WBBM favorite to land Cubs radio broadcasts, WGN radio's slow march to doom continues WGN exercised an out clause in their deal last year in an attempt to renegotiate, since they're supposedly losing a ton of money on Cubs broadcasts. According to the Trib's Ed Sherman, WBBM is now viewed as the front-runner. It feels odd seeing the Tribune reporting on …
OV Daily Facepalm
BA Review of Cubs international signings Ben Badler put up a recap of the Cubs international signings over at BA ($). Most of it is just a collection of scouting stuff we saw back at signing time, but still a good read since I don't remember any of it. Most of what seems new to me is where the signings are …
OV “Daily” Facepalm
Ted Lilly Added to Cubs front office Ted Lilly signed on with the Cubs FO as a special assistant, and should be around as an instructor in spring training as well as doing some scouting and stuff during the season. Even though he struggled with injuries last year and retired this offseason, he might still have been good enough to …
Starlin Castro out 7-10 with hamstring injury
Starlin Castro will be sidelined for the next 7 to 10 days after suffering a hamstring injury yesterday. The good news is that rather than getting an extended glimpse at Javier Baez playing shortstop, the Cubs may go with Emilio Bonifacio and Darwin Barney. How excited are you now? I'm sure we'll see Baez at shortstop, but I'd hope he'd …
Baseball Prospectus’ Cubs Top 10 Prospects
Jason Parks has published his top 10 Cubs prospects list with scouting reports and it's fairly impressive. I'll only quote Baez's future potential since it's a subscription site. Baez might lack Buxton’s overall athleticism or Bogaerts’ polish, but the 21-year-old Puerto Rican might have the highest offensive ceiling of any player in the minors, a potential middle-of-the-order force capable of …
BP’s top 10 Cubs prospects + consensus Top 14 prospects
The BP list came out, and it's a great read. Here it is, but a sub is required. I recommend getting a subscription; it really is great work. I won't share any of the bits besides the Top 10 list: 1. Baez 2. Bryant 3. Almora 4. Soler 5. Edwards 6. Alcantara 7. Johnson 8. Vogelbach 9. Villanueva 10. Candelario …
Javier Baez to play some 2nd base this spring
I think most of thought that if Javier Baez had to be moved off shortstop, which seemed an almost certainty after he was drafted, that he would shift to 3rd base. He made himself into a decent enough shortstop to stick there through the minors and some even said he could stick. It still seems like he'll probably have to …
Javier Baez and projections
It's the season of projections and they're all starting to come out or already have. About ten days ago I was looking at Javier Baez's page on Fangraphs and saw that Oliver projected him to have a .336 wOBA (109 wRC+) and 4.2 fWAR. Of course, about 15 runs of that was defense and from what we know, Baez isn't …
Daytona Cubs named Baseball America’s 2013 Minor League Team of the Year
In what seems to me to be a fairly unsurprising choice, Baseball America named the Daytona Cubs as 2013's Minor League Team of the Year. The article is free here, and absolutely worth a read. The important part: The season included special moments such as shortstop Javier Baez’s four home run effort on June 10 against Fort Myers. Matt Loosen …
Cubs shopping Castro for pitching?
Matthew Cerrone of Metsblog is reporting that the Cubs are looking for pitching in a Starlin Castro trade, 'according to people familiar with the organization'. With Javier Baez breathing down his neck much more quickly than expected and the equally fast-moving Kris Bryant blocking Baez from moving to 3b, the Cubs might have to make up their mind sooner than they planned …