Edwin Jackson

I finally got everything from Cubs Lot #2 scanned and cropped but ran out of steam to do any kind of write up about them. Instead, I'm falling back on some autographed cards from my draft folder.

Edwin Jackson came to the Cubs as a big free agent signing following a disastrous 101-loss season in 2012. Despite doing slightly better as a team in 2013, Jackson managed to lead the Major Leagues in Losses with 18. While losses aren't the be all, end all they used to be with pitchers on bad teams, having a nearly 5.00 ERA doesn't bode well either. The Cubs just haven't been able to match that offense.

This season, Jackson has a 1-2 record while the team is 1-4 in his starts. But the run differential is just -3. Scoring four runs is a decent total that'll win you some ballgames. You just can't give up five! 

These three Edwin Jackson cards were autographed last season with a little help from an SCN member. His signature is not much more than EJ but I'm glad to knock the two customs cards off my list.

This 2013 Topps card is actually form the factory team set and is Photoshopped. Jackson's Series 1 card still showed him in a Nationals uniform and didn't show up as a Cub until the Update Series where they used a different photo.

Sweeping 2013 Under the Rug

With this post I am wrapping up my 2013 custom Cubs team set. This year, I skipped the manager and coaches cards and still managed to come up with 57 cards in the set. That's one for every player who played a game for the Cubs this season (56) and one card commemorating the Cubs lone All-Star (Travis Wood). No Gold Glove card again for Darwin Barney (or Anthony Rizzo, the only other Cubs finalist). And certainly no other major awards that have yet to be announced.

So here are the latest seven players to make their season or Cubs debut in no particular order. Six pitchers and one catcher.

Alberto Cabrera made his MLB debut last season but was called up again this September. He pitched 6 innings over 7 appearances. He did not factor into any decisions but the Cubs were 0-7 in games he appeared in. It's a horrible position to be in to just come off the bench to eat innings.

Brooks Raley also made his debut last year but had two stints with the Cubs this season. And again like Cabrera, Raley ate up some middle innings with no decisions in 9 appearances. The Cubs were 1-8 in those games.

Chang-Yong Lim made his Major League debut this year after playing 12 years in the Korean Baseball Organization and 5 more in the Japan Central League. When he made his Cubs debut, it was the fifth level in the organization he played for this year. Another middle innings guy with no decisions in six appearances.

Let's switch it up a little and go with a catcher. J.C. Boscan signed with the Cubs in the offseason and spent most of 2013 with the Triple-A Iowa Cubs. With Welington Castillo injured towards the end of the season, Boscan spelled backup catched Dioner Navarro a few times and even got a pair of starts. 

Back to pitchers. Justin Grimm came to Cubs in a multiplayer deal with the Rangers for Matt Garza. He went 0-2 in ten appearances but the Cubs went a respectable-for-them 4-6 in those games. Grimm even makes a cameo on the Boscan card above.

Scott Baker signed with the Cubs last November after sitting out most of 2012 to have Tommy John surgery. He should have been ready to this year but had some setbacks. Baker didn't make his Cubs debut until September where pitched 5 innings of shutout, two hit baseball but didn't get a decision as the Cubs offense provided no help in what was ultimately a 3-1 loss to the Brewers.

While Grimm was traded for Matt Garza, Zac Rosscup was traded with Matt Garza from the Tampa Bay Rays prior to the 2011 season. He's been steadily rising through the Cubs ranks since and made his Major League debut on September 3. The Cubs were 0-10 in Rosscup's appearances but he allowed only one run in his 6 2/3 innings pitched for a 1.35 ERA. In those appearances, the Cubs scored 3 runs or less of offensive spport in nine of the ten. Wow.

After that recap, it is probably a little easier to see why it took so long for me to do the writeup on this last group. Ugh. But now it's over and done with. The World Series is over and done with. Bring on 2014!

To see all 57 cards in this set, click here!

Julio Borbon

So this was bound to happen eventually with the more of these cards that I get signed but I swear this is completely random that these are all coming back at once. And what am I talking about? Last week I showed two former Cubs, Howard Johnson and Mick Kelleher who both signed their jersey #20 along with their autograph.

As you can see on the card above, Julio Borbon did not, however, he is clearly wearing the number 20. And after taking a look at Cubs by the Numbers, I realized that Borbon was my 7th former Cub in my signed ATCRCS collection to have worn number 20. Along with Ho-Jo and Kelleher, I also already have Jerome Walton, Oscar Gamble, Al Spangler, Adolfo Phillips. Not only that, but there are still two more that I have in my possession but haven't showcased yet. I guess I know which two will be next...

Back to the subject at hand, Julio Borbon joined the Cubs back in April after the selected him off of waivers from the Texas Rangers. Some of you may remember I had a fun interaction with him when the Cubs came to play the Nats back in May when trying to get autographs. When he came over to the crowd, he asked why nobody had any Cubs cards of him yet (he had been with the team all of about 3 weeks at the time). I whipped out my brand spanking new 2013 Team Set card, which he signed:



But the ATCRCS at the top of the page was signed with a little help from an SCN member before Borbon got overly agressive on the basepaths and was thrown out trying to take third on a passed ball that didn't get as far away from the catcher as he would have liked. He was DFA'd after the game to set an example by the management for sloppy play. This took him off of the 40-Man roster and nobody else took a flyer on him, so Borbon spent the rest of the season with the Triple-A Iowa Cubs. I didn't see Borbon on any of the prelimnary 2013 Topps Update checklists so I'm not sure Borbon will even get any "official" Cubs cards.

James Russell

I 'm trying not to overload you on ATCRCS posts and have been doing at least every other post but that is all I seem to have going on right now. Luckily we're heading into the weekend when I'll do First Pitch Friday, One Game Wonder and a Where Are They Now Pro Debut posts so bear with me. Hopefully the extras in this post will cure any boredom.

This may be a first for me but I'll have to double check to be sure. Not only did I recently get back a James Russell ATCRCS card signed...

...but I also got back the 2013 team set card...



...and an upgraded 2012 team set card!



There are a couple of players I have three or more autographs from but I'm pretty sure this is my first trifecta that includes all three team sets I am working on. Despite a record setting 53 different players last year and another record setting 56 (so far) this year, there are only 21 players that can claim to be in all three sets.

Six of those 21 have already been traded away or released (Soriano, Garza, DeJesus, Camp, Clevenger & Marmol) so the chances they make an appearance in 2014 are pretty slim.

It will be interesting to see which of the remaining 15 will be the last man standing. Will it be one of the big name money guys like Anthony Rizzo or Starlin Castro or Jeff Samardzija? A middle of the road guy like Darwin Barney or Welington Castillo? Or one of the young pitchers like Chris Rusin, Brooks Raley or Blake Parker?

That reminds me, I have another bunch of 2013 cards to still make...

10 More for 2013

Once of the perks of using a template is saving a lot of time. Being able to keep borders and logos the same lets me spit out the customs at a much quicker pace. It just so happens that when I went to make these next ten customs for my 2013 team set, I was able to save one more step on eight of them (although one of those required one more step so it balanced out).

The reason being, is high turnover among the Cubs roster this year. Again. On the previously mentioned eight cards, the jersey number had already been used by another player earlier in the season so I just had to switch out the name and photo for each of these cards. Here they are by number:

Starting off we have #8, Donnie Murphy. Although this will always be Andre Dawson's number to me, Murphy is actually the 3rd incumbent to #8 this year. Bench coach Jamie Quirk wore it last year and started with it this year before passing it on to former Cubs infielder, Alberto Gonzalez who started the season wearing #6. Confused yet? Well, Gonzalez was traded to the Yankees in May so when Murphy

made his Cubs debut earlier this month, he was given #8.

Many fans, Cubs or not, will probably associate #21 with Sammy Sosa. Starting my Cubs fandom in the 80's and not paying quite as close attention during the Sosa era, I more associate it with former pitcher Scott Sanderson. And more recently, Tyler Colvin. But I get the Sosa thing. Junior Lake on the other hand took over #21 from Scott Hairston who the Cubs had signed in the offseason as a free agent was traded to the Washington Nationals in early July.

Again, showing my age here, I think of Bill Buckner and/or Mike Harkey when I hear #22 for the Cubs. But after being named the Cubs minor league player of the year in 2012, Logan Watkins potentially has a long career ahead of him to make the number his own. He took over the number from former Cubs pitcher Matt Garza.

One, two, skip a few, all the way down to #49. It didn't take long for the Cubs to reissue this number after trading Carlos Marmol to the Dodgers, but as someone who can be a little superstitious when it comes to sports, if I were Jake Arrieta, I might have put up a little more fight to get a different number. Just saying.

Kameron Loe was actually the first player to wear #50 this year but his tenure was so short, it took a while to find a usable photo for the card. After Loe, super short timer (1 game so far) Alex Burnett "borrowed" the number before it went back to its 2012 and current owner, pitcher Blake Parker.

The #54 has seen its fair share of usage this year as well. Carrying it over from last year was former reliever Shawn Camp who was released in early July. The Cubs selected Thomas Neal off waivers in early August. He injured his throwing arm in his second game with the team and is currently on the 60 day DL. Meanwhile...

...Darnell McDonald, who the Cubs signed as a free agent in the offseason was called up from Triple-A Iowa and made his Cubs debut and is the current #54. That concludes the easiest portion of the additions.

Bridging the gap is the Cubs lone All-Star, Travis Wood. I didn't have to change his jersey number, but I did change the Cubs logo into the official 2013 All-Star Game logo. I was going to stick it in the upper left hand corner and keep the Cubs logo as is, but it looked a little cluttered. I'm not a huge fan of this photo but since Wood did not get into the actual game (as the Cubs only representative), it is the best I could find. He was presented with the jersey before a game after his selection had been made official.

Finally, we have two players who are making their own unique mark on the 2013 Cubs by being the first to wear their particular jersey numbers this season.

Cole Gillespie takes over #2 from last year's owner, Ian Stewart. You may recall earlier this season the hullabaloo Stewart created by claiming the Cubs were leaving him to rot in Triple-A. So the Cubs released him and he is currently...rotting away in Triple-A for the Dodgers now? More on him later next week though. As for Gillespie, the Cubs picked him up off waivers from the San Fransisco Giants back in mid-July.



Wrapping up this last update before the September roster call ups is pitcher Eduardo Sanchez, currently in the minors. History has not been kind to this number, as the last few owners have spent just one season with the team. But then again, that just gives him a chance to make it his own. The Cubs selected Sanchez off of waivers from the St. Louis Cardinals, where he also wore #52.

As I said, this will be the last update on this set before the rosters expand next week. This brings the set up to 50 cards, with 49 different players and 1 All-Star card. The Cubs have, to date, used 50 players so the only player I am missing is Brooks Raley who has only pitched in one game so far this season. I anticipate a September call up for him so hopefully I'll find a picture to use. The only ones I've seen so far are from last year and Spring Training.

I have not done any of the coaches this year, like I did last year and am currently undecided as to whether I will make them or not.

Hope you enjoyed that Cubs jersey history lesson/rousing game of musical jerseys!

Nate Schierholtz

I had another post ready to go today but because of yesterday's game, I decided to bump Nate Schierholtz up in the rotation. Yesterday (Sunday) held a mostly meaningless rubber match between the lowly Padres and the even lowlier Cubs.

I don't know if all of the Cubs Sunday games have been televised on WGN this year but it is something I look forward to every week and I've seen most of them. I get up early, try to get my day's chores out of the way so I can relax and just watch the game. Yesterday was no different, except for the length. And when it came time to pick up my son from baseball practice, my wife graciously volunteered to do it since it was going in to extra innings. Nice!

It started with a not-so-veiled-threat before the game from Padres starter and former Cubs pitcher Andrew Cashner that he was going to "shove it up the Cubs' @sses" for trading him (for Anthony Rizzo if you don't recall). And I'm not against that at all. Stick it to your former team. A good underdog story if you can back it up. And for what it is worth, Cashner pitched 7 innings of shutout, 2-hit, 1-walk baseball, effectively following through on his threat.

But on the other side, Chris Rusin pitched an equally effective 6.1 innings of shutout, 3-hit, 4-walk baseball. In fact, neither team scored until the 13th inning which is when the game got really weird and Nate Schierholtz comes into play.

With the bases loaded and no outs in the top of the 13th, Schierholtz hits a ground ball to the first baseman. It looks to be a pretty sure 3-2-3 double play. But Schierholtz stumbled out of the batter's box (later saying he tweaked his back on the swing). After he got up and took off for first, probably lost in thought, frustrated about the turn of events, Schierholtz took the throw from first basemen Jesus Guzman off the bill off his helmet  and his shoulder, sending the ball off towards third base. The runner from third scores and Schierholtz is safe at first.

Everybody was safe.

Something that usually happens to the Cubs was suddenly happening for the Cubs. The Cubs only manage one more run before the third out, but hey, a two run lead in an otherwise scoreless game and your closer coming in will probably hold up, right? A 96% win expectancy at this point according to the boxscore on baseball-reference.

Well, it's the Cubs so I'm sure you know the answer to that. So the Padres scored two in the bottom of the inning to tie it and sure enough, go on to win in 15.

But the whole point of this story is Nate Schierholtz. I wasn't sold on him when the Cubs first picked him up but he has grown on me. And the ability to take a thrown baseball to the face has nothing to do with it. I believe he is tops among Cubs starters in batting average and only behind Anthony Rizzo in RBIs (if you new school Sabermetric fans can trust those outdated stats).

The ATCRCS card above was signed during the Seattle series and I'm glad to have another off the list. For those of you who might remember, I also got my 2013 custom team set card signed msyelf when the Cubs came to DC in May.

Schierholtz stood in the rain signing for the few people there that day, definitely earning my respect then. Hopefully he's just shaken up and nothing is broken or strained or pulled.

Its not much of a siganture, but with a name like Schierholtz, I'd probably scribble the last part too.

Signature Saturday - Darwin Barney x4

When I noticed that the Cubs would be heading out to Seattle this season, I was very excited. One of my longtime autograph helpers from SCN, vinniemiller, has the Mariners as his home team and often gets me some former Cubs autographs. It was great to know I'd now have some help in getting some current Cubs knocked off my lists as well!

I ended up sending 50+ cards for various current Cubs that included mostly customs but a few "real" ones too. One of the tougher decisions I had to make was which cards to send for Darwin Barney. In the few chances I've personally had to get Cubs autographs over the past 2-3 years, I've yet to get him, though someone sent me a 2011 Heritage card signed at Spring Training last year. That means in addition to any and all "real" Barney cards, I also had an ATCRCS card, a 2012 custom team set card, a 2012 Gold Glove custom card and a 2013 custom team set card. I ended up sending 7 cards, hoped for 1-2, but expected 0. If you read the title, you can probably guess that vinniemiller was quite successful and sent me four cards signed by Barney.



His signature isn't what I would call legible, but it is fairly consistent.



Having two of my customs taken care of is a big relief. This one (the 2013 custom team set card) isn't nearly as dark as it scanned. I probably should have adjusted it before I posted it, but ain't nobody got time for that.

The two customs I sent that did not get signed were from the 2012 custom team set, the base card and the special edition Gold Glove one I made. I'll see if anybody is offering help in September and if not, I'll try again in Spring Training.

Of the three "real" cards I sent, two were Heritage cards. As I mentioned, someone sent me his 2011 rookie card signed last year so I thought, why not try to knock off 2012 and 2013 as well? It seems to be a theme, but the 2012 got skipped (just like my 2012 customs). I'm really not complaining, just pointing it out because I just noticed that while I was writing this up.



And the final card I sent in for Barney was the newest to my collection at the time.



This Archives card is from the first set of cards given away earlier this season at Wrigley Field. With a good range of fan favorites in the set, it might be something I consider chasing.

With my certified signed Barney cards, I think this brings my total up to 7-8. More from this batch of current Cubs will show up here soon!

A Quartet of Pitchers

I'm trying to keep up with the amount of players the Cubs are using this season. These four pitchers have been around a couple of weeks now so it was about time I got to showing them off. 

This Blake Parker photo is from a game back in June against the Seattle Mariners. The Cubs won 5-3 in extra innings with Parker pitching the bottom of the 11th to get his first (and so far only) Save for the season. The throwback uniform makes it a little cooler, if I do say so myself.

Henry Rodriguez wore #63 with both of his previous teams, the A's and Nationals. But coming to Chicago he had to settle for#62, as closer Kevin Gregg wears#63. The photo comes from the June 23rd, 14-6 whooping of the Houston Astros. Rodriguez is currently on the disabled list with the Iowa Cubs after being DFAd in mid-July.

Chris Rusin started and got the win in the Cubs first shutout in St. Louis since 1997 this past Friday night. There was also something about him being the first lefty to throw 6+ shutout innings in St. Louis for the Cubs since sometime in the late 70's. As in, probably just the second in my lifetime. Crazy. I can't remember the year but the last one to do it was Ken Holtzman.

And although he didn't end up with the win, he also blanked the Giants over 7 innings in a 1-0 victory. Not too shabby when you do that to the defending World Series champs (Giants) and your #1 rival (Cardinals). That said, this photo is from his season debut in which the Cubs lost 8-7 to the A's. To be fair though, Rusin only gave up 3 of the runs and thus, did not get the loss.

Pedro Strop came over to the Cubs with Jake Arrieta in the deal that sent Steve Clevenger and Scott Feldman to the Orioles. This photo is from his Cubs debut, a scoreless 8th inning on July 4th in a 1-0 loss to the A's. Note the special hat.

Strop has made 18 appearances so far for the Cubs, 17 of them scoreless. Unfortunately for him, his ERA rose significantly because of a 5-run third of an inning against the Brewers. 

These are cards 37-40 in the 2013 team set. Still have 9 more to go!

Matt Guerrier

Matt Guerrier recently came to the Cubs from the Dodgers in the Carlos Marmol deal. I haven't had the opportunity to watch him pitch much, maybe once or twice, but his stat line looks decent. He's currently 2-1 with a 2.19 ERA since joining the Cubs.

While with the Twins, Guerrier tied for the American League lead in pitching appearances with 76 in 2008 and followed it up with a league leading 79 in 2009.

Upon joining the Cubs, he took over the jersey number 51 from former Cubs catcher Steve Clevenger.

Unfortunately, I don't have much else to say about him yet, but for a middle reliever, that's probably a good thing. More times than not, if you start hearing about a middle reliever, its because they're blowing games. His one loss was a 1-0 defeat to the A's in his Cubs debut. And he is credited with a blown save against the Cardinals (that might be DFA worthy!) but he also has 5 Holds and picked up 2 Wins. So, keep flying under the radar please!

This is the 36th card I've made for the 2013 Cubs Team set. As of last night's game, and with another Cubs debut, 49 players have played in a game this season for the Cubs. Last year was a team record when Sveum & Co. used 53 different players. I might have to make record breaker card with floating heads!

2013 Topps Brett Jackson Factory Team Set & Series 2

I sorta, kinda took the weekend off from posting but it was for the greater good. And by sorta, kinda, I mean I wrote out a bunch of postings, but for the future. At the end of this week, I am going on a 2-week, European vacation with the family, so I will be incommunicado. Cue the Clark Griswold references! I didn't quite come up with enough to fill the whole time I'm gone just yet, but I still have a few days. If not, there may be a random day off here and there.

Like my last couple of these, Brett Jackson has the same card in both the team factory set and Topps Series 2. It's a nice action shot, almost more suitable for a horizontal card. In fact, if it was somebody a little more popular, or Jackson had lived up to the hype a little bit better last year, it could have been one of the Series 2 Chase it Down inserts. He probably would have had to be closer to the ball for that to happen though. Speaking of which, did he make the play?

The caption claims that Jackson "makes a diving catch against the Pittsburgh Pirates during the game at Wrigley Field on September 14, 2012" so it must be true. No reference to the batter or inning so I had to go to the boxscore on baseball-reference.com. The only fly ball out to Brett Jackson came off the bat of Pedro Alvarez in the top of the 8th inning.

The photographer took a flurry of shots and Getty posted two more shots:

This one would have made for a nice horizontal card, as he gets ready for full extension.

And the moment just before the catch. If the umpire hadn't cut right in front of the photographer, that would have been a pretty good Chase it Down card.

The Cubs beat the Pirates 7-4 that day. The play wasn't a game changer/saver, but a nice catch is a nice catch.

Cubs Roster Moves

Since I last posted any of these customs from my 2013 team set (just a few days ago!), the Cubs have made several roster moves resulting in one season debut (Chris Rusin, who made his Cubs debut last year) and two new Cubs debuts (Pedro Strop & Matt Guerrier). Unfortunately, I haven't come across any usable (resolution wise) photos of them in their new uniforms.

In the meantime, here is one from my "Missing List" from earlier in the season, Hisanori Takahashi.

Takahashi signed as free agent prior to the season and was traded to the Colorado Rockies for a player to be named later on June 22. He was in Triple-A Iowa at the time after pitching just 3 innings in 3 appearances for the Cubs in early April. Takahashi remains at the AAA level, pitching for the Colorado Springs Sky Sox and even stayed in the same league (Pacific Coast) as Iowa.

Surprisingly, other former Cubs currently donning the Sky Sox uniform include Justin Berg, Chris Volstad, Xavier Nady and manager Glenallen Hill. Tyler Colvin, Manny Corpas  and DJ LeMahieu also started the season there but have since been called up.

As I note on the 2013 Cubs Custom Team Set page, the Cubs have now used 41 different players since Opening Day. Last year's team record of 53 is well within reach, especially with the Cubs being sellers at the deadline.And the fact that it is not even the All-Star break yet and there will still be a smattering of September call-ups.

3 More for the 2013 Custom Team Set

Since I last updated on these, the Cubs have upped their roster total from 36 to 38 players since Opening Day. I only have a card for one of the two newest but I've also gone back and added two more that I missed.

Brian Bogusevic was added to the roster last week when the Cubs designated Carlos Marmol for assignment. This is another card that may ultimately change because of the photo selection. If I could see more of his face, it would have been a keeper. We'll see if a better photo comes along that meets my standards.

He started off well getting two hits in his Cubs debut and getting a hit in 4 of his five games. He did make a blunder in left field that led to the tying run scoring in the opening game of the Seattle Mariners series. Officially, it was a RBI triple for Raul Ibanez but had he played it properly, it would have been first and third with no run scored. Hindsight is always 20/20 though.

I've liked him so far in left field and Alfonso Soriano seemed to do well as the DH. (Hint, hint American League buyers at the trade deadline.)

Speaking of trade bait, Matt Garza is 3-1 in eight starts since coming off the DL with a 3.83 ERA that is just a shade below his career average. I have nothing against Matt Garza but if he can bring another piece or two for the puzzle that's coming together for the near future...

Rafael Dolis pitched five innings over five appearances this season before landing on the DL back in May. I haven't seen any updates to his status.

As for the Cubs as a team, they are 35-45 and 15.5 games back in the NL Central through 80 games. At this point last year they were 30-50 but only 14 games back.

I guess as the Cubs improve, so do the other teams...

Last year, they had scored 293 while giving up 368 through 80 games. As of yesterday's win over the Mariners, the Cubs have scored 330 and given up 340. While the run differential is still negative, they've added almost a half run per game.

These are cards 32, 33 and 34 in the 2013 team set (although they are not officially numbered). There still four unaccounted for but they're coming! You can see the rest of the ones I've posted here.

5 More for 2013

I knocked out the creation of 5 more custom cards for the 2013 team set. Four of the five are not currently with the big league club.

Wrigley Wax did a nice writeup on Alex Burnett's short stint the other day. He was designated for assignment but cleared waivers so he is currently with the Cubs Triple-A affiliate in Iowa.

Steve Clevenger, normally a catcher, started the season in the rotation at third with Luis Valbuena but got hurt early on. He is rehabbing with Iowa right now.

Brent Lillibridge was designated for assignment once Darwin Barney was activated from the disabled list. He also cleared waivers and is in Iowa.

Shortly thereafter, Alberto Gonzalez was also DFA'd. With the return on Barney and the pickup of outfielder Julio Borbon, the Cubs needed more room. He cleared waivers, was sent to Iowa and then traded to the New York Yankees for a player to named later or cash a couple of weeks later.

Ryan Sweeney is the only player in the group currently on the roster. He started the season in Iowa and swapped places with outfielder Dave Sappelt who got off to a poor start in Chicago.

This brings me to 31/36 of the 2013 Cubs roster done with more on the way. You can see the rest here.

2013 Cubs Custom Team Set

I was starting to lose track of which customs from the Cubs team set I have already shown so I went ahead and added a tab to the top that puts them all in one place like I did last year. And in the spirit of adding new content, here are two cards that have not been shown yet.

 

Dave Sappelt started the season in Chicago but has been playing in Iowa since early May after a slow start.

 

The Cubs selected Zach Putnam off waivers in early November 2012 but granted him free agency at the end of the month. They then re-signed him in late December. Probably has something to do with restructuring a contract. He has only appeard in two games so far this season, a one batter appearance on May 30th and then was later fed to the wolves in a one inning debacle against the Arizona Diamondbacks on June 1st. He faced the entire D-Backs lineup in the 9th inning, giving up 6 hits and 4 runs. Hopefully, it only gets better from there!

 

Unfortunately, both of these photos might need to be changed as the Cubs haven't played the Pirates at home (as pictured) in 2013, so upon closer inspection, this looks like a photo from last year. And while both of Putnam's appearances were at home (pinstripes), that doesn't appear to be Wrigley in the background, so I think that is a Spring Training shot.

 

With a good chunk of the lineup done, I will update these sporadically and/or as players make appearances. If you missed the rest, don't forget to check out the tab at the top.