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Anyone got Hendry's Number?

Note: I wrote this on my blackberry and apologize for any formatting malfeasance.

Anyone got Hendry's Number?
Jason Stark has the impression that the Cubs have set aside their interest in Ben Sheets as they pursue a bench bat and a setup man.

Who are the Cubs interested in?

Kiko Calero, for sure. I'm down with that. Injury is an acute risk with him, but he's one of the best relief pitchers left on the market, perhaps the best.

Bench bat? I've heard Adam Kennedy rumors and hope they are false.

Jim Thome is there, but he's still trying to be a full time, or platoon, Designated Hitter before relegating himself to "bench bat". Besides, the Twins are reported to be interested, and Ozzie Guillen said he wants the White Sox to decide on Thome by Sunday. The Sox liked having Thome, but they have also mentioned the desire to utilize the DH spot to give regular players time off from playing defense.

Anyone got Hendry's Number?Another former White Sock, Jermaine Dye, has been linked to Cubs' interest. I can't believe that he would settle for 4th Outfielder status so easily. He's a better fit with the Yankees or another team that could use a starting OF, like maybe Seattle. I don't know. If the Cubs got him, I'd be shocked. He should get more than the $3.65 million deal that Rick Ankiel just got from Kansas City.

Orlando Hudson is a starting second baseman, not a bench bat. The Cubs have been reported as "happy" with a Jeff Baker/Mike Fontenot platoon. I'm not as thrilled about their combined 1.6 expected WARP (Wins Above Replacement Player). Who knows? Maybe they'll combine for 25 Homeruns and 105+ RBI.

It's probably more likely that they will occasionally get hot, routinely stink, and rarely play above average defense. Personally, I'd rather have a slick-fielding second baseman who can run, even if he can't hit. Those guys are available. You might find them as free agents, or in trades, or even in your own minor league system.

Anyone got Hendry's Number?
Heck, the Cubs will probably sign Jonny Gomes. They've done worse. At least he can hit a little.

It's hard to talk about which bench players to sign, when there is a likely ace out there in Ben Sheets. Okay, maybe he's not "a likely ace" but he is definitely a possible ace.

I just want the Jim Hendry and the Cubs to shoot for the stars again. The win differential between signing 4th outfielder A, versus 4th outfielder B, or C, is negligible compared with having Ben Sheets in your rotation versus Carlos Silva.

I've never done this before, but I think he's "a likely ace", and it's my blog.

Sorry, but the comment section is for y'all.

Rookie Stuff

So, my buddy Weino tells me all the time that he prefers shorter, quick-hit posts to long, rambling posts about six dozen ballplayers, their agents, and hyperbole. Personally, I like to have something to say before I start the posting process, and before I know it, I have too many things to mention.

Tonight, we'll try something different. I just got back from dinner at Otto*, and I have a lot I'd like to touch on including: Andre Dawson, Mark McGwire, Ben Sheets, Johnny Damon, "24", Kiko Calero, Rocco Baldelli, Willis Jackson, Randy Wells, Tony Reagins, Felipe Lopez, and Joe Mauer. Even though I would like to attempt at least one pithy comment for each individual above, I'm going to keep this short & sweet.

*It was decent, but I don't recommend it.

Instead, I'm going to piggy-back on something interesting I read in this Hardball Times article by Harry Pavlidis that examines the Pitch F/X data of last season's rookie pitchers. For all you remedial readers out there, the point of this post is to highlight some potential sleeper arms for 2010. The following charts are from Harry's post...
Best average fastball (mph), 2009 debuts - relievers
1Henry Rodriguez100.1
2Daniel Bard98.4
3Waldis Joaquin97.0
4Neftali Feliz96.8
5Daniel Runzler96.7
Regular readers of this space should know that we admired Henry Rodriguez, Daniel Bard, and Neftali Feliz from afar last season. In fact, the three of them were significant contributors to our fantasy team, Good Friends.

What shocked me is that I have never heard of Waldis Joaguin or Daniel Runzler. Shame on me. Waldis, by name alone, should be a fan favorite. Here is the line from the HT article that got me excited about Daniel Runzler...
The second Giant on the list [Runzler] makes it with his two-seamer. Again, as sample sizes grow, Runzler's four-seamer (95.3) should float to the top of the speed list.
Moving on to making hitters miss...
Highest whiff rate (misses/swings), 2009 debuts

1Esmerling VasquezChange-up.491
2Alfredo FigaroSlider.487
3Luke GregersonSlider.468
4Kris MedlenChange-up.446
5Samuel GervacioSlider.432
We vultured a Win with Esmerling Vazquez last August, but I've never heard of Samuel Gervacio. Why didn't Osh ever mention him? Surely, he must've noticed an Astro reliever missing bats on 43.2% of his pitches.

There are some really exciting notes to go along with the following chart, which we will include in this snipet:
Highest fastball whiff rate (misses/swings), 2009 debuts

1Gervacio.394
2Andrew Bailey.343
3Bard.296
4Brad Kilby.283
5Jhoulys Chacin.280

I wasn't kidding about Gervacio being impressive. To miss that many bats with a fastball is just nuts, small sample and everything. Bailey, who threw 703 four-seamers (compared to Gervacio's 80 for this list) is even more impressive. And he did win Rookie of the Year, natch. Bard makes the list with his four-seamer—his two-seamer (which ranked on the fastball list) had a whiff rate below .08 as he threw that to contact. Nice bag of tricks, Mr. Bard. Kilby's rate, while impressive, continues our march away from the stratosphere occupied by Gervacio and Bailey. Kilby made his debut for Oakland as a lefty swingman, and he was successful in the limited work. Jhoulys (not Gustavo) Chacin edged out the Cubs' Esmailin Caridad for the last spot on this list. Chacin looked a little rough in his first outings for the Rockies, but I wouldn't be surprised if he's given a good hard look this Spring.
How about that?! The Cubs have an exciting young arm in the bullpen. Alright! I can't wait to build the bandwagon for Esmailin Caridad.

There is a lot more to read in the original Hardball Times post, including a few graphs not shared here that cover high ground ball rates, popup rates, and the ability to throw strikes. If you check it out, you'll see good numbers from Carlos Carrasco, Ricky Romero, Fu Te-Ni, Clay Zavada, and (again) Pedro Feliz.


Rookie Stuff

Single Season Homerun Record

No time for Hot Stove or Sleeper analysis today, but in anticipation of Mark McGwire's impending public castigation, I would like to provide my interpretation of the actual single season home run records, without Big Mac, Slammin' Sammy, Baroid Bonds, and the rest of 'em. Let's see how it looks...

First, the Top 50 list (Year / Player / Homeruns)...

2001 Barry Bonds 73
1998 Mark McGwire 70
Single Season Homerun Record1998 Sammy Sosa 66
1999 Mark McGwire 65
2001 Sammy Sosa 64
1999 Sammy Sosa 63
1961 Roger Maris 61
1927 Babe Ruth 60
1921 Babe Ruth 59
1932 Jimmie Foxx 58
1938 Hank Greenberg 58
2006 Ryan Howard 58
1997 Mark McGwire 58
2001 Luis Gonzalez 57
2002 Alex Rodriguez 57
1998 Ken Griffey, Jr. 56
1997 Ken Griffey, Jr. 56
1930 Hack Wilson 56
1949 Ralph Kiner 54
1961 Mickey Mantle 54
2006 David Ortiz 54
2007 Alex Rodriguez 54
1928 Babe Ruth 54
1920 Babe Ruth 54
1977 George Foster 52
1956 Mickey Mantle 52
1965 Willie Mays 52
1996 Mark McGwire 52
2001 Alex Rodriguez 52
2002 Jim Thome 52
1990 Cecil Fielder 51
2005 Andruw Jones 51
1947 Ralph Kiner 51
1955 Willie Mays 51
1947 Johnny Mize 51
Single Season Homerun Record1996 Brady Anderson 50
1995 Albert Belle 50
2007 Prince Fielder 50
1938 Jimmie Foxx 50
2000 Sammy Sosa 50
1998 Greg Vaughn 50
1998 Albert Belle 49
2000 Barry Bonds 49
1987 Andre Dawson 49
1936 Lou Gehrig 49
1934 Lou Gehrig 49
2001 Shawn Green 49
1996 Ken Griffey, Jr. 49
2001 Todd Helton 49
1964 Harmon Killebrew 49
1969 Harmon Killebrew 49
1954 Ted Kluszewski 49
1962 Willie Mays 49
1987 Mark McGwire 49
2006 Albert Pujols 49
1966 Frank Robinson 49
1930 Babe Ruth 49
2002 Sammy Sosa 49
2001 Jim Thome 49
1997 Larry Walker 49

*Note, there are 60 players on the Top 50 list above because of all the guys tied with 49 HR's. The 'Top 50' list below has 52 players, with a bunch tied at 48 HR's.

Single Season Homerun RecordWhile removing the usual suspects, I find myself hesitant to cross off three players from the list. So, I'm going to leave them in. See if you can spot them (the three are revealed after the list)...

1961 Roger Maris 61
1927 Babe Ruth 60
1921 Babe Ruth 59
1932 Jimmie Foxx 58
1938 Hank Greenberg 58
2006 Ryan Howard 58
2001 Luis Gonzalez 57
1930 Hack Wilson 56
1997 Ken Griffey, Jr. 56
1998 Ken Griffey, Jr. 56
1920 Babe Ruth 54
1928 Babe Ruth 54
1949 Ralph Kiner 54
1961 Mickey Mantle 54
1956 Mickey Mantle 52
Single Season Homerun Record1965 Willie Mays 52
1977 George Foster 52
2002 Jim Thome 52
1947 Johnny Mize 51
1947 Ralph Kiner 51
1955 Willie Mays 51
1990 Cecil Fielder 51
1938 Jimmie Foxx 50
1995 Albert Belle 50
1998 Greg Vaughn 50
2007 Prince Fielder 50
1930 Babe Ruth 49
1934 Lou Gehrig 49
1936 Lou Gehrig 49
1954 Ted Kluszewski 49
1962 Willie Mays 49
1964 Harmon Killebrew 49
1966 Frank Robinson 49
1969 Harmon Killebrew 49
1987 Andre Dawson 49
1996 Ken Griffey, Jr. 49
1997 Larry Walker 49
1998 Albert Belle 49
2001 Jim Thome 49
2001 Shawn Green 49
2001 Todd Helton 49
2006 Albert Pujols 49
1933 Jimmie Foxx 48
1962 Harmon Killebrew 48
1969 Frank Howard 48
1971 Willie Stargell 48
1979 Dave Kingman 48
1980 Mike Schmidt 48
1996 Albert Belle 48
1999 Ken Griffey, Jr. 48
2004 Adrian Beltre 48
2008 Ryan Howard 48

It's nice to see Roger Maris and Babe Ruth back at the top of this list. It's staggering to see Ryan Howard sitting there with 58, and - yes - Luis Gonzalez is one of the guys I probably should have taken off the list. There have certainly been more than whispers with Luis, but I still think he's engendered enough goodwill in numerous communities to have earned the benefit of the doubt. For how long? I don't know.

Did I remove anyone who should have stayed on this list? I doubt it.

The other two players I wanted to remove from the second list, but left for varying reasons were Adrian Beltre and Albert Pujols. Are there questions around Albert Belle? Should there be doubts with Shawn Green? Greg Vaughn? I guess this is where the discussion stops being fun.

Let's take comfort in the names at the very top of the second list.

Maris. Ruth. Foxx. Greenberg.

Two of those greats are, with Lou Gehrig, in the picture below...

Single Season Homerun Record

It's Over

I've never said this before. I've always been a supporter, but this is too much. It is time to fire Jim Hendry. It's over.

For Christmas, Jim Hendry gave Cub fans the disaster that is Carlos Silva. Why? To save money in order to spend it on a center fielder.

What does Mr. Hendry do with his new freedom? He flushes $15 million over the next 3 years down the toilet that is Marlon Byrd's game. Happy New Year, Cub Fans! Marlon Byrd stinks. Last season, while playing for the Texas Rangers, Byrd his a career high 20 HR's. Did the Cubs ignore the fact that he hit 14 HR's at home, and only 6 HR's on the road?

It's Over
According to UZR/150, his defense in Centerfield was below average last season. So, this is not the case of getting someone like Carlos Gomez, who can at least provide good defense while making outs 66% of the time.

Last season, as a 32-year old, Byrd had the best season of his career. Fangraphs valued his production at $3.1 million. So, the Cubs think he'll be worth $5 million each year in his age 33, 34, and 35 seasons. This is lunacy. The Cubs had Felix Pie, and gave him to Andy MacPhail for nothing. As Clark Griswold said towards the end of Christmas Vacation, where's the Tylenol?

Hall of Fame Voting

Now is a great time to read baseball articles from around the country, as Hall of Fame voters often write columns announcing and defending their ballots for next spring's induction.

Voters get to vote for a maximum of 10 players from the list of nominees that we glanced over in this post last month.


After careful (not very careful) deliberation, my Hall of Fame ballot would contain check marks next to the following names: Bert Blyleven, Tim Raines, Roberto Alomar, Barry Larkin, Edgar Martinez, Alan Trammell, Andre Dawson, and Fred McGriff. They won't all get in, but it would be fine for my Hall of Fame.

Posnanski recently spent 5,000 words discussing, among other things, the infinite possibilities of who's in & who's out of everyone's perfect Hall of Fame. He compared the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, with Baseball Think Factory's Hall of Merit.

So, why did I pick those eight guys? Why were these my 'eight men in'? (sorry, that's really bad.) Whom did I barely leave off my ballot? Who's asking these questions?

Bert Blyleven
Rich Lederer is my unofficial leader of the pro-Bert for HOF movement. This post from December 12, 2005 opened some minds. In fact, on December 17, 2005, Bob Klapisch, calling himself 'a late convert', joined the flock.

A simple Google search of "bert blyleven for hall of fame" shows 51,400 results. Joe Posnanski has written virtually countless words on the subject, most recently
here, here, here, and even here. One of my favorite stats recently pulled out by Joe, with help from one of his Brilliant Readers shows number of wins that pitchers got from 1-0 final score games...

Most 1-0 shutout victories

Walter Johnson: 38
Pete Alexander: 17
Hall of Fame VotingBert Blyleven: 15
Christy Mathewson: 14
Cy Young: 13
Eddie Plank: 13
Doc White: 13
Ed Walsh: 13
Dean Chance: 13
San Coveleski: 12
Gaylord Perry: 12
Steve Carlton: 12
Fergie Jenkins: 11
Greg Maddux: 11.
Nolan Ryan: 11.
Sandy Koufax: 10.

So the next time someone tells you that Bert Blyeven never won a Cy Young, you can say: “Yeah, but he won more 1-0 shutouts than Cy Young.” And he did it when the ball was LIVE.

Tim Raines
Here is another guy that should be an obvious choice, and again writers on this blog's suggested reading list like Keith Law, King Kaufman, Jonah Keri, and Tom Tango. Of course, we want to steal even more from our favorite writer, Mr. Posnanski...

The Hall of Fame seems to come down to a player’s peak and his longevity. Was he truly great at his best? And was he good for a long enough time?

Well, Tim Raines had a huge peak. From 1983-87 — the five year peak — he hit .318/.406/.467 for a 142 OPS+, the same OPS+ that Jim Rice had during his five-year peak. During those five years, he averaged 114 runs scored, 34 doubles, 10 triples, 11 home runs and 71 stolen bases a year. He led the league in runs scored twice, batting and on-base percentage once, doubles once, stolen bases twice, and could have won three MVP awards. He had 163 win shares in those five years — an average of 32.6. Bill says a 30-win share season is an MVP-type year.

Tim Raines also had a huge career. He reached base almost 4,000 times … or to compare him to a similar player, about 150 times more than Lou Brock. He’s fifth all-time in stolen bases. His .385 on-base percentage is the second-best among eligible Hall of Famers with 9,000 plate appearances (behind only the Walking Man Eddie Yost), and his slugging percentage is better than Rickey Henderson’s or Brock’s and just two points behind Joe Morgan.

This is not a borderline Hall of Fame candidate here. This is a dominant player. He never really got his due as a player while he was playing … in part because he shared his era with the great Rickey Henderson, in part because he spent his best years in Canada, in part because he was hammered by collusion, in part because on-base percentage did not (and does not) get the respect it deserved, in part because leadoff hitters tend to be naturally underrated, in part because he spent his last six or seven years as a part time player and that image of the older Raines was burned in the memory of people (especially his two championship years with the Yankees).

Roberto Alomar
He had it all, or was just a touch less powerful than someone who had it all. He was the best defensive second baseman in the world for a while. He was awesome for about 11 years, from 1991 to 2001. Most importantly, he won and played well at the highest level with Toronto's first and last World Championship teams. Maybe I give him bonus points for flopping with the Mets in 2002. That was classic. Alomar was coming off arguably the best season of his career for the Indians in 2001, career high OPS of .956, to go along with 113 RBI, 100 R's, 20 HR's, and 30 SB's.

Barry Larkin
Hall of Fame Voting
I find Barry Larkin's case to be similar to Alomar's and Trammell's. Larkin was an offensively gifted middle-infielder who lead his team to World Championship(s). His career shows how hard it can be to accumulate some counting stats. He played from the time he was 22 until he was 40, with a lifetime .295 Batting Average, yet he had only 2,340 hits. He's in my Hall due to his well-rounded abilities to use all five tools, my intangible feelings about winning and leadership, and other indefensible reasons like consistency. Here are some nice career stats: 379 stolen bases, caught only 77 times, BA/OBP/SLG career slash lines of .295/.371/.444, he walked more than he struck out, and of course he won a World Series ring in 1992.

Edgar Martinez
The best Designated Hitter I've ever seen deserves his own post, or series of posts. He is a player who got a late start, after being mishandled by the Mariners as he toiled away in the Minors until he was 27 years old. Look at his stats, from 1992 and 1995 through 2003, when his OBP never dropped below .403, he hit with power, and ended his career with slash lines of .312/.418/.515. He gets penalized by some voters for playing most of his career as a DH, but I don't buy that for many reasons, of which I'll share three. First, should he be rewarded if his manager sent him out to play terrible defense like we sometimes see with guys like Jack Cust, Adam Dunn, and Jason Giambi? Do they help their teams more than guys who spare their teams crappy defense and DH? Second, the argument holds some water, if we're talking about a borderline hitter, but Martinez is an elite warrior with the bat. He could work the count, take a walk, hit an occasional "ground ball with eyes", and drive mistake pitches into gaps and over walls outfielders' heads with regularity. Third, the precedent has been set when Paul Molitor got in on the first ballot. Sure, he had the automatic ticket of 3,319 hits. Still, he was a DH for many of those hits, and his career OPS+ of 122 is dwarfed just enough by Martinez's 147, that I have to stand firm on this one.

Alan Trammell
Hall of Fame Voting
I feel that Trammell will never get into the Hall, mostly for being in the shadow of Cal Ripken his entire career. He was a leading winner in Motown for Sparky Anderson (not easy), and he had a very impressive peak in the mid 1980's. He's a borderline candidate, and I will stand with his supporters until proven otherwise.

Andre Dawsom
The Hawk is my favorite player of all time. He was the first super-human player I ever rooted for, and there is NO WAY he's staying off my ballot. I've heard the arguments against his induction, most loudly the fact that his career OBP was an abysmal .323. I choose to believe the arguments that only three players have 400 HR's and 300 SB's: Mays, Bonds, and Dawson. He won a bunch of Gold Gloves. Played Centerfield beautifully in his hey day in Montreal. Then, he commanded Right Field, with a cannon arm and great instincts in Wrigley Field and stops with Boston and Florida after that.

Hall of Fame Voting
I also think that playing his peak years one Montreal's concrete & turf field ruined his knees more than most players in baseball history. If he'd played on a surface that kept him limber, he could have been a first-ballot Hall of Famer. Of course, the Hall of Fame would have thousands of players if we could all cancel out a few "if's".

Fred McGriff
I expect McGriff to get in eventually, but I'm not sure about this year. He never (or very rarely) felt like a Hall of Famer during his playing days. How many Hall of Famers are traded four times? His ability to play, like Larkin, from the age 22 season to age 40, enabled him to hit 493 Homeruns, drive in 1,550 runs, and 2,490 hits, with a career 134 OPS+.

All right, folks, let's hear from you. You can only vote for 10 guys. Who's on your ballot?

Good Friends, Keepers, & Sleepers

As most of our loyal readers know, I've been living in New York for about 20 months... To let you know where I'm coming from, literally, I'm a Chicago guy, who "colleged" in New Orleans, and since them has lived in Chicago, Los Angeles, Portland (Oregon), and now Manhattan.

A tradition that many of my NY friends, which I rather like is a yearly boys' night out, where we go "shopping" for our significant others one evening in mid/late December. The tradition has evolved from a group of guys at a department store, before going to a bar - to a group of guys who just meet at a bar and skip the shopping entirely.

We had a good time this year, although we missed some friends who couldn't make it. One of our friends of the blog, let's call him "Horn", couldn't have been more pleasant to catch up with. Here we were on December 17th, and all Horn wanted to do was talk baseball. We huddled up around the imaginary hot stove at a midtown Irish bar, while I gently nursed a Sierra Nevada and Horn admitted to a hangover & asked for a Pepsi.

Horn is a Yankee fan. That can mean a lot of things. To be more precise, Horn is the kind of Yankee fans who supports the team, expects them to compete for championships, while always feeling nervous about the outcome. He's one of the few people I know who felt drama during the Bronx Bombers dominant, Championship run. I think he's a nervous fan. There's nothing wrong with that. On the contrary, nervous fans are outstanding. What's more fun that watching a game with a fan who's mere sanity is hanging on the outcome of every play? To the point that Horn is a great fan, he loves following major New York sports teams. I even remember seeing him passionately watch the end of an early round New Jersey Devils playoff game, while pacing around a New Orleans hotel room during Jazz Fest circa 2003.

Back to the bar, my Sierra turned into a Blue Moon, both on draft of course. Horn, asked for a water.

Horn has always been a terrifically supportive fan of the ol' blog. When we go too long in between posts, Horn is usually one of the first to notice and ask us what's going on. From what I gather, he loves to hear about sleepers and prospects. It's a nice reminder of what this blog was supposed to be about, at inception. We were looking for a place to read & write about baseball, while maintaining focus on both worlds of reality & rotisserie. Horn asked us for more updates on sleepers, so to this holiday party we will bring up a discussion of sleepers & I'm going to use potential keepers from my rotisserie league as a starting point.

Scoring in this league is pretty standard, except we play with OBP instead of Batting Average. Stats are: OBP/HR/R/RBI/SB and W, SV, K, ERA, WHIP

Going into the offseason, we select ten players from our roster (who were not drafted in the top four rounds) and they are in our "Keeper Consideration Pool". Cool name, I know. A few days before the draft in March, each team picks five players from their KCP as their keepers. Since keepers must be drafted after the 4th or 5th round, I think most of them are either big surprises or sleepers. You can keep a guy for 4 more years, so teams can really stockpile value if they play their cards right.

My team's Keeper Consideration Pool:

Good Friends, Keepers, & Sleepers
Alexei Ramirez
Cameron Maybin
Chris Coghlan
Colby Rasmus
David Price
Desmond Jennings
Dexter Fowler
Elvis Andrus
Joe Mauer
Tommy Hanson

Joe Mauer and Tommy Hanson are not sleepers. Mauer is coming off an all-time great MVP season, and Hanson is a bona fide weapon. He'll probably give up more home runs next season, due to an unsustainable Homerun/Flyball rate, but just take a look at the WHIP numbers he's put up since he started 2008, as a 22-year old in High-A.

2008 High-A, WHIP: 0.65
2008 Double-A, WHIP: 1.13
2008 Az Fall League, WHIP: 0.85
2009 Triple-A, WHIP: 0.85
2009 MLB, WHIP: 1.18

Bill James projects Hanson to win 14 games next season, with a 3.30 ERA, and 206 strike outs in 191 innings.

Good Friends, Keepers, & Sleepers
Alexei Ramirez is not a sleeper. I think he was a disappointment last season, especially with his unsightly OBP every year. We'll probably still keep him because of position scarcity and his impressive Power/Speed number (17.94).

We are pretty undecided about who the other two keepers will be. Rasmus, Coghlan, and Andrus feel like safe bets, at least on the real-life field. David Price was supposed to be a super star by now, but we don't need to keep him. His stock is so low that we think we'll be able draft him, or better pitchers, in later rounds.

We spent time last summer on Dexter Fowler. I'm sold on his tools... he really looks fast and strong. I'm not sure if he has an everyday job in the Rockies' outfield.

Cameron Maybin is a sleeper because he has pretty much always struggled at the Major League level. I think he's ready to take off, but he might be one of those guys who's fast & can hit but doesn't hit HR's or steal enough bases to be a fantasy thoroughbred. Think of a speedier, streakier, David DeJesus.

Good Friends, Keepers, & Sleepers
The real sleeper on my list is Desmond Jennings of the Tampa Rays. He has yet to make his major league debut, but there is no doubt that he's really, really fast. They're calling him the next Carl Crawford, and that will suit us just fine for the next five years. Jennings has shown, unlike Maybin that he really knows how to steal a base. Last season in 100 double-A games, he stole 37 bases in 42 tries, with a .395 OBP. In 32 triple-A games last year, Jennings stole 15 bases in 17 tries, while OBP'ing .419. During his last five stops in the Rays' system, his BABIP's have been .324, .348, .299, .350, and .354. The question is if Jennings can win everyday at bats, while competing with guys like Matt Joyce, Fernando Perez, Gabe Kapler, and Justin Ruggiano. I think he has a chance to shine and win 2010's AL Rookie of the Year.

What defines a sleeper? I'm not sure. This discussion could go in many different directions, but let's try to stay on track. Back at the bar, Horn just left, David showed up late and my Blue Moon turned into a glass of scotch.

Other potential "sleepers" that came to mind during our discussion:

Fernando Rodney
Alcides Escobar
Good Friends, Keepers, & Sleepers
Jason Heyward
Carlos Santana
Aroldis Chapman
Ben Sheets
Bud Norris
Jake Fox
Matt LaPorta
Travis Snider
Rickie Weeks
Tim Hudson
Chris Tillman
Wade Davis
Elijah Dukes
Brian Bruney
Felix Pie
Jonny Gomes

Let's get the sleeper discussion started in the comments. Anyone else that should be top-of-mind for savvy drafters? Should we do a prospect spotlight for any of the names listed above?

The Beauty of Hee Seop

The life around the Cubs hot stove is desperate and lonely. We, fans, are starving for feelings of pride and splendid anticipation for the upcoming season. Rumorville brings us no hope, as the foreseeable future brings us the gloom of signing Marlon Byrd, Scott Podsednik, Melky Cabrera, or that douche'r Rick Ankiel. I swear, less than 12 months after we gift wrap Felix Pie to old friend Andy MacPhail in Baltimore, we are combing through the dregs of garbage outfield options.

I've always liked Jim Hendry. His work ethic is legendary, but sometimes you need to see positive results or at least a sound "process". For too long, we've been scratching our heads over his moves before the benefit of hindsight. He's turning into the Anglo Omar Minaya, and that isn't a complement. Where can the Cubs find another Jack Zduriencik? That's what we need.

Ok, well I promised a positive post, and believe it or not, this is it...

Where do we turn when we are at our low point? We turn to family and old friends, no matter how far away they may be...

Enter the inspiration of Hee Seop Choi... Here is a guy who climbed the mountain to the Show of Major League Baseball. He reached cult-hero status on the Northside of Chicago but never achieved the glory of traditional stardom or, of course, championships.

After being traded for Derek Lee, he toiled away in the Marlins system and returned to his homeland to play for the Kia Tigers.

I'm hoping we can get through these trying times, as fans, by learning from the acquired wisdom of our old brother in arms, Hee Seop Choi. There is inspiration in the story we bring to you today. I won't muddle it with my own interpretation, but we can learn much about the healing powers of hard work, determination, and patience... When you get a chance, please take a look at one of our favorite stops on the InterWeb, the Joong Ang Daily: "Athlete climbs to health on Mt. Seorak"

Go bless the Cubs, the fans, and God bless you, Hee Seop Choi.

The Beauty of Hee Seop

Oh Noooooooo!!!

Hope does not spring eternal. There is no hope for the Cubs next season.

From the AP, via ABC News...
A baseball official with knowledge of the trade says the Mariners have acquired mercurial outfielder Milton Bradley from the Chicago Cubs for expensive and underperforming pitcher Carlos Silva.
The Cubs traded away a problem for an even bigger, and more expensive problem. I don't know how we, as fans, can recover from this. I can't get the image of Frank Castillo out of my head.

Expect a happier post later today or tomorrow.


Oh Noooooooo!!!

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