Tag / Jason Hammel

by admin

Turn On The Marquee

Tomorrow, the Marquee Sports Network, the new home of the Cubs, goes live as the team kicks off their slate of games in the 2020 Cactus League.  Unfortunately, for the majority of homes in the Chicagoland area, the network will not be available.

Len Kasper and Jim Deshaies will continue on as the main announcing team for Cubs games.  They will occasionally be joined by one of the roving band of analysts that have been announced to date: Lou Piniella, Rick Sutcliffe, Mark Grace, Carlos Peña, Mark DeRosa, Ryan Dempster, Doug Glanville, Dan Plesac, and Jason Hammel.  Cole Wright, formerly of NFL Network, will be the studio host for pre- and post-game coverage and Taylor McGregor will be the sideline reporter, a role she previously held with the Rockies.

The one thing Marquee doesn’t have is a carriage agreement with Comcast, the dominant cable operator in the Chicago metropolitan area.  Comcast has 1.5 million home subscribers in the area, more than all the other metro area operators combined.  The Cubs hope to avoid the fate of the Dodgers, who created their own network in 2014 and still have not gotten full clearance in the Los Angeles market, after 7 years and 2 World Series appearances.  Tomorrow was a soft deadline to get a deal done.  If nothing happened by March 26, when the Cubs open the season in Milwaukee against the Brewers.

by admin

LCS Pitching Leaders

With Game 1 of the 2017 NLCS between the Cubs and Dodgers in the books, it’s time to take an updated look at the pitching leaders from the 9 LCS games I’ve attended prior to last night since 2003, featuring the White Sox, Cubs, Angels, Marlins, Dodgers, and Mets.

Wins

Name Total
Jacob deGrom 1
Paul Byrd 1
Brad Penny 1
Chad Fox  1
Mark Buehrle 1
Bartolo Colon 1
Ugueth Urbina 1
Kyle Hendricks 1
Aroldis Chapman 1

Losses

Name Total
Jason Hammel 1
Mark Prior 1
Jose Contreras 1
Trevor Cahill 1
Kerry Wood 1
Kelvim Escobar  1
Mark Guthrie 1
Joe Blanton 1
Clayton Kershaw 1

ERA (> 4 IP)

Name Total
Jarrod Washburn 0.00
Mark Buehrle 1.00
Jon Lester 1.50
Kyle Hendricks 1.59
Steven Matz 1.93

Strikeouts

Name Total
Kyle Hendricks 10
Josh Beckett 8
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by admin

LCS Pitching Leaders

With Game 1 of the 2016 NLCS between the Cubs and Dodgers in the books, it’s time to take an updated look at the pitching leaders from the 7 LCS games I’ve attended prior to last night since 2003, featuring the White Sox, Cubs, Angels, Marlins, and Mets.

Wins

Name Total
Jacob deGrom 1
Paul Byrd 1
Brad Penny 1
Chad Fox  1
Mark Buehrle 1
Bartolo Colon 1
Ugueth Urbina 1

Losses

Name Total
Jason Hammel 1
Mark Prior 1
Jose Contreras 1
Trevor Cahill 1
Kerry Wood 1
Kelvim Escobar  1
Mark Guthrie 1

ERA (> 4 IP)

Name Total
Jarrod Washburn 0.00
Mark Buehrle 1.00
Steven Matz 1.93
Jacob deGrom 2.57
Paul Byrd 3.00

Strikeouts

Name Total
Josh Beckett 8
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by jim

Shattered Dreams?

2015nlcsFor the first time since 2003, the National League Championship Series returned to Wrigley Field last night.  With the Cubs down 2 games to none against the Mets, they were trying to end a 5 game NLCS skid dating back to Game 5 of the 2003 NLCS, where they dropped the last game in Florida against the Marlins before returning to Chicago for the disaster that followed.

Sadly, the Cubs were not able to turn things around, losing 5-2 as their offense continued to struggle and their defense completely abandoned them.  The Mets have been the clearly superior team so far, as their young pitchers have overmatched the Cubs young hitters, leaving them on the cusp of their first World Series appearance since 2000.

The Cubs will look to extend the series tonight, hoping to become the second team to come back from a 3-0 deficit to win the series, sending Jason Hammel to the mound.  If their season does come to an end, it will leave a bad taste in the mouth of Cub fans, but the young Cubs arrived ahead of schedule this year and look poised for a long run of contention in both the NL Central and for the NL pennant.

by jim

Winter Dealings

Samardzija5 months ago, the Cubs shipped pitchers Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel to the A’s.  As of yesterday, both were back in Chicago, as Hammel signed a free agent deal to rejoin the Cubs and Samardzija was traded to the White Sox.  The south siders also bolstered their bullpen, signing free agent closer David Robertson, late of the Yankees, while the Cubs looked to improve behind the plate by acquiring catcher Miguel Montero from the Diamondbacks.

Jeff Samardzija comes to the White Sox, along with minor league pitcher Michael Ynoa, in exchange for Marcus Semien, Chris Bassitt, Josh Phegley and minor league first baseman Rangel Ravelo.  Samardzija will slide in to the White Sox rotation between ace Chris Sale and Jose Quintana, giving the Sox a rotation that should match up with any other in the American League.

At the other end of the game, David Robertson, who has agreed to a 4-year, $46 million deal pending a physical, should bolster a bullpen that was one of the worst in the game this past season.  By having a lock down closer in place, along with the earlier signing of Zach Duke, the returning younger members of the bullpen should find themselves in less stressful and better defined positions, which should enable them to be more successful.

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by admin

Blockbuster

SamardzijaAs we head towards the trade deadline at the end of the month, everyone expected the Cubs to move both Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel.  I don’t think anyone expected them to go as part of the same deal.  Which is exactly what happened Friday night, when word leaked that the Cubs would send both pitchers to the A’s in exchange for Addison Russell, Billy McKinney, Dan Straily, and a player to be named later.

Russell, a shortstop, was the A’s first round draft pick in 2012 and the top prospect in their system.  The 20 year old, who has been compared to Barry Larkin with power by one scout, joins the collection of middle infield prospects the Cubs have assembled, including Javier Baez, 21, and current starter Starlin Castro, who is still only 24.  Assuming everything pans out, the Cubs will have flexibility to use their surplus at shortstop to fill other holes, most likely in the rotation.

McKinney, the A’s first round pick in last year’s draft, is an outfielder who was the 2nd rated prospect in the A’s system.  Straily garnered some support for AL rookie of the year last season, but struggled with Oakland this year and was back pitching in Triple A at the time of the trade.

Samardzija had been with the Cubs since being drafted out of Notre Dame in 2006.  He made his major league debut in 2008, working out of the bullpen for the division champions.  He moved in to the starting rotation in 2012 and has been the ace of the Cub’s staff ever since.  Hammel was signed as a free agent this past winter with the intention of flipping him to a contender, should he have a good first half.  He certainly held up his end of the bargain.

Samardzija’s numbers in a Cubs uniform, both for games I attended and overall, were:
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