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

The Wisdom of You

We have entered the most boring part of the year for a baseball fan. The season is long over, and the once-sizzling hot stove has been reduced to embers. We have nothing to occupy us except what-if scenarios and trade talk. This is the time of year that leads actual paid writers to write things like "Club relying on starters to stay healthy all season long." Seriously, if that's what the Cubs are relying on, I'm out of here. But fear not - there is a cure for boredom, and it comes from a non-baseball source. We're going to spend the next month predicting how the Cubs will do this season. And by "we," I mean "you." I'm just about to start reading "The Wisdom of Crowds" by New Yorker business writer James Surowiecki. His basic thesis is this:
large groups of people are smarter than an elite few, no matter how brilliantóbetter at solving problems, fostering innovation, coming to wise decisions, even predicting the future.
It's a provocative idea, and we're going to put it to the test. There are 36 days before pitchers and catchers report for Spring Training. Over that period of time we, the Cub Reporter community, are going to predict the 2006 stats for the Cubs. Here's how it's going to work: Every day, a new player will be up for prediction. Email what you think that player's stats will be for the 2006 season to me. I'll collate all the answers and determine what the TCR community thinks that player will do. It's just that simple! Feel free to post/discuss your predictions in the comments, though I will only use predictions which come to me via email. I'll do this for two reasons. First, it'll be a lot easier for me to keep track of them that way. Second, one of Surowiecki's conjectures is that it's important that the people in the crowd "need to be independent, so that they pay attention mostly to their own information, and not worrying about what everyone around them thinks." I was going to say not to discuss your predictions in the comments at all, but that hardly seems fair, so all I'm going to suggest is that you refrain from posting/discussing them until you've actually sent them in to me. That way you won't be swayed by what other people think might happen. I'll post the results when pitchers and catchers report. I'll also keep track of each individual prediction, and we should be able to get some nice prizes to people who come closest to nailing any specific player's prediction. I'd like these predictions to go beyond just the basic average, homers and RBIs. For offensive players, please give your prediction of: * Games played * At-bats * Hits * Doubles * Triples * Home runs * Runs batted in * Runs scored * Walks * Strikeouts * Stolen bases For pitchers, please give your prediction of: * Games pitched * Games started * Wins * Losses * Saves * Innings pitched * Hits allowed * Earned runs allowed * Home runs allowed * Walks * Strikeouts I'll post the first player later today. So sharpen your pencils, polish your crystal balls, make sure your PECOTAs are properly adjusted, and prepare to prognosticate!

Comments

Crowds may be right on most matters, but rarely on sports. Its a well known fact that when a line shifts to bet the other side.

I think politics pretty much disproves the smart mob theory. And experts rely on being right, either to keep their job or status, so they will take more steps to insure their results are at a higher standard, while the mob only has their ego to power them. But still, it will be fun.

Have you read that book Kinanik? You should before you start to argue against it. I am stating the well known sports fact that professional gamblers will often take the other side when a line shifts in one direction.

ESPN1000 is reporting that CPatterson has been traded to BAL for 2 minor leaguers...the 2 prospects will be named within the hour according to Bruce Levine.

the other thread pointed to a site that claimed it was going to be these 2 guys INF Bryan Bass and P Chris Britton We'll see,,,

Can we please trade all of our chips away for crap and be done already. I still have some false hopes that need to be crushed.

http://www.orioleshangout.com/2005/farm/Top10_200511-25.htm They have Britton listed at #17 on their list, reliever and here's their scouting report.. No one in the organization had a more dominate season then this 22-year old did at Frederick this year. Amazingly ended up tenth in the Carolina League in strikeouts despite not starting one game all year. A strike thrower who varies the speed on his fastball between 90 and 94 MPH and compliments it with a tight late breaking curveball and a developing changeup. Held Carolina batters to a .175 average. Broke the Keys single season strikeout record for a reliever. Listed by BA. com as having the best control of any Orioles pitcher Bass didn't make the Orioles Hangout Top 40 list but BA.com has him ranked as the best infield arm in the organization. http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/B/bryan-bass.shtml Looks pretty awful with the bat, Britton looks pretty good though http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/B/chris-britton.shtml Who knows if that site is correct, but they did claim 2 O's prospects while the major newspapers sounded like it was only one, so maybe they know something over there. If it turns out to be correct, it's my new favorite site. :) http://www.mlbgminsider.blogspot.com/

The Baltimore Orioles acquired outfielder Corey Patterson from the Chicago Cubs on Monday for shortstop Nate Spears and left-hander Carlos Perez.

Form Chicago Trib: "Spears, 20, spent the 2005 season at Baltimore's Carolina League affiliate. The left-handed hitter batted .294 with six homers and 41 RBI in 112 games. Perez recorded his first career double-digit winning season in 2005, going 11-8 in 27 starts for Class A Delmarva. The 23-year-old worked a career-high 151.1 innings -- and struck out 146 batters while issuing just 61 walks. He ranked second in the league in starts and fourth in strikeouts."

LOL! Try doing this at BCB. Everyone will over predict do to cocoon mentality. At least here, you might get a fair spread of optimists and realists.

Kiniac, Haven't read it, but I highly doubt The Wisdom of Crowds would have anything to say about politics, which reflects preference rather than anything that can be identified as right or wrong. (Politics is also an arean where judgments are not formed independently...)

"The reason democracy doesn't work is because the majority is usually wrong." --Benito Mussolini As this quote was from a fascist who was hung by his own people, take it with a grain of salt. But it has a little wisdom in it. Somewhere.

I'm not saying that on sports anyone can really be trusted, but that I'd trust PECOTA or Bill James over the majority consensus if I had to bet on one. Though if you take 1000 random people you're more likely to come up with the right answer than 2 experts :p I haven't read the book; I was just commenting on the reasoning. I think Mussolini does have a point; a group of selfless, well educated individules who ruled the country could be better than teh average democratically elected leader, but there's a greater chance of someone like Mussolini taking a system like that and doing what he did than there is in a democracy. The Majority may be usually wrong, but they usually weed out the really bad apples.

I have a question on the methodology -- Why is it important to not have our personal estimate influenced by one another's estimates? I have not read this particular book, but my general understanding of similar theories (such as the one behind the Iowa Electoral Market, which is now being adapted by, of all people, the Pentagon to help predict the next terrorist attack) is that the "general consensus" that will emerge from a group of people paying attention to a matter will tend to be more right than any one person's estimate. That seems to me like collaboration or communication before presenting estimates would contribute to the overall quality of the estimate. Of course, not everyone will collaborate and some may actually take a contrarian stand against what a particularly-influential voice may believe. But isn't that kinda the point? If AZ Phil predicts a .280/.320/.400 season from DLee and we all think it is bunk, we can collectively "override" that estimate by submitting our own. As for the criticism of casting votes in a democracy and majority rule, I point you to Ken Arrow's Impossibility Theorem, which shows that there is no one perfect voting system that would satisfy all criteria (such as consistency, participation, maximization of preferences/Concorcet, independence of irrelevant alternatives) that we would like a voting system to achieve. But as Churchill said, "Democracy is the worst form of government, except all those others that have been tried from time to time."

As for the criticism of casting votes in a democracy and majority rule, I point you to Ken Arrow's Impossibility Theorem, which shows that there is no one perfect voting system that would satisfy all criteria (such as consistency, participation, maximization of preferences/Concorcet, independence of irrelevant alternatives) that we would like a voting system to achieve. What you mean "we," paleface. First, I'm not sure that randomness must be universally rejected (that is, I can see accepting a non-deterministic system). Second, you can get around Arrow's paradox by restricting the issue to two possible outcomes (e.g. candidates).

Recent comments

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    The Reds trading Joe Boyle for Sam Moll at last year's MLB Trade Deadline was like the Phillies trading Ben Brown to the Cubs for David Robertson at the MLB TD in 2022. 

  • 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.