? How 'bout "too heavy for center field these days"? Cubs were interested in Byrd prior to picking up Reed Johnson in 2007, weren't they? But he's only valuable as a 4th outfielder if he can play decent defense in CF, right? Can he still do that?

Random question. Isn't Mike Cameron still pretty badass in CF defensively? And recently out of a job? I know he suffers from 37-year-old-itis and a terrible case of right-handed-ness, but just throwing out options....

Submitted by Rob G. on Wed, 11/11/2009 - 1:28am.
Rays best options for Bradley, but Cubs will have to pay quite a bit of the contract...

Cubs seem to like Castillo and Mets want to move him but not for Bradley...

==============================================

ROB G: Then Milton Bradley to Rays (Bradley gets $9M in 2010 and $12M in 2011), Pat Burrell to Mets (Burrell gets $9M in 2010), and Luis Castillo to Cubs (Castillo gets $6M in 2010 and $6M in 2011), with Cubs paying $3M of Bradley's 2010 salary ($9M) and $6M of Bradley's 2011 salary ($12M) + Bradley's remaining $2M bonus payment?

Re: Reds cost cutting. Hendry,if you're listening, please call Walt Jocketty about Brandon Phillips. Oh...wait... I forgot that you think Luis Castillo is better.

Recent comments

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    Javier Assad started the Lo-A game (Myrtle Beach versus Stockton) on the Cubs backfields on Wednesday as his final Spring Training tune-up. He was supposed to throw five innings / 75 pitches. However, I was at the minor league road games at Fitch so I didn't see Assad pitch. 

  • crunch (view)

    cards put j.young on waivers.

    they really tried to make it happen this spring, but he put up a crazy bad slash of .081/.244/.108 in 45PA.

  • Childersb3 (view)

    Seconded!!!

  • crunch (view)

    another awesome spring of pitching reports.  thanks a lot, appreciated.

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    Here are the Cubs pitchers reports from Tuesday afternoon's Cardinals - Cubs game art Sloan Park in Mesa:

    SHOTA IMANAGA
    FB: 90-92 
    CUT: 87-89 
    SL: 82-83 
    SPLIT: 81-84
    CV: 73-74 
    COMMENT: Worked three innings plus two batters in the fourth... allowed four runs (three earned) on eight hits (six singles and two doubles) walked one, and struck out six (four swinging), with a 1/2 GO/AO... he threw 73 pitches (52 strikes - 10 swing & miss - 19 foul balls)... surrendered one run in the top of the 1st on a one-out double off Cody Bellinger's glove in deep straight-away CF followed one out later by two consecutive two-out bloop singles, allowed two runs (one earned) in the 2nd after retiring the first two hitters (first batter had a nine-pitch AB with four consecutive two-strike foul balls before being retired 3 -U) on a two-out infield single (weak throw on the run by Nico Hoerner), a hard-contact line drive RBI double down the RF line, and an E-1 (missed catch) by Imanaga on what should been an inning-ending 3-1 GO, gave up another run in the 3rd on a two-out walk on a 3-2 pitch and an RBI double to LF, and two consecutive singles leading off the top of the 4th before being relieved (runners were ultimately left stranded)... threw 18 pitches in the 1st inning (14 strikes - two swing & miss, one on FB and the other on a SL - four foul balls), 24 pitches in the 2nd inning (17 strikes - three swing & miss, one on FB, two SPLIT - six foul balls), 19 pitches in the 3rd inning (13 strikes - seven swing & miss, three on SL, two on SPLIT, one on FB - three foul balls), and 12 pitches without retiring a batter in the top of the 4th (8 strikes - no swing & miss - four foul balls)... Imanaga throws a lot of pitches per inning, but it's not because he doesn't throw strikes...  if anything, he throws too many strikes (he threw 70% strikes on Tuesday)... while he gets a ton of swing & miss (and strikeouts), he also induces a lot of foul balls because he doesn't try to make hitters chase his pitches by throwing them out of the strike zone... rather, he uses his very diverse pitch mix to get swing & miss (and lots of foul balls as well)... he also is a fly ball pitcher who will give up more than his share of HR during the course of the season...   
     
    JOE NAHAS
    FB: 90-92 
    SL: 83-85 
    CV: 80-81 
    COMMENT: Was called up from the Hi-A South Bend group at Minor League Camp for the day... relieved Imanaga with runners at first and second and no outs in the top of the 4th, and after an E-2 catcher's interference committed by Miguel Amaya loaded he bases, Nahas struck out the side (one swinging & two looking)... threw 16 pitches (11 strikes - two swinging)...   

    YENCY ALMONTE
    FB: 89-92 
    CH: 86 
    SL: 79 
    COMMENT: Threw an eight-pitch 5th (five strikes - no swing & miss), with a 5-3 GO for the first out and an inning-ending 4-6-3 DP after a one-out single... command was a bit off but he worked through it...   

    FRANKIE SCALZO JR
    FB: 94-95
    CH: 88 
    SL: 83
    COMMENT: Was called up from the AA Tennessee group at Minor League Camp for the day and worked the 6th inning... got the first outs easily (a P-5 and a 4-3 GO) on just three pitches, before allowing three consecutive two-out hard-contact hits (a double and two singles), with the third hit on pitch # 9 resulting in a runner being thrown out at the plate by RF Christian Franklin for the third out of the inning... 

    MICHAEL ARIAS
    FB: 94-96
    CH: 87-89
    SL: 82-83
    COMMENT: Was called up from the AA Tennessee group at Minor League Camp for the day and allowed a hard-contact double on the third pitch of the 7th inning (a 96 MPH FB), and the runner came around to score on a 4-3 GO and a WP... gave up two other loud contact outs (an L-7 and an F-9)... threw 18 pitches (only 10 strikes - only one swing & miss)... stuff is electric but still very raw and he continues to have difficulty commanding it, and while he has the repertoire of a SP, he throws too many pitches-per-inning to be a SP and not enough strikes to be a closer... he is most definitely still a work-in-progress...   

    ZAC LEIGH: 
    FB: 93-94 
    CH: 89 
    SL: 81-83 
    CV: 78
    COMMENT: Was called up from the AA Tennessee group at Minor League Camp for the day and tossed a 1-2-3 8th (4-3 GO, K-swinging on a sweeper, K-looking on another sweeper)... threw 14 pitches (11 strikes - one swing & miss - eight foul balls)... kept pumping pitches into the strike zone but had difficulty putting hitters away (ergo a ton of foul balls)... FB velo is nowhere near the 96-98 MPH it was a couple of years ago when he was a Top 30 prospect, but his secondaries are better...   

    JOSE ROMERO:  
    FB: 93-95
    SL: 82-84
    COMMENT: Was called up from the Hi-A South Bend group at Minor League Camp for the day and worked the 9th (14 pitches - only six strikes- no swing & miss) and allowed a solo HR after two near-HR fly outs to the warning track, before getting a 3-1 GO to end the inning... it was like batting practice when he wasn't throwing pitches out of the strike zone...

  • crunch (view)

    pablo sandoval played 3rd and got a couple ABs (strikeout, single!) in the OAK@SF "exhibition"

    mlb officially authenticated the ball of the single he hit.  nice.

    he's in surprisingly good shape considering his poor body condition in his last playing seasons.  he's not lean, but he looks healthier.  good for him.

  • crunch (view)

    dbacks are signing j.montgomery to a 1/25m with a vesting 20m player option.

    i dunno when the ink officially dries, but i believe if he signs once the season begins he can't be offered a QO...and i'm not sure if that thing with SD/LAD in korea was the season beginning, either.

  • crunch (view)

    sut says imanaga getting the home opener at wrigley (game 4 of the season).

  • crunch (view)

    cubs rolling out the who's who of "who the hell is this guy?" in the last spring game.

  • videographer (view)

    AZ Phil, speaking of Jordan Wicks having better command when he tires a bit, I remember reading about Dennis Lamp 40 years ago and his sinker that was better after 3 or 4 innings when he would tire a bit and get more sink with a little less speed on the pitch.  The key for Lamp was getting to the 4th inning.