When the 2009 MLB season comes to a close, the Chicago Cubs have announced that they will shop starting pitcher Carlos Zambrano in hopes of swinging a trade and dumping much of his monstrous contract. The question is, should the Mets be interested in the massive right-hander?
Chicago Cubs
15 September 2009
8 June 2009
When you take a deep look at the six division leaders as of Monday, June 8, each team has had at least one key name player out of the lineup.
Beginning in the American League, obviously, the New York Yankees had Alex Rodriguez out all of April and much of May. In the Central, Detroit’s Jeremy Bonderman has had a rough road coming back, and star player Miguel Cabrera, who I believe is a future Hall-of-Famer, is currently nursing a hamstring injury.
Posted by Anthony Arroyo | No comments yet
The one player who I can safely say isn't juicing is Ryan Theriot of the Chicago Cubs. He's thin and French. The guy plays by hustling. He's old-school. Besides "The Riot," everyone else is injecting their buddy in the buttocks.
Posted by Chris Strickland | No comments yet
1 April 2009
(Note: originally posted on February 25.)
Each year, prior to the start of the MLB season, I use a unique mathematical system (one that I will not get into, because it's boring) to project the performance of every player and team. This season, in lieu of their significant offseason additions, I expected the Yankees to come out on top. Surprisingly, my expectations were wrong...
Posted by John Frascella | No comments yet
young first baseman with a veteran's poise and mindset, and Blake is a versatile vet at third.
3-Chicago Cubs: 1B-Derrek Lee, 2B-Aaron Miles, 3B-Aramis Ramirez, SS-Ryan Theriot, and C-Geovany Soto.
Posted by John Frascella | No comments yet
28 January 2009
Putz deal, was flipped to the Chicago Cubs for Ronny Cedeno and Garret Olson. Many suspected that Heilman was going to be the closer for the Mariners since Brandon Morrow was going to move to the rotation. The trade is great for Heilman because his competition for the fifth spot with the Cubs are Jeff Samardzija, Sean Marshall, and Chad Gaudin. Only Samardzija really has a higher ceiling than Heilman, but he has yet to play a full season.
Posted by William Hung | No comments yet
18 July 2008
A few relatively minor items to cover with the moves made by a few teams recently. What might they mean in the second half? I’ll try and puzzle this out.
Tony Clark, who experienced a career resurgence the day he put on an Arizona Diamondbacks uniform back in 2005, hs returned to the cozy confines of Chase Field. Petco, where hitting a homer is as hard as hitting the lottery, wasn’t as kind to the aging Clark as Chase has been, so he’ll certainly improve on his 2008 line of .239/.374/.307. His 32:19 K:BB ratio, as well as hs 165-point difference between BA and OBP, will tell you his batting eye is fine, and some power should follow.
Posted by Street Reporter | 2 comments
15 July 2008
One of the All-Star Break traditions: Reassessing our predictions from the first half of the season. Some of mine have changed, some have stayed the same—and some were just damn wrong. Living in the West, I will take the contrarian position and roll from west to east in my choices.
Posted by Street Reporter | 3 comments
13 July 2008
The other big trade that happened recently was the Cubs’ acquisition of the oft-injured Rich Harden from Oakland. This move is typical of Oakland’s business model, which involves shedding young stars before they get too expensive, often in exchange for other young or undervalued stars. In this way, they’re similar to the Florida Marlins, except that the Marlins tend to load up for concentrated runs at the championship (they have as many championships in the last decade as big-market Boston, and more than the Cubs have in the past hundred years), while the A’s tend towards consistent competitiveness.
Posted by Street Reporter | No comments yet
12 July 2008
Still playing ketchup here, trying to make up for a four-day absence from the blog, so I want to start with the big trade of last week, the CC Sabathia swap. The usefulness of this deal to the Brewers is a little dubious, as CC is likely to be a half-season rental, but let’s break it down:
Posted by Street Reporter | No comments yet
8 July 2008
"It's not a game, it's an arms race" - Kanye West and Fallout Boy belt this hook over and over again on a recent hit with that same title. In that context, Kanye and the Fallout Boy guys are referring to the battle of musical artists not only surviving in a competitive worldwide market, but one with hindrances around every music sharing online ripping program. While that's an issue for another day and another blogsite, it's relevance is crucial when talking about the current state of Major League baseball and the National Basketball Association.
Continue reading "From the NBA to MLB, the Arms Race Has Begun"
Posted by Anthony "The Moneyball" Moniello | No comments yet
30 June 2008
All right. Are you ready for this? As the All-Star break approaches, the Tampa Bay Rays have the best record in baseball. That’s right. At 49-32, they’re a half-game ahead of Boston, the Cubs, and Anaheim. Whoa. Is this one of the signs of the apocalypse?
Posted by Street Reporter | 5 comments
12 June 2008
Two huge injury developments last night--one to one of the best all-around hitters in the game, and the other to an outfielder who's been red-hot the past few weeks. Both injuries should have big implications to their teams, one likely more than the other, and to the NL Central.
Posted by Street Reporter | 1 comment
11 June 2008
One of my other writing gigs is at The Asian Reporter, where I write reviews, features, and a monthly column on Asian-American sports issues. Each spring, I write a preview about the prominent Asian major leauge baseball players, and that preview has grown considerably. This past year, I gave up trying to chronicle all of the probable Asian players and concentrated on the most prominent ones instead.
Posted by Street Reporter | No comments yet
8 May 2008
The Reds went all homer-happy over the Cubs last night, and Edinson Volquez twirled a gem on the mound, leading the Reds commentators and Steve Phillips on ESPN to go all gushy on them, proclaiming the future is now and they're gonna take the NL Central. Is this the case?
Posted by Street Reporter | No comments yet
1 May 2008
For many baseball fans, last night wasn't a great night to watch baseball, as blowouts predominated early on. But, because of the beautiful game that is baseball, only three of them continued in their lopsided fashion, with the best of them highlighted by a homer from Micah Owings, the best-hitting pitcher in baseball, whom teammate Conor Jackson said had the "best pop" of anyone on the team. And all of them showed something about the winning and losing teams, proving that any baseball game is worth watching, even when it doesn't seem exciting.
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