Anthony Rizzo has packed a lot of bags. Drafted in the 6th round out of Stoneman-Douglas HS, Rizzo has been a part of 3 different organizations in 6 years, being traded in both 2011 and 2012. He was an early riser, spending only 24 PA in Rookie Ball and only a season or so in A and A+ combined. His …
Better Know a Cub: Jeff Samardzija
The Cubs had an interesting draft in 2006. They had the 13th overall pick in the draft (they used it on Tyler Colvin, now with the Rockies). Then, they didn't pick again until the 149th overall pick. They used it on a player who many thought would not even sign; Jeff Samardzija. Samardzija has had a very interesting sporting …
Cubs acquire Hector Rondon in Rule Five Draft
The Cubs acquired RHP Hector Rondon from Cleveland in the rule five draft this morning. He was a former relatively top prospect in the organization (#7 in the org going into 2010) before a few surgeries. This is what BA had to say about him going in to last season. Rondon moved quickly, reaching Triple-A in 2009 as a 21-year-old. …
Rice Cube on Theo and context
I love this blog. Last night, RC posted a link to a one-sided article about how Theo Epstein is overrated and I said that I wished someone would take a fair look at it. RC did just that and I'm glad he did. He was responding to this article from last year. Since that ‘04 title run, Epstein has been …
The Way We Were- A look back at Logan Watkins in 2012
My fellow eFriends, I have returned from my sabbatical and will be writing up a few prospect recaps for some of the more interesting Cubs minor leaguers. So enjoy that. Logan Watkins was drafted in the 21st round of the 2008 draft. He was a HS stud from Goddard KS which is a town as exactly small as it sounds. …
Have the Cubs Hit Rock Bottom Yet?
We all knew that the methods the Superfriends were employing to build up the overall strength of the entire Cubs organization was going to get ugly at the major league level. Theo and Jed came in and immediately started implementing a long term strategy, which in many cases, was very damaging to the short term quality of the team. We …
Fangraphs Top 15 Cubs Prospects
It's that time of the year, so Fangraphs released their version of the top Cubs prospects list right behind Baseball Prospectus' list from a few days ago. In case you are wondering, I'm sure OV will have our own top Cubs prospects list just as soon as the search teams find DJ and we can chain him back up to …
Profiles In Rebuilding- The Cleveland Indians
After Theo and Co. were hired at the end of last season, Cubdom was collectively filled with a sense of manifest destiny. A majority of us, I think, breathed a sigh of relief and started channeling our inner Alvin. Finally, a front office on the vanguard, saying all the right things about performance evaluation, rebuilding the organization from the ground …
2012 Astros Draft: Behind The Scenes
There's a fantastic article about the Astros draft on Crawfish Boxes. Here's a snippet: 1.1: Heck and Luhnow both talked of the 1.1 like it was a frightening blessing, like triplets. They kept saying that they needed to get their guy but there were no guarantees. They talked about 1.1 pressures, responsibilities, etc. We know they took Correa and pretty …
A Tale of Two Trade Deadlines
[Billy Beane and Kevin Towers] operate, as ballplayers do, without a fear of failure. This year Beane found too many phone calls that came his way that sounded like this: "I have interest in one of your players and this is what I'm going to give you for him." "That's not deal-making," Beane said. It's name-your-own price. The art of …