Tag: Ronny Cedeno

heading east

One last time? 01 SS The Riot 02 LF Soriano 03 1B D Lee 04 3B A Ram 05 RF Fukudome 06 2B DeRosa 07 CA Soto 08 CF Pie 09 SP Z! 10 SP Lilly 11 SP Hill 12 SP Dempster 13 SP Marquis 14 CA Blanco 15 PH Ward 16 IF Cedeno 17 … Continue reading “heading east”

One last time?

01 SS The Riot
02 LF Soriano
03 1B D Lee
04 3B A Ram
05 RF Fukudome
06 2B DeRosa
07 CA Soto
08 CF Pie

09 SP Z!
10 SP Lilly
11 SP Hill
12 SP Dempster
13 SP Marquis

14 CA Blanco
15 PH Ward
16 IF Cedeno
17 2B Fontenot
18 OF Reed Johnson

19 CL Wood
20 RP Marmol
21 RP Howry
22 RP Marshall (unless he blows it)
23 RP Lieber
24 RP Wuertz
25 RP Hart?

DL
22 RP Eyre
— RP Guzman

TBD
— OF Murton

Some thoughts here:

– I really like the Reed Johnson signing. He’s not the best of CFs, but I don’t think he’ll hurt the Cubs if he plays seven innings and Pie gets subbed in as late defensive replacement. Johnson hits the lefties great

2007 – 85PA 325/381/531 (all star numbers)
career – 701 AB 308/371/462 (solid numbers)

Moving Theriot out of the leadoff spot against lefties, if they put Johnson there instead as discussed, is really going to help the offense. These kind of situations are made for platoons, and Lou seems pretty comfortable using one.

On the days he doesn’t play, he’s the righty equivalent of Ward, waiting for the situational lefty to get in the game versus our weaker guys. And if he doesn’t pan out, the Cubs can cut him loose for a small price and bring up Sam Fuld in a couple months, and Sam is getting everyday ABs in the meantime.

The problem here is also liked the Craig Monroe trade for the same reasons, and uh, not so good. Johnson was available because of a roster crunch, but also because he spent a lot of last year hurt. Hopefully he’ll be a bit more fortunate in Chicago.

– The Cubs really should’ve never had Matt Murton to begin with. He shouldn’t have left the Red Sox, or he should’ve gone to the Twins or the Expos, that deal got a bit confused when they tried to beat the deadline. I think it’s best to look at Murton’s career as a Cub that way, “something for nothing”, instead of the possibly far more realistic “something instead of something lot more if they just gave him consistent time.” Regardless of Reed Johnson being signed, Murton was done as a Cub a long time ago. At least when Kosuke signed, but probably as far back as Soriano’s signing.

You can’t go back and fix the mistake of not trading Murton a season or two ago now, you’ve got to deal with the situation that now exists. The Cubs are fortunate there’s a good market to move middling corner outfielders; there’s plenty of teams both inside their division and elsewhere, though “solid to plus defender” doesn’t resemble the lost guy I’ve seen out there the last two years. If the Cubs can flip Murton for a non-40-man-roster guy with some promise and no track record, that’d be a fair trade and about what they should’ve ended up in the first place.

The Cubs sound like they’re moving on this, because they like Matt and they want to make it right for him, and I hope they can get this concluded quickly. He should not have to set foot in Des Moines again.

– the Trib’s subheadline on the roster moves “Fontenot’s versatility key to keeping him on roster” was intriguing to me, because the big problem with him has been his lack of utility fielding for what is a utility bench spot. What new things has Mike Fontenot learned that makes him more versatile?

Cedeno will be the back-up shortstop, but Fontenot proved he can play there in a pinch.

That’s versatility? Fontenot learning to play third would be nice, because it’d give a backup to Ram without moving people all around the infield. Though, the Cubs had a guy who was actually versatile, could play 3B, and SS, and 2B, but they just cut Alex Cintron to give Fonentot the spot.

Neither Cintron or Fontenot is going to add all that much at the plate; when they’re at their best, they’re empty batting averages lacking power or enough walks to make it meaningful. Fontenot is a little younger and probably a little cheaper, but not enough of either to make a difference.

I wonder what the real story about this roster decision. Did Cintron’s freak (batted ball to the face) and non-freak (hamstring) injuries concern the Cubs? Did they feel required to keep the Cajun Combo together? Did they want to keep around someone who they could option to AAA easily? The story they’re giving is Cintron was only here as a backup shortstop if Cedeno got traded to the O’s, but it still doesn’t explain why he was limited to that role.

– It would’ve been nice for Eyre to tell people he was hurt more than five seconds before the season started. Marshall was never going to make the rotation, he could’ve been pitching as a one-out guy for weeks. Baseball players, what are you going to do.

I think Pig would’ve be a better fit, but Marshall has earned a shot to take it. Everyone will play before they’re done.

Game 104: Phillies 4 – Cubs 1

Phillies 56-49, 3.0/1.0 Cubs 55-49, 1.0/1.5 POTG: SS Ryan Theriot (HR, 2 H, SB) Runner Up: none Somehow, I was smart enough yesterday to state I didn’t like the Cubs chances in this game, but dumb enough to still start Ted Lilly in my fantasy league. I guess I’m just filled with a mystery. The … Continue reading “Game 104: Phillies 4 – Cubs 1”

Phillies 56-49, 3.0/1.0
Cubs 55-49, 1.0/1.5

POTG: SS Ryan Theriot (HR, 2 H, SB)
Runner Up: none

Somehow, I was smart enough yesterday to state I didn’t like the Cubs chances in this game, but dumb enough to still start Ted Lilly in my fantasy league. I guess I’m just filled with a mystery.

The Cubs batters couldn’t figure out Hamels out all night, and their only real hope was getting him out of their and working over the bullpen. There was some hope of that in the 7th, but Murton, Pagan and Kendall could get nothing going, and Fontenot, Soriano, and Theriot didn’t even challenge Hamels in the 8th.

The worst sequence of the night, by far, was Ronny Cedeno’s pinch hit at bat. After Jason Kendall has just walked on five pitches, Cedeno showed the form that got him sent back to Iowa in the first place (and would get him sent right back down if they could) by swinging at the first pitch. It was a horrible impatient pop fly, and Ronny deserved to get booed. Soriano almost did the exact same thing a batter later, but Bourn tripping over the incline gave him another chance (not that he did much with it.) That was pretty much it, and I don’t think Cedeno gets another critical at bat for quite a while.

Tonight’s Marquis vs Adam Eaton. On the upside, Adam Eaton is bad. On the downside, Jason Marquis is bad. It’s 70s night at the ball park, and I’m just hoping Jason makes it to the 70s in pitch count without blowing up the game. The under/over is 9.5, and I’d take the over.

white whale caught

Took long enough. It was clearly the different player options and injury protection they put in there. All sorts of wacky things start to happen if he gets 425 PA or 100 starts, but let’s assume no. He should be used to spot people versus right handers and an effective pinch hitter. Note that he’s … Continue reading “white whale caught”

Took long enough. It was clearly the different player options and injury protection they put in there.

All sorts of wacky things start to happen if he gets 425 PA or 100 starts, but let’s assume no. He should be used to spot people versus right handers and an effective pinch hitter. Note that he’s not sure if he’ll make the start of spring training – it seem possible he could start the year on the DL while rehabbing his Achilles tendon/bone spur injury.

11 hitters on the 25, as of now…

CA Barrett
1B Lee
2B DeRosa
SS Cesar
3B A-Ram
LF Murton
CF Soriano
RF Jacque

CA Blanco
1B Ward
UT Theroit
OF Pagan
OF Floyd

Floyd and Ward are lefties off the bench and kinda the same type of player. I wonder if they still would’ve signed Ward if they knew they were getting Floyd? Then again, they’ve been trying to get Floyd since day 1, so that couldn’t have been a surprise.

While I’ve still got him on the list, I think Pagan’s not making the team. Including the three starters, they’ve got five corner infielders and no one with center field experience on the team. If they’re telling the truth about trying Theroit out there, that’s great, but that also means he’s not working at SS and there’s no backup there.

(off topic: if Theroit’s the backup CF, doesn’t that mean Pie’s going for his spot? that’s gonna be a war.)

If Cesar went down during a game, DeRosa or Theroit could shift over and take his place, and they could call up Cedeno immediately after, but I believe they’ll instead keep Ronny or Tomas Perez on the 25 man roster just in case. This is one of the points where people who actually manage the game differ in how they do things than people who just watch (who’s take that risk.)

Cesar actually did play full seasons till 2005, but he’s fragile and he’s a guy you’d like to pinch hitter for, so from a tactical standpoint, I could understand keeping one of the no-hit SS as the 25 man. I’d actually prefer it to be Tomas Perez, because Cedeno needs to get some consistent at bats at AAA to get better and get evaluated. The potential problem, as it was with Neifi and Macias, is Tomas Perez is best used as the 25th guy, but there’s no guarantee he won’t be the first man off the bench.

I picked up this years Bill James Handbook and they’ve included the manager breakdowns, which are interesting, but like James said in last year’s introduction, they’re only a start. Maybe it’s just because of where the Cubs are right now, but I think they’d be improved if they included managers who didn’t manage in 2006 but would be considered for future jobs – we’re not going to read Pinella’s tendencies till we’ve seen a year of them. More specific to this situation, I’d like more breakdowns of pinch hitting – what hitter was the first off the bench, and how did he do. Some managers will use their best guys first, and some will hold them back for a key opportunity and use leftover hitters instead (like Dusty). It’s a NL only thing, but it’s a major difference in strategy.