It was on this day in 2002 that the Cubs traded swingman Julian Tavarez and three prospects to the Marlins for Matt Clement and Antonio Alfonseca. While Clement and Alfonseca were useful players for Chicago, this is definitely a “what if?” deal for the Cubs and their fans since Dontrelle Willis was one of the prospects sent to the Fish. The deal immediately led to some pain for the Cubs when Willis’ Marlins beat Chicago in the 2003 NLCS (featuring the infamous Steve Bartman incident) en route to a World Series title.
Here’s some news from around the NL Central…
- The Brewers announced several roster moves today, including the news that Will Middlebrooks, Eric Young Jr., Josmil Pinto, Shane Peterson, Manny Pina and Jake Elmore were told they won’t be making the Major League roster (Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has the rundown of all the transactions). All six players will remain in the Brewers’ camp. Five of the six were new arrivals this winter — Pina was part of the Francisco Rodriguez trade with the Tigers, Pinto was a waiver claim from the Padres, and Middlebrooks, Young and Elmore were all minor league signings.
- Jeff Samardzija told ESPN Chicago’s Jesse Rogers that he met with Theo Epstein this winter to explore a possible return to the Cubs, though not much came from the talks. “From where we were at, it takes a lot more to get a deal done. I think Theo had an idea of what they wanted and what they were looking for this year,” Samardzija said. The new Giants rotation member also discusses his previous stint with the Cubs and how the club’s rebuilding process has seemed to pay off.
- The Pirates reinvested in their bullpen this winter, Travis Sawchik of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review writes, a strategy that makes an increasing amonut of financial and statistical sense, particularly for mid-market payroll clubs like the Bucs.
- Now that Eric O’Flaherty has been traded to Atlanta, it looks like Cory Luebke is going to make the Pirates’ Opening Day roster, Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review tweets. Â The 31-year-old has reportedly clocking in at 94mph with his fastball and 87mph with his curve this spring. Â Luebke has an opt-out on Tuesday but it sounds like the Bucs won’t give opposing teams a chance to snatch him up.
- Cardinals GM John Mozeliak says that the team’s decision on Rule 5 right-hander Matt Bowman “could come down to the final hour,” as Jenifer Langosch of MLB.com writes.  The Cardinals selected Bowman off of the Mets’ roster in December, making him their first Rule 5 selection in four years. Roughly two weeks ago, ESPN.com’s Adam Rubin reported that Bowman was “more likely than not” to make the cut in St. Louis.
- Cardinals third base coach Jose Oquendo will be taking a medical leave of absence to recover from offseason knee surgery, the club told reporters today (including Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch). Manager Mike Matheny said the Cards are preparing as if Oquendo will miss the entire season, and several members of the St. Louis coaching staff have shuffled positions.
- The Reds have some decisions to make before Opening Day, as C. Trent Rosecrans and Zach Buchanan of the Cincinnati Enquirer project the club’s 25-man roster.
If you can’t make the Brewers its probably time to call it a career or go to Japan lol
The Cubs walked away from a Shark reunion , and it was a smart decision. Shark has only 1 winning season a 4.09 ERA and a 1,28 WHIP in his career. He was able to get grossly overpaid by SF and soon SF will regret it.
He will eat innings in a pitchers park with a very good defense, teammates that know how to win, playing for quite possibly the best manager in MLB, and in the National League. The game is played on the field, not with past statistics.
Please dont refer to wins and losses for pitching.
Why? Lots of people do care about wins and losses for pitchers and it was a minor note in his post.
Why not? If a guy goes out and stinks up the joint to the point his team can’t score enough to overcome the poor performance,he should get a loss. And if he goes out and shuts them down and his team wins, he should get credit for that too. I will agree that they are not good stats to use by themselves but looking at them along with era and innings pitched will tell you how good he was or was not.
Because pitcher wins and loses are team stats and not reflective of the pitcher in any way
Bro, wins and losses ARE reflective of a pitcher’s body of work. Look it up. Good pitchers win more often, bad pitchers lose more often. it’s really a simple concept.
Wins and losses have nothing to do with a pitcher’s performance.
Last year there was a pitcher with a 4.66 ERA and 17 wins in 204 IP and a pitcher with 17 losses and a 3.02 ERA in 205 IP.
So what was the difference? Run support.
Another example. Last year one pitcher had 10 wins, a 3.26 ERA, a 2.98 FIP in 33 starts while another had 19 wins with a 3.89 ERA, a 3.58 FIP in 32 starts. The difference? Unearned runs and run support. The first had the worst defense in MLB and the other had one of the top 5. The first had 3.9 runs scored by his team while he was pitching and the second had 5.3 runs per game scored in support of him.
Wins are a TEAM stat and have absolutely nothing to do with the pitcher.
I agree w/l record is not fair to comaparefor a pitcher. Lester is a prime example , he had very little run support last year. Completive team good defense and mgr will help very little.. Yes he will eat innings but is an average pitcher, ERA over 4 WHIP over 1.2. My point being he is a solid mid rotation pitcher, but he is overpaid.
Take is easy there JJ….Alfonso Soriano is the bench mark you should always compare to when discussing overpaid
Sori was overpaid but certainly not a benchmark for being overpaid.
Or in your case, you can’t be right ever.
You like the Sox? I hadn’t noticed.
Red or White?
I literally decided to make an account just to respond to this troll. I’ll make it simple: you are ruining this site. Please go away, no one wants to hear about “your sox” and how they run a saint like organization. I love this site but you make me not wanna come here. And I’m sure I’m not alone. So, I’m gonna ask as nicely as I possibly can. PLEASE stop commenting on this site. I think a Red Sox fan site would be right up your alley
Lol and you predicted they’d be win the World Series in 2012, 2014, 2015… And now 2016. Great Odds buddy! Your track record sucks actually!
Jeez, I didn’t want to get involved with you or any of the asinine things you say, but you’re ridiculous. And to all of your sympathizers, you all should think about the things this guy says, on pretty much every single post. That’s all I will say on the matter but I urge everyone else to push to control bigpapi4ever so that the chats can return to what they used to be, which was having commenters comment on the teams involved in the post, and comments not made to argue with others but to talk about the subjects presented to them.
Jenny dell killed Will Middlebrook career. Ever sense they started going out baseball took a back seat for him.
really is a shame. maybe that wrist injury he had way back when just derailed his development?
Congrats to Luebke. I wish him good luck and good health. Great guy that had great stuff before the injuries. Looks like he has improved velocity now too.
In my opinion, I think that Luebke should be starting the season at AAA and Fuller should be in the bullpen to start the season. Not saying that Luebke wasn’t decent, it’s just that Fuller was better.
1 – Who is Fuller?
2 – Luebke can exercise his opt-out if he doesn’t make the team, so he won’t be going to AAA.
1 Fuller is a 28 year old career minor leaguer who has bounced around that was signed to a minors deal and invited to spring training.
2 I agree with you about Luebke. If you think you have something, you do lose them to an opt out clause to go with another maybe that looks like you can put into a minor league bull pen as depth in case someone like Luebke does not work out. Nature of the business..
Middlebrooks hasn’t hit at any level since the first Obama administration. I’m surprised the Brewers didn’t release him altogether after a lousy spring, but I suspect that’s coming in a month or two. Brewers are re-building, with the emphasis on building not a wayward home for one time prospects trying to rediscover something they lost years ago.
Wake me up when Samardzija is an ace again.
Sad about Eric Young Jr… Always rooted for him. His dad was a bullet train with the Rockies back in the day.
I just come here for the bigpapi comment! #GOOFBALLPROBABLYBERNIESUPPORTER