The Cubs have selected the contract of right-hander Anthony Bass from Triple-A Iowa, clearing space on the 25-man and 40-man rosters by optioning Cory Mazzoni and transferring Eddie Butler from the 10-day DL to the 60-day DL (Twitter link via Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune).
Bass, who turned 30 this offseason, has only pitched 5 2/3 innings in the Majors over the past two seasons, all coming with the Rangers last season. He spent the 2016 campaign with Japan’s Nippon Ham Fighters, working to a 3.65 ERA in 103 2/3 innings.
That said, Bass still brings a fair bit of Major League experience to the table. The right-hander has logged 284 career innings, working to a 4.60 ERA with 6.0 K/9, 3.4 BB/9 and a 47.6 percent ground-ball rate in the big leagues. He’s spent the season to date in Triple-A, pitching to a pristine 2.28 ERA with 20 strikeouts against six walks in 23 2/3 innings out of the bullpen.
Butler, meanwhile, has been out since April 20 due to a groin strain and has yet to be sent out on a minor league rehab assignment. He’s already nearing the 60-day mark on the disabled list, and being transferred over won’t reset the date on which he’s eligible to be activated. He’ll technically be eligible to activated later this month, though there’s no indication from the Cubs as to when he’ll be healthy enough to return.
Kick his a** sea Bass
Dang I forgot about him
I’m still surprised the angels never signed him
Salmon trout bass
Then the Angels can lure former pitching coach Dick Pole out of retirement and he can take them all on a fishing trip together.
Haha I love it
AJ Pollock is a free agent this year
How about Luis Sardinas? Sid Bream? Catfish Hunter? Minnie Minnow-so?
Derek Fisher, Marlon Anderson and Marlin Byrd?
What no Steve Trout?
twentyforty: Of course, “Rainbow” was also the son of long time Tiger pitcher “Dizzy” Trout. Strong Chicago connection here with both father and son born and raised in the south suburbs. Steve was the White Sox #1 Draft pick in 1976 and spent the first 5 years of his MLB career on the South Side. He was traded to the crosstown Cubs in a rare blockbuster deal between the city rivals in January of 1983. Trout would go on to pitch another 5 seasons on the North Side.
“Dizzy” pitched 12 seasons in Detroit and was a prominent member of the 1945 championship club that beat the Cubs in the World Series, the North Siders last trip to the fall classic until 2016.
Btw-“Rainbow” was also a teammate of HOF pitcher Greg Maddux on the 1986 and 1987 Cubs. The aforementioned Dick Pole was a pitching coach in the Cub minor league system starting in 1983 and promoted to the major league staff in 1988 under manager Don Zimmer. Pole was cited as a major influence in the development of Maddux that began with the Cubs before he departed in that infamous free agent deal with the Braves in December of 1992, one that long time Cub fans will forever lament.
Walleye Backman
The shuttle from AAA Iowa to the Cubs bullpen continues courtesy of “Micro” Joe!
That’s how teams have to do things these days…..
Sure, mostly because of injuries and a DL that was reduced from 14 to 10 days. The obsession that Joe Maddon has with advanced analytics and micro-managing has taken this to an unprecedented new level in MLB and Chicago.
You’re funny. But don’t look now to see where the Cubs are in terms of the NL standings. Cubs haters are so delicious….
Hard to be a hater when you have been a member of Cubs nation since the early 1960’s, long enough to remember Lou Brock playing in their outfield alongside another HOF legend, Billy Williams. Oh what might have been had they not traded their future leadoff hitter to the rival Cardinals on June 15, 1964.
Btw-Did you know that Brock hit a 2-run HR in his last AB as a Cub versus the Pirates Steve Blass at Wrigley Field on June 14th? I did because I was freakin’ there!
What’s the problem? That’s exactly why you want your AAA club geographically close and it keeps a fresh arm in the bullpen.
Fresh arms? That would be the Cubs starting rotation because they have a manager that consistently yanks them from a game with pitch counts in the 80-90 range even when they are throwing well…like Kyle Hendricks on Sunday. As a result the bullpen is overworked and the front office is forced to play the shuttle game more often than is necessary. This causes problems in the short term with space on the 40-man roster and over time with the utilization of player option years.
One World Series win? Like they hand them out like candy and he should have a handful? 108 year drought . I’m Happy with the one Cubs got. How many does Kershaw have? Trout? Kluber?
Milwaukee? Minnesota Vikings? Don’t both have the same?
He’d be stupid not to utilize a tool like that. Especially since it’s so close to Chicago. Wouldn’t expect mental midgets to understand that concept, however.
Thanks for letting us know that this was Joe’s decision. This is probably one of the things HE does to average 97 wins a season since coming to Chicago.
mike127: Joe Maddon been doing this throughout his managerial career which has resulted in one championship in 2016. According to advanced analytics, he’s has had best collection of talent in MLB over the past few years thanks to wonder boy executive Theo Epstein. He also had outstanding rosters in Tampa courtesy of another wonder boy in Andrew Goldman who is now the President of Baseball Operations with the Dodgers.
You can gauge success based on regular season wins. I prefer using World Series titles as the preferred metric.
Mr Mac…..he has also had the some of the youngest talent in baseball the last few years. Let’s measure World Series championships….he’s managed 12 seasons and has won a World Series. Considering there are 30 teams in baseball, if he doesn’t win another and manages every single season between now and 2036, I guess we can call him an “average Joe”….one out of 30.
For you to tab the Cubs and Tampa as baseball juggernauts is just ridiculous. Maddon has won 90 or more games with those two franchises in eight of the past ten seasons—-Tampa and the Cubs. I’m pretty sure there’s a Andrew Goldman in the world somewhere, but I highly doubt he worked with Tampa or the Dodgers.
In this day and age baseball is by far the toughest playoff to win as the game completely changes from the regular season set up. There are off days three times a week. You don’t need five starters—-heck, you don’t even need four. You can pitch relief pitchers almost every game. The baseball playoffs are a crapshoot. The Indians were heavy, heavy favorites going into they playoffs last year—-in a five game series they lost.
For you basically to call 29 managers failures because they didn’t win the most recent World Series is ludicrous. There are many, many, many franchises that would love to have a manager like Joe Maddon (and maybe not exactly him) that consistently wins 90+ games and has a chance to win a World Series.
I’ll keep Maddon as one of the managers I would want and if we do get to year 31 of his tenure and haven’t pulled off another World Series, I’d begin to wonder.
And, maybe, just MAYBE——those advanced analytics give him the best collection of talent—-because HE is the manager and knows how to use the players. I surely remember the Hall of Fame speeches of Carl Crawford, Carlos Pena and Rocco Baldelli. Yep——good old Goldman should be credited for all that talent.
Andrew Friedman.
Maddon postseason win %: .485
Maddon postseason win % Cubs: .528
Blown out in the NLCS in 2015 (Mets) and 2017 (Dodgers) by less talented teams and managers (Terry Collins, Dave Roberts) who don’t get the same adoration as the genius in the Cub dugout.
Through Sunday, 42 different lineups in 62 games with a team that has had significantly fewer injuries than most, especially in comparison to their two main NL rivals in LA and Washington. The Cubs have been far more fortunate with their overall health than each of those teams last season and in 2018 and still have an inferior W-L record than either as we post:
Dodgers: 137-90
Nationals: 133-92
Cubs: 129-95
Through Sunday in 2018 Cubs are 6-10 in one run games and 2-4 in extra inning contests with their resident genius in the dugout.
No championships in Tampa despite very competitive ball clubs in 6 of his 9 seasons there. The team on the other coast of Florida has generally been considered one of the dregs of MLB but still earned two World Series titles because Jim Leyland and Jack McKeon were better at their jobs than Maddon.
I’ll take virtually any winning World Series manager in the history of MLB over Joe Maddon because most of them can construct a proper and consistent MLB batting order where players know their roles each day. Managers are supposed to put their players in the best possible position to succeed but Maddon would rather play fantasy baseball and utilize advance analytics above all else with his choice of lineups, something that’s especially puzzling with such a young core who have a very small sample size in which to draw stats from.
Sooo.. not a fan of Maddon I take it?
Yeahhh..despite not his being son either! lol
Yes. Even the most kool-aid drinking Cub fans would concede that they won the 2016 World Series in spite of Genius Joe’s postseason managing and not because of it.
Ain’t that the truth!
I waited over 60 years for the Cubs to finally win their first World Series in my lifetime and my wife was concerned that I would go into cardiac arrest, in no small part due to Maddunce’s head-scratching maneuvers in that fateful game 7 in Cleveland.
As a fan of both Chicago teams I have to admit that the 50+ year wait for the White Sox 2005 championship was more enjoyable and easier on my constitution than the Cubs title was 11 years later. The White Sox were an inferior team to the Cubs in terms of talent but somehow managed an 11-1 postseason run to bring the city it’s first World Series in most anyone’s lifetime.
I wasn’t the greatest fan of Ozzie Guillen but every button he pushed worked that season and unlike his overrated counterpart on the North Side he knew how construct a proper and consistent lineup from top to bottom. He also rode a hot starting rotation from start to finish and also excelled with the use of a bullpen that wound up going through three closers before all was said and done, with a rebuilt Bobby Jenks finally emerging off of the scrap heap to help save the day and the season. Maddon had an even more talented rotation in 2016 that produced some historic regular season numbers along with a deep bullpen anchored by veteran Aroldis Chapman for the final 3 months, but somehow managed to not manage them very well in the postseason.
Funny how nobody seems to remember Francona running Miller into the ground and Miller giving up a home run to Ross in game 7.
Funny how nobody seems to remember Francona running out of players in game 7 and having to play Michael Martinez?
Nobody seems to remember how Francona mismanaged game 7 and had to have Rajai Davis in center field whose defense alone cost the Indians three runs (allowing Bryant to tag up on a 215 foot fly ball, misplaying Contreras’ flyball into a double, and playing Bryant’s fly ball in the 10th like a little leaguer allowing Almora to tag).
For all of Maddon’s moves in game seven—he was the best manager in a dugout that night.
Here’s the fact—mangers are supposed to give their teams a chance to win the World Series. You can’t get to the World Series if you don’t make the playoffs. You can’t make the playoffs if you don’t win a lot of games in the season. You can’t win a lot of games unless you know what you are doing.
Do you understand how far ahead of other managers Maddon is? Which manager starting shifting using analytics? Maddon. Guess how many teams do it now? 30! (oddly, the Cubs now use it the least)
Who was the first manager to bat his best player second in the lineup to get him extra at bats? Maddon. Look around baseball and here are some of the players that now bat second a heavy percentage of the time: Trout, Donaldson, Harper, Judge…….
Figure out anyway to make yourself feel good. Again, maybe just maybe he wins because he knows what he is doing, players want to play for him and he knows just a tad bit more than you (or I).
Does Craig Counsell count? You know, the guy that manages game one of a meaningless three-game series in early June like it’s the elusive Game 7 of a World Series this Brewers team will never see so long as Joe Maddon is around?
Apologizing for winning a World Series is a bad, bad look. But, we could have done this….But we could have done that. A fools errand. Polish the ring and move on.
Mr. Macphisto… Are you having your stroke in installments?
So now the Dodgers were an inferior team to the Cubs last year??? Oh, OK. Nice to hand pick your stats. Since you are on Maddon—since coming to the Cubs, here are the records:
Cubs. 329-218
Dodgers. 320-221
Nationals. 311-228
And furthermore, you started this whole thing by saying you measuring only in World Series championships:
Maddon: 1. The others combined: 0
We all get that you have something against Maddon and think turning a 73 win team into a champion in two years just happened like there as been pixie dust at Wrigley since Abner Doubleday invented the game. We all get it.
Yes, he is in situation where he has numerous resources and by your admission boy wonder Theo has given him a lot of talent. But let’s not forget—-Maddon was also one of Theo’s.
mike127: We all remember that very well. Ever heard of the adage that two wrongs don’t make a right? Maddon and Francona were each crazy men in that series, perhaps the latter even more so for helping blow a 3 game to one lead in the series.
Btw-It wasn’t just the World Series that led to some questionable postseason managing by our residence genius. I recall embattled veteran catcher Miguel Montero bailing out his a$$ a couple of times with an historic pinch-hit grand slam versus the Dodgers in the NLCS and an RBI single in the 10th inning game 7 in the World Series that helped seal the championship. Maddon, who has been acclaimed as the great communicator, somehow couldn’t find the time to discuss the veteran catchers reduced role in the 2016 postseason.
Better to leave him strew in his own irrational hate. No matter what you say, he has a, often hypocritical, reason why Maddon is the worst manager ever.
He is the same as people wo want the economy to fail, so they can get rid of a President they don’t care for.
Thank you wannabe——just wanted to point out in his original post the only thing that mattered was world championships and season wins don’t matter and then in the next he quickly posted wins since the beginning of last season and forgot to mention how many World Series Collins and Roberts have won the last few seasons. I can masssage any stat as I want and post it.
Would I have like to see Hendricks finish the fifth inning in game seven? Yes. If not for a bad strike (or ball) call on Santana, Hendricks would have been out of that inning. However, I am astute enough to understand to know that Hendricks had given up seven line drives the first two times through the order (during the season had given up eight once and nine once) and Maddon didn’t want to get him to Kipnis for a third time. David Ross promptly makes an error on the Kipnis ball in front of the plate, wild pitch and the game is close. Oh—Alex Gonzalez where are you know harks Steve Bartman. Baseball just happens.
Somewhere, just somewhere Maddon knew how healthy or able either Rondon or Strop were in game seven (never got up) and obviously felt Chapman, above all was the best available in that spot. And then Edwards and Montgomery. In fact, both Edwards and Montgomery were up and ready in the third inning when the Indians were hitting the ball very hard—yet at people. I’ve only tried to through out true stats (admittedly biased to my argument—but true stats).
Sometimes, when moves work out wrong, it doesn’t mean they weren’t right.
Don’t even try to explain anything to him. As soon as I see “Aaron Sapoznik,” I basically just mentally tell myself I’m dealing with an irrational 7 year old, or someone that rides the short bus. He consistently has some of the worst-quality comments on this site.
I just think of someone that is ignorant enough to believe he knows baseball. He doesn’t. End of story. Comical.