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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
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An Eternal Cub, Forever Young

This time each year, I get stoked. It's automatic. It never fails. I'm in Arizona. The weather's great. It's time for Spring Training. But there's this one thing that gnaws at me, that keeps me from enjoying the experience quite as much as I would like to enjoy it. The start of Spring Training is fun, but there's this one memory from my youth--it's kind of a Long Sorrow--that I guess will be in the back of my mind for the rest of my life. For those of you who don't remember him or who aren't all that familar with his career, Ken Hubbs was born in Riverside, CA on December 23, 1941, and as a 12-year old, he led his Colton (California) Little League team to the Little League World Series championship game in Williamsport in August 1954. Colton lost the game to future Cub Billy Connors and his Schenectady (New York) team, but by the time he was a senior in high school (1959), Kenny Hubbs was nothing but a winner. President of his high school class and a star football, basketball, and baseball player, he could have followed his older brother Keith to BYU--where he probably would have been a two or three-sport star and BMOC. But Kenny instead chose to sign a professional baseball contract with the Chicago Cubs (yes, YOUR Chicago Cubs), all the more significant because this was before the amateur draft, and Hubbs had the option to sign with any of the then-16 MLB clubs. The Cubs were losers even back then (the last time they had finished in the N. L. first-division was 1946, which was also the last season they played above .500), but maybe Hubbs thought he could get to the big leagues faster playing for the Cubs than he could with another team where he would be blocked by an established major leaguer. Maybe he felt he could help make a difference and help turn things around. I don’t know. But by signing with the Cubs, Kenny Hubbs did indeed get to the big leagues in a hurry. A BIG hurry. After only two full seasons in the minors, Kenny was playing 2B at Wrigley Field. It was September 1961, and Ken Hubbs was all of 19. The youngster impressed the Cubs enough that September to give GM John Holland the confidence to allow veteran 2B Don Zimmer to be placed into the pool of players available for selection in the post-1961 N. L. Expansion Draft (Zim was selected by the Mets), and to trade 1956 “Bonus Baby” and long-time erstwhile future Cubs second-baseman Jerry Kindall to Cleveland in November. Going into the 1962 season, the Fab Four Kub Kids (Ron Santo, 1961 N. L. Rookie of the Year and future Hall of Famer Billy Williams, future Hall of Famer Lou Brock, and Ken Hubbs), along with two-time N. L. MVP (1958 and 1959) and future Hall of Famer Ernie Banks ("Mr. Cub")--who averaged 44 HR per season 1957-60, and George Altman (like Banks, one of several players the Cubs acquired from the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro American League in the 1950's)--who put up outstanding offensive numbers (303/353/560) while leading the N. L. in triples in 1961, gave the Cubs a core of players that us fans hoped would develop into a contending team. In fact, the Cubs appeared to have so many good young position players in 1961 that Owner Phil Wrigley implemented his controversial "College of Coaches" plan so that young Cubs players could continue to receive instruction from "experts" even after they reached the major leagues (also theoretically allowing talented young players to be promoted to the majors more quickly), and ordered a one-year moratorium on signing amateur players, because Mr. Wrigley felt the Cubs had plenty of good young players and didn't need anymore for a while. (Fine. But how about maybe signing a few more pitchers, Phil?). For sure, the Cubs youngsters made their share of mistakes, but Santo, Williams, Brock, and Hubbs were quite obviously very talented, and each displayed occasional flashes of brilliance. For instance, in 1962 the 20-year old Hubbs set four fielding records, first two National League records and then eventually two MLB records (most consecutive games played and most consecutive chances accepted by a second-baseman without an error), by playing 78 consecutive games and accepting 418 consecutive chances without committing an error. He first broke the N. L. record (57 consecutive games and 323 consecutive chances without an error by a second-baseman) that was established in 1950 by future Hall of Famer Red Schoendienst of the St, Louis Cardinals, and then he broke the MLB record for most consecutive games and most consecutive chances accepted without an error by a second-baseman that had been set in 1948 by future Hall of Famer Bobby Doerr of the Boston Red Sox, when Doerr played 73 consecutive games and handled 414 chances without an error. (The record established by Ken Hubbs in September 1962 was broken by Orioles 2B Jerry Adair in May 1965, when Adair played 89 consecutive games and accepted 438 consecutive chances without an error). Hubbs also made an outstanding catch to start a triple play against the Mets in the last game of 1962, helping to hang the Amazin' Mets with their record-setting 120th loss of the season. On offense, Kenny tied for second on the '62 Cubs in doubles with 24, and led the team with seven triples. On May 20th, "Hubbs of the Cubs" had eight hits in a Sunday afternoon doubleheader at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia (going five-for-five in Game #2), as the Cubs swept the Phillies 6-4 and 11-2. On the negative side, Ken led the N. L. in both strikeouts and grounding into double plays (GIDP) in 1962, the only time an MLB player has managed to do that in the same season. After the 1962 season, Hubbs beat out future Hall of Famer Bill Mazeroski for the N. L. 2B Gold Glove Award (the first time a rookie won a Gold Glove, and the only time Maz failed to win a Gold Glove in the years 1960-68), and also won both the BBWAA N. L. Rookie of the Year Award (he received 19 out of 20 1st place votes--Donn Clendenon of the Pirates got the other one) and The Sporting News N. L. Rookie of the Year Award. All that at the tender age of 20! Hubbs had a very distinctive batting style, where he held his bat high and back behind his head. This (naturally) led many of us Little Leaguers to try and imitate him, but I was especially observant of everything Hubbs did because I played second-base. In fact, in my entire life, I have written "fan letters" to two Major League Baseball players, and both were Chicago second-basemen. One was Nelson Fox, and the other was Kenny Hubbs. (Hey, I was like eight years old at the time, OK??!!). And I got personally inscribed autographs back from both of them, too, that I have cherished for many years. Both Lou Brock (250/300/382) and Ken Hubbs (235/285/322, including a 4-40 slump to finish off the season) had a “Sophomore Slump” in 1963, but the Cubs as a team played over .500 for the first-time since 1946. Things were looking up! Certainly Kenny's struggles at the plate in ’63 didn’t make any of us young Cubs fans doubt that he was a future N. L. All-Star and the Cubs long-term solution at 2B. Same goes for Lou Brock in the outfield. We didn't care about OBP and SLG. We just knew that Kenny Hubbs and Lou Brock (and Ron Santo and Billy Williams, too) were really good baseball players who were bound to get a lot better after they got more experience. So now it's February 1964. The Chicago Bears (Doug Atkins, Mike Ditka, Joe Fortunato, Johnny Morris, Richie Petibon, Mike Pyle, Roosevelt Taylor, Bill Wade, et al) are newly-crowned NFL champions (this was before there was a Super Bowl), having defeated Y. A. Tittle, Frank Gifford, Sam Huff, and the New York Giants 14-10 at a frozen Wrigley Field just six weeks earlier. (Crown their ass!). The Beatles had made their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show the previous Sunday. And Ken Hubbs had just received his pilot's license (he had taken flying lessons to help himself overcome a fear of flying, and he'd had his license for all of two weeks). Piloting a Cessna 172, and with best buddy Dennis Doyle as a passenger, Hubbs was en route to Spring Training in Mesa via Salt Lake City. On Thursday, February 13th, Hubbs' plane was reported missing in a snowstorm. Maybe he made an emergency landing and was just waiting out the storm? But then two days later--it was a Saturday--the horrible news hit the wires. I guess for Cubs fans, it was like "The Day the Music Died" (when Buddy Holly, Richie Valens, and The Big Bopper were killed in a plane crash in Iowa five years earlier). I remember hearing the news about Ken Hubbs on the radio. The wreckage of the airplane and the bodies of Hubbs and Doyle were found in a frozen lake near Provo, UT. For those of you who weren't around back then, 1964-65 was a sad couple of years for Chicago sports fans. Besides Hubbs dying in a plane crash in February 1964, Bears star halfback Willie Galimore and veteran offensive end Bo Farrington were killed in a one-vehicle car crash in rural Indiana during training camp in July 1964, and WGN Radio Cubs play-by-play broadcaster Jack Quinlan was killed in a one-vehicle car crash in Mesa during Spring Training in March 1965. The Cubs tried their best to deal with the loss of Hubbs, but the ’64 team was pretty lame. Especially at second-base. The Cubs looked at a number of replacement candidates in Spring Training and throughout the season, including Jim Stewart, Leo Burke, Ron Campbell, Ken Aspromonte, and veteran Joey Amalfitano (who received the lion's share of playing time at 2B), but none of them could hope to replace Ken Hubbs. The next season, Glenn Beckert arrived (he had been moved from SS to 2B after Hubbs died), and developed into the Cubs everyday second-baseman. He was a good player for quite a few years, and I always liked Beckert, but none of us who had watched Hubbs in his two seasons with the Cubs ever forgot about him, or stopped wondering what might have been... I believe Ken Hubbs--and NOT Glenn Beckert--would have probably been the second-baseman on the "Durocher Cubs" of 1966-72. How good Hubbs would have been by mid-career (1968-73), we’ll never know. All we do know is how he played in the big leagues at age 20 and 21, when most players his age were still in college, or playing minor league ball. No question he needed to improve and make some adjustments at the plate, but despite his struggles in 1963, he looked like he would be a star for the Cubs for many years to come. You could tell by the flashes of brilliance he would display from time-to-time. Lou Brock, same thing (and I would say he developed into a pretty good player). Hubbs seemed like the type of player (and the type of person) who would do whatever it would take to make himself as good as he could be. I'm not a stat freak so I can't back this up, but I believe had Ken Hubbs lived, he would have been a perennial defensive equal to Mazeroski (Hubbs played what I would call a fastidious 2B--he had good range for someone without great speed, he could turn a DP with ease, he didn't take stupid and unnecessary risks, and he had a strong and accurate arm). Offensively, I would compare him to Brooks Robinson. Brooksie had a different batting stance, but a very similar stroke. In fact, if you look at Robinson's offensive stats with BAL in 1958 (when Brooks was 20-21), they are close to the types of numbers Hubbs put up at the same age with the Cubs in 1962-63. And despite some ups and downs early in his career, Brooks Robinson eventually turned out to be a consistently good--if not great--offensive player. Topps issued a very unusual baseball card in 1964. I had tons of baseball cards in those days, and I knew who every player was on every card and I had the stats and the bios on the backs of the cards memorized. I would rather read the Tribune sports section or the back of a baseball card than any book in my school's library. I remember opening a pack of Topps cards late in the '64 baseball season, and quite unexpectedly seeing the Ken Hubbs Memorial card on top. It made me cry just to see his picture. I had seen the Hubbs card (#550) listed on the Topps Checklist, but I had no idea it would be a memorial card. And it was the one card I kept in a special place, so that when my mom threw out my baseball card collection while I was away at college, I still had 1964 Topps #550. The Cubs did not officially retire Ken Hubbs number 16 at the time, because the Cubs did not retire numbers back then. But like with Phil Cavarretta's number 44 (which was not worn by another Cubs player for seventeen seasons after Cavarretta departed), #16 was kept out of circulation and was not issued to any Cubs player after Hubbs' death. I can remember how surprised I was when rookie Roger Metzger was issued #16 in 1970. I was surprised because I just presumed that Ken Hubbs' number would be kept out of circulation (like Cavarretta's) indefintely, or at least until a special player came along who was worthy enough to wear the number. (Like I guess it would have been OK for somebody like Ryne Sandberg to have worn number 16!). In 2003, Keith Hubbs presented his brother's baseball glove (a Spalding "Chuck Cottier" signature model second-baseman's glove) and the game balls from the games where Ken set errorless streak records in 1962 (N. L. and MLB consecutive errorless chances and consecutive errorless games) to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. The glove and the balls had been sitting untouched in Kenny's baseball gear bag at his mother's house in California for nearly 40 years. Kenny Hubbs, you have NOT been forgotten by this old Cub fan.
"Ken Hubbs had the affection and respect of all Chicago. There isn't a man in Chicago who wouldn't have been proud to have him as a son". - Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley, from a telegram read at the Ken Hubbs funeral in February 1964

Comments

Great article Phil. My father use to tell me about Hubbs( I was born in 1970) especially in 1984 when Ryno made the national stage. There was an article in SI about ten years ago it was a piece of fiction talking about the "What ifs.." in sports. One piece was a "what if" on Ken Hubbs not dying and the Cubs holding onto Brock. It was good piece of fiction which had the Cubs as the team of the 60's winning pennants and World Series.

AZ Phil. Wow. That was a wonderful tribute. Thank you for sharing that with all of us. It really makes one wonder if those late 60's cub teams might have fared a bit differently had not Hubbs been taken too early. Hearing that on the radio must have been like a punch in the gut.

Great Post AZ Phil. For those of us who wern't eight yeras old can you identify him with any other Cubs players i/o/w how does Ryne Sandberg compares to Ken Hubbs, of a future HOF such as Craig Biggio.

Excellent piece Phil! My dad still talks about Hubbs. I have a '63 Topps of Hubbs that I bought a few months ago on E-bay for about $5.00...You are a terrific writer.

Nice essay, Phil, a little bit of a tearjerker for us oldsters. I had a reminiscence about Hubbs last week, when people on this board were relating their first times at Wrigley. I don't remember my first game, but there was a long-ago afternoon when something memorable happened after the game. My grammar-school buddy Richie Friedman and I were hanging around the players' parking lot, to get autographs or just to see the players close-up, in civvies. My friend Richie was not shy, and he met Ernie Banks at his car and asked, "Going south, Ern?" Richie and I lived in South Shore, and I guess we knew that Banks lived at 82nd and Rhodes. (If I were making this up, would I know where Ernie Banks lived in the early '60s?) Banks said, Sure, hop in. I remember riding along Lake Shore Drive, sitting in the back seat with Richie riding shotgun and Ernie Banks driving. And I remember the following snippet of conversation. One of us mentioned to Banks that Ken Hubbs was a Mormon. Ernie said, "Really? I didn't know that." If you want to know something about a player, don't ask the guy playing next to him, ask an eighth-grade fan. Banks dropped us off at 79th street and we took the bus the rest of the way home. I would say this was Hubbs' rookie year.

Great piece of writing, Phil. I was 11 in '62 when Kenny played. He seemed like the guy you'd most want to be in a foxhole with. I worked with a fellow in the eraly 70's in So. Ill. who had lived in Colton & knew Kenny's family. He couldn't talk about him without tearing up.

Rory — February 13, 2007 @ 10:03 am For those of us who wern’t eight yeras old can you identify him with any other Cubs players i/o/w how does Ryne Sandberg compares to Ken Hubbs, of a future HOF such as Craig Biggio. ============================= RORY: Hubbs wasn't as fast as Sandberg, but both played 2B without making stupid mistakes. Like Don Kessinger (who was a basketball star at Ole' Miss before he signed with the Cubs--BTW, Kess was SO good that he played pro basketball a couple of seasons in the ABA,, and was later selected to the 1960's all-SEC 1st team basketball squad along with Pistol Pete Maravich, Louie Dampier, Neal Walk, and Dan Issel), Hubbs was an outstanding basketball player (it was his best sport in high school, even better than baseball), He certainly would have played varsity basketball at BYU if he had opted to go to college instead of signing with the Cubs. So (like Kessinger) Hubbs played 2B with the grace and physical moves of a basketball player. He could leap and make spectacular catches of line drives, he had excellent footwork when turning the DP, and he had good anticipation. So while he wasn't fast, he was athletic and made all the plays, including spectacular stops and catches and throws. Conversely, Glenn Beckert (for example) was a decent fielder, but he was more stiff than Hubbs in the field, and Beckert had no power, while Hubbs did have power (though it was only occasional in the two seasons he played for the Cubs at age 20 and 21), although he had plus-power potential. Jim Frey showed Sandberg how to "turn" on the ball without becoming too pull conscious, and I believe Hubbs just needed a good hitting coach (like a Jim Frey) to help him become a better hitter and to help him learn to "turn" on the ball. He had the brains and all the tools it would take to be a good hitter (especially in terms of power), and as he got older (he was only 21 in his final season before his death) he would have likely developed more power (like Brooks Robinson did). Because of the College of Coaches (1961-65), the Cubs had a tendency to rush all of their best young position players and pitchers to the big leagues. Then they would lose patience with a guy when he struggled (see Lou Brock). So the only question I have with Hubbs is what the Cubs would have done in 1964 if Hubbs (like Brock) had gotten off to a slow start. It's possible that the Cubs would have eventually traded Hubbs, so that (like Brock) he might have developed as a star with another MLB club. However, the Cubs might have stuck with Hubbs longer than they did with Brock just because of his defense, whereas Brock didn't just strugggle at the plate in his years with the Cubs, he also had a lot of difficulty playing RF (The Cardinals moved him to LF, where he should have been all along). I think a number of Cubs youngsters (including Brock and Hubbs, along with players like Nelson Mathews, Danny Murphy, and Billy Ott, plus promising young pitchers like Jim Brewer and Cal Koonce) were adversely affected by the College of Coaches. As I have said before, I like the idea of hiring expert instructors instead of the manager's cronies as MLB coaches, but where the Cubs went wrong was by hiring about a dozen "experts" (sometimes different ones from year-to-year) who rotated from the minors to the big league club and then back to the minors again throughout the year, so that Brock and Hubbs might have one hitting instructor in Spring Training, then a different one in May, and then still another one in August. It's no wonder some of the kids got confused and struggled. 

I think that my first introduction to Hubbs was from that same SI article. It really is one of the under-remembered events in the star-crossed history of the Cubs. That sort of fascinates me: why we (seem to) remember the Black Cat, Durham's Gatorade Glove, Bartman, etc etc, more than we remember Hubbs' death....

Nice article, AZ. Here's a scary article from ChicagoSports http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/cs-070212c… "Zambrano, seeking a long-term deal with an annual salary in the range of Barry Zito's $18 million-a-year contract with San Francisco, dropped the bombshell in an interview with WGN-Ch. 9. "I'm ready to sign, and I would do my job anyway with the Cubs this year," Zambrano said. "Whatever happens, I don't want to know [anything] about a contract during the season. I want to sign with the Cubs before the season starts. If they don't sign me, sorry, but I must go. That's what Carlos Zambrano thinks.""

My favorite part is that he speaks of himself in the third person.

Great piece AZ Phil. It's funny that you compared Hubbs to Brooks because that's how my dad used to refer to him..."the Cubs version of Brooks Robinson, except at 2B". I also have that 64 Topps card.

A fabulous piece, Phil, and I was fascinated by the connection you drew between the young Cubs stars who came up together and Wrigley's decision at that very time to implement the College of Coaches. I always assumed it was just one of his hare-brained schemes. I was too young to have seen Hubbs play, but I was frequently aware that when Cub fans older than me would look at Glenn Beckert, there was inevitably some comparison to Hubbs or a mention of what might have been. Same for Jack Quinlan. Cubs were lucky in the '60s and '70s to have such spendid announcers as Brickhouse, Lloyd, Boudreau, and even Lloyd Pettit, but when the conversation would turn to great baseball broadcasters, my father would always mention Quinlan.

Great article, Phil: As an older Cub fan who saw both Sandberg and Hubbs play many games, they were very similar. Both were tall for second basemen and very good fielders. Sandberg had the advantage of a superior arm. It is difficult to know if Hubbs could have improved his hitting to Sandberg level but his death was certainly a great blow to the Cubs. Keep up the great articles.

Jae Kuk Ryu has been dealt to the DRays for a couple prospects according to Levine. Names coming back should be coming within the hour.

AZ PHIL: Many thanks for this article. I only remember hearing of him as I started really following the team in 1969 when Willie Smith hit the GWH on Opening Day.

Greg Reinhard and Andy Lopez are the prospects via Rotoworld

Arizona Phil, My 77 year old father has always shared stories about Ken Hubbs and what a special player he was. I passed your article on to him. Great work and thank you for the memories.

yep, RHP Greg Reinhard and Andy Lopez an OFer...neither of which rank on any prospects list I've checked...Callis, Sickels, Mayo.

sweet...reinhard. fastball, splitter fastball, a slider, and a changeup + curve he's trying to figure out which is the best for him in-game. he lost some velocity last year, but he was throwing low-mid 90s before then. he had early control problems in 06 working deep innings, but shaped up a bit. btw...along with all the "issues" he had last year, part of his development was the DRays *not* letting him use his slider or 4-seamer last year and wanting him to use his less developed curve/changeup. interesting tallent...dunno who andy lopez is.

"*not* letting him use his slider or 4-seamer last year" well, not letting him use it like he did in college as a crutch...they wanted him to focus more on developing another pitch rather than cruising through on his 2 fastballs and slider.

I too, to this day miss Kenny Hubbs. I was 12 when his plane crash happened. I still can hear Jack Quinlan broadcasting Hubbs making double plays. Phil, you have any wonderful recollections about the radio broadcast team in the early 60's?

Man.....I need a drink after reading that. Great article. I don't go back that far and did not know much about him....

from rotowire... Shawn Green said the Mets have declined their half of his $10 million mutual option for 2008. The Mets never had any intention of picking it up from the moment they acquired him from the Diamondbacks in August. He'll get a $2 million buyout instead. The 34-year-old Green, who isn't promised a starting job this year, said he expects to continue his career in 2008. (not that I really care but...)does this mean Shawn Green is a free agent now? or just in 2008. Sounds nice to get the $2M to end the season no matter how much he sucketh this year.

ryu's gone...the 40-man is set...and the team still has wuertz, guzman, marshall, and mateo. still a bit of 25-man pitching shuffle to deal with, esp. if everyone shows up healthy and makes it to april in the same condition.

Lopez, who was drafted two rounds later in 2005, hit .256/.356/.402 as an 19-year-old in the Appalachian League. ----- Looks like the kid Lopez's main (only?) virtue is that he knows how to take a walk.

"does this mean Shawn Green is a free agent now? or just in 2008." in 08...the decision to decline the option now is a bit of a rarity, but it at least "puts green in his place" knowing he's not gonna be a front-line starter and probably not in the mets plans next season.

who what the extra person for the 40 man that necessitated moving Ryu? Did we have 41 or was someone waiting to get added (like Floyd)?

samninja, floyd, etc...its been sitting at 41 "on paper"

samardzija was probably the one added when we released Rusch as that deal seemed finalized. I've never quite heard that the Floyd deal was finalized...

I understand the Cubs have a supposed surplus of starting pitchers, but why trade away one of them who we don't NEED to trade for nothing top tier in terms of prospects in return? Oh well, I never thought Ryu was going to turn in to anything, so it is no big loss, but I would like to have seen us get more in return.

Ryu was a fringe starter at best, his future role is probably of the swingman variety. Good changeup though, I'll be surprised if he doesn't stick in the majors at some point even if it's from team to team. Let's move the Ryu talk to the new post, keep this about AZ phil's most excellent Hubbs article

This'll be my first post here, but I thought I should chime in. I'm only 20, so obviously not old enough to remember Ken Hubbs playing. I found out about him after my dad gave me all of his old baseball cards, including the 1962 Topps Ken Hubbs rookie card. Such a tragic story. After reading all the accounts here, you can't help but wonder what might have been...

Thanks for that great article. I, too, remember Kenny Hubbs. I was just nine when he died, but remember my dad's sadness at hearing the news. I also have the In Memoriam card, one of only a dozen or so that I have from my childhood. Every time an athlete dies in a plane crash, and there have been far too many, I think back to the day I heard about Kenny and think about what might have been. Keep up the fine writing about our Cubs, especially about the "old guys." This "old gal" still remembers.

Kenny Hubbs was a very, very good talent. His death was untimely and tragic.

Nice post. Boy, does that take me back. I had his baseball card but my Dad didnn't take me to my first game until the year after he died, which I believe was Don Kessinger's rookie year. The Cubs were really bad back then. I remember LOTS of errors at shortstop in that game against the Mets, who as I recall were pretty bad that season as well. Dick Bertel was catching and Dick Ellsworth and Lindey McDaniel are pitchers who I still remember from back then. Before the game my Dad told me to go ask two gentlemen sitting a few rows in front of us for an autograph. I had no idea who they were. Lou Bodreau and Pat Piper. Was Ron Santo Hubbs' roomate on the road?

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Recent comments

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    There are two clear "logjams" in the Cubs minor league pipeline at the present time, namely AA outfielders (K. Alcantara, C. Franklin, Roederer, Pagan, Pinango, Beesley, and Nwogu) and Hi-A infielders (J. Rojas, P. Ramirez, Howard, R. Morel, Pertuz, R. Garcia, and Spence, although Morel has been getting a lot of reps in the outfield in addition to infield). So it is possible that you might see a trade involving one of the extra outfielders at AA and/or one of the extra infielders at Hi-A in the next few days. 

  • Arizona Phil (view)

    18-year old SS Jefferson Rojas almost made the AA Tennessee Opening Day roster, and he is a legit shortstop, so I would expect him to be an MLB Top 100 prospect by mid-season. 

  • Arizona Phil (view)

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  • Arizona Phil (view)

    I expect OF Christian Franklin to have a breakout season at AA Tennessee in 2024. In another organization that doesn't have PCA, Caissie, K. Alcantara, and Canario in their system, C. Franklin would be a Top 10 prospect. 

  • Arizona Phil (view)

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  • 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)

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  • Childersb3 (view)

    Seconded!!!

  • crunch (view)

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  • 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...