Draft Coverage The 2013 MLB Draft kicks off at 6pm on MLB Network. The first two rounds are tonight. Pre-draft coverage is already underway. Unfortunately, Greg Amsinger is hosting rather than Brian Kenny. And as always, it seems, the guys who really know what’s going on are more or less marginalized. Peter Gammons, Harold Reynolds, and John Hart are at the main table. …
2013 MLB Draft: Pre-Draft Rumor Mongoose-ing Thread
Schedule The 2013 MLB Draft starts at 6 pm CT, with coverage on MLBN kicking off an hour before that. The first two rounds take place today, with 3-10 coming tomorrow, and the remainder on Saturday. If this year is anything like last year, top players will go in the first few rounds, followed by a bunch of signable college seniors …
2013 MLB Draft: Jonathan Gray Tests Positive for Adderall
Does Adderall Add to the Fastball? Two days ago, the news broke that Jonathan Gray was one of two players to test positive for Adderall in tests administered by MLB to the top 200 propects in the draft. Adderall is an amphetamine. There is a decent chance (I would say in the neighborhood of one in three) that Gray is selected …
Rule 5 Draft revisited
I was curious to see how the Rule 5 draft has worked out for the Cubs this year. This will be a short piece on those players. Hector Rondon Honestly, Rondon hasn't been as awful as his numbers would indicate. He's used very sparingly (13 games thus far), and in those 15.2 innings he's allowed 2 HR, 8 walks, 3 HBP, …
2013 MLB Draft: who do you take?
The first round of the 2013 MLB Draft is on June 6th and we haven't written much about it lately. A few days ago in the comments, jtsunami (think it was him) mentioned that he might lean more toward Kris Bryant because of his 80 power. For those not familiar with the scouting scale, players are graded on a 20-80 …
Cubs Prospects on the Decline
Before this season, both dmick/Uncle Dave and I made our prospect lists. These aren't the only prospects in the Cubs system, but they are nearly all the ones worth talking about. I might have missed a prospect here or there, but it's a good jumping off point. The list of the first 21 is right here: Javier Baez 65 Jorge …
2013 MLB Draft: Could the Cubs Force the Astros to Pass on Appel?
Kiley McDaniel has posted his first mock for the 2013 MLB Draft and passes along some potentially interesting machinations from behind the scenes. Dmick has previously addressed the possibility that the Astros could once again pass on Mark Appel, but McDaniel doesn’t think it will happen: Last year, there was a large top group of talent with varying price tags that allowed …
Cubs Prospect Profile: Jae-Hoon Ha
This is a continuation of the weekly series of of writing about a Cubs prospect profile. Early on, I will be writing about guys that Dave and I did not cover in our Prospect Ratings. Links for past ratings and past profiles at at the end. Additional links can also be found at the end of the article. Who is …
Obstructed View Daily Facepalm 4.28.13 – The Matt Garza Trade Revisited
A look at the Matt Garza trade, Tony Campana doing Tony Campana things, Injury updates, Anthony Rizzo’s Swing, and The Hawk is disappoint
WSD’s Rice Cube on MLB doing away with the draft
Here's a great article by frequent OV commenter Rice Cubs on his blog: Total Market Freedom. If you’re a good software engineer or a good web designer, you get to work for Microsoft or Facebook or Twitter or Google or whatever. You have a choice. Maybe you decide to work for a company close by in Chicago. Maybe you decide …