Results tagged ‘ Alfonso Soriano ’

WISH LIST STUFF

Here is my old list.

1.  Bring Sandberg back to the Cubs organization.

2.  Hire a quality manager.  We hired Dale Sveum.

3. Keep Greg Maddux in the front office.

4.  Go after Prince Fielder.  Sounds like it may happen. We may even go after Pujols.

5.  Make offer to Aramis Ramirez (this one goes hand-in-hand with number 4 and I’ll explain later)  Does not appear likely.

6.  Trade Carlos Zambrano.  (Even is he says it won’t happen again I know it will)

7.  Trade Alfonso Soriano.  Sounds like this could happen.

8.  Sign Kerry Wood again or find him a job with the Cubs.  Might happen.

9.  Strengthen the pitching staff

And here is my new and improved wish list.

1.  Sign Prince Fielder.  He could be the center piece to build around.

2.  Trade Carlos Zambrano to the Marlins.

3.  Trade Alfonso Soriano to any AL team that will take him!

4.  Sign Kerry Wood.

5.  Sign either Paul Maholm or Edwin Jackson.  We need pitching depth.

6.  Wipe the slate clean, don’t sign Prince, trade Soriano & Zambrano.  Then trade Matt Garza to the Reds or Rangers in a huge deal.  Follow that up by trading away Marlon Byrd, Geovany Soto and Randy Wells too.

Whatever direction the Cubs decide to go I hope they start making moves soon.  I just want to know what to expect for the next couple of seasons under Theo and Co..

Winter Meetings Almost Here!

I am getting excited!  The anticipation is almost like a child waiting for Christmas morning so they can open their presents.  Next week’s Winter Meetings have gotten me excited as they do every year.  However, this year I expect the Cubs to really be active.  I am betting on trades and free agent signings to happen with Theo at the helm.  I’m still aggravated that he allowed Greg Maddux to leave and that he didn’t bring back Ryne Sandberg.  However, if he can put together a winning team all will be forgiven.

The acquisition of David DeJesus was a great signing.  It was an inexpensive move as well.  Now we need to strengthen our pitching staff, find a left handed slugger (Prince…maybe) and make some trades.

Speaking of trades, I would love to see the Cubs trade Alfonso Soriano and Carlos Zambrano.  I doubt we will be able to trade both of these players, but I think we can swap at least one of them.  I’m betting that Soriano may be playing for another team in 2012 and it will most likely be in the AL.
I’ve also read that the Cubs may shop Matt Garza around.  I really, really like Garza.  However, if we are able to get a bountiful return for him then I have no problem letting him go.  I don’t see Theo and Hoyer accepting a trade for him without getting 4-5 minor league players in return.

Next week is kind of like a holiday for me.  I am a baseball nerd who loves this part of the off-season and cannot wait for it to begin.

UPDATING MY WISH LIST

At the beginning of November I created my wish list for the Cubs this off-season.  Here it is and along with a few changes.

1.  Bring Sandberg back to the Cubs organization.

2.  Hire a quality manager.  We hired Dale Sveum.

3. Keep Greg Maddux in the front office.

4.  Go after Prince Fielder.  Sounds like it may happen. We may even go after Pujols.

5.  Make offer to Aramis Ramirez (this one goes hand-in-hand with number 4 and I’ll explain later)  Does not appear likely.

6.  Trade Carlos Zambrano.  (Even is he says it won’t happen again I know it will)

7.  Trade Alfonso Soriano.  Sounds like this could happen.

8.  Sign Kerry Wood again or find him a job with the Cubs.  Might happen.

9.  Strengthen the pitching staff

So two of my wish’s have already been rejected.  However, the Cubs may pursue Pujols or Fielder which is a good thing.

HOT STOVE SEASON HAS BEGUN! PLUS, MY NEW WISH LIST FOR THIS OFF-SEASON

Okay, the Cubs have been busy over the last month.  Theo Epstein has been brought in as President of Baseball Operations for the Cubs and he has gotten Jed Hoyer, from the Padres, as the new GM.  Theo also landed Jason McLeod as the Director of Scouting and Player Development.  These three amigos are tasked with turning a century of losing into a championship contender on a yearly basis.  That is an enormous challenge!

Theo and crew has already started by “releasing” Mike Quade from his position as manager of the Cubs.  Theo then called up Ryne Sandberg and notified him immediately that he would not be considered for the newly vacated managerial position.  I think that was a good thing to do.  Don’t lead Ryno on and let him believe he has a chance at the job like happened last year.  However, I do hope Theo is able to get Sandberg back into a Cub uniform as a major league coach or minor league manager.  I’ve read that the Cardinals are interested in him and that would just kill me.  If he took over for the Cards in 2012 and won a World Series……..well, it wouldn’t be a good thing for me.

Anyway, before I worry too much about this worst case scenario, I have to remind myself that Theo realizes knows what he’s doing.

The search for a new manager is underway and I have a feeling that Theo will make a wise and educated choice.

Here is my wishlist for this off-season.

1.  Bring Sandberg back to the Cubs organization.

2.  Hire a quality manager.

3. Keep Greg Maddux in the front office.

4.  Go after Prince Fielder

5.  Make offer to Aramis Ramirez (this one goes hand-in-hand with number 4 and I’ll explain later)

6.  Trade Carlos Zambrano.  (Even is he says it won’t happen again I know it will)

7.  Trade Alfonso Soriano

8.  Sign Kerry Wood again or find him a job with the Cubs.

9.  Strengthen the pitching staff

My goal over my next few posts will be to address all 9 of these items on my personal wishlist.  I will also add new ideas to my list when I can come up with something feasible.  I look forward to the HOT STOVE season and I plan on blogging about it as much as I can.

WHAT A DAY!

Well, the Cubs have finally parted ways with GM Jim Hendry.  I would like to wish him the best.  He did help guide the Cubs to three appearances in the playoffs under his watch.  He made some great trades early in his tenure.  But his massive contracts to Alfonso Soriano, Carlos Zambrano and Kosuke Fukudome have hurt the Cubs tremendously.  I give him credit for the teams he put together when the Cubs were winning and I hold him accountable for the team he has assembled this year as well.  Thank you Mr. Hendry for your time with the Cubs.  I know you tried.

In December of 2010, I wrote two posts on Jim Hendry as our GM.  Here are the links to both posts.

http://strictlycubsbaseball.mlblogs.com/2010/12/20/a-closer-look-at-jim-hendry-part-i-free-agents/

http://strictlycubsbaseball.mlblogs.com/2010/12/21/a-closer-look-at-jim-hendry-part-ii-trade-history/

 

 

Now comes the hard part.  Who will the Ricketts family choose to replace Hendry.  I hope that Greg Maddux would want the job, but I’m not sure he does nor do I know if he would be able to do it.  I would like to believe that Maddux would be a great GM and lead the Cubs to the World Series.  He was a special assistant to Hendry so I’m guessing he won’t even be considered for the position.  I think the Ricketts family will be looking for a GM with more experience.  Time will tell.

Finally, today the Cubs won a great game over our Arch Rival, the St. Louis Cardinals.  The game was won in extra innings with Tyler Colvin knocking in the game’s winning run.  This game was unique though.  I’ve watched a lot of Cub games this year and they’ve seemed a bit flat as a team.  Today was different.  When Colvin drove in Soto to win the game the Cubs celebrated as if they had clinched the division.  It was pure joy and excitement.  I don’t know why it seemed different today, but it did.  Maybe it was a tribute to Hendry.  Maybe it was because the clubhouse downer, Carlos Zambrano, wasn’t there.  Maybe it’s because the Cubs had fun playing baseball today.   Whatever it was, I know I enjoyed today’s game.  The Cubs never gave up and their excitement at the end of the game was refreshing.

Oh wow, just turned on the Little League World Series game between Pennsylvania and Kentucky and there is over 41,000 people in attendance.  WHAT A DAY!!!!

 

 

 

THOME AND MORE

First, I am really excited to see Jim Thome reach 600 homeruns.  He did it the right way in my opinion.  I have never suspected him of using PEDs to reach this historic number.  Thome and Griffey, Jr. are the two players from the steroid era that I believe did not cheat.  Maybe I am being naive, but I believe strongly in both players abilities without the use of steroids or any other PED.  With that said, CONGRATULATIONS!!!! JIM THOME!!!!!

On to some Cub news.  It appears the Cubs are going to keep GM Jim Hendry.  I don’t like it necessarily unless he can regain some of his magic that he used when acquiring Derrek Lee and Aramis Ramirez.  His history of trades has been decent but his big free agent signings and even one of his big contract extensions have been busts.  Kosuke Fukudome, Alfosno Soriano and Carlos Zambrano are all players that received nice contracts from Hendry.  That’s not good.

I still wish the Ricketts family would make Greg Maddux GM.  Imagine him bringing his brother, Mike Maddux, over from Texas as our new pitching coach.  That would be great!  I trust Maddux and would love to see him as our GM some day soon.

While the Cubs have been playing better baseball as of late I am not sold on our potential roster for 2012.  I know it’s early, but Ricketts and Hendry better come up with a serious game plan for the future.

POWER OUTAGE!!!!

Okay, the Cubs faced Chris Carpenter and the St. Louis Cardinals last night.  We pounded out 13 hit against the Cardinal ace.  That sounds pretty good, right?  Well, all of those 13 hits were singles.  Not a single extra base hit.  That’s not a good thing. 

To date, our cleanup hitter, Aramis Ramirez, has 1 home run.  That’s in 126 at bats.  It’s my opinion, that teams are pitching around him a bit and he is pressing some.  But we need his bat to come to life real soon.  
Our leader in home runs, Alfonso Soriano, has 11 home runs, but only 21 RBIs.  Obviously, he’s hitting a lot of solo bombs.  We need to get guys on base in front of him.  
This power outage is frustrating!  Hopefully, our bats will come to life soon!

THE OPTIMISTIC CUB FAN THAT I AM

The Cubs have been off to a relatively slow start this season.  If you’ve read any of my posts over the last month you probably know that I’ve been frustrated with their play.  However, things are beginning to look up.  We just finished a road trip with a winning record.  Wells and Cashner are getting closer to returning from the DL.  Carlos Pena homered in consecutive games against the Dodgers.  Ryan Dempster had a great outing last time out.  Castro and Barney are exceeding my expectations and look like they could make a great pair up the middle for years to come.  

I’m expecting Aramis Ramirez to start hitting home runs soon if he can get some protection in the lineup.  If Pena’s power burst continues then I think A-RAM will start hitting bombs too.  If that happens, then we could see a domino effect and several guys may start hitting better.  At least, that’s what I am hoping for.  
Alfonso Soriano is hitting homers like we have been wanting him to since he signed with the Cubs.  Now we need to get some men on base when he is batting.  I like him lower in the lineup too.  It gives us a major power threat in the 6th or 7th spot that many teams don’t have.  
This nine game home stand we are about to start tomorrow may be a big boost for us if we can win more than we lose.  I know it’s early still, but this home stand could be huge for us.  Let’s hope we step it up and wins some ballgames!

FINALLY! A WIN!

I was able to stay up late last night and watch the Cubs actually win a game.  It was nice to see.  We had good starting pitching and Quade did not leave Zambrano in too long.  He trusted his setup of Wood, Marshall and Marmol for the 7th, 8th and 9th innings.  We played good defense and had three solo homers.  Soriano was the hitter of the night blasting two bombs!  I liked the fact that Castro batted third again too.  Now, if we can repeat last nights performance I would be really happy.

Matt Garza will be pitching against Ian Kennedy tonight. Hopefully, we can play better for Garza and get him his first win of the season and as a Cub.  Even though he’s striking out a lot of batters he hasn’t had much luck.  He pitched 6 shutout innings in a no-decision against San Diego, lost to Colorado due to 4 errors and 4 unearned runs, has seen the Cubs get shutout twice during his starts and saw the bullpen blow the lead in another.  That’s five starts and little run support, bad defense and a loss to the bullpen.  Hopefully, tonight is the night the guys rally around Garza and get him a win.

MEDIOCRE PLAY WON’T WIN THE CENTRAL

The Cubs have started this season by playing mediocre baseball in April.  When we’ve had decent pitching, our defense or offense has let us down.  Other times we’ve hit the ball, but our pitching let us down.  Sometimes it’s the starters and other times it’s the bullpen.  When we get guys on base and in scoring position we are not driving them in.  Our defense was terrible in spring training and it hasn’t been that good to start the season either.  Our manager has also made a few mistakes as well.  Combine all of this together and we get mediocre baseball!

First, let me start with something positive.  Starlin Castro and Darwin Barney are hitting great at the top of the lineup.  Both players have really impressed me.  It’s encouraging when your younger players come to play everyday and put up numbers like they are.  Castro is capable of hitting anywhere in the lineup in my opinion while DB has shown that he’s a capable number two hitter.  As of this morning, Castro is hitting .357 and DB is hitting .320.  They are also rank number two and three on the team in RBIs.  Soriano leads the team with 15.  That’s where the bad news starts to come in to play.  Marlon Byrd has only 5 RBIs.  Not what you want from your number three hitter.  Even though he’s hitting .293, he’s not driving in runs when he has the opportunity.  He’s hitting .185 with runners in scoring position and he’s unfortunately killed several rallies.  I hate saying this because Byrd is one of the players I really like on this team.  He plays the game the right way and never gives up.  I think he’s better suited batting somewhere else in the lineup.  I hope Quade realizes this soon.  Anyway, these failed opportunities are also hurting Aramis Ramirez, our cleanup hitter.  He has a good average, .329, but only 1 homer and 9 RBIs.  With runners in scoring position he’s hitting .286 with 6 RBIs.  Those are respectable numbers, but Byrd has limited his chances of driving in runs.  
Next we have issues with our starting pitching.  It doesn’t help when two of your starters go on the DL right after their first start of the season.  There is also something that is bothering me that is probably not that big of deal.  Our manager seems to trust our veteran starters, which is a good thing, but in my opinion, there’s been several times when he’s left the starter in too long.  This happened on Dempster’s first start of the season against Pittsburgh (a loss), also against Houston on the 11th (a win….barely) and again against the Dodgers on the 23rd(a win).  I think Quade needs to trust his bullpen more and not leave our starters in there too long.  I may be way off on this, but it’s frustrating when your team is winning and you can tell the starter is about out of gas and Quade tries getting another inning out of him.  It’s April for crying out loud!   There’s no need to push the starters to the limit this early in the season.
I guess the bottom line for me is that we aren’t scoring enough runs and I believe changing our lineup would help tremendously and that we need to trust our bullpen more.  We also need to play better defense.  I know the homers for Ramirez will come.  I also hope Pena starts hitting bombs into the bleachers in right field.  That would help a lot too.  Until then, we are just playing mediocre ball.
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