SCS Cubs Blog

Team MVP

2008-11-25T12:42:00.002-05:00

The team MVP came down to three people. Evan Dawley, Kris Krstich and Randy Nettles all received multiple votes for the Team MVP. In the end we ended up with a tie between Dawley and Nettles.

Dawley has won this award now for the fourth time in his five years on the team and this is the third straight year for him. Evan is always one of the team's best offensive and defensive players. He hits for a high average, gets on base and of course hits for power. Defensively he is a brick wall behind the plate. He even played some games at first and third this year, showing his versatility.

Nettles wins this award for the first time in his Cubs career. Like Evan, Randy hits for both average and power and gets on base. Nettles also played a good third and first base throughout the season. Nettles also won the team's Offensive Player of the Year award this year and a Most Dedicated Player award.

Other past winners of this award include: Dave Cordova, Bill Bode (twice), and Derek Elsner (twice).

Most Improved and Most Dedicated Players

2008-11-14T14:35:00.002-05:00

Both of these awards are very subjective and in turn they get a wide range of different people voted for. This year each recieved votes for 5 different players and each came out with a tie.

For Most Improved some people look at year over year but others also look at from the start of the season to the end. This year Mike Dawson, Steve Girodat, Tom Girodat, Jimmy Roehm and Jason Westphal all revieved votes. Tying with the most votes though was Mike Dawson and Tom Girodat. Tom has won the award two other times, in 2005 and 2006. In 2008 though Tom saw more time behind the plate than in previous years and also set some career highs with the bat as well (doubles, triples and RBI). Mike Dawson won the award for the first time. Mike started the year just 6 months after ACL surgery and was very limited in what he could do on the field. Throughout the year he was able to get back in the field on defense and on the mound to help the team. Despite this Mike set a career high with 7 doubles and tied career highs in RBI and walks. He also threw his first complete game in 6 years. Past winners of this award include: Jerry DiGiovanni, Tom Girodat (twice) and Randy Nettles.

For the most Dedicated Player there was a three-way tie between Steve Girodat, Randy Nettles and Dave Reitman. Jimmy Roehm and Jon VanSon also recieved votes. With manager Mike Dawson not being at 100% of the games a lot of different guys stepped up to help. When Dawson wasn't there Reitman took the reins as acting manager with the help from the likes of Nettles and Girodat. Giordat played in a career high 33 games, missing just one game. Despite missing some games Nettles is always a team leader both on and off the field. Past winners of this award include: Bill Bode, Charles O'Loughlin, Jeremy Oxford, Dave Reitman and Randy Nettles.

Rookie of the Year

2008-11-05T09:43:00.002-05:00

The Rookie of the Year award was also won in a landslide by Kris Krstich. However, like the pitcher of the year award the margin of victory does not diminish the contributions by the other Cubs rookies in 2008. The 2008 rookier crop for the Cubs was probably one of the best group of players the team has ever had.

Krsitch won the award not only based on his pitching strength (see Pitcher of the Year writeup for stats) but also his hitting and fielding. When he wasn't pitching Krstich was the team's primary first basemen but also had the ability to move to the outfield when needed. Krstich hit .303 with a .409 OBP. He drove in 22 runs, scored 18 times and walked 18 times as well.

The other rookies included Steve Gordon (see Pitcher of the Year writeup for stats), Matt Cook and Jimmy Roehm. Cook came to the team as a utility player who could play the infield, outfield and catcher and the Cubs used him in every one of those capacities throughout the year. Cook also gave the Cubs speed as he stole 14 bases in 23 games played. Cook also scored 22 times and had a .395 OBP. Roehm started the year as a back for the Cubs but quickly proved he deserved some playing time. However, after playing in only 9 games Roehm tore his labrum diving back to a bag and was out for the rest of the year. In his time though Roehm hit .348 with 2 doubles, 5 RBI, 7 runs scored and a .444 OBP.

Past winners of the Rookie of the Year award include: Steve Girodat, Jon VanSon, Adam Kline, Jason Rider and Yuki Minigawa.

Pitcher of the Year

2008-11-05T09:30:00.002-05:00

Along with the Cubs Rookie of the Year award the Pitcher of the Year award was the most lopsided award in the voting. Kris Krstich ran away with the award garnering 88% of the vote.

Kris was by far the teams most dependable starter as he started 11 games for the Cubs and threw over 64 innings. He went 5-2 with a Cubs record 1.08 ERA. He struck out 46 and allowed only 52 hits in those 64+ innings.

Despite the lopsided voting the Cubs had a number of other deserving pitchers that could have been considered for the award. Steve Gordon started 6 games for the Cubs striking out 40 in 40 1/3 innings with a 1.56 ERA. Chris Baroli started 5 games going 3-1 with 28 strikeouts in 25 1/3 innings and a 1.38 ERA.

The Cubs overall pitching staff was supurb this year with an ERA of 1.67 and a WHIP of 1.28.

Past winners of the Pitching of Year award include: Mike Dawson, Bill Bode, Jake Green, Jason Westphal, Dustin McElroy, Dave Theriault and Yuki Minigawa.

Defensive Player of the Year

2008-10-31T09:48:00.002-04:00

The Defensive Player Award was one of the closest votes this year with four different players recieving votes. Those four players were Evan Dawley, Steve Girodat, Jason Rider and Jon VanSon. All were excellent this year defensively and contributed to the Cubs success this year.

Dawley has been steller for the Cubs behind the plate for a number of years and consistantly recieves votes for this award despite not having won it yet. Dawley is always a brick wall behind the plate and is great at blocking those arrant pitches.

Girodat has been the wondering fielder for the Cubs during his career. He started out as mainly a utility players seeing most of his time at third and outfield. Then in 2006 he became the Cubs regular centerfielder. In 2007 he moved over to left mainly, while seeing some time at second base as well. His play in 2007 earned him the Defensive Player of the Year award. Then this year he became the Cubs fulltime second basemen and played as if he had played his entire career there.

Rider was again the teams centerfielder after taking over fulltime in center in 2007. Rider is one of the fastest players in the league and has one of the strongest arms of any outfielder in the league. With the move to SCS with smaller outfields and wood bats Rider was able to play very shallow and was able to catch a lot of bloopers that would have been hits. Rider also threw out a number of runners trying to score this year. Despite not being a fulltime starter in 2006 until part way through the season Rider won the Defensive Player of the Year award that year playing in left and centerfield.

The last candidate for this award was Jon VanSon. VanSon was the team's shortstop again and was very reliable and consistant in 2008. He made a number of outstanding plays this year to help the Cubs pitching staff.

So without any more writing the winner of the 2008 Defensive Player of the Year award is Jason Rider. As stated above Rider also won the award in 2006 and ties Derek Elsner for the most Defensive Player of the Year awards with two. Other past winners include: Paul McGlaun, Jim Vick, Josh Patton, Chris Baroli, Dave Brumagin and Steve Girodat.

Offensive Player of the Year

2008-10-29T08:57:00.003-04:00

The first award for the 2008 season is the Offensive Player of the Year. This year it was a two man race between two past winners. Randy Nettles and Evan Dawley stood out for the Cubs this year offensively.

Nettles led the team this year in homer runs with 5, RBI with 25, walks with 20, average (.444), on-base percentage (.570), slugging percentage (.741) and OPS (1.311). Nettles also had 9 doubles (second) and 36 hits (tied for second). Nettles hit fourth in the Cubs order and was the most constant hitter the team had throughout the season.

Dawley was again one of the teams best hitters. Dawley led the team in hits with 37 and double with 11. He also had 2 homers, 21 RBI and 30 runs scored (second). He hit .394 with a .478 OBP and a .596 slugging percentage. Unfortunately for Dawley he really turned it on in the last third of the season right before playoffs but had to leave for school and missed the playoffs.

With over 60% of the votes Nettles wins Offensive Player of the Year for the second straight year. Past winners of this awardfor the Cubs include: Dave Cordova, Mike Dawson, Derek Elsner, Adam Lipski, Evan Dawley, Bill Bode and Steve Girodat. Nettles is the first two time winner of this award.

2008 Season in Review

2008-10-24T12:46:00.000-04:00

For the first time in the Cubs history the team did not play in the Pontiac Class ‘A’ league. For the 2008 season the Cubs switched to the St. Clair Shores MABL wood bat league. The two biggest differences in the two leagues were the SCS league is a wood bat league and the SCS league has much better fields. The SCS league also is a 23+ league, meaning a couple of players from the 2007 team were ineligible to play this year. The team did though keep most of it core players.

Evan Dawley and Tom Girodat were behind the plate. Randy Nettles saw time at third and first. Steve Girodat took over full-time at second base and Jon VanSon again was the team’s shortstop. Mike Dawson was limited in the field but did play some third base. In the outfield Jason Rider was again solid in center and Dave Reitman was in right.

On the mound Dave Theriault returned for a few starts with Chris Johnson back in the rotation. Mike Dawson was limited in his mound appearances due to his knee surgery in the off-season.

However, they did lose their top two pitchers from last year. Ryan Drews was out because of injury and Yuki Minigawa was not available due to work and school. Fortunately though, the Cubs were able to add three new starters to the staff. Kris Krstich came over from the Pontiac Red Sox and become the team’s new number one starter. He threw over 64 innings for the Cubs, the second most in team history. Steve Gordon was came on to the team and provided the team with some great starts. Also new to the staff was an old face. Chris Baroli, the Cubs former shortstop, converted to a pitcher and threw some great games for the Cubs. Unfortunately though Baroli had some arm trouble late in the year which limited his effectiveness and availability.

The team also added a couple other newcomers. Matt Cook was a nice addition to the team providing the team with some speed and utility in the field. Cook played five different positions for the Cubs from the corner outfield positions to third and second and catcher. Jimmy Roehm came to the team having not played organized baseball for a number of years; however he was able to pick things back up right away. Roehm was a backup but quickly earned playing time with his bat and his play in the field. Unfortunately, less than half way through the year Roehm separated his shoulder diving back to second and tore his labrum and was out for the year. Also back with the team in a part time role was Jason Westphal. Westphal started the year as a pitcher but arm trouble ended that comeback quickly but he was able to play in the field and hit with some effectiveness in a backup role.

To start the season the Cubs faced off against the Braves, who won the regular season in 2007 and were runners-up for the league championship. The Cubs lost that first game in extra innings and then tied the second game of the season to the Angels. So after two games the Cubs were still winless. Then the Cubs went on a run of 9 straight wins as they started things off with another extra-inning game as they beat the Angels two nights after there tie game. During the nine-game winning streak the Cubs outscored their opponents by a score of 74-11.

Following the winning streak the Cubs hit a rough patch as they went 3-5-1 in their next nine games. In those nine games the Cubs scored 34 runs and allowed 34 runs. Then they were able to straighten things out winning four in a row, outscoring their opponents 26-5, before tie and then a loss and then ended the season winning six in a row, outscoring their opponents 44-5.

In the end the Cubs finished the regular season with a 22-7-3 record, coming in second place behind the Orioles. The Cubs scored a league high 211 runs and gave up 92 runs, second least in the league.

The playoffs though were another story for the Cubs. For the most part during the regular season the Cubs were very solid in all aspects of the game, from hitting to pitching to fielding. However, in the playoffs all aspects fell apart for them. The Cubs were swept in their first round series with the Tigers losing game 1, 5-2, and game 2, 2-1.

Will Pontiac Have a League?

2008-02-29T09:15:00.003-05:00

It looks like the status of the Pontiac league is still up in the air. It is rumored that Pontiac has cut all adult rec sports so that either means no more Class A baseball or fees will have to be increased to cover all costs. I know last year we were told that we had to be self funded but I was told in reality we weren't.

This is the exact reason why (along with others, see post below) why we decided to finally leave Pontiac. There are a lot of teams right now having to make a tough decision on if they want to roll the dice and see if Pontiac will be around or if they want to jump ship now and look for another league. SCS deadline is next week so that doesn't give teams a lot of time to plan.

I have no idea what any of them will do. I have only been in contact with the Parkers, Bulls and Cardinals and none of them have made a decision. I know the Parkers and Bulls have inquired about SCS but I know their first choice is still Pontiac. Hopefully they will get an answer on Pontiac in the next day or two so they know if they have to look somewhere else to play or not.

I would hate to see Pontiac go away but it seems like it is only a matter of time at this point. Unless someone can come in and take the league over from the city I don't see the league lasting too many more years (or even one more year).

UPDATE: It was just learned, Wednesday March 5, that the Pontiac League will continue on. No real details on costs increases or anything but a few sources have been told that the league will continue. The Cubs would like to wish all the Pontiac League teams success this year and hopefully we will see you at tournaments down the road!

Pontiac or SCS

2007-12-06T15:01:00.000-05:00

The Cubs announced officially this week that we will be moving to the St. Clair Shores league for next season. This is of course a huge decision for our ball club and presents a big change for the upcoming season. Both leagues have there positives and negatives but in the end we felt it was the right move for our team. Below I will run through some of the differnces and reasons for why we have choosen to move.

For me, probably the biggest reason for the move is the yearly uncertainty of the Pontiac league. While I was told that as of today the Pontiac league will be run as it was last year I was also told that come Jan or Feb that could change. With the dire straights the City of Pontiac is in they might decide that while the league does cover most of its costs it is not all inclusive and therefore does cost the city some money. And with this decision possibly not being make until after the SCS deadline we did not want to chance it, like we did last year, and get shut out of playing somewhere. Now do I think this will happen, no, but it could and just helped out our decision.

The other main factor that drove us away from Pontiac was the field conditions. After playing in some tournaments this summer we realized that even what other called "not that great of fields" were better than what we play on. Pontiac has redone the skin of the infields in recent years (3-4 years ago) but since then they have not been kept up and the grass of the infield and the bumpy out field are truely an injury hazard. SCS plays most of their games at Kyte Monroe and by all accounts these are very nice fields. We will also play some games at Mt Clemens and Bishop Gallahger which both are better then Pontiac.

Another difference that intrigued the Cubs was that SCS is a wood bat league. As a pitcher this of course appeals to me but as a team we have played in some wood bat tournaments and have really liked the way the game is played and I think I speak for the whole team when I say we have always wondered what it would be like to use wood for a whole season. This I don't think was a major or the most important factor but was a plus in the direction of SCS.

Pontiac of course had its pluses. Pontiac plays straight American League rules (except for metal bats and 7 innings). This made the games very interesting from a managerial standpoint. It sometimes made it difficult to get players in games but it also made it more about just playing, there was some strategy involved in who you played and where and when. SCS has some modified rules that while make things easier on the manager they seem like they will take something away from the game. At the same time though they allow flexibility as the Cubs players get older. (SCS allows for more than 9 batters and fielding is independent from the hitting lineup).

Pontiac is also associated with the NABF which is always a fun exprience and makes for a nice "prize" for reaching the League Championshio Series. The SCS league is an MABL league with no post-season bid associated with winning their league.

SCS of course also has its negatives. While some of the rules allow for flexibilty they also, as stated above, can take something away from the true game of baseball. However, the main negative from my view is the age limit. You must be 23 or turning 23 in the calendar year to play in the league. This of course hurts as it takes a few players away from us that we added last year. It also, in my opinion, makes it tougher to recruite backup players. A lot of Cubs players who were not starters were younger players looking to prove themselves and while they wanted to play they were willing to wait there turn and start as backup players.

The other negative with SCS is the costs. They will go up at least $1000 for the team. All this means though is that we will have to secure a sponsor or do more fundraising. It will be nice though not having to pay the umpires at the game.

Speaking of umpires this did not really play into our decision too much. Pontiac umpires have gotten worse over the years but our team had a pretty good relationship with some of them. I have heard that the SCS umpires are ok but nothing special either. From those who have played in both leagues they say the SCS umps are slightly better. These people have all said that SCS is a better overall league.

So those are some of the issues and reason why we have decided to move to the SCS league.

Rogers or Livan?

2007-11-16T12:33:00.001-05:00

The Tigers have shown an interest in Livan Hernandez with the games that Boras and Rogers are playing right now. However, if the Tigers signed Hernandez instead of Rogers it would be a downgrade for their pitching staff. About the only thing Hernandez gives the Tigers that Rogers doesn't is a younger pitcher and someone who is a virtual lock to throw 200 innings. Now, that second point is imporant but outside of last season that last time Rogers didn't throw at least 195 innings was 1997, so he has been pretty durable too!

Rogers is simply a better pitcher than Hernandez. Rogers stikes out more guys per 9 innings, as Hernandez went from 5.3 in 2006 to 4.0 in 2007. A drop that might be a one year thing or might be a sign of the beginning of a drop in production. Hernandez allowed a .308 avg last year while Rogers was .264 in his few starts. 2006 Hernandez's BA against was better at .288 but Rogers was .253.

You will also have to sign Hernandez to a multi-year contract. He made $7 million last year and will likely get a raise based on the FA landscape for pitchers this year. Rogers would get a one year deal, maybe two (team/player option?) for no more than $10 million. You might have to commit $10 million to Hernandez for the next 3 or 4 years. Something I am not sure the Tigers want to or should do. With the depth of their pitching in the minors (albeit less than at the end of the season) the Tigers don't need to sign someone long term who will only get worse each year. Yes, Rogers has shown increadable stamina and retained his level of skill but with Hernandez already not as good it is hard to see him get better as he grows older.

Pudge Had to Stay

2007-10-10T15:33:00.000-04:00

The Tigers have announced that Pudge will be back for another season with Detroit. This is a move that seems to be split almost 50/50 among Tiger fans. Personally though I don't think the Tigers had a choice. With the $3 million buyout they would have had to pay him it would have cost that much or more to get a catcher that was near or better than Pudge. Posada will command more than Pudge on the open market and LaDuca, probably the only other FA catcher that could be in this conversation, was injury prone this year and would command a decent amount plus then you add in the $3 million and you might as well resign Pudge. I am no fan of the 9 walks but I think Pudge might reassert himself like he did in '06 after a dismal '05 season. At least now the Tigers can focus on bringing Jones and Rogers back and getting a SS and a left handed bat for left. Nothing big, right?

What the Heck was Pinella Thinking!

2007-10-04T14:48:00.000-04:00

One thing I have learned in running a baseball team for 8 years is to never look ahead. In the past I have tried to set up pitching matchups in the playoffs by looking ahead and then end up losing a game because we didn't throw our best to start. That is what Sweet Lou was doing last night by taking Zambrano out having thrown only 85 pitches. He thought he could get two games from Carlos but now they might not even get to that second game he could pitch!

What About Miller

2007-09-13T09:57:00.000-04:00

I don't seem to understand the thinking of the Tigers with their pitching rotation that Leyland announced yesterday. Earlier in the season Andrew Miller was in the rotation and was pitching decent. Some games he looked real good and other just so-so. He goes on the DL with nothing related to his arm and when he comes back they are unsure if he is ready to pitch in the Big Leagues. What changed? I know he had that one horrible start and a few others that weren't that good. But when did Bazardo become a better option. And whey are they saying that next year Miller is likely to be the fifth starter and Jurrjens is not ready yet when he has looked better than Miller? Doesn't seem like the Tigers management is sure how to handle all these young pitchers.