It was on this day in 1959 that Cubs right-hander Glen Hobbie, then 23, took a perfect game into the seventh inning against the Cardinals. The great Stan Musial broke up Hobbie's bid for immortality with a two-out double in the seventh — the only hit Hobbie would allow to Chicago's arch-rivals in a complete game gem.
Let's look at some items from both Hobbie's old team and their South Side brethren…
- The Cubs aren't looking to deal Marlon Byrd, reports Bruce Miles of the Daily Herald. Miles also looks at some of the Cubs' top prospects.
- With Sam Fuld off to a hot start in Tampa Bay, some fans are wondering why the Cubbies couldn't have held onto the young outfielder rather than include him in the Matt Garza trade package. As part of a mailbag, MLB.com's Carrie Muskat explains that Fuld was out of options and, had he remained in Chicago, he wouldn't have received much playing time in the crowded Cubs outfield.
- Carlos Zambrano tells CSNChicago.com's David Kaplan that a proposed worldwide amateur draft would favor American-born prospects over Latin American prospects. "I think a worldwide draft would be bad for the kids from the Dominican Republic and Venezuela because we are late developers. We don't have little league or a system of organized baseball to help us learn the game," Zambrano said. "When I was a kid we played maybe once a week, that's it. If kids from my country were drafted and then didn't develop quickly enough they wouldn't be around long."
- Also from Kaplan, up to 65% (roughly $24MM) of Jake Peavy's remaining salary could be covered by an insurance policy. This could give the White Sox some financial room to acquire another pitcher. Barry Axelrod, Peavy's agent, tells Kaplan that it is much more difficult for teams to get insurance on multiyear pitching contracts today than it was for San Diego in 2009. Peavy has yet to pitch in 2011 due to his recovery from offseason shoulder surgery, and is tentatively scheduled to return to the Sox rotation by mid-May.
- Despite his team's seven-game losing streak, White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen isn't worried about being on the hot seat, reports MLB.com's Scott Merkin.
And in a month or two everyone will be wondering “What ever happened to Sam Fuld?”
Sam Fuld is the reason cavemen painted on walls.
No, I believe that was Lastings Milledge.
Seems like a rather biased opinion
I don’t blame the way you feel. It’s very hard for people to understand that Lastings is the reason why baseball exists. Hence why MLB tries to get him out, he’s just too good for the game. Let the career .269 AVG speak for itself, you just can’t find talent like that anymore, unless he has any children of course. But even so, they still wouldn’t be as good as him, but close.
This was so funny I think I peed myself a little bit.
And if it weren’t for Lastings, being blackballed would never have existed in MLB. Put that in your book Canseco!
What a bad trade the Peavy trade was.
I’m sorry, but I don’t see why it’s considered such a horrible trade. Money is one thing. The contract, no question, is an albatross when they player involved does not pitch. But what did San Diego get? Clayton Richard has been solid. I think the Sox knew that would be the case, though he has probably been a bit ahead of the schedule they felt he would be on. But….Aaron Poreda? Hello, sell high. Adam Russell? Currently pitching in long relief in Tampa. Dexter Carter? Back with the Sox. Personnel-wise, I don’t consider this a bad move. Remember….Peavy is not necessarily done yet.
The Peavy trade will go down as one of the dumbest trades in baseball history. Even if SD ends up with nothing in return, they unloaded a highly overpaid injury riddles pitcher with some of the worst mechanics in baseball who had a huge contract while he was on the DL.
It doesn’t get better or dumber than that. That is the ultimate theft.
Byrd is trade bait regardless of what is reported here.
That’s a great observation by Carlos Zambrano. If Latin American players do in fact develop later that American players, a draft and a subsequent stint in the minors would destroy any potential that they would possess.
Do they though? I don’t think Latin players generally reach the majors much later than American or Canadian born players do, if at all. It would be interesting to see an actual analysis of this.
Latin american players can be signed at 16 . American born at 18.
Draft means that best players go to worst teams. Without draft, the richest teams hire latinamerican players.
Usually latinamerican players can sign at 14 with professional team in their countries. Those team have relationship with american teams.In Venezuela , players were unable to sign without goverment permission until 1990 to fed the amateur national team. After lifting the requisite , the venezuelan professional league exploded and you have teams like Detroit or Colorado with more than half of the regular nine hailing from Venezuela
And there are the baseball academies ( many established by MLB teams)where venezuelan player begin at 3 or 4 yo to play. I played in a small little league( established by a a canadian utility , owner of the venezuelan company), one of the player Sardinha was signed by Brewers. ( He was a world champion along Vizquel).
Venezuela`s team has been once in a while at Williamsburg. Baseball little leagues were established by the american oli companies especially in Zulia and have a good coverage especially in the poorest areas of the state.
And latinameican players are usually among the youngest: Cabrera, Valenzuela , Andrus, Pudge. All began playing before 20 yo
*the player*
To reply to my own post just a bit above (not sure why the actual reply button wouldn’t work) after a bit more thought, this likely has to do with the young age Latin born players enter professional baseball, which can be as young as 16. If that were to change under an international draft, and the age was changed to, say, 18, Zambrano’s point could become much more obvious. It would all really depend on how they would handle it. Would they require draftees to be high school graduates? Tough call. It’s also worth noting that they system, as it is now, financially favours international amateurs, at least the notable ones. Why would international players want this system changed? It’s a pretty complicated issue.
“Fuld was out of options and, had he remained in Chicago, he wouldn’t have received much playing time in the crowded Cubs outfield.” Because the $14m wonder, Fukudome, is lighting it up? On the bright side, we can’t say Cubs mgmt is pinching pennies. Now they’ve proven to simply be incompetent. I really like the Garza acquisition. On the other hand, why Fuld and Colvin weren’t playing over Fukudome last year is beyond me. For that matter, why is Fukudome playing over Colvin now? I can’t wait to get that guy off the books, arguably the poorest value in the league.
Even though Colvin has actually started more games and has more ABs than Fukudome, it would probably be because Fuld was never very good with the Cubs and because Colvin is batting a stellar .136 this season with worse defense than Fukudome… or because Fukudome always rakes in March and April and nobody else has earned playing time over him. Take your pick.
Does the insurance payout for Peavy only happen if he never pitches again?
Thank you kevin towers former padres GM for trying to rake the cubs over the coals in a potential peavy trade 2 seasons ago. Most of us may remember peavy in a bar singing “GO CUBS GO song when it seemed like peavy was headed there. But towers greed at the time saved the cubs alot of talent and heart ache over seeing peavy hurt constantly over those same 2 years. Amazingly the retarded Jim Hendry walked away from that trade.
With that said Hendry has made alot of bad moves at the same time remember MILTON BRADLEY he was signed at the same time the Jake Peavy trade talks were going on and they could have signed adam dunn for the same money at the same time.
Its hard for me to say this as a cubs fan but I do feel kinda sorry for the white sox and kenny williams for trading for a mark prior type pitcher that is extremely overpaid.
Zambrano ist right!!