Ryan Sweeney




Two hands! Nice!

 Ryan Sweeney joined the Cubs organization in April of this year after not making the Red Sox out of Spring Training. He began the season in Triple-A Iowa but was called up in early May when Dave Sappelt got off to a slow start. Sweeney was used early on as a late inning replacement for Alfonso Soriano in left field with the occasional start but took over the center field duties when David DeJesus injured his shoulder running into the outfield wall in mid-June.

As luck would have it, Sweeney ended up fracturing a rib doing the same thing just two weeks later and ended up missing all of July and August. Coincidentally, this card was signed during that same Mariners series, thus my helper out in Seattle was able to get this one signed but didn't see Sweeney again to get the 2013 team set card signed too. Good news is that it was announced yesterday that the Cubs have re-signed him to a two-year contract so there should be plenty of opportunites to get him again.

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.