Cubs purchase Angel Pagan

Today the Cubs purchase Angel Pagan from the New York Mets. Now I have to be honest I don't know too much about Mr. Pagan, but what a name. Is he an Angel or is he a Pagan? I guess that name is hedging both sides of the spectrum. If he makes the team I have a feeling Ron Santo will yap about it for hours. What I have found out is that he has some speed and is also a switch hitter. In Minor League Baseball Analyst, it projects him to be a reserve CF/LF. The book also says that he can track down fly balls, but has no power to speak of. It was said he is going to be put on the 40 man roster, so I am not sure who has been taken off or will be taken off.

Cubs Sign Wade Miller

The Cubs signed Wade Miller today to a one year deal. The deal is for one million dollars plus up to one million more in incentives. Overall this is a good gamble for the Cubs, especially if Wade can return healthy and pitch like he did in Houston. If not well it is only one million dollars and these days that doesn't amount to much in baseball (though I would love to earn that in a year to play a game I love). This also might mean less of Rusch in the rotation which is also a bonus for the Cubs and to the fans. This also can be a sign that Wood is not going to resurface in the rotation, but that is probably reading too much into things at the moment.

Bert Blyleven

Well here comes my brief annual rant that Bert Blyleven needs to be in the hall of fame. I last wrote about it on 1/3/05 and now that it is time for the announcement it is time for it again.

Bert had a tremendous career and would have easily hit the 300 win plateau if it weren't for him playing on a lot of sub par teams. The doubters like to bring up his only 2 all-star appearances or maybe the fact that he never finished in the top 3 in CY Young voting, but his overall stats prove he should be. What he did do was end up with 3701 K's, 60 shutouts, 287 wins and 254 complete games. In Jayson Stark's new article he says he voted for the 1st time for Bert because of Lee Sinins' new Sabermetric Baseball Encyclopedia CD-ROM and it informed that Bert gave 344 less runs than his average counter-part. Well in my article back on 1/3/05 I said the same thing, “Bert also had a 344 Runs Saved Above Average (RSAA) which ranked him 17 all time." I am glad that Jayson voted for him, but if this was the reason, then maybe before he votes on players he needs to do more research as this information was easily available to me a year ago.

So Bert Blyleven, good luck tomorrow.

Patterson traded

Well ESPN is reporting that the Cubs have traded Corey Patterson to the Baltimore Orioles for 2 minor league players, shortstop Nate Spears and left-hander Carlos Perez. Neither of them are in the top 10 prospects for the Orioles and I really don't think that either of them will eventually become useful players. I understand that Patterson was awful last year and at the end was just going through the motions, but dumping him for nothing in my opinion is an awful thing to do. I understand that him coming off the bench might not have been the most ideal thing for him, but I think he would be more useful than lets say Grissom or Hairston off the bench. Maybe this will give Michael Restovich a chance to make the team, whom I think has the skill to be useful of the bench, though he hasn't proven much lately.

Back

Sorry for not posting I was away at a wedding in Bangladesh until the 5th. It was a great time and hopefully I will post a few pics in the upcoming days.