Andy joins Corey through Skype. Marlon Byrd reportedly drops 40 lbs and we consider what this could mean to his performance on the field. Darwin Barney supposedly puts on 18 pounds. Andy shares his knowledge of exercise and weight training and we try to figure where and why Barney put this weight on.

Some of the guys in the Cubs’ minor league system (Brett Jackson, Anthony Rizzo, Javier Baez, Dan Vogelbach) are rated highly in the prospect rankings on MLB.com and we look at the players and discuss their progression and the expectations. We also consider the future infield of Rizzo, Baez, Lake and Castro.

Carlos Pena is officially an ex-Cub and we reflect on his short stint with the Cubs. Prince Fielder is reportedly signing with the Tigers. The Astros consider changing their name when they move to the American League and we read some of names that our listeners submitted.

We then look at some of your suggested topics, such as the idea of the Cubs entering a new era, a bizarre workout video from the Idaho Cubs, Yoenis Cespedes and how we would construct a MLB team from scratch.

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On this episode, Jeremy joins Andy and Corey via Skype. Corey talks about the Cubs Caravan stop in Peoria on Thursday, January 12th. Jeremy then shares his experiences at Cubs Convention.

The Cubs take a step into the modern baseball era that traditionalist Cubs fans are not happy to see. A 75 foot LED display and standing-room-only patio will now occupy the area above the right-field well. Also, the Cubs bring back Kerry Wood, who is quickly becoming a Cubs legend, not so much for just what he did on the field, but because of his dedication to the city, the organization and the fans.

We discuss these two topics and read the entries for this week’s photo caption contest.

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I had the opportunity to attend the Cubs Caravan event in Peoria last Thursday. Cubs players that were on hand were: Tony Campana, Chris Carpenter, Casey Coleman, Brett Jackson, Matt Szczur and Josh Vitters. Coaching and front office staff in attendance were: Chris Bosio, Dave McKay, Joe Bohringer, Jamie Quirk and Randy Bush.

I had hoped to speak with a few of these guys during the media session, but the snowy weather delayed their arrival and the media time was trimmed to about 5 minutes right before they started signing autographs for fans. I did have a chance to speak with Matt Szczur for a few minutes and we will release that in the podcast feed during Spring Training as a part of series of interviews.

The Peoria Chiefs do a great job with Cubs Caravan. I am terrible at estimating numbers, but I would guess that there were 300-400 people in attendance. The first hour or so was set aside for autographs. When fans walked in the door, they were given three cards and those identified which players/staff you could get autographs from. Brett Jackson was obviously the hot commodity, as many people were walking around trying to get Brett Jackson cards in trades from unsuspecting kids that didn’t know the difference between Brett Jackson and Dave McKay.

After the autograph session, the players were seated in front of the audience and the panel was open for a Q&A session. The Chiefs sought out kids for the Q&A. Personally, I like this approach because it’s probably the biggest moment of these kids’ lives, and you avoid the uninformed and “hard-hitting” questions from fans that believe they know more about running a baseball team than those up on the stage. The fact that kids were asking the questions kept things light, like “Can I have your autograph?” and “Can I sit on stage with you guys?”. Both answers were “yes”, by the way. One girl that appeared to be around 18 or 20 years old stated that she batted lead-off for 10 years of competitive softball because of her speed and she challenged Tony Campana to a foot-race. The Q&A session was ended with another girl asking Matt Szczur for a kiss. So you can tell, things were pretty light-hearted at this event.

Some of the questions were a little more relevant, though not entirely juicy. These players (all of which spent time with the Chiefs) were pretty humorous. Here are a few of the questions and some of the answers from the 30 minute-long Q&A Session.

Q: When we win the World Series this year, what are you going to do?

Dave McKay – That’s probably one of the reasons I decided to come here. I was borderline retiring and there was only a couple of places I would go. I love Chicago – the atmosphere in that stadium, the way they draw, and the fact they haven’t won in a while. That’s an incentive. I heard the Ricketts family talking about a month before the end of the season, when we came into town. We listened to some of the things that were being said by the Cubs about the direction they were going. I remember talking with Dave Duncan about how these guys are going to get good, and they’re going to get good fast. You can see them starting to put things into place with Theo Epstein and others. I had someone call me about possibly going to the Chicago Cubs and in talking about these guys, there’s some real special players in this organization. There’s a lot of talent and I think they’re going to get good fast, and I’d like to be a part of it. I’d love to see a World Championship Parade in Chicago.

Jamie Quirk – Like Dave said, they brought in Theo and Jed and they won two World Series’ in Boston. Randy (Bush) won two in Minnesota. Dave McKay has won. (Chris) Bosio has been in the major leagues forever. We’re just going to try to pass that along to this group of guys. We’re going to try to create an atmosphere…a winning tradition. We’ll try to win every single game. There’s no re-building. There have been teams that have gone from last to first. It’s happened multiple times. Anything can happen. There’s no such thing as a 3-year, 4-year or 5-year plan.”

Q: What direction are we headed in now?

Brett Jackson – That depends on the snow (laughter). The direction is to win every game. That’s the focus.

Q: Who were your idols/favorite players growing up?

Chris Bosio – Rod Carew
Tony Campana – Ricky Henderson and Kenny Lofton
Dave McKay – Not to be corny here, but my parents.
Casey Coleman – Tom Glavine, John Smoltz and Greg Maddux
Matt Szczur – Ken Griffey Jr.
Brett Jackson – Will Clark and Andre Agassi
Josh Vitters – Derek Jeter
Jamie Quirk – Mickey Mantle
Chris Carpenter – Ryne Sandberg
Randy Bush – Mickey Mantle

Q: Who is going to take over for Big Z?
I believe this was Chris Bosio – Big Z didn’t pitch at the end of the year. So…a lot of guys.”

Like I said, this was about a 30-minute Q&A session. If you would like the audio for the entire session, e-mail me – corey@ivyenvy.com

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Tickets are now on sale for our bus trip to see the Cubs play the Rockies on August 25th. All of the info is on this flyer and email me – corey@ivyenvy.com for any additional information.

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Andy and Kurt join Corey for another in our series of awkward Skype episodes. The Cubs gave us plenty to talk about in this episode. Zambrano was dealt to the Marlins for Chris Volstad. We reflect on the Zambrano era and consider how we will remember his years with the Cubs. With the trade, the Miami Marlins have become even more of a powder-keg that should be interesting to keep an eye on. Volstad appears to be exactly what the Cubs are looking for…young, cheap and under club control.

We don’t comment much on the Starlin Castro situation and tell you why.

Andrew Cashner was traded to the Padres for Anthony Rizzo, who is potentially the Cubs’ first baseman of the future. Given the expectations that were put on Cashner, who has not completely failed them yet, it makes for an interesting trade which, in the long run, will probably result in fans putting more, or less, faith in Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer.

While losing two potential starting pitchers this week in Zambrano and Cashner, the Cubs gained one in Paul Maholm. You can’t bring up Maholm without discussing his lack of run support and horrible W-L record, yet low ERA.

As usual, we finish the episode off with choosing a winner for this week’s photo caption contest.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 55:18 — 76.0MB)

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Shortly after Carlos Zambrano walked off the mound after being ejected  in Atlanta on August 12th, we predicted that he would never wear a Cubs uniform again, and would probably end up with Ozzie Guillen and the Marlins.  Keep in mind, Guillen was still managing the White Sox at the time.  This is precisely how things turned out, and now the 2012 Marlins season went from “That will be interesting to watch” to “Oh, I’ve GOT to see how this turns out.”

Cubs fans’ opinions on Zambrano are across the board.  I have partially defended Zambrano.  I have viewed Big Z as the guy that is so passionate about winning that he loses control and simply can’t handle not winning.  Of course, most of Zambrano’s actions have not been worthy of defending.

I could lay out a laundry list of the Zambrano highs and lows with the Cubs, but I won’t.  His departure from the organization potentially leaves Kerry Wood as the only remaining player from the 2003 team.  I will miss Zambrano’s fired-up performances and I will miss watching him at the plate.  

From the player reactions, the Cubs players won’t miss him, and that’s probably the most important aspect. If Zambrano had a desire to win and spread it to his teammates in a positive way, I’m guessing some of his minor shenanigans could be overlooked.  Everything I have seen over the last five months indicates that he was not a positive clubhouse presence that motivated or brought out the best in his teammates.

Trading Zambrano to the Marlins probably had a huge impact on the clubhouse.  A healthy clubhouse is something that, from everything you hear, the Cubs have not had in years.  This might be one of the most immediate and welcome changes that the new front office is bringing to the North Side.

Filed under: Clubhouse, Cubs fans, Management, Starting Pitching | No Comments »

If Cubs Convention 2012 doesn’t fit into your schedule or budget and you live south of Chicago, you might want to consider going to Cubs Caravan in Peoria next Thursday, January 12^th.

The Cubs have tentatively announced that six former Chiefs, including top Cubs prospects Brett Jackson, Josh Vitters and Matt Szczur will be appearing on the Caravan stop.  Other players that are scheduled to appear on the Caravan are three former Chiefs that spent time in 2011 with the big league team: Tony Campana, Chris Carpenter and Casey Coleman.
New coaches Chris Bosio, Jamie Quirk and Dave McKay will be joined by Scouting Director Joe Bohringer, Assistant GM Shiraz Rehman and Comcast announcer Dave Otto, who will serve as the event’s emcee.

There is a 45 minute autograph session that starts at 4:45, which is followed by the program, which consists of a Q&A segment and ticket/booster info on the Cubs and Chiefs, as well as a dinner.

The Cubs Caravan stop in Peoria will be at the Riverplex.  Tickets are available at the Chiefs box office for $15, payable by cash or check.

I did contact the Chiefs box office to get information for those that are interested in the event and unable to purchase tickets at the box office.   If you are in this position, you may mail a check for $15 made out to Central Illinois Cubs Boosters and include a note with your name and phone number, asking them to hold the tickets.  Tickets must be picked up by 2:30 at the Chiefs box office.

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Andy and Kurt join Corey on Skype.  This episode has a lot of off-topic conversation, as the Cubs had a pretty slow holiday week besides a small fire at Wrigley and shopping Matt Garza.  We read some listener suggestion topics that include a realistic time table for the Cubs to be competitive, attendance at Wrigley in 2012, Cubs uniforms influenced by the Oregon Ducks, New Year’s Resolutions and Ryan Braun’s failed test.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:07:28 — 92.7MB)

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Andy and Kurt join Corey through Skype in this jam-packed episode. We start things off with Tom Ricketts and his interview with Kaplan on CSN, which aired Christmas Day. Corey gets offended at the charity that the Cubs offer those in need.

Then we race through all the transactions of the last week, which include: Reed Johnson, Sean Marshall, Travis Wood, Dave Sappelt, Ronald Torreyes, Jason Jaramillo, Manny Corpas, Andy Sonnanstine and Jeff Bianchi.

It was a lot to accomplish in one week and it’s clear that the Cubs were on a Crime-Wave through the free agent market.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:10:44 — 97.2MB)

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So on Friday the Cubs traded pitcher Sean Marshall to the Cincinnati Reds for starter Travis Wood and two minor leaguers.   (Editor’s note:  For those of you who aren’t familiar with Travis Wood, he’s the guy on the Reds’ roster that looks almost exactly like Travis Wood.  Just thought I’d clear that up) 

This is sort of a touchy subject for me because I defended Sean Marshall a lot on the show last year.  In retrospect, I’m not so sure that I was defending him as much as I was defending the type of player he is.  Sean reminded me of the old school style of reliever – a tough, tall guy who could close out a game with a hangover and could give you the one or two solid innings you needed at that point.  In my own personal opinion, baseball seems to be missing guys like that. 

The idea here of course is that Epstein wants to keep getting younger, and this is a harsh reminder of how short your career can be as an athlete as Marshall is only 29 years old.  But I felt here that we traded away a guy who could have a fantastic season just around the corner for a guy who we haven’t seen almost anything from.   If that’s his plan, he’d better be damn sure these new cats are good.  Plus, every roster needs some type of veteran leadership. 

So as we move towards the future, let’s hope some of these younger guys we have coming up in the system are classic-style ballplayers.  Let’s hope they don’t turn out to be a bunch of pretty boys – I know Sean Marshall never was.

Filed under: Relief Pitching | 3 Comments »