The View From The Bleachers (Free subscription) | yesterday
Projected 25 Man Roster STARTING LINEUP 1. Ryan Theriot – SS 2. Milton Bradley – RF 3. Derrek Lee – 1B 4. Aramis Ramirez – 3B 5. Kosuke Fukudome – CF 6. Alfonso Soriano – LF 7. Geovany Soto – C 8. Jeff Baker – 2B BENCH Sam Fuld – OF Jake Fox... To read the rest of the post, be sure to visit us at www.viewfromthebleachers.com
ChicagoCubsOnline.com (Free subscription) | 11/17/2009
Award Week for Major League Baseball continues on Tuesday with the announcement of the AL Cy Young winner. Chris Coghlan of the Marlins and Andrew Bailey of the A's were named NL and AL Rookie of the Year on Monday . With Coghlan taking the trophy, Geovany Soto will hopefully return to the form in 2010 that won him the award last season. John Grabow was the last Cub to final for free agency on Monday...
Another Cubs Blog (Free subscription) | 11/16/2009
Baseball America has released their Cubs top 10 prospects and Jim Callis will have a chat about it at 1 pm if you’re interested. The Top 10 are: 1. Starlin Castro, ss 2. Brett Jackson, of 3. Josh Vitters, 3b 4. Andrew Cashner, rhp 5. Jay Jackson, rhp 6. Hak-Ju Lee, ss 7. Logan Watkins, 2b 8. Chris Carpenter, rhp 9. Ryan Flaherty, ss/2b/3b 10. D.J. LeMahieu, ss/2b I’m still unsure how Vitters...
Another Cubs Blog (Free subscription) | 11/15/2009
We were discussing Soto’s shitty, shitty 2009 luck in the last thread. In a previous post, MB pointed out that Soto’s batting average on balls in play (BABIP) and its expected value (xBABIP), based on his hit-type distributions were a whopping 63 points apart in 2009. What could we have seen if he weren’t so epically unlucky? First, a few comments on where I’m getting all this...
Federal Baseball (Free subscription) | 11/11/2009
More photos » by Gene J. Puskar - AP Is Andrew McCutchen the SB Nation's '09 NL Rookie of the Year? (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar) Browse more photos » In 2008 , the voting members of the SB Nation's baseball sites elected Cubs' catcher Geovany Soto as the NL Rookie of the year after the then-25-year-old catcher had hit .285 with 35 doubles, 23 HR's and 86 RBI's in 141 games behind the plate...
The Cub Reporter (Free subscription) | 11/10/2009
Fangraphs is once again going to list the projections on their player pages from a variety of sources, Bill James , CHONE, Marcel....maybe more. Bill James projections are up first and here's how the Cubs ranked by wOBA and their 2009 wOBA ( explanation of wOBA here ). I'll try and expand when new projections are released. Age is their 2010 playing age. You can click on their names to get their full...
Lone Star Ball (Free subscription) | 11/09/2009
Hot Stove at BP "Though Cruz hit 33 homers and was selected to the All-Star Game this past season, the Rangers are looking to sell high because they feel he had a career year." I still feel like this is an awful idea unless they get a great offer. "Catching has become an increasingly difficult position for teams to fill, yet there are some interesting names floating as trade possibilities:...
Fake Teams (Free subscription) | 11/09/2009
by Eric Risberg - AP about 1 month ago: Los Angeles Dodgers starting pitcher Chad Billingsley takes a break on the mound after the San Francisco Giants scored their third run in the fourth inning of a baseball game in San Francisco, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2009. San Francisco won the game 7-2; Billingsley was the losing pitcher. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg) View full size photo » Every Sunday, John Perrotto...
ChicagoCubsOnline.com (Free subscription) | 11/08/2009
The 2008 NL Rookie of the Year is coming off a horrible season but is Jim Hendry shopping his catcher? According to a report from Baseball Prospectus on the eve of the GM Meetings in Chicago, " Catching has become an increasingly difficult position for teams to fill, yet there are some interesting names floating as trade possibilities : the Pirates' Ryan Doumit , the Rays' Dioner Navarro , the...
Bleed Cubbie Blue (Free subscription) | 11/06/2009
by Charles Rex Arbogast - AP Like it or not, one of the keys to the Cubs' success in 2010 is a resurgence by Alfonso Soriano. Here, he launches his game-winning grand slam vs. the Astros last July 27. View full size photo » Last year about this time, I made this post discussing what I thought should be the makeup of the 2009 Cubs. Brave, isn't it, of me to post that link when I'd just as soon...
Another Cubs Blog (Free subscription) | 11/02/2009
Here are the 2009 Cubs starting position players BABIP and xBABIP (I used this handy tool ): Player BABIP xBABIP Soto 0.251 0.314 Lee 0.333 0.308 Fontenot 0.281 0.317 Theriot 0.327 0.335 Ramirez 0.331 0.306 Soriano 0.280 0.305 Fukudome 0.314 0.332 Bradley 0.311 0.322 Lee and Ramirez got a little lucky and the rest were a bit unlucky. Geovany Soto got screwed.
THE METHODS REPORTER (Free subscription) | 10/28/2009
They accused Geovany Soto of being too fat in 2009. So he's going to take the cure by working out in January with Ryan Dempster, whose four-mile runs through Wrigleyville before games are now... (Like this story? Click the headline to vote it up on WindyCitizen.com)
The Big Dead Sidebar (Free subscription) | 10/23/2009
My inbox looks something like this. Bill, bill, with love from mom, bill, "Do you want to be LARGER?", bill, "Do you want to meet cute singles in you're area??????, "#&$% you %^&*@" ... then there's Carrie Muskat's correspondence with her fans. Her questions. My answers. Your look of disapproval as I mock the system. Happy Friday, gang! The Cubs expect Alfonso Soriano...
Bleed Cubbie Blue (Free subscription) | 10/23/2009
More photos » by Duane Burleson - AP Will Magglio Ordonez be a Cub in 2010? Browse more photos » With a day off before game six of the ALCS -- and this series has the chance to go down in history as one of the better league championship series, having already produced at least three "instant classics", let's spend today looking toward next year. As most of you probably already...
MLB (Free subscription) | 10/21/2009
Batting Around with Geovany Soto
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