Virtually Unhittable

I knew a little about Rich Harden, but I haven't had a chance to watch him pitch. I missed his first start as a Cub when he went 5 1/3 with 10 strikeouts. However, I just read this article on his mechanics and pitches. Check out how filthy his fastball / change-up combo is:

http://www.baseball-intellect.com/Articles/rich-harden-trade.html
Scroll halfway down the page to the "Stuff" section.

I can't believe how similar those pitches look until a few feet away from the batter. No wonder this guy strikes everyone out. His stuff is bordering on unfair.

The Chicago Way

Check out the Hardball Times report on our game yesterday:

I hate Kevin Costner, but I will say that the Untouchables is probably his best movie.

The Sky is Falling, the Sky is Falling!

Despite taking 2/3 from the Cardinals this weekend and creating a 3.5 game lead over the Cards and Brewers, this weekend was a bad one for my Cubbies. The weekend ended last evening with news that the Brewers had just agreed to a trade for one of baseball's best pitchers and reigning AL Cy Young award winner, C.C. Sabathia. With the boost that this will give to the Brewers, the Cubbies postseason chances aren't looking promising. I expected both the Cards and Brews to drop off eventually, but adding one of the true aces in baseball will certainly revitalize the Brewers.

The question is, what can the Cubs possibly do to counter? There are some other pitchers out there like Rich Harden (the AL Mark Prior), AJ Burnett and Randy Wolf (who hasn't had an ERA under 4 since 2002). I like the prospect of Harden, but he's only once pitched over 128 innings in a season since his debut in 2003. I don't know anything about what kind of injuries he has had, just that he's always had one. I like Burnett as well, maybe that's the way to go. Hopefully taking him out of the AL East would have an even more positive impact on his statistics. If we do somehow have the prospects to get one of these guys, you have to ask yourself if it would be enough. No trade(s) we can make will have the impact of a guy like Sabathia (and his 2.16 ERA since April 22nd).

The other option would be to load up on more offense, but our offense has been pretty good thus far this season.

Jock Jones & The State of Cubs OF

Jacque (or Jock which is what announcers who can't pronounce his name call him) Jones was traded today by the Cubs in what was likely a salary dump. Jones made 5.6 million last year. It seems very likely this deal was made to free up hot stove money. The Winter Meetings are a few weeks away and this is when deals are being negotiated to sign free agents and make trades between teams. It seems obvious that the team was not committed to Jones and will likely make an attempt at one of the top outfielders available on the free market.

We received Omar Infante and cash from the Tigers. Tell me if this sounds familiar, Omar is a 26 year old utility/middle infielder with a .270 batting average and an on-base percentage of 300. They've got to either trade him or trade another one of our players that are exactly the same (Theriot, Fontenot, Cedeno, Eric Patterson, etc). Infante has played a couple full seasons, so you know what you've got with him. The point is that he was not the reason they made the deal. The deal was to free up Jones' 5.6 mil, so they can spend that cash on an outfielder.

The Cubs currently have the following outfielders: Alfonso Soriano. The rest of the outfielders on the Cubs roster are backups at best and all of them are young and inexperienced. You might be able to start 1, but you can't start two of them every day. As much as everyone loves Red (Matt Murton), he wasn't an everyday player last year and might not ever have enough average or power for a contender. Also available are: Felix Pie (not ready), Eric Patterson (not ready and also a 2B), Angel Pagan (not ready), and Sam Fuld (didn't get a hit last year, but made that awesome catch). With only Soriano being a viable option as a starter for a contending team (which I hope we are), they need to make a splash.

BudManCubsFan hears (and I see quite a bit on the interweb about it), that the Cubs are aggressively pursuing Japanese free agent, Kosuke Fukudome. At the right price, he could have a lot to offer. I'm not sure why he only played 80 games last year, but his stats look great. A career on-base percentage of .400 and slugging of .550 are both awesome. Obviously he won't put up numbers like that in the MLB, but an OPS of .960 last year and 1.100 the year before is pretty stellar. Some of that should translate. The Cubs need guys who can get on base and Fukudome is one of them.

The top options available on the free agent market are:

Torii Hunter CF
32 Years old - 7 time gold glove winner
OBP (last 3 years): 337, 336, 334
SLG (last 3 years): 452, 490, 505

Andruw Jones CF
30 Years old - 10 time gold glove winner
OBP (last 3 years): 347, 363, 311
SLG (last 3 years): 575, 531, 413

Aaron Rowand CF
30 Years old - 1 time gold glove winner
OBP (last 3 years): 329, 321, 374
SLG (last 3 years): 407, 425, 515

Shannon Stewart LF
33 Years old - some injury issues
OBP (last 3 years over 100 games): 364, 323, 345
SLG (last 3 years over 100 games): 459, 388, 394

Geoff Jenkins LF/RF
33 Years old
OBP (last 3 years): 375, 357, 319
SLG (last 3 years): 513, 434, 471

So Taguchi LF
38 Years old
OBP (last 3 years): 322. 335, 350
SLG (last 3 years): 412, 351, 368

Barry Bonds LF/DH
Under no circumstances do I want Barry Bonds on the Cubs.

But, who the heck is Rob Bowen?

While the Cubs and Padres players were trading slaps on the field, the front offices were wheelin' and dealin'. When I heard about the Barrett deal in a 2 second blurb on ESPN radio today, I was enraged. I promptly text messaged CubsTattoo, BudFanCubsMan and the only reader of this site, Dapper Dre. How could the Cubs trade their 3rd best hitter!?!? How can you give "our guy" away for a backup catcher and a "hot minor league prospect" (to quote Colin Cowherd)? I was thinking this and then BudFanCubsMan verbalized it for me, if you don't want him, cut him loose at the end of the season for the compensation pick. Those picks are useful, no doubt about it. Draft picks are important in MLB because they aren't easy to come across (you can't trade them like in other sports).

Here's my breakdown of the trade. SO, who did we give up? I'm a Michael Barrett fan (as are both of my fellow bloggers here at MyCubbies.com). I like the scrap that's in him. Makes him and the team fun to watch. And he's been a stud over the last 3 seasons. Best of all, we didn't give up anything to get him (Damian Miller!). The calculations I did before the season for him are a 3 year average. His were .289/.334/.494 for an OPS of .828 (for the uninitiated, that is batting average / on-base percentage / slugging percentage). Really solid. One of the best offensive catchers in baseball. This year, so far, his line looks like this: .256 / .307 / .427. That is, quite bluntly, horrible. Michael Barrett is what he is. He's an offensive catcher. He's not exactly one of the "amazing catching Molina brothers". His defense is sub-par for the league, but it hadn't mattered because he killed the ball at the plate. Well, so far this year his defense is worse than ever and he is strugg-a-ling at the plate. As eluded to previously, his contract is up at the end of the season.

SO, what did we get? I have to admit, I'd never heard of this kid. I watch a lot of baseball. I loved Baseball Tonight (back when I had cable). And Peter Gammons is my personal hero. But, who the heck is Rob Bowen? Brother of the dirty player from the Spurs? Turns out he is a pretty able-bodied and young catcher from the Padres. I should have known him because he hammered a dinger against us last week. He might be a backup in San Diego, but he's got good numbers. His line for the season is this: .268 / .371 / .439 for an OPS of .810! You'll notice how despite this being just one season, his numbers this year are almost as good as Barrett's last 3 years.

That is a solid pick up. With Barrett about to hit the road anyway, if this kid pans out at all, that is a steal. Not only that, but getting younger with catchers is always a good idea and this kid is under a minor league deal for the foreseeable future (I couldn't find his contract details online). CubsTat pointed out that his splits against leftys are ridonculous (but that could partly be due to small sample size). We also got rookie league outfielder, Kyler Burke. Rookie league outfielders don't often make it to the bigs, so I'm not worried, but the Cubbies are obviously re-stocking their farm system (note all the college players taken in the draft, which I'll write a blog about soon). This kid was taken in the supplemental draft last year, so he is probably the equivalent of compensation for the pick they lost by not losing Barrett's number at the end of the season.

All in all, this was probably a deal that Barrett forced them to make. It sounds like the Cubs did what they could. I hope it works out. I'm going to miss Mike, but I will echo the sentiments of Jim Hendry when he said, "I'll be rooting for him all the time when he's not playing against us."

Scapegoat Traded To Padres

Our feisty catcher has been traded to the Padres. I have never been a believer in team chemistry mattering much to a baseball team, but maybe that's the case here. I've been a fan of Barrett since he came here, if for no other reason than he cared when we lost. Last Spring when DLee went down, all of our hitters except Barrett went into the tank as we headed straight for the cellar. It is also of note that he is the only Cub catcher to win a Silver Slugger.
As for the scraps with 2 pitchers recently, I'm not sure I can side with the pitchers. First, Big Z is crazy and his logic ends with his statement, "Only God can control my temper". As for Hill, and any other pitcher for that matter, last time I checked, catchers don't get wins and losses and Michael Barrett never hung any sliders over the middle of the plate. I'm not sure if it was just the visibility of the fights, but these things have to go on all the time. Hell, I remember fights in high school locker rooms, and we only played 20 games, not 162, and I never cashed a single sports check in my high school days, or any days for that matter.
At any rate, I say good luck to Michael and hopefully we get something good back.