St Louis Cardinals 0 @ Chicago Cubs 7 How 'bout that Jake Arrieta, huh? I'm starting to think we won the Feldman trade. Arrieta tossed 7 shutout innings against the cards, allowing only 2 hits and 2 walks against 7 Ks, and was dominating. Someone asked Keith Law on Twitter if Arrieta could be "a GUY" (which, can I say, …
JOT: Cubs Minor League Recap 8-15-13
Sacramento River Cats 9 @ Iowa Cubs 1 This team sucks to write about. Mike Olt was 0-4 with 2 strikeouts. Brooks Raley struckout 7 and walked 1 over 6 innings. He allowed 7 hits, 1 home run and 4 runs overall. Chattanooga Lookouts 3 @ Tennessee Smokies 4 Nick Struck has had a poor season and even though he …
2014 Contending Cubs, Part 2: Depth
We've taken a look at the 2014 Cubs Payroll as part of this series and we learned that it's unlikely the Cubs are going to have enough money to buy themselves a championship. They'll have about $25-35 million to spend this offseason, which is a considerable amount, but not large enough to sign multiple big-name free agents. In order to …
Cubs Midseason Top Prospects: Consensus Rankings
All of the major scouting outlets have published their midseason top prospects updates by now, which is good since the season is well over halfway through. I rounded up a bunch of them (from Baseball America, Bullpen Banter, Baseball Prospectus's Jason Parks, ESPN's Keith Law, and minorleagueball's John Sickels) and pulled the rankings for Cub prospects, including newly acquired 'spects Mike Olt …
JOT: Cubs Minor League Recap 7-24-13
New Orleans Zephyrs 2 @ Iowa Cubs 1 (10 innings) Boring. Mike Olt was 1-5 with 3 strikeouts, and, well, that'll happen. Josh Vitters, in left, went 1-3 with a walk and a strikeout. A Donnie Murphy forceout tied the game in the bottom of the ninth, but Yoanner Negrin's 1 run 10th gave the game back to New Orleans. Brad Nelson had three …
Mini Profile for Mike Olt
Earlier the Cubs acquired Mike Olt, CJ Edwards, Justin Grimm and a player to be named later for Matt Garza. Over the next two days I'm going to write short pieces on each of these players before a final analysis. Mike Olt is the center piece of the trade. He was ranked the 22nd best prospect in baseball by both Baseball …
John Sickels’ 2013 midseason top 75 prospects
Law came out with his earlier today and now it's John Sickels of Minor League Ball's turn. Below are the top Cubs prospects. 14. Javier Baez 18. Albert Almora 23. Jorge Soler 57. Arismendy Alcantara His list does not include 2013 draftees.
Keith Law’s 2013 midseason top 50 prospects
Keith Law has just published his top 50 prospects at the midway point of the 2013 season. The Cubs have a number of players in that list. 15. Kris Bryant 20. Jorge Soler 25. Albert Almora 27. Javier Baez One of the honorable mentions is Arismendy Alcantara That's a lot of talent in the minor leagues. Too bad Mark Appel …
Cubs 2013 Draft Wrap: Preparations for the Apocalypse
Cubs 2013 Draft The signing deadline for the 2013 MLB Draft was last Friday. The Cubs’ official website has been unusually light in the details of who has actually signed and who hasn’t but I think we connect the dots pretty accurately. Three of the top 25 picks didn’t sign, and it looks like those three are Daniel Poncedeleon (RHP, …
Searching for Javier Baez Comps
The Cubs promoted 20-year old Javier Baez to AA Tennessee this past weekend after a scorching half-season or so in Daytona. Baez's power output in the Florida State League was pretty incredible, as he hit 17 homers in a very pitcher-friendly league despite his young age. Last season, he hit 16 homers in 80 games spread between Peoria (in the …