Mashings and ramblings of a nerd
Posts tagged Chris Archer
Cubs Trade for Matt Garza
Jan 8th
The Cubs made a big move Friday to shore up their rotation for this season. They made a trade for pitcher Matt Garza of the Tampa Rays and two minor league players and the Rays will acquire 5 players.
Here’s a quick rundown of players that are involved in the deal.
Cubs receive:
Matt Garza. He was 15-10 last season with a 3.91 ERA and topped 200 innings for the season. He also threw a no-hitter versus the Detroit Tigers this past season. There’s been quite a bit of talk that he’s going to hop right into the rotation as the ace of the team. I’m not sure if that will actually happen though, but it doesn’t, he’ll easily start after Dempster and before Carlos Zambrano. I like Zambrano not being the opening day starter as his track record has not been good. Simply put, he’s not an ace, but as a 3rd starteer in the rotation, he could thrive.
Fernando Perez. Perez was up and down for the Rays in the 2008 and 2009 seasons. At the age of 27, he’s starting to hit that age where he needs to make a big jump in his career or fall in to that grouping of people that just never made it. He’s not particularly a strong hitter, but he’s got extremely good speed.
Zachary Rosscup. He’s currently a low A ball pitcher that’s only 22 that was drafted two seasons ago that tosses the ball from the left side. I don’t know much about him. He seemed to have a pretty decent 2nd full season
Rays receive:
Chris Archer. He was acquired in Mark DeRosa trade to the Indians a few seasons ago. Since then Archer has become the Cubs top pitching prospect and was their pitcher of the year in the Minors last season posting a 15-3 record with a 2.34 ERA between high A and AA last season. He’s only 21 now too. There was an outside shot he could have made the Cubs rotation out of spring training, but most likely he’ll start the season in AAA. He could develop into a top end rotation guy. The ceiling is pretty high for this kid. Although he is considered the top pitching prospect, with the likes Casey Coleman, Trey McNutt, Chris Carpenter (no no that Chris Carpenter), and potentially Jay Jackson, he can me moved to improve the team now.
Brandon Guyer. He was the Cubs minor league hitter of the year this past season. He hit .344 with 13 hrs 58 rbis and 30 steals. He’s played all three outfield positions this season, and it seems like he plays them reasonably with only three errors and 12 assists. Mumblings on the blog circuit seem to say that Guyer is only ever going to amount to a 4th OF at most. Seems to me with those sort of stats he could fit in pretty well as a 2nd hitter in a line up with quite a bit success. He could easily amount to a 20 hr guy with 50 sb in a full major league season; however, Brett Jackson is currently the OF of the Cubs future. With Colvin and Soriano on the team, with presumably Jackson filling in in a year or two, he’s expendable.
Hak-Ju Lee. The 20 year old shortstop from Korean is blocked by fellow youngster Starlin Castro. He’s a plus defender, and hit for a pretty good average, and has pretty decent speed. He could easily fit in as an Adam Everett type player, where he’s really good on the field, but most likely an 8th hitter or so. Depending on what the Rays do with Reid Brignac over the next two or three years, Lee could easily fill in that spot.
Robinson Chirinos. Former infielder Chirinos was moved to catcher in the 2008 season, but last season was his first time as a full time catcher. He hits the ball really well as he hit .326 with 18 hrs. The other interesting fact he struck out 43 times; however he walked 44 times in 380 abs between AA and AAA. He could easily be Jaso’s backup this season or next. He should be a pretty good player of the bench, but he probably won’t ever be an everyday starter, but a solid backup.
Sam Fuld. He’s a been a player that’s been up and down filling in for injuries and what not over the past several seasons. He’s a great defender and plays the game the right way, and plays hard every play, much like Marlon Byrd. He doesn’t have much power, but hits for a good average and hits the gaps pretty well. He’s got great speed and is a smart base runner. He often was a pinch runner late in games, and stayed in as defensive replacement. With Carl Crawford out of town, he’s got a solid shot at making the team as a 4th or 5th outfielder on the team, whereas he’d probably stay in the minors with the Cubs this season.
This trade will actually help both teams. For now, it obviously favors the Cubs since Garza is hitting his prime pitching years, and they will retain him for three seasons (including this one). Picking up prospects are such a gamble, but even if one of those players pane out, in the end the trade will wind up in the Rays favor. I’m fairly certain Chris Archer is going to end up in the majors, and contributing to a team. Garza has been getting better and better as his career grows, so hopefully he can continue that sort of success in Wrigley.
Why I Like The Cubs Signing Kerry Wood
Dec 17th
The Cubs and former Cub star, Kerry Wood, have signed a contract for one year $1.5 million base salary contract. The incentives and extras are still being worked out yet, and all of these is pending a physical with team doctors. It’s no secret that Wood’s career has been greatly hampered by injures since the 2003 season where he was an All-Star. After several surgeries and lots of time spend rehabbing numerous injuries, he was relegated to pitching out of the bullpen. He had some decent success in doing so. At point, he was closing games for the Cubs. With the emergence of Carlos Marmol as closer, and Wood showing that he can close games, sent Wood to The Indians for two seasons worth $20 million. Hendry said he should go out and explore the market and get that contract he deserves. Little side note: setting up for the Yankees after a deadline trade he pitched extremely well, and starting throwing the cutter like Rivera does. That could translate well in Wrigley as well.
The is a positive move by the Cubs for these reasons:
1. It allows the Cubs to invest more money in a starting pitcher they need. This contract that he signed with the Cubs is extremely cheap for what he could have signed at other places. Reports indicate that he left a bunch of money on the table with the other contract offers he had to come back home.
2. Andrew Cashner can safely change to a starting pitcher, where the Cubs think his future is at. Cashner was drafted all four years during his college days at Texas Christian University. Sure, while at TCU he was their closer, but with Carlos Marmol on the roster, he begun his minor league career as a starter. Having watched him last season, we can safely say the kid has awesome stuff. If you take out two bad outings he had last season, his ERA would dropped to 2.54 from 4.8. Not bad for a rookie. Heck, if he doesn’t make the rotation out of spring training, keep Cashner in the bullpen and it could very well be one of the better ones in the NL next season.
3. This gives the Cubs a lot of flexibility in the way the pitching staff is put together. With the trades of Derrek Lee and Ted Lilly, they acquired a couple of good young pitchers that are close to being Major League ready. Acquired in the Ted Lilly deal, Kyle Smit was progressing as a starter in the minors, but the Cubs switched him to be a reliever. That translated into a 5-1 record with an ERA under two. Ty’Relle Harris, acquired int he Derrek Lee trade, isn’t quite ready for the big leagues, but he’s pitching very well thus far. Chris Archer has a real good shot at making the rotation out of spring training this season. He was 8-2 in 13 starts with an ERA of 1.80. Couple that with Casey Coleman pitching well down the stretch as a starter, the Cubs potentially have some expendable pitcher they could use to acquire a super star during or after this season.
4. I recently talked about the Cubs losing their “face of the franchise” when Derrek Lee was traded. This move fills that hole perfectly. While Wood won’t be able to carry a team like DLee did, but he will be that leader in the clubhouse they need. It’s no secret that while with the Cubs, Wood was a fan favorite, and I expect nothing less from Cubs nation (including myself). Kerry Wood is a great human being in general. He has charity drives, like Kerry Wood’s Strike Zone, a yearly celebrity bowling tournament. I would expect much of this in the future.
5. This really isn’t necessarily a positive, but his contract is only for one season. I’m guessing we’ll see how well he holds up pitching out of the pen this season, before he starts thinking about a longer contract. It could also mean a “take it year-by-year” approach with Wood. I highly doubt that he’ll go anywhere from besides the Cubs to end his career with taking a deal like this. He doesn’t need money anymore; he’s earned $68 million so far in his career.
This deal actually makes them a straight up better team mostly because of the flexibility it gives the team and the money it saved them trying to find a veteran reliever. After watching his press conference, he stated he is always going to be a Cub, even after his playing days, he plans on sticking around. This is a great day for the Cubs and Cubs fans alike.
