http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2012/07/seven-first-round-picks-still-unsigned.html
Matt Garza last year and this year
Last season Matt Garza enjoyed a breakout season. His strikeouts increased. His walks decreased. He kept the ball on the ground and therefore in the park a lot more often. He was even so lucky last year that he allowed only 7.7% of his fly balls to leave the yard. While Fangraphs had him with a cool 5.0 WAR, Baseball …
Tigers asked about Darwin Barney
From MLBTR: The Tigers asked the Cubs about second baseman Darwin Barney a couple of weeks ago, Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports reports (on Twitter). However, talks didn't progress.
Baseball America Mid-season Top 50
Baseball America has released their mid-season top 50 prospects. The only Cub on the list is Javier Baez at 25. Likely to be a 3B when he hits the big leagues, but his bat is potent enough to play anywhere
Mural in Bussey, Iowa
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OV Contest mid-season update
At the beginning of the season we started an over/under contest that would take wouldn't reveal a winner until the end of the season. People chose whether a player would end the season over or under his projections. Under was a bit confusing for pitchers and I made that clear in the post. If you thought the pitcher was going …
Players vote in Starlin Castro and Bryan LaHair as all-stars
Starlin Castro and Bryan LaHair will represent the Cubs as All Stars this year. Both players were voted in by the players. Link: http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120701&content_id=34263550&vkey=news_mlb&c_id=mlb I’ll have more on this later.
Koyie Hill DFA'd, Ian Stewart to DL, Welington Castillo & Luis Valbuena re-called
The Cubs have made a few transactions and one of them might spell the end to his career. Koyie Hill was let go by the Cubs this past offseason and after about a dozen catchers were injured on the team they were forced to bring him back. Now he's gone and he's probably not good enough to continue playing at …
How much is Ryan Dempster's Trade Value?
Ryan Dempster entered the 2012 season in the final year of his contract. He was coming off season in which his ERA had ballooned to 4.80, but his FIP and xFIP were in line with what he'd done as a starter since 2008. His FIP was 3.91 and he had an xFIP of 3.70. The projections had him at a …