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

Book Review: "Chicago Cubs Yesterday & Today"

Steve Johnson, Chicago Cubs Yesterday & Today (Minneapolis: Voyageur Press) 2008. 144pp. $26.95

Any new addition to the collection of Chicago Cubs anthologies, encyclopedias and coffee table books is faced with the elemental problem of distinguishing itself from the dozens of other works competing for your beer money. In the case of Steve Johnson's Chicago Cubs Yesterday and Today, published by Voyageur Press, the pitch is twofold. First, instead of a chronological ordering that begins in the past and proceeds linearly towards the present, Johnson organized Yesterday and Today topically, juxtaposing pictures from different eras in Cubs history for side-by-side comparison. Hence the title. Second, Johnson presents an extensive and diverse selection of historical photos, many in color, from the archives of the Chicago Historical Society, the Hall of Fame, and private collections. While the execution of the whole "then and now concept" was about as consistent as a young Kerry Wood - full of promise, if alternatively brilliant and off target - the photo selection is more Greg Maddux - consistently great.

 

 

Topically, Johnson covers most every imaginable facet of Chicago Cubs history from the present back to the inaugural Chicago White Stockings team from 1870. Owners, G.M.s, Managers, each position, all of the distinctive elements of Wrigley Field, as well as earlier ballparks all get their own section. Then there are the more idiosyncratic sections, like "The Curse of the Billy Goat" or "Hard-Luck Players," Bad Boys" and "Game Day Snacks." Really, the only imaginable topic that could have been included but was lacking would be on the ballpark employees. Such pictures can be found throughout the book in different sections, most prominently the vendors in the Game Day Snacks section. But a fully fleshed out section specifically on ushers and grounds crews and vendors and whatnot could have made for a fun "yesterday and today" comparison. Kasper, Len gets an index entry when Kawano, Yosh, and Massman, Heinie, do not.

The topical organization tends to work against the creation of a continuous historical narravtive, and there are pretty big disparities in the execution of the different sections. The first few sections read very much like a conventional history of Chicago baseball, focusing pretty exclusively on the "Yesterday" part of the title. That conventional history comes to a quick halt, however, with the first of the truly distinctive topical sections, "The Curse of the Billy Goat." We get an overview of the relevant history - Billy Sianis and his goat, the 1945 World Series curse, the 1969 and 1984 collapses, the more recent attempts to reverse the curse, and Bartman. The accompanying pictures feature two of the Sianis family's got from 2003, neither particularly relevant or memorable, and a picture of Ryan Dempster turning a grounds crew hose on a Cardinals fan holding a pro-curse sign in the bleachers before the start of a 2006 game. Are there really no photos available from 1945? Or of the black cat from 1969? What purpose does the Dempster picture serve?

There are similar limitations to the concept's execution in several other sections. In the "Hard-Luck Players" section, does the paragraph and photo on Mark Prior, or the blurb on Jerome Walton as he "fell into the ranks of "also-rans" really belong in the company of Charlie Hollocher (career cut short due to depression, suicide at 44), Edde Waitkus (shot in the chest by a deranged fan, nearly dying from the wounds) or Ken Hubbs (died from crashing his airplane)? They had too much of the taste of forced "Today" add-ons for a section that would have been better served in limiting its focus to "Yesterday." Likewise, the insertion of a "Hit Men" section focusing on single-season and all-time base hits leaders between an otherwise continuous series of sections on the different defensive positions seemed arbitrary, and the corresponding Juan Pierre photograph and discussion another rough "Today" add-on.

The topical coverage of the positions mostly is solid, if again a bit beholden to the "Yesterday and Today" concept. It works best for a position like second base, where Johnson runs through Ross Barnes' .429 average in 1876 to blurbs on Johnny Evers, Rogers Hornsby, Billy Herman, Ken Hubbs, Glenn Beckert, and finishes with Ryne Sandberg, each with an accompanying photograph. Johnson appropriately concludes with "Nobody has been able to fill Sandberg's shoes since he retired, at second base or anywhere else on the field." Compare that to his entry on relievers, which includes important fore-runners to the modern reliever like Don Elston and Lindy McDaniel, aces like Bruce Sutter, Lee Smith, Randy Myers and Rod Beck, but also includes from the 2007 Cubs not just Ryan Dempster, but also Michael Wuertz and Will Ohman. Did Ohman really need three sentences? Things like that will quickly date the book. Or quickly justify a second edition, I suppose.

 

My favorite sections come near the end of Yesterday and Today. The "Bad Boys" piece tells us about the booze problems of King Kelly, Pete Alexander and Hack Wilson. Hornsby's gambling is mentioned, as is Gabby Hartnett's chat with Al and Sonny Capone at a 1931 charity game. The pictures of Hack Wilson's Home Run Club and Harnett grinning as he chats with Capone are real treats. While we also get blurbs and pictures on the Derrek Lee-Chris Young and Dodgers-Right Field Grandstand fights, the only photograph of Carlos Zambrano-Michael Barrett is a generic pitching-mound conversation. At least the next section, "Windy City Rivalry," compensates with a beautiful photograph of Barrett clocking A.J. Pierzynski.

The "Yesterday and Today" format is most useful for illustrating changes in the physical tool of the game, like uniforms, catchers' equipment and ballpark design. While there's a separate section for "Uniforms and Equipment" that includes nice pictures of catchers' gear, the best illustrations of these changes come in the sections on the different defensive positions. "Second Basemen," for instance, does the best job of illustrating the progression of uniforms from huge cotton dress pajamas to the nasty artificial stuff of the 1970s to Sandberg's jerseys from the 1990s. Johnny Evers looks like he can barely hold onto a bat as large as he is, in 1910, whereas Sandberg's bat looks like a toothpick in comparison. Similarly, the entries on "Early Ballparks," "Wrigley Field," "The Outfield Wall," "The Scoreboard," "The Playing Field," "Dugouts and Clubhouses," "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and "Spring Training" are all terrific successes in illustrating the historical progression of modern baseball, even if some of the sections (especially Out to the Ballgame) seem a bit redundant.

 

The second calling card of Yesterday and Today is its archival photographs, which are uniformly excellent. Again, the most visually impressive and historically interesting photographs are of Wrigley Field and its predecessors. I am not sure that I have ever seen photographs of the old West Side Grounds, home of the Colts/Cubs from 1894 to 1915. I have a long-standing interest in the place of mob violence or the threat of mob violence in the early history of the game, and these pictures really bring out the close proximity between players and thousands of fans that at once made the early player-fan relationship intimate yet potentially menacing. A photograph on page 126 shows an overflow crowd from 1912, with maybe twenty rows of people sitting in foul territory and throughout the outfield - including in front of the dugout and maybe just five or ten paces behind the left fielder. Another shows a Pinkerton walking the line of rope separating the on-field spectators from the players in a 1907 contest. Even with the move to Wrigley, a photo from the 1930s shows fans leaving after a game by walking across the playing field. Although Johnson does not bring it up in the text, these pictures really illustrate how the sort of mob mayhem made most famous from Merkle's boner, but also found in countless other incidents, could routinely occur. They also reveal a historical point on which I had been ignorant: that the tradition of viewing ballgames from makeshift risers and rooftops across the street, and the effort to end those wildcat bleachers, goes back one hundred years to the West Side Grounds. Very neat.

The pictures of Wrigley Field, then and now, are equally revealing. There is a great black and white photo of the groundskeepers planting the ivy in 1937, with fantastic color pictures of Sammy Sosa leaping into the luscious green ivy, and Lance Berkman and Hunter Pence raising their hands by it, on the next two pages. There is a similar progression shown for the scoreboard. My favorite, however, has to be page 135, which features an army of popcorn vendors in an undated photograph, a toothsome woman identified as "Cigarette girl," also undated, and one of "Beer vendor," a jowly, pasty guy from 2002. Promotional photographs and illustrations from the White Stockings teams, official programs from the 1960s, turn of the twentieth century buttons and postcards, and a close-up picture that explains just why he was called "Three Finger" Brown are just some of the other unique treats Johnson presents. Voyageur was kind enough to provide me with a .pdf of some of these particular pages, which you can check out here. (The .pdf really doesn't do justice to the Sosa picture.)

 

Ultimately, Chicago Cubs Yesterday and Today does fill a couple of important holes in our Cubs library. It works as a coffee table book (if only I had a coffee table... perhaps it can be the focus of our next fund-raiser, Rob?) and as a general encyclopedia of Cubs history. While the "Yesterday and Today" concept stumbles here and there, the successes are impressive and illuminating enough to make the concept pay off. And the photographs are pretty darn cool. I'd recommend it form the new Cubs fan in the family, the fan who is just starting to become interested in Cubs history, the fan of the material culture of Cubs history, and the fan with a coffee table. Even though I personally only fit one of those four categories, I still give Chicago Cubs Yesterday and Today a solid rating of 37 Steve Trachsels for readability, 13 Shawon Dunstons for photography, 18 Chuck Raineys for historical content, and 9 Jose Cardenals for novelty.

 

(copyright on this and anything else I write belongs to me and TCR exclusively. Violators will be ~thunder~ed.)

 

Comments

Depending on his schedule, we're hoping the author, Steve Johnson, will be able to drop by and take questions.

 Steve, if you are able to swing by, I'd love for you to tell the readers anything you care to share about the process of researching the book.  How did you go about hunting for all these fine photographs?  What inspired the decision to do the "Yesterday and Today" organization style?

 

 

the pictures from the PDF showing the West Side Grounds is a trip. I've read numerous times how they let fans on the field to handle overflow crowds but could never really picture it. I think it lasted till about the 1930's sometime, maybe 40's. Something I'm sure Arizona Phil knows... For awhile anything hit into the crowd was home run and then they changed the rule to a ground rule double.

Trans -- Nice work. I'm also especially interested in archival photos of the previous ballparks and Wrigley before the 1938 addition of the bleachers and current scoreboard. Sounds like this may be a good source for that. One edit/correction: "Carl Hubbs (died from crashing his airplane)" should be Ken Hubbs.

I haven't read Steve Johnson's book and so I apologize if this is covered in the book, but for those of you in the Chicago area who want to go see where the West Side Grounds were located, it was in the block surrounded by Polk on the north, the north alley of Taylor Street on the south, Wolcott on the west, and Wood Street on the east.

The Metropolitan West Side Elevated Railway (later merged into Chicago Rapid Transit, which became the CTA post-WWII) Douglas Park "L" line Polk Street station was located a block east of the park, at Polk & Paulina, so that it was very easy for fans to ride the "L" to the park, just like they do today when going to Wrigley Field.

There was a large vacant lot outside the ball park (to the north), located on the south side of Polk (extending to what would have been the south alley of Polk Street) between Wood & Wolcott. Otherwise, the park was surrounded by buildings very similar to the ones that now surround Wrigley Field.

The block is now (today) occupied by the University of Illinois Medical Center, and while there was no firehouse located across the street from the ballpark (the nearest firehouse and "first-due" Chicago F. D. company to the West Side Grounds was Engine Co. 31 at Congress & Damen), busy Cook County Hospital was (and still is) located on the north side of Polk, across the street from the site of the the old ball park. And Holy Trinity Church was located at the NW corner of Wolcott & Taylor, just down the street (and around the corner) from the ball park.

The so-called "wildcat" bleachers were located on rooftops of buildings located on the south side of the north alley of Taylor Street (beyond RF), and on the rooftops of buildings located on the east side of Wood Street (beyond LF). The ticket office building (a separate structure), the "Main Entrance," and home plate were located at the northwest corner of the ballpark (making LF--not RF--the "sun field"), and since the games usually started at 3 PM, there was a BIG problem with sun glaring into the left-fielders eyes. (And sun glasses weren't readily available until the 1920's).

The best thing about the West Side Grounds is that while the Cubs have never won a World Series playing in Wrigley Field, they won their only two while playing at the West Side Grounds (in 1907 and 1908). That's where Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance was born, and where Three Finger Brown and Cap Anson lived.

Maybe the Cubs never should have left the west side. The North side (and the neighborhood now known as "Wrigleyville") really belongs to the Chicago Whales (champions of the Federal League in 1915).

The Cubs had their best years and greatest success as a WEST side team, winning four pennants and their only two World Series all within a five-year period (1906-1910). 

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.