rawaction

And is 0-2 with a K. Baez with a single and SB in 3 ABs. Ball in play all 3 times. Villanueva is 2-3 with a double and RBI. Peralta having another good game after a bad one. 5Ks thru 4 innings, 3 hits allowed, 0 BBs.

How do we feel about Junior Lake's 2012 season? On one hand, a .770 OPS is nothing to write home about. On the other, he's 16th in the league in OPS and he's the 2nd youngest player in the top 20 in OPS in the Southern League, and he's a full year younger than everyone in the top 20 other than Matt Davidson and his teammate, Logan Watkins (8 months younger). Top 10 in batting average, top 10 in SLG. Walk rate is improved on last year, power is in line with last year. I don't know if he can make another trip to the AFL this fall, but that would ideal.

NO Soler for Peoria tonight.

Baez 0-3 with 2 KS. 2-25, with 10Ks in Daytona. Of course he's been there about 3 weeks and this is his 7th game.

Odds are pretty small, but as of today..... Jake Long, Duane Brown, Ryan Clady, Sebastian Vollmer, and Jermon Bushrod are all FAs in 2013, with the oldest of them being Bushrod at 29. All are top 10 LTs in the league. is clady really that good anymore? Clady never really was as good as people thought he was. His rookie year he didn't give up any sacks, but he gave up more QB pressures than anyone not named Orlando Pace (ironically enough as a Bear). The rest of the line was really good, and Jay Cutler was really good at avoiding the one guy that would get free. Maybe borderline top 10, probably more so in the middle of the pack range. That being said, he's a clear upgrade over Webb.

Yeah, they are really bad. The excellence of NFL officials is severely underrated. Easily the best in any team sport in the world.

Odds are pretty small, but as of today..... Jake Long, Duane Brown, Ryan Clady, Sebastian Vollmer, and Jermon Bushrod are all FAs in 2013, with the oldest of them being Bushrod at 29. All are top 10 LTs in the league.

Almora NOT in the lineup. Amaya, Bruno, and Candelario all K'd in the 1st.

No way. They are at best passable. The problem with counting them is Williams was the first top half of the draft OL pick in a decade. They were playing catch up at that time, and still should be. It's a 5 man group. You can't just draft 2 over 11 years and say you've addressed it. It's a 5 man position group that requires 6 or 7 over a season. You need to spend multiple draft picks on them, not constantly sign other teams castoffs. They have effectively ignored the group in the draft for a decade. I think they'll be solid enough to get by. Technically speaking, there's more than a solid amount of teams that are better equipped than we are obviously, but I doubt our group will be bad enough to truly be an actual detriment. As for your 2nd point, I won't argue. It'd be dumb too. I do think that there should be a lineman drafted in the middle rounds every year, but I did mention that too. I just don't want to spend BIG money on interior O-Linemen. Hopefully next year, we can draft LT in the 1st somehow, with an inside guy maybe in the 4th or 5th as well. Chris Williams will be gone, so you're talking about 1 early pick next year on the OL, with the rest potentially 6th or 7th rounders or UDFAs. But the Bears don't have a 3rd or 7th. Odds are, they won't be drafting 2 OL with their 5 picks. They could still use DL, LB, and CB help. Though, they probably don't need to spend picks on S, WR, TE, or RB (would have if Forte had not re-signed). I think next year, either J'Marcus Webb makes significant strides and the team is OK with him, or they *gasp* actually spend money bringing in a LT, unless James Brown proves to be the answer between now and then (not likely).

This happens all the time. peyton's neck, Carimi's knee. Its not really a set back in the sense that he is re-injured. I imagine that he wont play week 1, but could be in for GB. I probably wouldnt re-sign him though unless its very team friendly

I can agree with that. I might give an A- to Baez, and maybe a B to Johnson depending on how this season ends for him. But pretty much dead on.

Watkins kinda reminds me of Ryan Theriot. I think Watkins is actually a much better talent/player at this stage. At 23 in AA, Theriot hit .236/.351/.270, and repeated low A and AA the next 2 years at 24 and 25, respectively. Watkins won't be miscast as a ML SS, is better defensively than Theriot at 2B, I think his BB rate is more sustainable, he has significantly more power (despite not having much power), and he is a better baserunner. But the comparison I made is in the sense that I can see Watkins having a similar ML impact. Watkins is a 25-30 type prospect in the organization, who I'd imagine most fans or even the FO don't have very high hopes for. But I can see him hanging around the minors for another year or two, getting a late call-up and forcing himself to get some ABs in the following season, with the potential for some cheap average production for a couple years. Of course, unlike Theriot, he won't be coming up on a team devoid of middle IF prospects, so he may have to get his shot in another organization.

I thought Roach looked pretty good in place of Urlacher on Thursday night. Obviously, he's no Urlacher, but I won't be too worried if Urlacher has to miss a couple games this season. Think he has been a better MLB the last couple times he's played it than he's been a SLB. FWIW, I also thought JT Thomas was pretty good too.

MiLB isn't updating. Thanks for that update.

I had a feeling they would move izzy back to DT. Yep, I called for it a couple weeks ago. It only makes sense. The Bears have 4-5 DTs that are going to make the roster, only Melton has proven to be a pass rusher. Paea has shown flashes, but that still leaves just those 2. Price and Toeina are not pass rushers.

Swoon Easily going to be in my top 10. If he gets to Peoria for even a week at the end of the season and hits at all, I'd put him over Villanueva....possibly as high as 5 or 6.

Chris Spencer needs to lose some reps. He got his ass kicked by 1st and 2nd teamers for Denver. Edwin Williams is a much better player, not to mention Chris Williams at LG.

Yeah, he's a lot smaller than that now. He's always going to have Matt Stairs' body type.

When I think of players who just mash in the minors, but don't have a real defensive position, I think of guys like Jack Cust, Russell Branyan, or Adam Lind. It seems to me like guys like Vogelbach never live up to their hype of their bats in the majors because of a lack of position. At some point, the Cubs are going to have to try him in LF.

Soler with a 2-run single to bring Peoria within 2 runs.

Yeah, you're never going to get great value for a minor leaguer, no matter how good or the pedigree. It would make the most sense to keep both as long as possible, find positions for both in the majors and worst case, you have another Grace/Palmeiro situation where you have to trade one.

The Cubs left and came back to Peoria. I didn't expect their attendance to be that bad. There's plenty of history there and the area has tons of Cubs fans. I really liked them in Lansing. I can only really see them leaving Peoria if Kane County comes calling (say that 5 times fast). Not sure if they would do Cedar Rapids, with a team in Des Moines already.

Vogelbach is a really good hitter. But boy is he a load.

Why in the [expletive] would Denver do this deal? I'd rather have Afflalo than Iguodala, and they gave up Harrington and a first for the hell of it.

Cutler over 4k yards, Marshall under 100 catches but over 1k yards, Forte over 1500 all-purpose, Jeffery under 60 catches, Bears in the Top 10 in O. I think Cutler gets over 4K. I'll take the under on Marshall, but think he's over 80 and probably over 90 also. Forte will also be close, but I'll take the under. He'll be under 500 yards receiving with the addition of an actual WR and throwing to the TEs, but I also think he'll be under 1100 rushing due to Bush getting on the field more than Barber because he can actually catch the ball too. Jeffery won't get anywhere near 60. I'll be happy if he gets to 30. I'd really love if one of Hester/Benett get to 60, but if they both get between 40-60, with 40-60 from the combo of Jeffery, Weems, Sanzenbacher....that would be awesome. Offense could be top 10, but I'd guess the under in the 12-14 range.