July 2009 Archives

Neil ran a post on the homepage a few days ago asking what you would do as the GM.

I pose a similar question, but wanted to take different criteria into consideration. Let's suppose you were able to find takers for all of our big contracts. Who would you move first, and why? The second part of the question is, who would you replace them with?

Here's my list:

1) Bradley-as a clubhouse cancer, injury prone, and underachiever his entire MLB career, Bradley takes the cake as worst signing in all of baseball probably for the last 10 years, given length of deal and dollar amount. We can easily replace his "production" in the lineup with Hoffpauir or Fox...heck, even Fuld

2) Soriano-next to Bradley, he's one of the worst free agent signings of the past decade. His swings look downright awful. He can't hit offspeed pitches, and his bat speed has slowed considerably to the point where you wonder if he's really 36 years old, and not 33 years old. Unfortunately, ...

The guy's promoted from Iowa. "0-3 with a 2.18 ERA and 2 saves in 30 games. He has a tidy WHIP of 1.09, having pitched 41.1 innings and giving up 25 hits and 20 walks while striking out 43," according to the Herald's Bruce Miles. With Marmol struggling on command and Dempster off the active chart, opening doors to potential dump of workloads for our bullpen, will Stevens be the fresh arm we are waiting for?

So I just caught a summer Olympic game @Beijing on an internet tv thing half an hour ago. It was August 2008, last year. I wasn't planning to watch it, but I played with my remote, and tuned there, saw bottom of the 8th, semifinal... Hey, isn't that Jeff?

He was representing Team USA with honor and pride, against the King Amateuri, the Cuba National Team. It's August. Jeff Stevens, still belied the Indians system, should be in midseason form. There's no excuse of not enough warmup or mental preparation. No food poisoning--Com'on, every educated traveler knows that ...

Brian and Shaun did an excellent job talking about this on the podcast last night with the whole Piniella situation. I'm wondering how his recent comments affect his players. Will they take it as a challenge, or will they replay the disappearing act we've seen all year? Will Joshua be let go later this season (doubtful...but with Hendry and Piniella, you just never know)? Will any other coaches be fired? Will Hendry have enough of Piniella's shenanigans, and fire him? Will the sale of the team ever happen? These are all some very interesting questions that will probably be answered VERY soon.

If, by chance, we do lose the series to the Cards (again, I hope not...but it's quite likely now), then you have to think going into the All-Star break that Hendry is going to have to make some big changes. As Brian and Shaun said, the worst possible thing that could happen to this team is if the Utay group wins the bid, as they have absolutely no interest in winning. If that's the case ...

Bruce Levine had this on his blog at ESPNCHICAGO.com:

"Major League Baseball sources confirm that the sale would actually be only $850 million in cash, since Tribune owner Sam Zell will keep 5-7 percent ownership in the team in order to avoid a huge tax bite because of capital gains taxes. Zell will put most of the money that he realizes in the sale toward his debt of $8.1 billion that he paid for the Tribune Company, now in Chapter 11 receivership."

"The Ricketts family borrowed $450 million from three major banks: JP Morgan, Bank of America and Citicorp. The rate of the financing will be between 5 and 6 percent annually; that means that the Cubs' new owners must come up with $25-30 million per year just to pay financing on the loan. An impeccable major league source told me that the Cubs netted $45 million in 2008. New revenue sources, including personal seat licensing (PSLs) will be a part of the aggressive way the new owners will look for more cash."

Ot ...

With the All Star Game coming up, I was thinking, who would win a home run derby with all 25 guys on the Cubs roster in it? I think it would be interesting if they had an All Cubs HR Derby! So who would it be?
Bradley???
Soriano???
Fontenot???
Hoffpauir???
Fox???
Lee???
Ramirez???
Zambrano???

Well what do you think? Please vote on the poll on my blog and let me know who you think would win a Cubs HR Derby! Here's my blog URL:
http://www.everythingcubs.blogspot.com/
Thanks!

Tribune Co. finalizes deal to sell Cubs, Wrigley
July 6, 2009 10:23 AM | 3 Comments
Tribune Co. has reached a deal to sell the Chicago Cubs and Wrigley Field to the Ricketts family, a source familiar with matter said this morning.

The two sides finalized a sale agreement over the weekend and have forwarded the contract to Major League Baseball, the source said.

The deal must be approved by other baseball owners. With Tribune Co. operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the sale also will need court approval.

The source said the sales price is "close" to the $900 million bid the Ricketts offered earlier this year that won an auction for the baseball team, stadium and a 25 percent stake in Comcast SportsNet Chicago, a regional cable television sports network.

Aramis Ramirez is playing third and batting third for Peoria Chiefs today in his last rehab start.

First at-bat: Singles on a fly ball to left field, 1-1

Second at-bat: Walk, 1-1

Third at-bat: Flys out to the right field, 1-2

Reed Johnson is playing CF and batting first for Peoria Chiefs in his last rehab start.

First at-bat: Singles on a fly ball to center field and scored a run, 1-1

Second at-bat: Flys out to the CF, 1-2

Third at-bat: Grounds out to the pitcher, 1-3

Fourth at-bat: Pops out to the first baseman in foul territory, 1-4

If everything goes exactly as plan and both of them feel 100% or close they will be activated off the 15 day DL tomorrow.

Aramis Ramirez is the DH and batting third for Peoria Chiefs today in his second rehab start.

First at-bat: Grounded into double play, 0-1

Second at-bat: Walk, 0-1

Third at-bat: Single on a line drive to left field and got a rbi, 0-1

Reed Johnson is playing CF and batting first for the Peoria Chiefs today in his second rehab start.

First at-bat: Walk, 0-0

I will have the rehab starts after the game tomorrow.

I think the Cubs should pursue Freddy because of the hitting problems with Aaron Miles and Fontenot. Freddy always seems to do great at Wrigley field too. The Pirates are probably going to look to trade players as usual so why don't the Cubs go get him. He would be a great pick up who could hit at the top of the order. I am sure the Pirates wouldn't need to get too much from Sanchez because giving up the $6.25 million contract would be a bonus for the Pirates to get some young players.

Aramis Ramirez is playing third and batting third for Peoria Chiefs today in his first rehab start.

First at-bat: Double on a line drive to CF and scored a run, 1-1

Second at-bat: Walk and scored a run, 1-1

Third at-bat: Flys out to the right fielder, 1-2

Reed Johnson is playing CF and batting first for Peoria Chiefs today.

First at-bat: Pop out to the SS, 0-1

Second at-bat: Single on a line drive to CF and scored a run, 1-2

Third at-bat: Hit By Pitch, 1-2

Angel Guzman is pitching for Triple A Iowa today in a rehab start.

Guzman pitched 1.1 inning giving up 1 hit, 1 walk and struck out 1, he was relieved bu newly acquired Casey Fossum.

The first batter he face in the game was Texas Rangers CF Josh Hamilton which is also on a rehab start for the Rangers. Guzman force Hamilton to ground out.

If everything goes well for Ramirez and Johnson, they can come back as early as Monday and Guzman will eithe ...