Results tagged ‘ Casey Coleman ’
3/23 Go Eagles
Casey Coleman went to Florida Gulf Coast University because the school’s baseball team would let him play both pitch and play infield. Coleman is older than the school, which played its first collegiate baseball game when the Cubs right-handed pitcher was in high school in Ft. Myers, Fla.
On Friday, Coleman found out he was being assigned to the Cubs’ Minor League camp, but later that day, he was able to celebrate. Florida Gulf Coast University, a 15th seed, had done the impossible, upsetting No. 2 seed Georgetown in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, 78-68.
“I knew they were good,” Coleman said Saturday of FGCU. “I don’t know if I’d give them enough credit to beat Georgetown, not because I didn’t think they could but because Georgetown is an unbelievable team. I’ll tell you, after meeting that coach, I knew he wasn’t going to let them go in there intimidated.”
It’s been a wild year for the Eagles, who beat Miami and played Duke, Iowa State and VCU this season. Next up in the NCAA tournament is seventh-seed San Diego State on Sunday. Coleman had gone to Phoenix on Friday for the Cubs game against the Brewers, and was keeping track of the action on the bus ride back to Mesa. He got to watch most of the second half.
“Everyone was surprised at how athletic they were,” Coleman said of the Eagles. “I knew they were athletic and knew they could shoot some three’s. I knew there was a chance — but it’s tough to envision them actually beating a team like Georgetown.”
Did Coleman pick his school in his bracket?
“I didn’t fill out brackets this year,” Coleman said. “I let family and friends do the ones here. They did not pick them.”
Hindsight is easy, but would he have picked FGCU if he did his own bracket?
“With there not being a clear cut No. 1 this year, it would’ve been fun to pick them,” he said. “Personally, I would’ve seen Georgetown losing to Florida anyways so why not pick a team like FGCU to have fun with it? Florida’s going to be tough. FGCU has a tough matchup against San Diego State, but that’s a winnable game, too. When you get to Florida, that’ll be interesting. If they can get to that Sweet 16 againt Florida, that’ll be a fun story.”
Recruiting should improve at FGCU, which already has an edge. There’s a beach on campus. At 25, Coleman is older than the school itself.
“What they did, [beating Georgetown], that’ll be talked about forever,” Coleman said. “They’re going to be a big school. They’re going to get football in the next 10 years. [Ohio State coach] Urban Meyer’s daughter goes there. He’s been around the campus giving them ideas on how to start it up. I think Dan Marino’s son went there. They’ve got a bunch of name guys who will help the school and help it grow.”
– Carrie Muskat
2/15 Extra bases: 3B, pitching & more
Cubs position players report Saturday with the first full squad workout scheduled for Sunday at Fitch Park. Third baseman Ian Stewart arrived on Friday, and manager Dale Sveum was happy to have him on the team. Stewart was limited to 55 games before undergoing surgery on his left wrist.
“For the price we were going to be able to get him at, I think we had to bring him back,” Sveum said. “For $2 million, to get a guy who is capable of hitting 15 to 25 [home runs] and driving in 70 to 100 [runs] and having that kind of power and ability from the left side of the plate — the easiest thing was, even if he doesn’t reach those expectations, he can really catch the ball at third base. We need him to do well.”
The Cubs other third base option is Luis Valbuena, who batted .219 in 90 games with the Cubs, then hit .306 with six home runs and 15 doubles in 51 games with Lara in the Venezuelan Winter League.
“People know I like the guy and what he did for us last year,” Sveum said of Valbuena. “He had a heck of a lot better offensive year than the .215 or whatever it was [he hit].”
* Sveum met Friday with pitching coach Chris Bosio to map out the starting pitchers for the first Cactus League games, which get underway Feb. 23. On Friday, Jeff Samardzija, Matt Garza and Edwin Jackson tuned up with their second bullpen sessions.
“Garza was really good today,” Sveum said of the right-hander, who is coming back from an elbow injury. “The ball came out of his hand even better than the other day. His changeup was really good. The ball and the arm strength was really, really good today.”
* Casey Coleman, who won the pitchers side of the bunt tournament last year, has yet to swing a bat this spring. The tournament gets underway Saturday with 16 front office members competing for the final spot in the field of 64.
“I don’t know about bunting — maybe it’s like riding a bike,” said Coleman, who lost to outfielder David DeJesus in the final last year.
– Carrie Muskat
2/12 Tuesday first watch – Updated
There’s frost on the fields at Fitch Park for Tuesday’s first workout of pitchers and catchers. How cold is it? Hitting coach James Rowson, who was working with some early bird position players in the cages, needed some winter head gear.
* Pitchers Dayan Diaz and Hector Rondon were the only ones who failed to report on Monday. Both were delayed because of visa problems. Rondon is the Cubs’ Rule 5 pick.
* Pitchers scheduled to throw Tuesday include: Scott Baker, Scott Feldman, Kyuji Fujikawa, Travis Wood, Barret Loux, Alberto Cabrera, Carlos Villanueva, Brooks Raley, Michael Bowden, Jensen Lewis, Drew Carpenter, Robert Whitenack, Rafael Dolis, and Hisanori Takahashi.
* For those of you interested in uniform numbers, new Cubs outfielder Scott Hairston will wear No. 21.
* Kerry Wood is in camp as an extra instructor. No talk of a comeback.
* Casey Coleman spent part of his offseason rehabbing at D1 Sports in Knoxville, Tenn., which is co-owned by Peyton Manning. Coleman was shut down in August after feeling some discomfort in his right shoulder, and didn’t resume throwing until December. Now, he’s trying to build up strength. The right-hander has bounced between starting and relieving, but says this year, he’s been told he’ll be used solely in relief.
– Carrie Muskat
11/28 Coleman DFA to make room for Feldman
Right-handed pitcher Casey Coleman was designated for assignment to make room on the Cubs’ 40-man roster for recently acquired pitcher Scott Feldman. The Cubs’ roster is at 40. Feldman signed a one-year, $6 million deal on Tuesday, and is projected for the rotation. Coleman, 25, has compiled a 7-13 record and 5.76 ERA in 48 career games with the Cubs, including 26 starts. He was 0-2 with a 7.40 ERA in 17 games last season, including one start, while posting a 2-4 record and 4.34 ERA in 13 games (11 starts) for Triple-A Iowa. A 15th-round pick in the 2008 First-Year Player Draft, his season ended Aug. 12 because of a strained right shoulder.
– Carrie Muskat
8/6 Minor League report
Casey Coleman struck out eight over six shutout innings in Iowa’s 2-1 loss to Reno on Sunday. The Iowa Cubs now have lost 16 of their last 18 games. The eight Ks for Coleman were one shy of his career high.
Nelson Perez hit his fifth home run in Tennessee’s 5-4 loss to Jackson. Justin Bour had two hits, including a double, and one RBIs. Trey McNutt threw three innings of relief, giving up one hit and striking out three.
Christian Villanueva had two hits in Daytona’s 4-2 loss to Dunedin. P.J. Francescon started and gave up two unearned runs over two innings.
Michael Jensen gave up one run over five innings in Peoria’s 3-2 loss to Clinton. He has not given up more than two runs in each of his last four starts.
Daniel Vogelbach hit a solo homer with two outs in the 11th to lift Boise to a 10-9 win over Spokane. It was Vogelbach’s second homer since joining the Hawks. Trey Martin had three hits and two RBIs and Lance Rymel had two hits, including a home run, and four RBIs.
Duane Underwood gave up three earned runs on three hits over one-third of an inning in Mesa’s 8-6 loss to the Giants. Ben Carhart had two hits and one RBIs.
NEWS & NOTES
* Tennessee’s Justin Bour was named the Southern League Hitter of the Week for July 30-Aug. 5. He batted .409 (9-for-22) with three home runs and nine RBIs. One of those home runs was a walkoff hit in a 1-0 win over Pensacola. He leads all active Smokies in hits (123), doubles (30), home runs (14), RBIs (92), total bases (195) and slugging percentage (.481), and ranks first in the Southern League in RBIs, is second in hits and doubles, third in hitting (.304) and fifth in slugging percentage.
* Lendy Castillo, the Cubs’ pick in the Rule 5 Draft, will begin a rehab assignment Monday with Tennessee. Castillo, 22, appeared in seven games with the Cubs before he was sidelined with a groin injury.
– Carrie Muskat
8/3 Matt Garza update
Matt Garza’s bullpen session was cut short on Friday, and the right-hander will throw again on Saturday but it was uncertain when he would start. Dale Sveum said Tuesday’s starter should still be listed as “to be determined.”
“It’s pushing it,” Sveum said about Garza getting back in the rotation on Tuesday for the first time since July 21. “That’s still a wait and see thing on how he does and recovery.”
Garza came out of his last start after three innings with cramping in his right triceps. He could still be put on the disabled list, retroactive to July 22, which would allow the Cubs to call up a pitcher from Triple-A Iowa for Tuesday’s game such as Casey Coleman.
“We’ll have somebody waiting in the wings,” Sveum said. “We just have to decide who it is.”
Garza didn’t get much work done this week as he was with his wife, who gave birth to the couple’s fourth child, daughter Summer Grace, on Tuesday.
“It felt like I thought I would feel,” Garza said of Friday’s workout. “I took three days off and didn’t do anything. We’ll come back and do it again tomorrow.”
He was so busy with his family that Garza wasn’t paying attention to Tuesday’s Trade Deadline. A few teams had considered the right-hander.
“I was knee-deep in wait,” Garza said about being with his wife. “Just wait, wait, wait, epidural, hold, wait, wait, hold, time, where are we at? Three o’clock [Central Time] came and I didn’t know [the Trade Deadline had passed]. We looked up and [my wife] said, ‘Hey, it’s 3:05.’ I looked to see if anybody had moved.
“I figured I wasn’t [going to be traded] just because of the situation and I hadn’t thrown for a number of days,” Garza said. “If you traded for me, you were kind of getting a blind pick. That’s the way people felt. It is what it is, and I’m happy to be where I’m at and happy to still be playing.”
He was more optimistic about starting Tuesday.
“I’m going to try to make it,” Garza said. “That’s my shot, that’s my goal right there.”
– Carrie Muskat
7/31 Roster moves
Expect catcher Welington Castillo, infielder Adrian Cardenas and pitcher Casey Coleman to join the Cubs Tuesday night in Chicago. With the loss of Paul Maholm, Reed Johnson and Geovany Soto, the Cubs need a backup catcher, another starter and a utility player. Castillo was batting .260 in 44 games with six home runs, six doubles and 22 RBIs for Iowa. Coleman was 2-4 with a 5.01 ERA in 11 games (nine starts) for Iowa. Cardenas was batting .322 in 56 games with Iowa, hitting two home runs, 20 doubles, and four triples. All three have had brief callups with the Cubs.
Steve Clevenger was expected to take over as the Cubs regular catcher.
“I’ll just prepare myself every day like I’ve been doing,” Clevenger said. “I’m not taking anything for granted. I’ll go out and play the game hard like I was playing before. Other than that, just try to win.”
– Carrie Muskat
7/31 Dempster & the Dodgers
The Dodgers acquired outfielder Shane Victorino from the Phillies on Tuesday but FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal says Los Angeles is not done improving its roster. Rosenthal reports the Dodgers are focused on Cubs pitcher Ryan Dempster and want him before today’s 3 p.m. CT Trade Deadline. Dempster was scheduled to start Tuesday night for the Cubs against the Pirates. However, the Cubs were expected to have pitcher Casey Coleman in Chicago as a contingency plan. Dempster has hinted he’d prefer to go to the Dodgers. As a player with 10-and-5 rights, he has veto power.
– Carrie Muskat
7/19 Cubs acquire Germano
After the Cubs beat the Marlins on Thursday to improve to 14-5 since June 25, Jeff Baker apparently joked that the players expect to add pieces and be buyers, not sellers, at the Trade Deadline. On Thursday, the Cubs did just that, acquiring right-handed pitcher Justin Germano from the Red Sox for cash considerations. Right-handed pitcher Jairo Asencio was designated for assignment to make room on the roster. Germano, 29, was expected to be available Friday in St. Louis when the Cubs open a three-game series. However, Casey Coleman, who was to start Thursday for Triple-A Iowa, was scratched and will be in St. Louis in case Germano can’t make it.
Germano’s contract was selected by the Red Sox on July 4 and he threw 5 2/3 scoreless innings in relief on July 7 against the Yankees before being designated for assignment on July 13. The Cubs are Germano’s fifth Major League team. He has pitched for the Padres (2004, 2007-08), Reds (2006), Indians (2010-11) and Red Sox (2012). At Triple-A Pawtucket, Germano was 9-4 with a 2.40 ERA in 17 appearances, including 16 starts.
Asencio, who was claimed off waivers from the Indians on June 1, had a 3.07 ERA in 12 big league appearances with the Cubs.
– Carrie Muskat
7/16 Minor League report – Saturday’s games
Randy Wells gave up seven runs on six hits and one walk over 1 2/3 innings in Iowa’s 7-1 loss to Omaha on Saturday. Josh Vitters doubled in the fifth to extend his hitting streak to 13 games. He’s now batting .302. Casey Coleman gave up three hits over 5 1/3 scoreless innings in relief.
Dae-Eun Rhee gave up two runs on five hits over five innings, striking out six, in Tennessee’s 4-2 win. Juan Apodaca hit a three-run home run and Mike Burgess hit a solo shot. Justin Bour had two hits.
Austin Kirk gave up two runs, one earned, on six hits and five walks over six innings in Daytona’s 9-6 loss to Palm Beach. Roni Torreyes had three hits and one RBI.
Chadd Krist hit a walkoff RBI single with two outs in the 10th to give Peoria a 9-8 win over Bowling Green. Javier Baez had three hits, including a three-run home run, and also had a triple and stole a base. He finished with four RBIs. Krist had three hits, and is 7-for-14 in three games.
Trey Martin hit a three-run home run in Boise’s 9-3 win over Vancouver. Martin finished with two hits and four RBIs. Pete Levitt picked up the win in relief.
Timothy Saunders had four hits, including a two-run home run, to help Mesa beat the Padres, 13-3. Daniel Vogelbach had two hits and four RBIs and Shawon Dunston Jr. had two hits and scored three runs. Carlos Martinez-Pumarino picked up the win in relief, striking out four over three innings.
– Carrie Muskat
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