Cubs start dealing in midst of trade season

The Cubs have traded RHP Scott Feldman to the Baltimore Orioles, along with C Steve Clevenger for pitchers Jake Arrieta and Pedro Strop and international bonus money.  The Orioles needed to add a starting pitcher, which Feldman is likely to do well in Baltimore.  Clevenger's agent said he was excited for the trade and it was like a dream come true, since Clev grew up in the area.

RHP Scott Feldman has been traded to the Orioles

Since Feldman was scheduled to start tonight's game against the Oakland Athletics at 9:05pm CT, LHP Chris Rusin will now get the start.

RHP Jake Arrieta comes to the Cubs in the Scott Feldman/Steve Clevenger deal

RHP Pedro Strop also comes to the Cubs in the Feldman/Clevenger deal with the Orioles

After a few days of speculation, the Cubs have also traded Carlos Marmol to the Los Angeles Dodgers for RHP Matt Guerrier and also give up their No. 4 international signing bonus slot.  The Cubs will pay nearly $2M of Marmol's salary and the Dodgers get $209K in the international slot.  Cub fans everywhere are rejoicing that Theo Epstein, Jed Hoyer and Jason McLeod were able to get an actual player for Marmol. 

Carlos Marmol was traded to the Dodgers for RHP Matt Guerrier

The Cubs have also acquired the Houston Astros' 2nd/3rd international signing bonus slots for Double-A INF Ronald Torreyes.

In other Cubs news, Ryan Sweeney is going on the 60-day disabled list with a broken rib and Dave Sappelt is being called up from Triple-A Iowa to take his spot on the roster.

There are sure to be many more moves before the trade deadline at the end of the month and we'll be posting about those trades as they happen.

Cubs reduce spring roster to 35 players and win 4-1 over Brewers; 25-man roster announcements

The Cubs reduced their spring roster from 46 to 35, after cutting 11 players earlier today.  Among the cuts were the following pitchers that were sent to Minor League camp:  Jensen Lewis, Drew Carpenter, Blake Parker, Casey Coleman and Jaye Chapman.

Chris Rusin was optioned to Triple-A Iowa and the other players assigned to Minor League camp include Brian Bogusevic, Brad Nelson, Edwin Maysonet, Johermyn Chavez and Darnell McDonald.

Of the 35 players remaining on the spring roster, Matt Garza, Scott Baker, Ian Stewart and Arodys Vizcaino are expected to start the season on the disabled list.

Dale Sveum announced that Michael Bowden and Dave Sappelt have made the Opening Day roster, as have Brent Lillibridge and Luis Valbuena.  This leaves one spot in the bullpen and one infield spot still open.  The contenders for the final bullpen spot include Rafael Dolis, Zach Putnam, Hisanori Takahashi and Corey Wade.  James Russell, Carlos Marmol, Shawn Camp and Kyuji Fujikawa have already secured spots in the bullpen.  The infield spot is down to Steve Clevenger and Alberto Gonzalez.

"Those days you dread," Sveum said regarding the roster cuts.  "Especially a lot of those guys that went down today, they had good springs.  Bogusevic had a really good spring training.  The Colemans, the Parkers, they all threw the ball well." 

Earlier today, the Cubs were victorious against the Milwaukee Brewers by a score of 4-1 in Maryvale, Arizona.  Carlos Villanueva had his best outing of the spring as he allowed five hits over six scoreless innings, while walking one and striking out four.

Carlos Villanueva had his best outing of the spring against the Brewers on Friday (photo from cubs.com)

“I had that one walk and I’m furious about that,” Villanueva said after the game.  “You hate giving up those free runners.  I don’t know what the percentage is but usually they end up scoring.  You make them earn it.”

With the game tied at 1 in the top of the ninth inning, Darwin Barney hit a two-run, two-out home run that gave the Cubs a 3-1 lead.  Then Dioner Navarro immediately followed with a back-to-back homer which increased the Cubs' lead to 4-1, which also ended up being the final score.

There are just 10 more days until the Cubs open their 2013 season in Pittsburgh!

Cubs win 5-2 against Padres; Spring roster cuts; Opening Day lineup

The Cubs won 5-2 against the San Diego Padres in today's spring training game at the Peoria Sports Complex.  Edwin Jackson was excellent as he allowed just one run on three hits with one walk and three strikeouts over six innings.

Dave Sappelt hit a three-run homer against the Padres on Monday (photo from cubs.com)

Dave Sappelt's three-run homer helped bring the Cubs their victory.  Utility player Brent Lillibridge (who played first base in today's game) had two hits, including a triple to lead off the seventh inning.

As expected, the Cubs reduced their spring roster from 53 to 46 players today.  Junior Lake and Josh Vitters were optioned to Triple-A Iowa, Christian Villanueva was optioned to Double-A Tennessee and Jorge Soler was optioned to Single-A Daytona.  Non-roster spring training invitees Barret Loux, Javier Baez and Rafael Lopez were assigned to minor league camp.

In other Cubs news, pitcher Scott Baker had soreness in his right elbow so he underwent an MRI today.  The Cubs will find out the results of the MRI on Tuesday.

Tomorrow, Chris Rusin will make his third start of the spring when the Cubs play the Texas Rangers at HoHoKam Stadium.  Manager Dale Sveum is planning on using his projected Opening day lineup in tomorrow's game, which will be: DeJesus (CF), Castro (SS), Rizzo (1B), Soriano (LF), Schierholtz (RF), Castillo (C), Valbuena (3B), Barney (2B).  The game can be heard on cubs.com at 3:05pm CST.

Dale Sveum will use his projected Opening Day lineup in Tuesday's game against the Rangers (photo from Jesse Rogers, ESPN.com)

And speaking of Opening Day, it's just 14 days away!  Go Cubs Go!

Cubs lose 10-5 to Rockies after game called early and are in No. 2 draft position

The Cubs were losing 10-5 to the Rockies after six innings when the game was delayed due to the constant rain that had been coming down at Coors Field.  48 minutes later, the game was called. 

The Cubs still need to win four games out of the eight remaining this season in order to avoid a 100-loss season.  On the flip side, the Cubs are currently in the No. 2 draft position.

Dave Sappelt was in the leadoff spot for the first time in his career and also hit his first career home run. 

Dave Sappelt hit his first major league homer against the Rockies on Tuesday night (photo from cubs.com)

Ironically, Sappelt also was the only one to post photo evidence of the Cubs rookie hazing costume tradition when he tweeted a photo of himself dressed in costume.

Dave Sappelt tweeted this photo of himself in his rookie roadtrip costume

Chris Rusin started for the Cubs and was tagged with the loss.  Rusin allowed six runs on seven hits and walked one batter over 3.2 innings pitched. 

One personal highlight (or should I say reward) for watching the game was that Len Kasper and Bob Brenly actually mentioned my name on the WGN-TV broadcast because of a tweet I had posted that said, "I think @lenandbob are getting wacky!"  Here's a link to a video clip of the broadcast.

Tomorrow the Cubs and Rockies will play the second game in the three-game series at 7:40pm CT.  Jason Berken will start for the Cubs and try to earn his first win since coming to the Cubs.

Cubs win 4th in a row as Dave Sappelt leads 4-1 victory over Astros

The Cubs won their fourth game in a row when they beat the Houston Astros 4-1 at Minute Maid Park Monday night.  Chris Volstad started for the Cubs and allowed one run on four hits while striking out four batters and walking five over five innings pitched.  Volstad earned his third win of the season.

Dave Sappelt was hands-down the outstanding player of the game as he had a hand in all four Cubs runs and was 2-for-5.  His RBI double in the second inning put the Cubs on the board.  Then his two-run double in the seventh inning gave the Cubs a 4-1 lead, which was eventually the final score.

Dave Sappelt had a part in all four Cubs runs scored against the Astros on Monday night (photo from cubs.com)

Relief pitchers Miguel Socolovich, James Russell, Jaye Chapman and Shawn Camp held the Astros to just one hit and a walk over their three combined innings pitched.

By the ninth inning, there were more Cubs fans at Minute Maid Park than Astros fans.  Chants of "Let's Go Cubbies" could be heard as Carlos Marmol recorded his 19th save of the season.  Love it!

Tomorrow the Cubs and Astros will play the second game of the three-game series at 7:05pm CT.  Justin Germano will start for the Cubs and try for his third win this season.

David DeJesus continues to impress but Cubs lose 5-2 to Giants

The Cubs lost 5-2 to the San Francisco Giants in the second game of the three-game series Saturday afternoon at Wrigley Field.

Justin Germano started for the Cubs and got off to a rough start as the Giants scored four runs in the first inning.  Germano allowed five runs on six hits while walking two batters and striking out two over five innings pitched.

David DeJesus hit a two-run homer in the third inning to put the Cubs on the board.  But his impressive game didn't stop there, as he also made an amazing sliding catch in the fifth inning when he grabbed Buster Posey's possible extra-base hit.

"I didn't even know I caught it, to be honest with you," DeJesus said.  "I slid and threw my glove out, and I was lifting my glove up and I didn't expect the ball to be in there.  I said, 'Wow, it's in there, this is pretty cool.'"

David DeJesus is congratulated by Darwin Barney after hitting his 2-run homer against the Giants on Saturday (Getty photo)

Cubs manager Dale Sveum is defnintely impressed with DeJesus' efforts and said, "He's the ultimate professional who leads by example, and hopefully people do watch and ask him a lot of questions, because he does a lot of things well."

The Cubs made their September callups, such as outfielders Tony Campana and Dave Sappelt, and infielder Adrian Cardenas, who all joined the team in Chicago today.

12 of the 29 players currently on the active roster either started the 2012 season at Triple-A Iowa or on another team's roster.  It definitely has been an interesting season, to say the least.

I was at today's game and took a lot of photos, below are some of the better ones:

The tarp coming off the field and the batting practice cage being set up before Saturday's game against the Giants (photo by Karen Burchell)

Adrian Cardenas and Jon Lovitz after the ceremonial first pitch (photo by Karen Burchell)

David DeJesus and Brett Jackson warm up before Saturday's game (photo by Karen Burchell)

Dave Sappelt gets a hug before Saturday's game (photo by Karen Burchell)

Justin Germano was tagged with the loss on Saturday against the Giants (photo by Karen Burchell)

It's that September time of the season, again (photo by Karen Burchell)

Darwin Barney and Anthony Rizzo chat as Jeff Beliveau warms up on Saturday (photo by Karen Burchell)

Tomorrow the Cubs and Giants will play the final and rubber game of the series at 1:20pm CT.  Travis Wood will start for the Cubs and try to earn his fifth win of the season.