Cubs | The Baseball Zealot

‘One-and-done’ Maddog

Joe Posnanski of Sports Illustrated wrote an article on those players who got between 15 and 20 votes in their first of eligibility for Hall of Fame consideration. “One-and-done” he calls them. Good enough to get more than a few votes but not enough to remain on the ballot for subsequent year.

It’s a list littered with players who were more than fair, in my opinion. Players like Lou Whitaker, Joe Carter, Ted Simmons (you’ll get a lot of arguments from Cardinals fans on this, I know), Rusty Staub, and Al Oliver.

One player on the list who I saw a lot growing up was thirdbaseman Bill Madlock. ‘Maddog’ has some interesting stats in way. Posnanski makes the point that eleven players have won four or more batting titles. Of those, ten are in the Hall of Fame. Bill Madlock is not. That said, I get the sense Posnanski wasn’t necessarily bemoaning Madlock’s omission from the Hall.

Madlock had a career .305 batting average to go along with his four batting titles. While he had that going for him, his stats look good-but-not-great otherwise. Bill Madlock usually hit the double digits in homeruns but never passed the 20 mark for a season. His highest was 19 in 1982 for the Pirates. Not much of a doubles hitter either from the looks of it. He passed 30 only twice.

He had decent speed also sometimes hitting double digits in stolen bases. Only once though did he pass 20 when he stole 32 this time in a split season in 1979 between the Pirates and Giants.

In essence, Maddog earned his paycheck by winning batting crowns.

Scott Maine to the Cubs

Here’s the Baseball Cube report on Scott Maine who the Cubs just picked up in the Aaron Heilman trade.

6’4” Maine (no relation to John) had a 10.0 strikeout/9 IP ratio over his minor league career but control might be an issue (55 walks in 120+ innings). The good news is that he seems to have settled down in that area in 2009 allowing only 22 free passes in 62. Not great but ok.

Maine hasn’t started a game since his college days at Miami. Since then it’s been strictly been out of the pen for him. He’s had his share of experience with pitching with the game on the line with 13 career minor league saves.

That said, the scouting reports on him show his prospects as a probable middle reliever. Now that he’s with the Cubs, I don’t see that changing.

Reports also say that he may be up a soon as early next year.

2009 MLB Rookies of the Year

roy625nov162009 Back in the middle of September I was assigned the task of predicting who would win the rookie of the year awards. Now two months later the winners were announced, Oakland A’s reliever Andrew Bailey in the American League and Florida Marlins outfielder Chris Coghlan. I had predicted Rockies outfielder Dexter Fowler in the NL and Rangers SS Elvis Andrus in the AL.

In 2008 the A’s converted Bailey from a starter to a reliever in AA Ball in 2008. Andrew immediately experienced success in the bullpen, carrying that success over into the 2008 Arizona Fall League, and on into the 2009 regular big league season. He finished the season with 26 of 30 saves, a 6-3 record, a 1.84 ERA, with 91 strikeouts & 49 hits allowed in 83′ innings, and was Oakland’s lone All Star representative.

Chris Coghlan also enjoyed a conversion that enabled him to star in the big leagues, the former infielder was moved to leftfield. He brought his bat out to the outfield with him, batting .321 with a .390 OBP, with 31 doubles, 6 triples, & 9 home runs, as the Marlins leadoff hitter.

Elvis Andrus, my choice for AL Rookie of the Year, the Rangers 21 year old shortstop out of Venezuela, finished 2nd in the balloting behind Bailey. Elvis batted .267, with 33 stolen bases, 72 runs scored, & 128 base hits, with a very impressive range factor in the field of 4.86. Right on the heels of Andrus was Detroit’s 20 year old righthanded starting pitcher Rick Porcello (14-9 & 3.96 ERA). The 6’9″ Tampa Bay’s righthander, Jeff Niemann (13-6 & 3.94) was next, he was 17-0 with a 1.70 ERA as a Junior in 2003 with Rice. Then came The Sporting News choice for Rookie of the Year, the White Sox very own, thirdbaseman Gordon Beckham (.270, 28 doubles, 14 homers, 63 RBIs). Rounding out this crop of AL rookies was another pitcher from Oakland, southpaw Brett Anderson (11-11, 4.06 ERA, & 150 strikeouts in 175′ IP).

Closely behind Coghlan, over in the Senior Circuit, was The Sporting News choice for NL Rookie of the Year out of the University of Northwestern in Evanston, IL, Philadelphia’s lefthander J.A. Happ (12-4 & 2.93). A distant 3rd was Atlanta’s phenom righthanded starting pitcher Tommy Hanson (11-4, 2.89, & 116 K’s in 127″ IP). The Pirates outfielder Andrew McCutchen wasn’t far in back of Hanson, batting .286, 26 doubles, 9 triples, 12 homers, 74 runs scored, to go along with 22 steals, while playing a very good centerfield for the Buccos. Next up the Brewers thirdbaseman Casey McGehee received some love, .301, 20 doubles, 16 homers, & 66 RBIs. Interestingly six other rookies received very little support in their quest for league’s top rookie honors. They were Randy Wells of the Cubs (12-10 & 3.05), Pittsburgh slugger Garrett Jones (21 HRs & .293), Padres SS Everth Cabrera (25 SBs & 59 runs), my choice Dexter Fowler Colorado outfielder (73 runs, 27 SBs, 29 2Bs, & 10 3Bs), Diamondbacks outfielder Gerardo Parra (.290, 21 2Bs, 8 3Bs, 60 RBIs), and last, but not least, Cardinals centerfielder Colby Rasmus (22 2Bs & 16 HRs).

AFL Rising Stars Game Has Me All Stoked

yonder alonso Before watching the Rising Stars Game last night on the MLB Network, I really didn’t know what I was going to see on my trip to Arizona. After seeing a sampling of the talent out there, my bags are packed, & I’m stoked.

The Cincinnati Reds are going to have a tough decision at firstbase. Joey Votto played there for the big club, batting .322 with 25 homers & 84 RBIs, he’s arguably their best hitter. But their best hitting prospect is Miami’s Yonder Alonso. Alonso posted big numbers at Miami, hitting .370 with 24 long balls in only 211 at bats, walking 76 times, while striking out only 35 times. Last night he demonstrated his line drive swing, going 3 for 4, with a double, 2 ribbies, although he did K.

Another hitter in the Reds system, batted cleanup in the game, Chris Heisey, an outfielder, was the 504th player chosen in the 2006 draft. He played at Messiah College, is from Lancaster, PA, and was signed after a tryout. He got the scoring going for the West with a first inning home run off Tommy Mendoza, then later in the game added a double.

19 year old shortstop Starlin Castro of the Chicago Cubs was 2 for 3 in the game, showed great speed, seems to have baseball instincts, and should move Ryan Theriot over to secondbase in the near future.

Speaking of 19 year old shortstops, the Red Sox had Cuban prospect Jose Iglesias in this game and although he looked overmatched it was obvious the talent this kid possesses. He should follow in the footsteps of Nomar Garciaparra & Hanley Ramirez, both out of the Bosox system.

One pitcher who didn’t have it was Atlanta’s Mike Minor, a first rounder out of Vanderbilt, 2/3 IP, 7 hits, 7 runs, & 1 walk, he was hit HARD. The lefty was on Team USA, was the ace of the staff, and allowed only one unearned run in 12 1/3 innings versus Cuba, he was dominant.

Another pitcher who didn’t look good was Daniel Moskos of the Pittsburgh Pirates, taken in the 1st round in 2007, 2/3 IP, 4 runs on 5 hits, he got ROCKED. Moskos is another soft throwing lefthander in the Buccos tradition of Zack Duke, Tom Gorzelanny, & Paul Maholm.

ASU’s Mike Leake showed some STUFF, working one inning, allowing one hit, and striking out three. The Reds drafted this kid in the first round of the 2009 draft. The AFL is his first experience in pro ball, he was 16-1, with a 1.71 ERA, and 162 strikeouts in 142 innings for the Sun Devils this past season.

LA’s own Danny Gutierrez brought his own cheering section, it seemed to help as the kid struckout the side in his one inning on the bump. Danny was selected in the 33rd round of the 2005 draft by the Kansas City Royals. Now this 6’2″ righthander out of Riverside Community College is pitching in the Texas Rangers organization.

There are so many more prospects that I could tell you about, but I have to save something for my trip out west, really looking forward to it, can’t you tell?!?! Oh, BTW, the West Stars beat the East Stars, 8-7 on a late Matt McBride two run dinger, but none of that really matters.

Three Finger Brown born 133 years ago today

Happy Birthday Three Finger Brown!

Mordecai Peter Centennial Brown would have been 133 years old today.

As a kid, I learned a little about baseball history from an old-timers bubble gum baseball cards I bought at the dime store. Of course, Three Finger Brown was one of them. As a Cub fan, I had an affinity for him.

Some interesting (and perhaps lesser-known) facts about Brown.

Made his major league debut at age 26 in 1903.
Brown accumulated 239 wins in his career but also led the league in saves four years in a row (1908-1911, unrecognized at the time of course).
Known primarily as a Cub, Brown did get picked up by the Reds later in his career and even played in the Federal League. In 1916, he was purchased by the Cubs for his last year where he pitched in 12 games.
Broke and held for many years, the record for number of chances handled by a pitcher without an error in 1908 with 108.

Here is his obituary that was in the New York Times when he passed in 1948

Dodgers beat the Yankees!… in attendance

2009 can be known as the year that the Dodgers toppled the Yankees… at least in attendance figures.

For the first time in six years, the Yankees didn’t lead the majors in total yearly attendance. They came in second. The top honor goes to the Los Angeles Dodgers who had 3,761,661 go through the turnstiles at Dodger Stadium.

Number 3 shouldn’t be a big surprise. Given their World Championship status and relatively large market, the Philadelphia Phillies grabbed that spot.

As for Chicago teams. the Cubs ranked sixth and the White Sox came in sixteenth in 2009.

Overall, Major League Baseball had a slight downturn in attendance from 2008 (6.6% less according to MLB.com) but with an attendance of 73,418,479, MLB is spinning it that this year is the fifth most attended year all time. Yay, Baseball.

For those attendance stat geeks, The Biz of Baseball does a good job of breaking it all down for us. Their pdf looking back at this past decade of MLB attendance team-by-team is quite detailed.

Cubs’ Ted Lilly puts his vote in for Reed Johnson

Does Reed Johnson deserve another year shot with the Cubs?

Ted Lilly thinks so. And he’s not shy about it, either.

So after the Cubs’ 4-0 loss to Pittsburgh in the opener of a doubleheader, Lilly entered the postgame interview room wearing a T-shirt that read: "With Reed We Will Succeed."

"Hey, I believe it," Lilly said. "I definitely enjoy playing with the guy. Regardless of what happens with any of the players next year, our front office is going to do the best job they can.”

Word has it that Lilly, Johnson, Ryan Theriot, Ryan Dempster and the now traded Mark DeRosa are a pretty “tight” group and Lilly doesn’t want to see this group split up anymore than it is already.

True, Johnson had a down year this year but in 2008 it seemed every time I turned on the Cubs’ highlights, there was Reed Johnson either making a fantastic play in the field or getting a clutch hit.

That all said, I think it’s time to get Sam Fuld a chance. At 27, he’s not getting any younger. It’s time to get him some more playing time.

Fake Umps Take Center Stage at Wrigley Field

fake umps Watching the Cubs host the Diamondbacks at Wrigley this weekend I couldn’t help but notice the extra umpires seated behind home plate. Turns out the fake umpires are Tim Williams & Joe Ferrell, two traders on the Toronto Stock Exchange, in Chicago on business. It was their seventh big league appearance. They bought their seats, but received several complimentary beers from nearby fans. It’s hilarious, they actually call the game, even down to reaching into their pocket for a baseball & acting like they’re throwing it to the pitcher. The fans are particularly delighted by their strike three calls. Although MLB has instructed their umpires not to engaged the pair, they secretly admire their act, so do the players & the fans. Popular umpires? What will we see next!

Streator Stache Shines for Sidewinders

clay-zavada The remarkable lefthander out of Streator, IL started out his major league career with the Diamondbacks by throwing eighteen straight shutout innings spread out over 19 games in which he appeared. But that’s not the remarkable thing about this young handlebar mustached (the result of a Class-A contest) lefthander. Clay was drafted by Arizona out Southern Illinois Edwardsville in the 30th round of the 2006 draft. As a 22 year old, he struckout 51 batters in 49′ innings pitched with a respectable 3.47 ERA in Rookie Ball.

But then his career took a detour, his father died unexpectedly of a heart attack while working at a YMCA, leaving nobody to take over the house & the family farm in Streator, Clay’s brother was in the Navy, and their mother died when Clay was just three years old. So Clay rolled up his sleeves and took over the store, temporarily abandoning his pitching career. Clay said, “My dad worked and died for the place I’m at right now, so I felt like I had more important things to attend to than baseball.” One of those things was return to college to complete his education. “I had promised to my dad that I’d get my degree, so that was something I had to do, both for myself and for him,” said Zavada. “There are a lot of idiots like me out there who go to Division II schools and don’t get a signing bonus. And a lot of ’em are out of the sport by age 26 or 27, with no degree and no idea what to do. Playing baseball is great, but you’ve got to have a backup plan.”

The 2007 season may have been a “year off” when it came to baseball, but considering the circumstances, it was anything but relaxing. “I wasn’t Cadillac-ing, believe me,” said Zavada. “I was driving 200 miles in order to go to school on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, then delivering furniture the rest of the week and giving pitching lessons on Sunday. It was real stressful, but I got my best GPA ever. It’s amazing how well you can do in college when you don’t have 30 guys to hang around with every night.”

Once everything was back in order one of Clay’s college buddies talked him into pitching for the Southern Illinois Miners of the Frontier League, there he posted a nifty 1.72 ERA, and he also caught the eye once again of the Diamondbacks, who worked out a deal to reacquire Zavada. The Miners worked out a deal with Arizona whereby Clay could resign with the D-Backs without charging the club a purchase price, Arizona released struggling firstbaseman Brad Miller, who signed with the Miners, and it was a done deal. Clay was on his way.

But then there was another bump in the road, but this kid wasn’t about to be denied. He gave up a walkoff home run in Dayton on Thirsty Thursday, there were 10,000 fans going crazy, smoke was shooting from the nose of a giant dragon, and a 16-foot bullhorn was going off. Zavada says, “part of the fun of this game is getting your butt smacked, but then getting the chance to go out there and redeem yourself.”

Redeem himself, he did. He won the MiLBY for Class A Reliever of the Year, and for good reason. Despite the fact that he didn’t make his 2008 affiliated debut until June 21, the 24-year-old southpaw still put up numbers that could reasonably be called “otherworldly.” Over 24 appearances with the South Bend Silver Hawks, Zavada went 3-1 with eight saves and an 0.51 ERA. Opponents hit just .056 against him and he ended the season by hurling 30 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings.

Over the winter the D-backs added him to the 40-man roster, and when they needed a reliever in May they called him up from Double-A Mobile. Zavada picked up the win in his first big league game and did not allow an earned run in his first 18 innings. “Sometimes you ask people how they are doing and they tell you they are living the dream,” Zavada said. “They’re not really living the dream. There’s really only one percent that is really living the dream. I’m living the dream, my dream. Not many people get to do that in their lifetime. Life’s not fair. Life’s not easy. So I’m just thankful. It’s a blessing from God that I’m in this situation. There’s only 750 or so of us. That’s pretty unique. So you had better have fun, you had better enjoy it and you’d better give it all you’ve got. Otherwise you’ll regret it. And I don’t want to regret it.” It’s that attitude and approach to the game that has made Zavada so popular among his veteran teammates. “Clay definitely is one of those guys that lightens everyone up,” veteran left-hander Doug Davis said. “Seeing him wide-eyed every day, ready to pitch, ready to do whatever we ask him to do, he’s just always very humble even though he went 18 innings without giving up a run. It’s fun to have a guy like that in the clubhouse.” Said closer Chad Qualls, “He recognizes that it’s very special to be a big leaguer and he’s had a lot taken away from him, so to have this opportunity given to him, he just relishes it.” Nothing encapsulates Zavada’s journey better than the day he got to meet Ken Griffey Jr. prior to a game against the Mariners at Safeco Field. It was a big thrill and he clearly reveled in it. Later in the day, though, he was all business on the mound as he got Griffey to fly out. “He’s a cool guy,” Zavada said, an autographed Griffey jersey hanging in his locker behind him. “That’s good because sometimes you look forward to meeting someone and you can be disappointed.” Zavada does not expect his appreciation for his big leagues life to change. After all, when just over a year ago you were delivering furniture and struggling to make ends meet, the experiences you have in the Major Leagues are a non-stop high. “It’s amazing here. You play for two weeks and you’re like, this is sweet, this is awesome. And then you get a check and you’re like, holy cow. It’s pretty cool. It’s the best job in the world.”

So today I’m watching the Cubs game against the Diamondbacks, Arizona jumped out to a 10-0 wind, with the aid of a 10 MPH wind blowing out, unusual on a brisk, damp, fall day. There were legions of fans from Streator, IL wearing handlebar mustaches, hoping to see their very own, in action. They got their wish when a fair ball was rocketed toward the Diamondback bullpen, Clay fielded it, egg on his face. But his fandom got their wish, as Zavada came on to close out the game, pitching the 9th inning, without allowing a run, preserving an 12-3 win.

Cubs’ Harden taking off the rest of the season

Rich Harden and the Cubs have agreed that the right-hander will take the rest of the season off.

“He doesn’t want to pitch and we respect his wishes,” Piniella said. “I spoke with him briefly and he’s not going to pitch any more. He’s done a real nice job here and the staff has done a nice job of keeping him nice and healthy.”

In an email, my friend DonS explained his thoughts on the matter. He senses a little behind-the-scenes agreement between the two. Here’s his speculation:

The Cubs agreed to let Harden take the rest of the year off, in exchange for a promise. Under the secret agreement, Harden declares for free agency, the Cubs offer Harden arbitration and Harden turns it down, as promised.

That way, the Cubs get the draft choices that the present team gets when the free agent turns down arbitration and Harden gets the rest of the year off with pay and becomes a free agent.

Thoughts? Is DonS on track or just a conspiracy theorist?