Elbow loose bodies
Chips Ahoy
According to Sun-Times beat reporter, Gordon Wittenmeyer, with the signing of John Grabow to a 2/7.5 contract (backended as only Jim Hendry can do) and the trading of Aaron Heilman to the Snakes, the Cubs have supposedly made their final bullpen move of the offseason.
The deal appears to secure the final key piece to the Cubs' projected 2010 bullpen, coming one day after the team traded veteran Aaron Heilman to the Arizona Diamondbacks.
I'm pretty happy to see Heilman move out of town but replacing him with Grabow seems kind of blah. It's a Hendry thing to get a grizzled veteran for that 8th inning setup role and since Grabow is able to get lefty and righty hitters out (i.e. not a LOOGY), he's the heir apparent for the crusty veteran out of the bullpen for 2010.
List em. Since Jim Hendry was given the reins to the GM job in 2002, he's added through trade or free agency the following veteran bullpen lugnuts: Antonio Alfonseca, Mike Remlinger, Dave Veres, Mark Guthrie, Alan Benes, Phil Norton, Joe Borowoski, LaTroy Hawkins, Glendon Rusch, Cliff Bartosh, Scott Williamson, Chad Fox (twice), Bob Howry, Scott Eyre, Neal Cotts, Chad Gaudin, Jon Lieber, Luis Vizcaino, Aaron Heilman and lastly Grabow. I'd say for the most part, that's the ugly underbelly of MLB pitching although I know the Cubs are far from being alone in accumulating pitchers like these. Hence, I'm hoping the 2010 Cubs get more out of their young pitching so we don't see Chad Fox (round three?) ever again. Esmalin Caridad, Jeff Stevens and Justin Berg, I'm talking to you. It would be really nice to see productive seasons out of the recent 40 man roster additions including John Gaub, Blake Parker and even longshot/hotshot Raphael Dolis.
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crunch (view)
brewer has done nothing to keep him on the big league roster...imagine that's 1 guy gone.
yeah, it's only 2 appearances, but they were both unimpressive.
Childersb3 (view)
Yeah it is.....sorry......closers don't throw 89mph
It would be unique for sure.
But CP can't be HR susceptible
That's what Alzolay has right now and that's what Kyle has no matter the situation.
Childersb3 (view)
Supposedly Happ said on a radio show he's good to go
I hadn't read that anywhere from the usual accounts, so this could be off.
If true, Canario goes down.
TarzanJoeWallis (view)
Hmmm. Maybe my idea of transitioning Hendricks into a closer role isn’t so crazy.
Childersb3 (view)
Mervis and Wesneski getting promoted aaccording to Tommy Birch from Des Moines Register.
So Happ to the IL
Maybe Hendricks to IL ????
Mervis/Cooper are DH platoon
Wisdom, Canario, Tauchman share LF/RF
I wonder if Busch has ever played LF?
I don't believe he has
crunch (view)
“I respect his track record of what he’s accomplished,” Counsell said on Sunday morning. “And you go through these. He’s gone through -- maybe not this particular stretch -- but stretches where you’re not pitching the way you want to and struggling. And you figure it out.” -- Counsell on Hendricks
fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu...
i respect his track record of no longer being in the rotation. in 2016 he threw 2 innings out of the pen, his only work out of the pen. the cubs won the world series that year. let's repeat that magic. the formula is obvious. stats don't lie. etc etc whatever...
small sample size and all, but how about this craziness...
"Entering Sunday, Hendricks had allowed an .843 OPS against hitters in their initial plate appearance, followed by a 1.056 OPS in a second meeting and a 2.449 OPS when seeing batters for a third time."
Finwe Noldaran (view)
Phil: Great to see what Rosario is doing!
Do you think having Rosario may have influenced/impacted the front office's decision on including Hope in the trade for Busch at all?
crunch (view)
it's so crazy we got a new "barnstorming" harlem globetrotters-type baseball product that was introduced less than 5 years ago and is wildly popular all over the nation.
a notion left long in the past, unearthed, polished for modern audiences and popular as ever.
Arizona Phil (view)
No question right now Alfonsin Rosario is one of the Cubs Top 20 prospects (probably Top 15). Rosario is to the Cubs what Zyhir Hope is to the Dodgers.
Arizona Phil (view)
The Savannah Bananas will be playing the Party Animals at Sloan Park in Mesa this coming Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. The games are sold out (15,000+ each night), and berm tickets are going for well over $100.