The Cubs announced at Cubs Convention that they have re-signed pitcher Kerry Wood. The contract is reportedly for 1 year/$3 million plus a club option for 2013.
I applaud JedStein for this signing, Not only do I think they got a got set-up for a fairly reasonable price (maybe a little more than reasonable), but they also are bringing back a fan favorite and a guy who has been a proven leader in the clubhouse.
It’s good to have Woody back. Here’s hoping he can stay healthy.
According to a tweet by Bruce Levine of ESPNChicago, the Cubs have agreed to terms with free agent LHP Paul Maholm. The contract will pay Maholm $4.25 million for one year and includes a club option for 2013 for $6.25 million and a $500,000 buyout.
The 29-year old Maholm spent seven season with the Pirates where he put together a 53-73 record and a career ERA of 4.36. In 2011, he pitched 162.3 inning and had a 6-14 record and an ERA of 3.66. The lefty projects to be the Cubs #4 or #5 starter.
I’m ambivalent about the move. On the one hand, he figures to be a decent back-of-the-rotation starter for the Cubs in 2012. If he impresses, the team has a club option to bring him back at a reasonable salary. On the other hand, I’m not certain that the team needs another back-of-the-rotation starter. They already have Travis Wood, Chris Volstad, Randy Wells, and Jeff Samardjzia competing for that honor. Did they need to spend another $4.75 (2-11 salary plus 2012 buyout) to bring in someone else?
In the end, Maholm is not going to ruin the Cubs 2012 season nor is his contract going to break their budget. And I guess that’s what the signing comes down to: it is largely inconsequential. I hope he does well and I hope he helps improve what otherwise looks to be a rather hopeless team. But if he doesn’t, I don’t think anyone will be surprised.
In his third year on the ballot, Barry Larkin was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. The former Cincinnati Reds shortstop received 86.4% of the vote. A vote of 75% is necessary to be inducted into the Hall.
During his career, Larkin was selected to the all-star team 12 times. He also won three gold gloves and nine silver slugger awards. Here’s what I said last week about Larkin’s candidacy for the Hall of Fame:
At first, I wasn’t sold on Barry Larkin. I don’t remember him being as great as he was. Maybe he just had a more quiet career than some other players, but it’s hard to deny that Larkin was a great shortstop. He came along at a time when many shortstops were still weak hitting defensive specialists. But Larkin could hit AND play defense. He hit for average, he had some power, and he got on base. Larkin received 62.1% of the vote last year and is expected to rise about the 75% level this year. I expect him to be elected to the Hall of Fame in 2012.
The Cubs have acquired 1B Anthony Rizzo and minor league pitcher Zach Cates from the Padres in exchange for RHP Andrew Cashner and minor league OF Kyung-Min Na.
Rizzo became available after the Padres acquired 1B Yonder Alonso from the Reds earlier this off-season in a deal that sent pitcher Mat Latos to Cincinnati. Rizzo is 22 years old and mashed the ball in AAA. Last year, he hit .331/.404/.652 with 26 home runs in 413 plate appearances. However, he struggled when he was promoted to the big leagues, hitting just .141/.281/.242 in 153 plate appearances.
In 2008, Rizzo was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma. However, there doesn’t appear to be any concerns for his health at this point. He seems to have returned to form over the past few years and many believe that this move sets the stage for Rizzo to become the long-term solution the Cubs seek at first base. Carrie Murskat of MLB.com spoke to GM Jed Hoyer and he indicated that Bryan Lahair will be the Cubs 1B in 2012 with Rizzo starting the season in AAA. Of course, that could change depending on how Rizzo and LaHair perform in Spring Training.
Cubs shortstop Starlin Castro has been accused of sexually assaulting a Chicago woman and is currently wanted for questioning in the incident. To date, no criminal charges have been filed.
WBBM Newsradio in Chicago is reporting that the woman, who is in her 20′s, met Castro in a River North nightclub on the evening of September 29, 2011. The woman and a friend left the bar with Castro at approximately 3:00 AM and went to Castro’s apartment. At the apartment, the woman blacked out and when she woke up at approximately 5:30 AM, she says the Cubs shortstop was sexually assualting her. The woman screamed at Castro and then left the apartment. She did not seek medical attention for approximately 12 hours, at which time the police became involved.
Castro left for the Dominican Republic the day after the alleged attack and has not returned to Chicago since. When he does, police are anxious to discuss the case with him. When asked about the allegations, Castro’s agent Paul Kinzer indicated that he and his client were aware of the allegations, but had no comment.
According to the WBBM report, the police report of the incident is highly redacted. Because of that, very little information about the incident is known.
I don’t mean to downplay the criminal aspect of the allegations. In time, the facts will come out. But from a baseball standpoint, this is exactly the type of thing that could completely derail the Cubs 2012 season, which is on thin ice to begin with. Of course, if the allegations prove to be true, this could turn out to be the beginning of the end of Castro’s short but promising baseball career. I’m sure there will be much more information to come out in the following weeks.
UPDATE: The Cubs released the following statement concerning the allegations against Starlin Castro:
“We are aware that a police report was filed regarding an incident involving Starlin, but we have received limited information. While this is something we take very seriously, there is not enough information to make any further comment or take action at this time. We are hopeful when the facts are brought to light, Starlin will be cleared of any wrongdoing.”
Then Castro’s attorneys, Jay K. Reisinger and Michael P. Gillespie, released this statement:
“We are aware of certain allegations that have been made against our client, Starlin Castro. We have thoroughly investigated this matter, and we are confident that these allegations are baseless. Given the sensitive nature of this matter, we cannot comment any further.”
Update #2: The original story on this matter from WBBM Newsradio in Chicago indicated that Starlin Castro is wanted by the Chicago Police in connection to this sexual assualt allegation and that when he returns to Chicago they plan on meeting with him. Two things strike me as odd about this situation.
First, the police don’t seem to have any urgency in meeting with Castro. If they really took the allegations seriously, it seems to me that they would have asked Castro to return to Chicago to meet with them. Alternatively, it would not be out of the question for the police to travel to the Dominican Republic to meet with Castro and his attorney. After all, Castro is a high profile athlete in Chicago and the police certainly don’t want to appear to be giving him special treatment if the allegations are such that they should be taken seriously.
Second, the fact is that Castro has been back to Chicago at least once since the incident took place and the police report was filed. According to an article in the Sun-Times on November 19, 2011, Castro was in town to meet with team President Theo Epstein.* My guess is that the Chicago P.D. is not so inept that they just let Castro waltz into town without being aware of it.
*Hat tip to commenter Vorare at The Cub Reporter for digging up the article from the Sun-Times.
There still is too little information to draw an educated conclusion, but my suspicions tell me that the police do not put much credence in the allegations. They certainly don’t appear to be taking the case very seriously and they are in no particular rush to question the Cubs’ shortstop.
In a move that caught me off guard, the Cubs have traded pitcher Carlos Zambrano to the Miami Marlins for right-handed pitcher Chris Volstad. The Cubs will also be sending $15.5 million to the Marlins to cover all but $2.5 million of Zambrano’s 2012 salary.
Zambrano has had issues over the past few seasons controlling his emotions. During the 2011 season, the Cubs placed Big Z on the disqualified list after he intentionally threw at the Braves Chipper Jones. The pitch that Zambrano threw at Jones came after the big right hander had given up five home runs and ten runs to the Braves. Following his ejection, Zambrano left the stadium before the game was over and announced that he was retiring. Ultimately, Zambrano sought counseling and missed the remainder of the season.
Volstad is a former first round pick who has struggled as a major leaguer. In parts of three seasons he has a 4.59 ERA and a penchant for giving up home runs. He has four pitches (fastball in the low 90′s, curve, slider, and change), but none of his pitches are really considered plus pitches. His slider in particular is a work in progress and tends to get him into trouble from time to time. He projects to be the fourth or fifth starter in the Cubs starting rotation.
Let’s start with a correction. The title of this post is a misnomer. I do not have a Hall of Fame ballot. Only members of the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) are allowed to vote for Hall of Fame candidates and I am not a member of the BBWAA. However, here are some thoughts on the HOF candidates and how I would vote if I had a ballot.
First, let’s take a look at the players who are on the ballot for the first time this year. Those players are:
Do you see any Hall of Famers on that list. No, I don’t either. There are some good players on the list — chief among them would probably be Bernie Williams — but none of them had careers that would rise to the level of serious Hall of Fame consideration. That takes us to the holdovers from previous years.
Like a lot of Cubs fans, I was excited when the Cubs hired Theo Epstein to help lead the organization. Adding Jed Hoyer to be the GM just a short time later cemented my belief that Tom Ricketts was serious about building an organization that could not only win in the short term, but would be the gold standard in the NL Central for years to come. But as I sit here during the final days of 2011 and look forward to the 2012 season and beyond, I really have to question what the Cubs new front office is doing and what their plans are for the future.
The Hoyer-Epstein era began by signing David DeJesus to play right field. DeJesus is an average ball player who has a tendency to get hurt. Not exactly the type of signing you want to make to kick off the new regime. Next, the Cubs traded a couple of decent prospects (Tyler Colvin and DJ LaMahieu) to Colorado for third baseman Ian Stewart, a decent, but faltering young player. The front office has also spent the off-season losing Ryan Flaherty and Marwin Gonzalez in the Rule-5 draft simply because they failed to add the two young prospects to the 40-man roster, signed such difference makers as Manny Corpas and Reed Johnson, and added a couple of young Cuban defectors who are not particularly well respected. All-in-all, Hoyer and Epstein have had a less than spectacular introduction for their new employer. All a Cub fan is left to do is scratch their head and ask “why?”
The Cubs have signed reliever Manny Corpas to a one-year deal. The terms were not announced, but it is believed that Corpas will be earning less than $1 million.
Corpas was a part of the 2007 Colorado Rockies team that went to the World Series. He had Tommy John Surgery in 2010 and missed the entire 2011 season. He has a career ERA of 3.93 — which is fairly impressive considering he has spent his career in Colorado — an ERA+ of 121 and a WHIP of 1.336. Corpas will join a Cubs bullpen that just lost Sean Marshall to the Reds in a trade. ESPNChicago’s Bruce Levine opined that the addition of Corpas may signal the Cubs willingness to give Jeff Samardjiza an opportunity to join the starting rotation.
The Cubs re-signed OF Reed Johnson to a one-year contract. Just as with Corpas, the terms of the contract were not announced. However, Johnson earned $900,000 in 2011 with the Cubs and had one of his best seasons, so it is probably safe to assume that he will earn somewhere north of $1 million.
Johnson has spent three of the past four years with the Cubs. Last year, he hit .309/.348/.467 with 5 home runs and 28 rbi in 246 at-bats. Johnson played all three outfield positions last year for the Cubs.
Tuesday night, Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports reported that the Cubs were in talks with the Cincinnati Reds to trade LHRP Sean Marshall to the Reds for 24-year old LHP Travis Wood. According to the report, Cubs President Theo Epstein was intrigued by Wood when Epstein was with Boston and he (and Jed Hoyer) were working on a deal with Cincinnati to bring Wood to Chicago.
Early Wednesday, the deal was finalized, as reported by ESPNChicago’s Bruce Levine via Twitter. according to Levine, the deal is Marshall for Wood and two unnamed minor leaguers. As of this writing, we still don’t know who the minor leaguers might be.
At first glance, this trade didn’t make sense to me. Why would the Cubs trade Marshall, a guy that Epstein referred to as “the best left-handed pitcher in baseball” for a guy apparently not talented enough to break into the Reds starting rotation? And if the Cubs felt they needed a lefty starter, why not just give Marshall a shot?
