Yesterday, George Ofman wrote a post about Alfonso Soriano. I don't have time to fisk the whole thing, and to be honest, I don't really even want to. Soriano has moved on back to New York far away from the meatball lunatics that would boo him based on George's writings, so whatever. But even though it bugged me, I was …
Bears Training Camp Week 1: Hester on Expanded ST, Bushrod Day-to-Day
Training camp is under way, and (precious few) interesting tidbits have emerged: The Bears used pads for the first time on Sunday. Devin Hester apparently IS going to at least practice some expanded ST duties this year. He apparently almost blocked a kick in practice, according to a Zach Zaidman tweet (he's a good follow). Jermon Bushrod is day-to-day with a …
Anatomy of an Ace Pitcher
Now that the trade deadline is almost here, baseball fans are excited to see who might be dealt, and what prospect might be had. Invariably, people are looking for the "impact bat" or the "ace pitcher." When we talk about an ace, though, people can have different definitions of the word. For some people, it might just be the best …
JOT Cubs Minor League Recap 7-27-13
Chicago Cubs 1 @ San Francisco Giants 0 The Cubs are playing well enough lately that they're suddenly in danger of losing out on a protected top 10 draft pick next year. They've got three days to trade away talent though, and I'd be shocked if the team finished the year in that mediocre 10-20 range Theo mentioned wanting to …
Cubs listening to offers for Jeff Samardzija
Source says #Cubs indeed listening on Samardzija, adds, “asking price high as expected.” — Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 27, 2013 The Cubs are listening to offers for any player on their roster. If they were not, they would not be doing a good job. Even the most valuable player in baseball is available for the right offer. The asking price …
JOT: Cubs Minor League Recap 7-26-13
Chicago Cubs 3 @ San Francisco Giants 2 Starlin Castro was 2-5 and continues his return to form. He's not walking any more than usual of late, so maybe the organization decided to just stop messing with him and let Starlin be Starlin. Unfortunately, despite having the game winning ROE yesterday on a liner right by Brandon Belt, Anthony Rizzo continues …
Updated Cubs Top Prospects List
Around a month ago, dmick and I updated our Cubs Top Prospects list. It's way too early to reassess any of those player's impact, but we have quite a few new prospects that would make the Top 20 list now. I'm going to repost that list with new players inserted and bolded. Javier Baez 9F Kris Bryant 9G Jorge Soler 8.5E Arodys …
Bears Training Camp Extravaganza!!!
This year, I'm going to try my best to provide some decent coverage of football, with an obvious focus on the Bears. To that end, I thought it'd be a nice idea to talk about the new Bears this year and how they might fit in. I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the premiere source of football …
Corey Black Scouting Report
The Cubs were close to trading Alfonso Soriano last night before the Cubs and Diamondbacks gone, but didn't complete the trade until this morning. It wasn't known who the Cubs had received in return until a bit later when we learned the Cubs got RHP Corey Black. Black was ranked the 157th best draft prospect prior to the 2012 season and …
Two players over 550 PA
I'll write more about this about tomorrow. For now, below are two the minor league stats per 550 plate appearances for two players. Player PA AB R H 2B 3B HR BB SO TB GDP HBP Player A 550 465 84 125 27 1 27 77 146 233 10 4 Player B 550 471 88 130 24 10 16 66 …