The Ivy Covered Burial Ground: February 2018

Tuesday, February 20, 2018

Roster Competition

That's pretty simple. Barring injuries, there is virtually none.

Among the position players, twelve players are pretty much locks to leave spring training with guaranteed spots, viz., Contreras, Rizzo, Zobrist, Baez, Russell, Bryant, Happ, Schwarber, Almora, Heyward, LaStella, and a reserve catcher.

The catcher will either be Gimenez or Caratini. Most people are betting on Gimenez because of his prior success catching Darvish, but I wouln't count necessarily on that. Caratini is on the 40-man roster; Gimenez is not, so basically someone is going to have to be dropped from that set to make room for Gimenez. Maybe one of the marginal pitchers, but, still, that could be a reach.

The Cubs could elect to add a thirteenth position player, though, for some reason, they always seem to like having thirteen pitchers. Should they choose to go with thirteen position players, they might elect to carry three catchers. That still leaves a 40-man roster problem to accommodate Gimenez, though. More likely they would choose an outfielder, seeing as they have only two pure outfielders on the roster now. In that case, they might go out and grab a one-year contract for a Jon Jay type player. Maybe Jon Jay himself, as he is still unsigned.

As far as pitchers go, again, I don't see a lot of competition. Lester, Hendricks, Darvish, Quintana, and Chatwood are the five starters. Montgomery is the swingman. Morrow seems to be the closer. That leaves five or six more bullpen slots. You have to figure Edwards, Strop, Cishek, Duensing, and Wilson are certain to remain. That leaves one more spot should the Cubs go with thirteen and none should they go with twelve.

Grimm is likely to have quite a battle retaining his roster spot as he, along with Eddie Butler, is among the pitchers on the bubble who are out of options.

Saturday, February 10, 2018

Finally!

Frankly I was getting a little tired of all these Darvish rumors. I am glad the deal is finally done. Apparently six years, $126 MM. less than Lester got and less than I thought he would command.

One guesses the Cubs are done for the Winter unless they add a veteran utility player. One may also surmise that now that Darvish is off the board, the remaining free agent pitchers, Arrieta, Cobb, Lynn, will sign pretty quickly.

Pitchers and catchers report next week

A Manifesto of Sorts

Somehow I have been conditioned to be a Cubs fan. I grew up with the profound conviction that it was nearly impossible or at least a feat of some exceptional athletic prowess to throw a baseball accurately from third base or the hole at shortstop to first base. This odd belief was fostered no doubt by the great fuss Jack Brickhouse made when a Cub infielder actually succeeded in doing so and from the observation of Handsome Ransom Jackson and Roy Smalley, Cubs stalwarts of the era, who rarely succeeded in that endeavor. It was only when I began playing the game in earnest in sandlots and little league that I came to realize it was really not all that hard to do.

Another legacy of my youth was the observation fostered by my father, a lifelong fan, that every Cubs executive who followed William Veeck, Sr., Bill Veeck's father, was an utter nitwit, as were most of the managers they hired. In this opinion, he was not far from the truth, and I cherish it as one of the few useful bits of knowledge he passed on to me.

Anyway, like all fans, I can dream. And, I suppose, rant.

By the way, I owe the title of this blog a line in the Steve Goodman song, "Dying Cubs Fan's Last Request."