As expected, the Cubs made their first round of cuts today. Nothing major to report, no surprises. Billy Petrick is the only one of any significance, and he was optioned to Iowa.
"Coming off his injuries, we would be remiss to try to force him to get ready by the 28th, 29th of the month," Cubs general manager Jim Hendry said. "We feel he's a long-term player for us."
The rest of the cuts were non-roster invitees, and each has been reassigned to the minor league camp.
Here's the full list
Billy Petrick (optioned to AAA)
Tyler Colvin
Esmailin Caridad
Jose Ceda
Geoff Jones
Andres Torres
Bobby Scales
Wellington Castillo
Josh Donaldson
The Cubs played a game today, beating the Mariners 6-4. Lou wanted a win, and got one.
The biggest news is Ted Lilly, who opened the day with a walk and a home run. Putting himself in a hole without any outs, he pulled it together and mowed down the next nine hitters in succession. He struck out four in the process.
Aramis Ramirez made his debut, walking once in three trips. Alfonso Soriano is expected to see action in one of tomorrow's split-squad games. Jon Lieber will start against the A's, who send Rich Harden. Sean Marshall will lead the other squad against the Diamondbacks.
Enough about the Cubs, let's talk about me.
Skyking is running a series "30 In 30", previewing every team. Part of each post includes a round-table with bloggers, and I'm pleased to be participating in the Cubs' discussion. I'll be sure to link to it, once we edit it to make us sound smart and reasonable (give us time). Start now with the rest, and Sky's got a lot of cool stuff on his site.
Got a note from Dr. Alan Nathan this morning. He's got a new paper (pdf), co-authored with Ike Hall, on calculating the PITCHf/x numbers you see on this site. I haven't read it yet, but I know what I'm doing this weekend.
Talking about PITCHf/x, the nice folks at Sportvision are planning a workshop/seminar for PITCHf/x junkies, once the season gets going. This will take place somewhere on the West Coast, and I sure hope to attend. If you're interested in learning more about it, please contact Catherine Kung at catherinekung@sportvision.com. She'll be more than glad to hear from you - they are tremendously supportive of PITCHf/x researchers and bloggers.
Putting this all together, like the end of a Seinfeld episode, one of my fellow round-tablers, Joe Aiello of View from the Bleachers, has requested a PITCHf/x education, in the form of some posts on my blog. A good suggestion, indeed.
He and I discussed some ideas, and I'll steal from some of the work I did over at Another Cubs Blog. I'll be posting a few articles - glossaries, FAQs, link collections - over the next week or so, and they will all get a permanent home in the side bar.
You can see the work I've done already at ACB by heading there, or with the direct links to my posts in the sidebar here. Same goes for my Sunday diaries on VFTB.
This is post 188, and my readership has grown more than I ever imagined. I have to thank not only Joe for his support, but also maddog from ACB for the opportunity to join his blog, and David Pinto for the links. And, most of all, to everyone who reads by visiting or subscribing. Thank you all. Finally, a special thanks to Will Carroll for his comments on the Zambrano injury thread, and his interview and Q&A at ACB.
I'll be back on-task with some actual PITCHf/x stuff later.
1 comments:
No reason to thank me, Harry. You've done a great job here and if your association with ACB is attracting more readers here, it's more than well deserved on your part and I'm glad I can help out. I've grown tired of most Cubs blogs over the years and this is one that has become my first checking point so keep up the good work.
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