Cubs MLB Roster

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40-Man Roster Info

40 players are on the MLB RESERVE LIST (roster is full), plus two players are on the 60-DAY IL   

26 players on MLB RESERVE LIST are ACTIVE, and eight players are on OPTIONAL ASSIGNMENT to minors, four players are on the 15-DAY IL, and two players is on the 10-DAY IL

Last updated 4-28-2024
 
* bats or throws left
# bats both

PITCHERS: 13
Yency Almonte
Adbert Alzolay 
Javier Assad
Colten Brewer
Ben Brown
* Shota Imanaga
Mark Leiter Jr
* Richard Lovelady
Hector Neris 
Daniel Palencia 
Jameson Taillon 
Keegan Thompson
Hayden Wesneski 

CATCHERS: 2
Miguel Amaya
Yan Gomes

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

OUTFIELDERS: 4
* Pete Crow-Armstrong 
# Ian Happ
Seiya Suzuki
* Mike Tauchman 

OPTIONED: 8 
Kevin Alcantara, OF 
Michael Arias, P 
Jose Cuas, P 
Brennen Davis, OF 
Porter Hodge, P 
* Luke Little, P 
* Miles Mastrobuoni, INF
Luis Vazquez, INF 

10-DAY IL: 2
* Cody Bellinger, OF  
Seiya Suzuki, OF

15-DAY IL: 4
Kyle Hendricks, P 
* Drew Smyly, P 
* Justin Steele, P
* Jordan Wicks, P    

60-DAY IL: 2 
Caleb Kilian, P 
Julian Merryweather, P
 




Minor League Rosters
Rule 5 Draft 
Minor League Free-Agents

Soriano Slider Watch

Submitted by Rob G. on

Theories have been abundant on the rapid decline of $100 million dollar man Alfonso Soriano, from age, to bad legs, to just a bad season in 2009 because of bad legs and his age.  As our man Transmission showed last year, as well as Joe Posnanski and a few other articles, part of the puzzle was teams throwing more sliders to Soriano as well as Soriano not doing his normal damage on fastballs.

So let's see how Opening Day went for #12 with the caveat that Pitch F/X and its pitch recognition isn't 100% accurate.

1st AB vs. Lowe (2 outs, nobody on)

Slider - Ball

Slider - GO 5-3

2nd AB vs. Lowe (leading off the 4th)

Slider - GO 5-3 (yes, Soriano swung at a first pitch slider low and outside)

3rd AB vs. Lowe (2 out, nobody on)

Slider - Called Strike

Slider - Swinging Strike

Slider - Swinging Strike

4th AB vs. Wagner (2 out, nobody on)

Slider - Called Strike

Slider - Ball

Fastball - Fouled Off

Fastball - Swing and a Miss for the K

10 pitches, 8 sliders total (2 from a lefty though)

Days left on Soriano's contract (assuming Sept. 28, 2014 is the last day of the season, could be Oct. 5, 2014).

Some other observations from yesterday's game...

  • As Carlos noted in Parachat, yesterday's bottom of the first inning was a highlight reel on the luck(or lack of luck for the Cubs) of BABIP
  • At least Z kept his composure out there and the Gatorade machine was spared. I keed.
  • Byrd looked kind of slow out there in center field, didn't he? I also thought he liked to play shallow?
  • Speaking of defense, the adage is you want to be strong up the middle. The Cubs answer to that is Byrd, Theriot, Fontenot and Soto.
  • Where will Ninja be playing on the home opener - Wrigley or Iowa?
  • How do we convince Fukudome it's always April? 337/452/535 with 15 2B, 2 3B,5 HR, 38 R, 25 RBI's over the last two seasons and a game during the inaugral month.

The good news is there are 161 games left to go...I think that's good news.

Tags
Pitch F/X
Alfonso Soriano

Comments

Submitted by jacos on Tue, 04/06/2010 - 04:49 pm

"Facts are meaningless; they can be used to prove anything" I sorta noticed last year when catcher was sitting behind lh hitter's box when Sori batted.

Submitted by crunch on Tue, 04/06/2010 - 04:57 pm

what's up with pitch FX anyway? this offseason i spent some time digging through their data and was blown away at how many mis-classified pitches they've assigned to pitchers. it was a revolution 3+ years ago...now it's getting a lot of head scratching with it's findings. it REALLY has issues with 2-seam vs. 4-seam fastballs and imo you cannot treat these pitches as the same with almost any pitcher. if a guy throws a pitch from another arm slot that takes a little off the velocity it can even end up being called a slider or similar... guys refining their fastball and playing with velocity (esp. if it leads to the ball moving or dropping) can get weird results, too.

[ ]

Submitted by Rob G. on Tue, 04/06/2010 - 04:02 pm

es hardly perfection and they don't change the settings everytime a new pitcher comes in... I imagine the software is programmed to judge by velocity, drop, release point, movement and spits out a pitch. I think we all know, as I stated, that there is some issues with their pitch recognition, although the 10 pitches to Soriano yesterday were in line with what I saw.

Submitted by Cubnut on Tue, 04/06/2010 - 04:16 pm

From the aforementioned Joe Posnanski in the Sports Illustrated Baseball Preview, quoting Bill James... "Willy Mo Pena never saw a slider in his major league career. He thought they were all fastballs." (Replace WMP with "Fonzie")

Submitted by Rob G. on Tue, 04/06/2010 - 04:49 pm

Nothing strangulates a sports club more than having older players on long contracts, because once they stop performing, they become immovable. And as they become older, the risk of injury becomes exponential. It’s less costly to bring [on] a young player. If it doesn’t work, you can go and find the next guy, and the next guy. The downside risk is lower, and the upside much higher. It’s almost like he is managing a mutual fund.” —Athletics general manager Billy Beane on Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger (Simon Kuper, Financial Times) http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=10463

Submitted by Ryno on Tue, 04/06/2010 - 04:52 pm

Soriano was brutal yesterday, no doubt, but anyone can have a rough day. I'll give him a few weeks. Love the countdown, btw.

Submitted by Transmission on Tue, 04/06/2010 - 04:16 pm

Wow, that's right, I actually once upon a time contributed useful insight around here. Cool!

Submitted by Rob G. on Tue, 04/06/2010 - 04:52 pm

http://cubs.scout.com/2/960139.html differences I spotted from Phil's report on Sunday T. Blackford & D. Patton aren't on the AA roster L. Sommer and C. Siegfried will start with Daytona rather than AA C. Lambert is on the Tennessee DL (along with M. Spencer as noted) no sign of J. Leverton, D. McDaniel, J. James, L. Flores, or A. Sosa, all of whom Phil saw assigned to Daytona. I assume some were cut and some will stay back in extended spring training.

Submitted by crunch on Tue, 04/06/2010 - 04:50 pm

killer... april 10 (SAT) through april 18 (also, SAT) we have 8 day games in a row. 2 @CIN and 6 @CHC. *golf clap* bravo.

[ ]

Submitted by crunch on Wed, 04/07/2010 - 04:02 pm

off day smashed up in there. i'm just settling into the fact that after missing the cubs opening day because of it being a day game it seems i'm in for another week of it except for some weekend games. it's a me-thing rather than it being a bad team-thing. laaaaaaaaaaaame.

Submitted by H_Vaughn on Tue, 04/06/2010 - 04:13 pm

Thank you for affirming my casual observation that Marlon Byrd looks awfully chubby and slow for a CF. How bad will it have to get to remove Soriano from the lineup? I mean, seriously, if he's batting .193 at the end of May, will they do something?

Submitted by artskoe on Wed, 04/07/2010 - 04:49 am

Good Morning Mr. Phelps. Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to get Alfonso Soriano to bat OUTSIDE the lineup. The secretary knows this has never been done outside of the American League. But god knows the manager can't do it, so it is up to you and your team, Mr. Phelps. Find a way to get Soriano in Left field without him actually coming to bat as an automatic out. As usual, if you or any of your team gets caught, the secretary will disavow any knowledge of your activity. Good luck Jim. This tape will self destruct in 5 seconds.

[ ]

Submitted by navigator on Wed, 04/07/2010 - 04:46 pm

I wish Ricketts was worrying more about what's ON the field than on the walls. Just wait. If this flies with the fans, those pix will be replaced with advertising sometime down the road.

[ ]

Submitted by Rob G. on Wed, 04/07/2010 - 04:52 pm

what exactly do you want Ricketts to be doing with the team? He's an owner, they should worry about making money and hiring the right front office personnel to spend the money. Wrigley is still there biggest cash cow to spend on players, he should absolutely be worried about it and trying to improve the fan experience. They've committed to Hendry for at least this year, let Hendry do his job. Then fire him if they don't make the playoffs this season.

[ ]

Submitted by Michaelweaselo on Fri, 04/09/2010 - 04:08 am

I understand not wanting Wrigley to become some sort of corporate shrine filled with product placement and massive advertising signs. However, I also think that the argument that BECAUSE Wrigley is an old school ball park there should be no adulteration of it in any way is silly. All of the old school ball parks had advertising plastered everywhere. I tend to think that the advertising disappears into the noise after a few visits to the ballpark. Id much prefer a few signs to uniforms that are basically advertisements first like in Soccer. Soccer has little choice with no timeouts and only two 45 minute halves. They need the revenue to come from somewhere. But Id take a Toyota sign over the Cubs becoming sponsored by Poker Stars.net or Emirates Airlines.

Submitted by Rob G. on Wed, 04/07/2010 - 04:07 pm

Byrd vs. Jurrjens, Swisher vs. Lackey (terrible track record for Swisher vs. Lackey but has started the season off well), T. Snider vs. Harden @ Texas or JJ Hardy vs. E. Santana @ LA? I'm leaning towards Snider.

Recent comments

  • Childersb3 (view)

    If PCA and Mervis both go down I guess Mastro would have to be the 13th bat.
    I really think PCA (if he keeps hitting) can help more than Mastro. I understand the development piece. He wasn't hitting well in Iowa before Belli's injury. But, if he keeps hitting, they can get him ABs. But, he probably goes to Iowa. So, I guess it's really Mervis vs Mastro for the 13th spot. Mervis doesn't have anything more to prove/learn at AAA unless they change his swing or something like that.

    I don't think Almonte can go to Iowa unless we DFA him and no team picks him up.

    I don't necessarily agree with the notion that the Cubs cannot be as good as the NYY, LAD or ATL so just don't try. The young guys are playing well. The arms are producing. Veterans are good or at least okay. We're winning the division on April 30th.
    I think getting a better DH or CP is worth the effort. I'm not saying give up ONKC, PCA or Jaguar for a rental. Horton might the arm we add this summer anyway!! ONKC might be the DH we add this summer.  But I wouldn't mind adding an arm like Kopech in June to help earlier than usual.
    Don't sell the farm (we can't right now anyways with all the injuries) but it's something to think about.

  • Childersb3 (view)

    Horton to Iowa !! He's getting closer folks !!

  • Bill (view)

    It is easy to quibble about details, but the major thing I see is that I believe that PCA will return to Iowa when Bellinger comes back, regardless of how well he does until then.

    Mervis will be going down.  He needs consistent playing time, whether to get him ready for the Cubs to bring up, or to improve his trade value.

    Madrigal and Mastrobuone are pretty interchangeable as far as value is concerned.  I doubt that the season will be substantially changed no matter which one is chosen.  Madrigal may win one game with a timely single, while Mastrobuone may win one with a timely home run, but I would expect a wash for the season.

    The pitching staff will be all of the above.  Wesneski, Keagan, Alomonte, et al will remain on the Iowa shuttle whenever someone is temporarily overworked and a new rested arm is needed.  I doubt that will change.

    Right now it looks as if the Cubs are performing at the upper end of their team potential.  But their talent level is nowhere near elite level, and adding one or two players, whether closer or hitter, is not going to bring them up to an elite level, equal to the Dodgers, Braves, or Yankees.  We are going to have to wait another year or two for that, when the PCA, Cassie, Horton, Brown, Alcontara group not only come up, but have a year or two experience behind them.  And of that group, Horton and Brown are the only ones that can really make an immense difference.  

    One elite pitcher is much more valuable than one elite hitter.

  • Childersb3 (view)

    18-11 and gave a way a "few". Leading the division on April 30th
    So, I'm going to pose a question based on the idea of the injured players coming back and the roster appearing stable. 
    => Steele-Taillon-Imanaga-Assad-Wicks-Brown-Wesneski-Keegan-Leiter-Alzolay-Neris are locks. That leaves Almonte-Brewer-Palencia-Little-Smyly-Lovelady for the last three pen spots. Hendricks is out for me.
    => Amaya-Gomes-Busch-Nico-Dansby-Morel-Happ-Belli-Seiya-Tauch-Wisdom-Madrigal are locks.  That means it's PCA-Mervis-Mastro for the last spot. If PCA out performs Mervis and gets routine ABs, I think Jed will keep him up. I still wonder if Mastro is a better option than Madrigal but's probably a waste of time to consider.
    The Question: what are the spots we need to "add" ? 8th/9th Inning Bullpen spot, right?
    If PCA can hit, I think our best lineup is Belli at 1B, PCA in CF and Busch at DH. Tauch seems to hit better when he's a fielder and not a DH. Maybe Tauch in CF. But Belli is certainly our best 1B defender !!
    So, who can we add for late Bullpen help?
    The dream is Clase from Clev, but they're winning so he isn't going anywhere.
    Mason Miller from A's, but he'd cost a fortune.
    How about Kopech from the Southsiders? He hits FAgency in 1.5 yrs. He turned 28 today.
    Thoughts?
     

  • Charlie (view)

    Well, game 29 on the year was a hell of a game. That felt like a throwback, too. I had a feeling Morel had a shot at catching up to that fastball.

  • Childersb3 (view)

    Phil,

    Any thoughts/details on Carico and/or JP Wheat?

  • crunch (view)

    MIL loses!

    cubs finally get to sole control of 1st place in the central.

  • crunch (view)

    MIL out here stealing 3rd with 1 out and down by 1 in the bottom 9th.

    it worked.  this MIL team is annoyingly fun to watch so far this year...

  • crunch (view)

    it took him 24 pitches, 2 walks, 2 Ks...but he got it done.  woo.

  • azbobbop (view)

    Full pack!

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