Theriot gets a scare; Guzman shut down
MESA, Ariz. _ Yet another eventful day here at Fitch as they all seem to be. During live batting practice today, Ryan Theriot took one off the left hand-wrist from young right-hander Rafael Dolis, who brings it at about 95 mph. Theriot went down to the ground and got looked at by one of the trainers, but he said afterward he was OK.
In other injury news, right-hander Angel Guzman, who already is coming off a knee scope, "had some discomfort in his shoulder," according to Jim Hendry and has been shut down. Jim says Guzman, who has a long history of injury problems, is not seeing a doctor, but that the Cubs would "take the precautionary path" and push him back a couple days. Trainer Mark O'Neal might have an update in the morning.
The Cubs are in big need of a right-handed reliever, and Lou said that Esmailin Caridad all but has the team made.
"Look, Caridad's on the team," Lou said. "He's almost got to pitch himself off of it."
As I mentioned in today's earlier blog, Jeff Samardzija threw live BP this morning. The Cubs are liking the way Samardzija looks this spring. Pitching coach Larry Rothschild worked with Samardzija for an extra week after last season to smooth out some mechancial issues, and the Cubs say they see enormous improvement.
Do check out the photo of Chad Tracy scooping it on this morning's blog. I may get the hange of this photo thing. More to come online today and in tomorrow's paper.
Bruce - I know the Cubs have never been a major player for the Cuban defectors, but do you see them having any interest in Jose Julio Ruiz? From everything I've read and seen, he's a big, strong lefty that plays 1B and is coming into his prime. I guess one negative to signing him would be that if the plan is to move Aramis to 1B at some point when Vitters is ready then that may mean losing his bat.
Would have been worth the 2 million easily, and probably worth 2 million just to keep from having him on the Cardinals. Great signing for them, and we are rolling the dice again with Fontenot. I kind of feel like the Pirates today, since we can't spend 2 million for a good player.
Think about it, why did it take so long for anyone to sign Lopez, I was reading all winter that his hitting was a fluke, maybe, maybe not. Besides do we need another right handed bat.
Perhaps Fontenot will come out and have a decent year, and he bats left handed, perhaps
Castro will emerge as the starting short stop,have we forgotten about Jeff Baker, or was he also a one time fluke, only time will tell. What I find silly is Millar being on the team, so what if he's a good team mate and a bundle of laughs. What the Cubs need is a good starting pitcher, and I don't mean Smoltz. If I where the Cubs, I'd look into Pedro
Martinez, or someone else.
Lopez is a switch hitter. He did have a career year in 2009 but he's only 29 so maybe that's a sign that he's just now reaching his prime. He would have given the Cubs an emergency SS so Lou wouldn't feel the need to carry Blanco.
There is an upper limit to what they can spend.
the complaint is that Hendry spent that limit (I think it's more $140 than $150) yet still has holes all over the place, including 2B.
ESPN radio today 10 a.m. Lee saying, you have to be strong up the middle, defense wins a lot of games, Byrd covers ground and Soto will help. not one word about SS & 2nd. what's your take? or was that included in his "strong up the middle " comment?
But I also think the $ is pretty much spent already. And, I'm not convinced Lopez is a long term answer.
(And I think your # is closer to correct on payroll than mine)
There are holes, unquestionably - but it's silly to say they didn't spend enough. Criticize for poor decisions, maybe, but not lack of spending.
the decision would be a "good" one, it should be okay to criticize them for not making it. It would have given them an everyday second baseman versus a platoon. Lopez did sign cheaply. St. Louis seems to be able to swoop in and sign good players for small contracts. Last year they got Dennys Reyes for the same $1M base salary.
You still have $0 to spend
And they supposedly have zero to spend because of the poor decisions they made in signing Soriano, Fukudome, and Bradley. That was my point, that criticism is valid for that reason. I think that most of the criticism from Cub fans isn't because they are only spending $140M and they feel the club should be spending $160M plus.
But the horse has left the barn. The original comment implied that Hendry was wrong for not going after Lopez, regardless of the current payroll situation.
To break the logjam in the middle infield, the Cubs should showcase Mike Fontenot in the early Spring and then move him for a right-handed relief pitcher to a team that needs a middle infielder. I know it's easier said than done, but I would let Jeff Baker have the 2B job and let him bat 7th or 8th. Compared to Fontenot, Baker had better splits against LHP and RHP. Mike bats lefty, but we know at some point, the Cubs are moving Theriot to 2B anyway. This allows Lou to keep Millar and Tracy on the bench, and Andres Blanco can be the back-up SS/2B.
Hoops
I don't think the Cubs could get the kind of guy they need in exchange for Fontenot. They need one of the young relievers to step up big time and that might be asking for too much for this group. Essentially you would be trading Fontenot to get an overrated reliever that they might have already.
I don't know what the price is for Heath Bell but if the Cubs believe they could be contenders, eh, that might be something to look into.
Pitching wins championships as bullpens put the nails in the coffin. Unfortunately, this bullpen might be hammering in the nails on the Cubs coffin.
I suppose that they could sign Kiko Calero although he holds the bargaining leverage now. I don't even know if he's healthy......wonderful
Nobody is going to give you a quality RH set up man for Fontentot. NOBODY.
Given Lou's comment about Castro making the team "if Theriot were to get hurt", seems a bit karmic that Ryan took a 95 mile heater off his hand the next day.
Should have tried to get Wuertz back in the Jake Fox trade......
Really though, Hendry and Lou should never have counted on Guzman to be a guy to bridge the gap to Marmol because of his injury history. They should have already had a veteran right handed fireballer in camp that would allow Guzman to be the 6th/7th inning guy.
Right now the Cubs don't have a right handed reliever that they can count on throwing strikes at the major league level, and that counts Marmol.
should have some experience closing out some games case Marmol can't find the strike zone. A bullpen with questions just got more of them.
not good for Guzman nor the bullpen.
That poor guy. He cannot catch a break.