Month: January 2009

Sox Bring on Big Man to Fill Big Hole in Rotation

colon With Javier Vazquez traded off to Atlanta, good riddance, Chicago had an open slot in their rotation, in Back to the Future fashion, Kenny Williams flipped back to 2003, and Bartolo Colon. Colon was signed to a $1 million dollar contract, with an innings pitched clause that could be worth an additional $2 million dollars. Workhorse Bartolo is a big man, who pitches big innings, when healthy, 242 in 2003 with the White Sox. He was limited to only 39 innings with the Red Sox in 2008, due to injury.

It seems as though the White Sox may be out of the Freddy Garcia sweepstakes, looks like Freddy will be heading to the Big Apple, either with the Yankees or the Mets. So the Sox rotation is Mark Buehrle, Gavin Floyd, John Danks, two righthanders coming off injuries (Jose Conreras & Bartolo Colon), and possibly young lefty Aaron Poreda.

Last year Esteban Loaiza was brought in as a rotation possibility, but without his fastball, he was ineffective, and quickly gone. Hopefully Colon will make out better this year.

Links to 2009 Cubs Convention photos

By now, fans have left the 2009 Cubs Convention.  If you’re interested, Al Yellon from Bleed Cubbie Blue did a writeup on the event including some his photos.  Thanks Al!  I wish I had gone. 

The Chicago Tribune has a nice photo gallery of the Cubs Convention, too. 

If anyone else has a link to their photos/blog posts about the Cubs Convention, please let me know and I’ll post them.

PS Here is the 2009 Wrigley Field Schedule of Promotional Events also courtesy of Al.

Cubs give up on Pie… it was only a matter of time

Felix Pie has been traded to the Baltimore Orioles.  The fact that he’s been traded shouldn’t come as too much as a surprise to Cub fans.  The acquisition of Joey Gathright was pretty much the final nail in Pie’s coffin as a Cub.

In return for Pie, the Cubs got back LHP Garret Olson and RHP Henry Williamson. 

Looking at USA Today’s fantasy profile on Olson, it’s hard to find any positives.  That page is filled with words like, “mess”, pathetic performance” and “ugly numbers”.  I can say that up until he got to the majors 2007, his K/9 hovered around 9.0.  But his 6.00+ ERA last year doesn’t inspire confidence. 

Henry Williamson is more of an unknown having pitched professionally for 2 years with only 90 innings under his belt.  Last year in A ball, he struck out 42 in only 29 innings if a small sample size is any indication.

Will Felix Pie flourish or at least survive in the Orioles organization.  If he follows Corey Patterson’s pattern, he might have some share of success.  A change of venue has always helped Pie.  Unfortunately for him, the successes he’s had have been in the minors and winter ball.  Once placed in the bigs, all the talents that Felix was supposed to possess seem to vanish.

uh-oh… now Dave Parker is talking in the third person

Dave Parker couldn’t hold it in when he found out he didn’t pass muster in this year’s Hall of Fame election. 

Part of his rant (my emphasis):

“What I represented to my teams also should be considered,” Parker said. “I was always the guy or one of the guys. It seems like none of that is taken into consideration.

“I think it’s gonna take a (public relations) campaign to really bring to the light that this guy was a heck of a player.”

Parker didn’t come close to the 75% vote in the 2009 ballot.  He garnered just 15% of the writer’s votes.


 

Koji Uehara Signs With O’s

koji-uehara The Orioles have signed 33 year old starting pitcher Koji Uehara, of the Yomiuri Giants. As a rookie in 1999 he was the leader in wins (20), strikeouts (179), ERA (2.09), winning percentage (.833, 20-4 record), complete games (12), and was named Rookie of the Year. Koji was the Sawamura Award (named after legendary Yomiuri Giants pitcher Eiji Sawamura of the 1930s & 40s) winner in 1999 & 2002, best starting pitcher in Japan. Due to an injury in 2007 Uehara pitched as a closer, saving 32 games, with a 1.74 ERA. He returned to the starting rotation in 2008.

Koji has enjoyed alot of international success with a 12-0 record and 2 saves, appearing in the Olympic Games (twice), the World Baseball Classic, as well as the Asian Baseball Championships. He was the winning pitcher against Cuba in the championship game of the WBC, and led the tournament with 16 strikeouts. In 1998 Uehara rejected a $3 million dollar offer to sign with the Angels on the advice of friends and acquaintances, and instead signed with Yomiuri. Although he had his struggles in 2008, he is a durable pitcher, and it should be interesting to see how he fares with the Orioles.

Freshman catcher practices his footwork in the offseason

Illinois freshman catcher Adam Davis was featured in an Inside Illinois article by Melissa Mitchell on University of Illinois athletes gaining “increased agility, dexterity through (a) dance class”. 

Apparently, it’s a popular move by all the sports coaches at Illinois.  The class they took was Dance 100 taught by Kate Kuper.

Davis seemed to take to the dance floor well.

ā€œBeing a catcher, I need good feet work, and dance helps me with my feet work,ā€ he said.

Davisā€™ moves havenā€™t been lost on his teacher.

ā€œHeā€™s very comfortable with his body, and heā€™s not afraid to try things,ā€ Kuper said.

I’m looking forward to seeing Mr Davis busting a few moves behind the plate during the upcoming season.

Zimmer recovering from ztroke

Word is out that Don Zimmer is recovering from a stroke he had last month.  He is doing much better and actually hopes to join the Rays for spring training this year. 

The game of baseball has taken Zim all around the majors wearing different hats.  Even after he left the Cubs in 1991, has always remained one of my favorite men in baseball and I sincerely hope he gets back soon,

Was Dwight Evans HOF good?

Tonight, I ran across Baseball Hall Monitor’s latest post on Jim Rice.Ā  They state:

Riceā€™s teammate on the Red Sox, Evans has more career HRs than Rice, more runs scored, a higher on-base percentage and nearly as many hits and RBI. Oh, and Evans won eight Gold Gloves to Riceā€™s zero. But you canā€™t vote for Evans anymore, since he was dropped from the ballot in 2000 for lack of support.

It’s a compelling argument and I don’t necessarily disagree.Ā  Honestly, I didn’t know Evans’ stats compared that well.

My guess for Rice’s appeal is the intimidation factor.Ā  Rice hit 35+ homeruns four times back when 35 homeruns really meant something.Ā  He can also point to his mantle and right there is his MVP award from 1978.

Evans offensive stats were gathered over a longer period of time (20 seasons to Rice’s 16).Ā  That doesn’t discount it in any way at all but it does mean for less impact per year.Ā  Ironically, Evans’ most productive year came at the advanced age of 35 when he hit 34 homers and drove in 123 runs.

Was Evans HOF material?Ā  It’s a moot point since we’re too late to vote him in now.Ā  But considering that Evans’ and Rice’s OPS+ are within 1 point of each other plus add to that Evans’ defensive value, it would have been close.

On the other hand, comparing players for the Hall of Fame is a slippery slope.Ā  If you start playing this game instead of holding players up to a certain standard (most likely standardized to their era), it could never end.Ā  Then you could end up inducting players like Mark Grace and Greg Vaughn.

thoughts?

This year’s rule changes to be considered

MLB team owners are set to decide on two rule changes for Major League Baseball.  They’re relatively minor changes but worth noting. 

The first rule change only codifies what essentially took place during the rainy Game 5 of the World Series between the Phillies and the Rays.  Under current rules, these games only become official when the trailing team record 15 outs. 

Selig used rules governing suspended games at the time, but said had it been stopped with the Phillies leading, 2-1, in the fifth, the game would have gone into a rain delay until it was safe to resume.

“We’ll stay here if we have to celebrate Thanksgiving here,” he said.

After the last owners’ meetings in New York in November, Selig said he told the owners that his interpretation of the rule would be codified.

The second change under consideration regards  how the decision is made who hosts one-game tiebreakers.  Currently, coin flips a few weeks beforehand are used to make the decision. 

Teams are asking that head-to-head records be used instead. 

2009 Cubs Convention Attendees list

Here’s the updated schedule for the 2009 Cubs Convention this weekend.Ā  This time it’s complete with an attendees list.

And it comes with one glaring addition… Milton Bradley.Ā  Since his signing he’s been added to the list.

Be gentle with him, Cub fans.Ā  He’s a tad delicate.

Here’s the full list of attendees:

  • Ernie Banks
  • Darwin Barney
  • Glenn Beckert
  • Milton Bradley
  • Bob Brenly
  • Bill Buckner
  • Randy Bush
  • Jose Cardenal
  • Neal Cotts
  • Doug Dascenzo
  • Jody Davis
  • Ryan Dempster
  • Bob Dernier
  • Ivan DeJesus
  • Leon Durham
  • Oneri Fleita
  • Mike Fontenot
  • Joey Gathright
  • Doug Glanville
  • Kevin Gregg
  • Brandon Guyer
  • Rich Harden
  • Kevin Hart
  • Jim Hendry
  • Koyie Hill
  • Micah Hoffpauir
  • Pat Hughes
  • Randy Hundley
  • Ferguson Jenkins
  • Len Kasper
  • Crane Kenney
  • Derrek Lee
  • Reed Johnson
  • Ted Lilly
  • Carlos Marmol
  • Sean Marshall
  • Aaron Miles
  • Keith Moreland
  • Gerald Perry
  • Lou Piniella
  • Larry Rothschild
  • Rick Reuschel
  • Mike Quade
  • Jeff Samardzija
  • Ryne Sandberg
  • Scott Sanderson
  • Ron Santo
  • Matt Sinatro
  • Lee Smith
  • Alfonso Soriano
  • Geovany Soto
  • Tim Stoddard
  • Lester Strode
  • Rick Sutcliffe
  • Ryan Theriot
  • Alan Trammell
  • Steve Trout
  • Tim Wilken
  • Billy Williams
  • Carlos Zambrano