With the new hope engendered to Cubs fans after the Ricketts family was introduced as new owners yesterday, perhaps we can be forgiven if we dream — just a bit — about the potential for the Cubs to be in the World Series a year from now.

Meanwhile, there’s a chance of rain in the Philadelphia area this evening — as if there haven’t been enough weather problems with the postseason already this year. The Good Phight wonders if this will change the Philly rotation.

And in addition to the World Series going on at Citizens Bank Park, Pearl Jam is appearing at the nearby Spectrum (in the final event at that arena which hosted the Flyers and 76ers for decades), with their show scheduled to begin at the same time as the game. Not only that, there’s still a chance that Philadelphia transit workers will go on strike tonight at 6 pm.

Meanwhile, here’s an article looking at the Cubs’ ownership change from a business standpoint that gives us a first idea on how much Wrigley Field renovation and debt service might cost:

Thomas Ricketts spent $845 million for, among other assets, a baseball team that in a good year will record a profit of around $30 million.

The new owner of the Chicago Cubs will have to repay loans of $425 million he obtained for the purchase. That’s an expense the Cubs’ seller, Tribune Co., never had.

He’ll have to look at costs of Wrigley Field renovation to facilities that sorely need improvement — and to create revenue. Ricketts said he’s looking at work spread over five to seven years and costing “significantly less” than $200 million.

Jeff Passan at Yahoo keeps the pressure on, calling again for replay review to be instituted. Couldn’t agree more, after two more bad calls on Thursday night.

Finally, don’t forget to turn your clocks back one hour before you go to sleep tonight. Daylight Saving Time ends at 2 am in your local time zone (if you are in the USA or Canada, except for Arizona, Hawaii, Saskatchewan and a handful of other areas).

Yankees at Phillies, 6:57 pm CDT. Series tied 1-1. TV: Fox. Announcers: Joe Buck and Tim McCarver.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

SB Nation game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Phillies site The Good Phight and Yankees site Pinstripe Alley.

Discuss amongst yourselves.

Here’s a book written by Joe DiMaggio, titled “”Baseball for Everyone”. It was first published in 1948, but reissued in 2002.
Let me start with the Bio from the inside back jacket cover:
- “Joe DiMaggio (1914-1999) played for the Yankees from 1936 to 1951, with time out for military service in…



To read the rest of the post, be sure to visit us at www.viewfromthebleachers.com

The Toronto Sun reports this morning on a potential Milton Bradley for Vernon Wells swap:

The Chicago Cubs would like to — have to — deal disgruntled outfielder Milton Bradley. And one player they are eyeing as a target destination is the Blue Jays, with centre fielder Vernon Wells going to the Cubs in return.

“It’s early on, but we think this one has some legs,” said one Cubs official. “But they aren’t the only team we are talking with.”

Yes, “centre” is correct. Remember, the quote’s from a Canadian paper. Vernon Wells signed an enormous contract with the Blue Jays before the 2008 season and there are six years left on the deal. How would the Cubs deal with that huge amount of money, given Tom Ricketts’ statement yesterday that payroll would go up “slightly” next year, as well as Alfonso Soriano‘s remaining deal?

The Cubs’ idea is to split the difference on monies owed — Wells’ $107 million and Bradley’s $21 million for a difference of $86 million. Each team absorbs $43 million.

I was told there would be no math here, but if I have calculated this right — and correct me, please, if I haven’t — that puts the Cubs on the hook for (approximately) $10.67 million for each of the six remaining years of Wells’ deal. According to Cot’s Baseball Contracts, Wells has a full no-trade clause that would have to be waived, and he can opt out of the deal after 2011.

Since the departure of Milton Bradley was only going to be made possible by taking on someone else’s bad contract, this might be a possible “best of the worst”. Wells is about six months younger than Bradley and had a big offensive season as recently as 2006. He can play center field, which would allow the Cubs to move Kosuke Fukudome back to right field, a better position for him. I’m not completely sold on this deal, but remember, the Cubs aren’t exactly in the best bargaining position, either. The article concludes:

The Cubs have to deal Bradley. Other possible landing spots: The San Francisco Giants for lefty Barry Zito, who has four years remaining at $83 million; the Indians for Travis Hafner, three years for $40.25 million, Giants’ Aaron Rowand, three years at $36 million, the Dodgers for Juan Pierre, two years at $18.5 million, and Tampa Bay’s Pat Burrell, one year at $7 million.

Well. There’s no way the Cubs ever, ever, EVER take Juan Pierre back. The Burrell possibility has been rumored before; Burrell’s a bad outfielder, but at least the Cubs would only be stuck with his deal for one year; we’ve discussed the Rowand possibility also, I doubt the Giants are dealing Zito now since he had such a good second half, and there would be absolutely no point in acquiring Hafner, who hasn’t played a game in the field since 2007 and can only play first base — the Cubs already have one of those.

We, as ever, await developments.

Years from now, maybe we can say that “next year” arrived on October 30, 2009.

Tom Ricketts is the new chairman of the Cubs, and with his two brothers and sister, will comprise the board of directors of the team. But it’s more than just a few names you’ve heard of — the Ricketts really are a large extended family; their parents Joe and Marlene and quite a number of small children were in attendance at today’s press conference. Even more so than the Wrigley “family” ownership (which was really just one person at a time, William Wrigley Jr., then P.K. Wrigley after his father’s death, and then William Wrigley III for the last few years), this team really is owned by a family, not just one person.

And during today’s news conference, they not only emphasized their own family, but the Cubs family — a family you and I are part of as Cubs fans. For lack of a better term, they “bleed Cubbie blue” just as all of us do. Each one of them told the story of having come to Chicago from Omaha for college and, at various times, falling in love with the city, the Wrigleyville area (where several of them lived) and the Cubs. The story you’ve heard about Tom meeting his wife in the bleachers — true, corroborated with smiles from all three siblings, who were there on that day. They used to sleep out for bleacher tickets in the early 80′s, went to nearly all the weekend games, and said that being a Cubs fan is “a special feeling”, and that “we know owning the Cubs is an honor, and we intend to respect it”.

Tom’s sister Laura perhaps put it best: “The Cubs are bigger than us as owners, bigger than Wrigley itself. It’s a matter of family pride for us.”

But that’s not what you guys want to know about. You want to know what these new owners are going to do to make our team — their team, and I truly believe that they are “one of us” — a winner.

The most important thing Tom Ricketts said, I believe, about his philosophy of ownership is this:

We’re going to hire people we trust, give them the opportunity to succeed, and hold them accountable.

Now isn’t that refreshing? Isn’t that what we’ve wanted to hear? No Steinbrennerian overlord tactics from Tom Ricketts (although when asked whether he would be an “active owner”, the response was, “Todd will coach first base and I’ll coach third”. Wow — a sense of humor!). He — and Crane Kenney, who has the new title of team president — will bring in the best people and let them do their jobs. If they don’t, they’ll be replaced. For the short term, that means leaving Jim Hendry and Lou Piniella in their place. Tom Ricketts said that he thinks Lou is one of the best managers in baseball and the right guy for 2010. From my standpoint, I hope Lou gets some rest this winter and returns in March re-energized, because as we all know, Lou seemed oddly disinterested at times in 2009.

I didn’t get a chance to ask any questions — but that’s because nearly all of the questions you posted here yesterday eventually did get answered. (Well, everything except the blue jersey question. I figured that could wait till later.)

Ricketts first thanked fans for sending emails and letters of support for their effort to acquire the team and then gave this three-pronged message:

First, to strive to be the best in baseball every single year and to win the World Series. To accomplish that, invest in world-class facilities and the best personnel, and (as noted above) hold them to a high standard of accountability.

Second, they love Wrigley Field and will do everything they can to improve the Wrigley Field experience for future generations.

Third, they love Chicago and intend to be good neighbors, giving back to the city and neighborhood.

The key to winning the World Series, Ricketts said, is to “make the playoffs every year”, and thus to build an organization that’s “playoff worthy every single year”. He called that “very doable”.

For lack of a better term, I’d say Tom Ricketts “gets it”.

For the short term, Ricketts said there may be “slight” ticket price increases in 2010. Personally, if he asked me, in this economy and coming off the tough year the Cubs had, I’d advise him to hold the line for one year. He also said payroll would be “slightly” increased, but didn’t name a specific figure. Other things that he said he’d look at right away would be improvements in the Wrigley Field concourse, restrooms, and food options. He made it clear that the Triangle Building is a top priority, “the key to bringing Wrigley to modern standards”, and I believe he meant this not only for the fan amenities it might contain, but for the new and upgraded player facilities (workout rooms, batting cages, etc.) it is likely to have.

Ricketts was asked why he was going to succeed where other owners have failed. His response, again, had three parts:

First, there are no multiple agendas. The only agenda is to win.

Second, they are going to reinvest in the team, the stadium, and the organization.

Third, there are no “quarterly results”, they’re in it for the long term: “Our shareholders are our fans.”

They mentioned, as has been stated by Kenney before, that they look to the Red Sox as a model of how a team both renovated an old ballpark to be a thriving new stadium (and added that the Red Sox did this without ever moving out, and there has never been any discussion about moving out when renovations begin. There have also been “no discussions” about selling naming rights and he “hasn’t considered it”. When asked what the timetable was for getting to the World Series, he said (not unexpectedly) that he thought this team could make it next year, but made no promises, and said it would be up to Jim Hendry to make the team better; he wouldn’t answer a specific question about eating salary.

Only one player — Ryan Dempster, who is living here in Chicago all winter — attended the news conference. For his part, Dempster seemed impressed with Ricketts and his commitment to Chicago, the team and the ballpark. Dempster himself — one of the few Cubs in recent years to live year-round in Chicago — also “gets it”. If you’re looking for a clubhouse leader for 2010, Dempster might just be the guy.

There’s a lot more — and I will post the entire transcript of the news conference here early next week — but the bottom line is this: after 28 years of ownership that was on occasion good (getting the Cubs twice to within a few outs of the World Series), on occasion bad (seven 90+ loss seasons), and often frustrating, cheaping out for bottom-line corporate reasons when divisions were there for the taking and getting rid of people (Dallas Green, for one) who could have led us to the promised land, we at last have an owner who lives and dies with this team just like we do. We haven’t had such an owner since 1932, when William Wrigley Jr., the first of the Wrigleys to own the team, died. Incidentally, there will be a half-hour special with the four siblings on CSN Chicago tonight at 11 pm CDT.

Go get ‘em, Tom. Build us a winner, and you’ll celebrate along with the rest of us. There will be much rejoicing. I, for one, can’t wait.

By now you’ve either seen, heard, or at least heard about this morning’s press conference featuring the Ricketts family. What are your thoughts? Are you enthused? Do you feel confident in the new ownership? Are you excited about things to come? Or are you more…



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I’m off to Wrigley Field shortly, but wanted to share with you several quotes that I just received in an email from NPR — there is going to be a full-length interview with Tom Ricketts on NPR News’ Weekend Edition tomorrow at 9 am CDT.

You can find out more here and below the fold.

I’ll have a full story posted late this afternoon after the news conference, which can be seen live on CSN Chicago at 11 am CDT. Some of the questions you wanted me to ask are at least partly answered in the quotes he gave NPR.

On why he wants Piniella to stay on as manager, Ricketts says: “We think Lou is one of the best managers in baseball. He has an option to return next year, and from what I understand, I think he is planning to.”

Asked about the future of Wrigley Field, he states: “First of all, we want this to be the best franchise in baseball, and you can’t be a world-class franchise and have third-class facilities.” He goes on to say that “there is land that is just adjacent to the stadium, along Clark Street, that the team owns and we intend to develop that into a part of the stadium, that will give fans more options on game day, but as importantly free up space inside of the stadium to build in some of the clubhouse functionality that other teams enjoy.”

Even if park improvements cause higher ticket prices, Ricketts says one thing fans “should keep in mind is that with family ownership now, we intend to reinvest all the profits that we can get on the team and put that back into preserving Wrigley Field and to putting a better team on the field. So it’s not like it’s going away to some kind of corporation and never will be seen again.”

On how he wants to build the team, Ricketts says: “Undoubtedly the way to build the long-term winner is through player development. You got to draft the right people and you got to have scouts and coaches that are coordinated and working together to turn the right players into real producers at the major league level. Free agency, I think, is something you look at when you got a hole to fill or when you haven’t been able to produce a player from your own system. The real key for consistent performance and trying to win the division every single year is developing our own players.”

Asked whether any other sports franchise is a model for the Cubs, he responds: “I think obviously what they’ve done with Fenway is a good thing for us to look at in terms of how to improve the stadium. Because we really do want to preserve and keep improving the special experience that Wrigley Field is. On the field we also wouldn’t mind copying the Red Sox. I think it’s time for the team to push forward and to win a World Series.”

I hadn’t done anything with the Arizona Fall League so far.  I thought that the fanposts you all were doing was handling the situation pretty well.  But the AFL is a little over two weeks old now, so it’s probably time for an update.

Just some few basic information to start.  The Arizona Fall League is a post-season league for minor leaguers. mostly from AA and AAA teams.  The six teams play in the Spring Training complexes in the Cactus League.  The Cub prospects are on the Mesa Solar Sox, a team that  is also stocked with players from the Angels, Red Sox, Marlins and Twins.

Generally, the AFL is considered a hitters league.  Usually teams don’t send their top pitching prospects to Arizona, preferring to let them rest their arms.  This year the pitching is a little better, with hurlers such as the Yankees‘ Ian Kennedy, the Reds‘ Mike Leake, the Rangers‘ Tanner Schleppers, our Andrew Cashner and some guy who plays for the Nationals named Stephen Strasburg.  Still, the league continues to favor offense by a large margin, so take that into account when looking at the stats.

Also, don’t forget that the Mesa Solar Sox have 37 players from six teams (they’ve got one lone Blue Jay for some reason) on their roster.  So if it doesn’t seem like a Cub player is playing much or playing out of position, don’t forget that other teams want to get their players into the game as well.

So having said that, the Cubs prospects are mostly having a strong Autumn down in the Valley of the Sun. I’ll summarize all seven players’ season after the jump.

Starlin Castro: 12 Games.  18-43 .419 AVE.  2 2B. 2 SB 3 BB 3 SO.

Castro is making it tough to determine who the top prospect in the Cubs system right now.  He’s turning the heads of a lot of scouts down in Arizona.  Even more important, he’s only made one error in Arizona after making a bucketload of them in the minors this past season.  There is very little doubt now that he’ll play SS in the majors one day soon.  No, not this April. The only question is whether he’ll develop either the power or the OBP skills to be an all-star.

Josh Vitters: 9 Games. 13-37 .351 AVE 3 2B. 2 BB 5 SO.

While Castro is showing some impressive talents in Mesa, Josh Vitters is showing that the wrist problems that hindered him in the second half of the season are behind him.  He still isn’t walking much, which is troubling, but he is there to work on his swing and testing his wrists.  If Castro has passed him as the #1 prospect in the system, it’s not because Vitters is disappointing anyone in Arizona.

Welington Castillo: 4 Games. 5-14 .357 AVE 1 HR. 2 BB 5 SO.

Castillo hasn’t played much, but he’s been fine when he gets into the game.

Andrew Cashner: 3 starts. 1-2 record 3.72 ERA. 9.2 IP 6 Hits. 3 BB 7 K.

Cashner has made three starts. In the first one, he got rocked for three runs in two innings, including a home run. In the second game, he allowed only one run in 3.2 innings and didn’t walk anyone.  In the third game this past Wednesday, Cashner threw four no-hit innings, walking two and striking out four. He reportedly hit a high of 96 mph on his fastball and was throwing a wicked slider.  Someone is going to call Cashner the top prospect in the system this off-season, too.

James Russell: 5 Games 0-1 2.57 ERA.  7 IP 8 Hits. 2 BB 6 K

The lefty has been pitching out of the bullpen in the AFL and has been effective. After his first appearance when he gave up thre runs in two innings, he’s thrown five shutout innings.

Blake Parker:  5 Games. 1-1 5.40 ERA.  5 IP 7 Hits. 2 BB 3 K

Parker’s been going in the opposite direction of Russell, having started out the season strong but he’s given up three runs total in his last two relief appearances. He gave up two solo home runs last Saturday in the one inning he pitched.

John Gaub:  5 Games. 1-1 14.40 ERA. 5 IP 10 Hits. 1 BB 8 K

Gaub is the one Cub having a really miserable AFL experience. He’s given up at least one run in four of the five games he’s pitched, including one game where he allowed four runs on four hits in his one inning.  At least the strikeout-to-walk ratio is nice.

If anyone actually cares, the Mesa Solar Sox are 5-10, which is the worst record in the AFL.  All I can say is that it’s not the Cub players fault.

Jayson Werth should really do something about that squirrel hanging out on his chin. Just a thought. The New York Yankees’ bats finally woke up for Game 2 of the World Series Thursday night with a 3-1 win over the reigning world champion Philadelphia Phillies.

Continue reading this story at Sports Untapped.

Well, not really. But the New York Yankees shortstop and 2009 Roberto Clemente Award recipient appeared on NBC’s The Biggest Loser this week in an effort to pump up the contestants.

We’ll see who the biggest losers are after Game 2 of the World Series at 7:57pm ET tonight, where old schooler Pedro Martinez takes the hill for the Philadelphia Phillies against Yankees righty A.J. Burnett. Enjoy!

Chris DeLuca in today’s Sun-Times tells us what the Yankees are up against in trying to win the World Series:

The last six teams to win Game 1 — and 10 of the last 11 — all went on to win the Series.

The last team to win Game 1 and not win the Series? Dusty Baker’s Giants in 2002.

More history: as you likely know from watching the game last night, Cliff Lee was on target, before Jimmy Rollins‘ bad throw, to throw the first CG shutout in a World Series since Josh Beckett’s clinching shutout in Game 6 of the 2003 World Series. That was also the last CG of any kind in a World Series; to show you how rare such events now are, since the division series round was added to the playoffs in 1995, there have been only two other complete games thrown in a World Series: by Randy Johnson in Game 2 of the 2001 World Series and by Greg Maddux in Game 1 of the 1995 World Series, in which he gave the Indians only two singles and both runs he allowed were unearned.

So the Yankees have an uphill climb, and I think Pedro Martinez is an inspired choice to start tonight for the Phillies; a similar choice was made by Connie Mack in the 1929 World Series against the Cubs for another Philadelphia team, with excellent results (for Mack’s team, not for the Cubs).

Phillies at Yankees, 6:57 pm CDT. Phillies lead series 1-0. TV: Fox. Announcers: Joe Buck and Tim McCarver.

MLB.com Gameday

Baseball-reference.com game preview

SB Nation game preview

Please visit our SB Nation Phillies site The Good Phight and Yankees site Pinstripe Alley.

Discuss amongst yourselves.