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I found myself quietly rooting against the US in both beach volleyball matchups. Menegatti is hot as [expletive]. And the Czech team had much better bodies than the US girls they were facing.

Read on Twitter that Soler was out with an illness. No injury reported.

I would think that if Chris Williams isn't going to make the roster, that the Bears would be able to at least trade him for the 7th they gave up to get Price. I don't see how he doesn't make the team unless James Brown is really killing it out there. Even then, it's hard to justify there being 8-9 OL on this roster better than Chris Williams.

Baez with his 3rd K in 5 Daytona ABs. :?

http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/headshots/mlb/players/full/30594.png&w=350&h=254 http://cdn.bleacherreport.net/images_root/slides/photos/002/211/289/143997974_crop_650x440.jpg?1336530265 I don't see it.

Hanley is terrible defensively. But Brett gets props for going hard.

Good eye Brett.

Was having a good camp, from what I hear. Had basically earned a roster spot as the 5th or 6th WR and a gunner on special teams. He went out on top though, getting a Superbowl ring last year w/ the Giants and getting credit for 2 cost fumbles on special teams that led to the NFC championship win in SF.

The Iowa lineup: Tolbert, SS Sappelt, CF Adduci, RF Rohan, 3B Lalli, 1B Frazier, LF Hernandez, 2B Esposito, C Coleman, P Only 2 players in the lineup under 26. The 6 players with more than 16ABs have only 1 player with an OPS over .667, Adduci in 79 ABs has a 1.000 OPS.

Question mark removed. I think we can call this official at this point.

I don't think so actually. The Cubs would have a huge power void in the lineup without Soriano. And while it's not ideal to have him on a rebuilding team, it's less ideal to trade him for nothing and still pay him to play for another team. The power/production isn't likely to be replaced by anyone the Cubs can reasonably sign or trade for this offseason, so Soriano does have a clear purpose on this team.

Is this today's lineup? NO.

Obviously expectations are tricky when you intentionally get guys like Anderson, Morrison, and Liriano with the expectation of some type of bounce back, but back of the envelope I get about 78 wins assuming an average bench and bullpen(which might be too much to assume). is that an acceptable team for you heading into next year? Not addressed to me, but I think this would be very acceptable and somewhat what I expect. It is a move in the right direction. That would be 2 potential long-term fixtures in the rotation, with presumably 1-2 more coming in the Garza trade with Hutchinson. And it would add short-term help with Youk and Liriano, with a lottery ticket type in Morrison, who would be a low risk, high reward potential pickup. Would make the team better, while A) getting a couple of long-term assets, B) not blocking any potential long-term solutions, and C) leaving a lot of money to fill spots in the future when opportunities to really make a playoff run is possible.

Rizzo. Rizzo would surprise me more than Castro.

Nobody of note has confirmed this yet.

A few comments. The Cubs don't really have anything to give Atlanta as an answer to their 3B or OF problem, unless they want DeJesus, and I don't see Delgado coming from the Braves in that case. The only thing that Cubs have that Atlanta would want for Delgado would be Garza, and I believe that most of their rotation is back next year. Hanson, Maholm, and Minor are all under control for 2013. Hudson has a modest 9Mil option that will likely be picked up. Maybe they do take Garza to get another top of the rotation guy, since Hudson is no longer one. But Garza would be at the expense of a rotation spot for young guys like Teheran, Gilmartin, and Beachy who could be back in the middle of next season. The A's are very interesting. Anderson would be nice to get, and he won't require a package like they got for Gio/Cahill because of Tommy John. He's probably the odd man out right now, as his salary goes up to 5.75M next year and the rest of those guys will be much cheaper. He's still very young, under control for a few more years, seems to fit exactly what the FO wants. I think Anderson could possibly be had in a 1-for-1 deal for Brett Jackson. Where does Vizcaino figure into all of this? My guess is he starts the season in the AAA rotation, but should be able to get some starts at the ML level (if the Cubs plan to use him as a starter) though on an innings limit.

Castro was number 16 in 2010, but otherwise you have to go back to 2005 to find someone make the Top 25. Tragically, that was Dopirak at #21. I stand corrected. You're right, I remembered wrong.

Castro was 12th by Baseball America a couple years ago.

I think the Hardin and Conte draft picks were almost direct responses to the division the Bears play in. Both are former CBs, who can't really cover speedy WRs, but Hardin should be able to run with most TEs, with the size to not get completely outmuscled by them either (Finley). Conte seems like he was brought in to help with WRs like Calvin Johnson breaking into the last level of the defense. I have high hopes for both actually. Hopefully this works out.

Hey! Interesting day for pitching.

I was hoping no one would ever bring him up, so not to jinx it. But that's exactly what I see Torreyes becoming, minus a little speed. I've been avoiding this comp for another player in the Cubs system, and you won't get me to type it out (at least, I doubt I'll type it out at any point this year) ... but the positive scenario you guys are hoping for with Torreyes is to essentially become ... Dustin Pedroia. I see Torreyes with more power than Altuve, but not as much as Pedroia. I think the glut of middle IF prospects that the Cubs have, will allow them to trade Barney this offseason if a team falls in love with him and is willing to throw a bigger need/good prospect the Cubs way. If they can fill 3B, they can get by with a Valbuena/Baker platoon until someone like Torreyes, Watkins, Alcantara, etc. make it to the bigs. More of a side note, but I still think that Barney can play short in the bigs, at least, decently for a few years. I wonder if a team will take the chance on trying him there. Problem is, they need to see him play some short to consider it, and that's just not happening here unless Castro gets hurt. No question in my mind that Barney can play SS. I would go as far as to say he'd be a top defensive SS in the league. But yeah, I'd imagine he's pretty pigeonholed into 2B, probably for the rest of his career.

I can see Baez with a similar path to Castro from here on out. May or may not get time at Daytona this year, but definitely starting at High A next year. Maybe give him 100-150 PAs in AA (provided he's still hitting) next year, maybe some AFL?, but then start him in AA in 2014. If he continues to hit in AA to start 2014, really no reason he can't be in the majors in late May-to-mid June 20-14 at 21 years old.

I was hoping no one would ever bring him up, so not to jinx it. But that's exactly what I see Torreyes becoming, minus a little speed. I've been avoiding this comp for another player in the Cubs system, and you won't get me to type it out (at least, I doubt I'll type it out at any point this year) ... but the positive scenario you guys are hoping for with Torreyes is to essentially become ... Dustin Pedroia. I see Torreyes with more power than Altuve, but not as much as Pedroia. I think the glut of middle IF prospects that the Cubs have, will allow them to trade Barney this offseason if a team falls in love with him and is willing to throw a bigger need/good prospect the Cubs way. If they can fill 3B, they can get by with a Valbuena/Baker platoon until someone like Torreyes, Watkins, Alcantara, etc. make it to the bigs.

I guess I don't understand weighted stats then. The Bears D was on the field more plays that the Niners, which I guess would have something to do with it. But both teams equally made teams 1 dimensional. Both teams had 62/38 splits pass/run agaisnt them. The Niners have a slight edge if you include sacks 63.7% pass plays vs. 63.3% for Bears (but QB scrambles not taken into account). And the Niners were so much better at stopping the run that I wouldn't think any differences would be significant. Plus, a quick naked eye look appears that the Niners played a tougher run offense schedule.

are you ignoring the part where the bears were the best team against the run last season? In a word, yes. Because it's not that important. It's not a running league. It's a sack the quarterback league. The Bears defensive front has done a poor job of this and as a result they haven't been good enough against the pass. Yeah, the pass defense in 05 and 06 was miles better than our pass D last year. He's also wrong that the Bears were the #1 run D. They were 5th in yards per game, 20 yards from the top. They were 10th in yards per carry allowed, 1/2 yard behind SF who led in both. SF was significantly better than everyone else in the league against the run last year.