davell

Great debut for Archer. Chances of him and/or McNutt making BA's top 100 next year? I'm starting to think it's at least in the realm of possibilities.

Mission accomplished!

AZPhil saw Dong Yub Kim throwing lefthanded and he's righthanded. He didn't see him take batting practice all spring either. So, he could have either had TJS or has a shoulder issue, was Phil's educated guess anyway.

Possible update on Reggie Golden from AZPhil. He may be wanting "1st round money" and if that IS the case, most clubs wait til close to the deadline to sign these guys, so not to interrupt negotiations with other clubs trying to sign their picks. Makes sense anyway.

I'd love to see Bosh signed somehow BEFORE the Bulls meeting with Lebron. At least somehow get a commitment from Bosh that IF Lebron comes to Chicago, then he'll definitely be there as well. On a side note, if Lebron does stay in Cleveland, even though Wade certainly appears to be staying in Miami, you have to wonder if he'd re-think things. Wade/Rose/Deng/Bosh/Noah would be worlds better than what the Heat could possibly come up with at this point, assuming Rose and Wade could co-exist in the backcourt.

The guys I figure will at least be bandied about, if not dealt, by the Cubs before the deadline would be as follows: Ted Lilly Derek Lee(assuming he'd waive the NTC to go to a contender) Ryan Theriot Kosuke Fukudome Mike Fontenot Xavier Nady Carlos Silva Jeff Baker I think Lilly could net us a VERY nice return personally, maybe even a top 100ish type talent included in the package. The hope with Lee is he is still thought of highly by someone and his off(age?) year hasn't decreased his value TOO much. If it has, I doubt the Cubs trade him, even if we don't keep him next year. Trading Theriot is looking like it could STILL net us something decent, with teams losing middle infielders at this point. By decent, I mean someone who may at least be in that team's top 20 prospects or something like that. Trading Fukudome won't be easy, as we'll have to eat alot of money and probably not get all that much in return. At least not what he's probably worth anyway. My guess is he stays. Fontenot could be dealt if Theriot isn't. My guess is it's Theriot that gets moved and my guess is Fontenot could actually bring more of a return. Nady will probably get dealt to a team looking for a veteran bat off the bench, but he won't bring much of a return either. Same with Baker and he'd bring even less. Silva is interesting, but I still doubt teams will be willing to take on his contract personally, as I doubt they trust him as of yet. And I don't really see the reason to get rid of him unless a team is willing to take the money owed with it.

And Austin Kirk has pitched 5 shutout innings so far tonight, giving up 3 hits and K'ing 5, with no walks...... :D

How about Curtis Granderson as a comp for Jackson at this point?

I'd really like to see Antigua get it together. He was one of my favorite prospects coming into the season. Jae Hoon Ha with a homer tonight as well.

By the way, it's only been 75 at bats, but at 19 years old, Jae Hoon Ha is more than holding his own in Peoria. Maybe moving him back from behind the plate has eased his mind and the kid can rake......

Brett Jackson is on fire. I'd definitely have him as 1 on the Cubs overall list and probably somewhere in the 25-35 range in all of baseball right now. Here's a question to ponder though: If Colvin continues to hit and established himself as a legit starter, where is Jackson going to play? If he's ready by the end of next season(if not sooner) we'll have Soriano with 3 more years left on his deal, Byrd, who will have one year left, and Colvin. Trade Byrd at that point, since he's tradeable at least? Or push him to the 4th OFer role where he gets lots of at bats still? Maybe Soriano falls off bigtime next year? Little early to speculate obviously, but still.......We don't truly have a spot open right now and might not by then either.......

According to the BA Handbook, the Cubs lucked out with McNutt. Their area scout had quit and the Cubs waited a long time in replacing him. When someone finally came to see McNutt, his velo had improved from upper 80's to lower 90's.

By the way, as far as our draft budget for this year goes, here's what we know right now..... Simpson 1.060m Gibbs .350k Ackerman .216k Greathouse .125k Kurcz .125k Fitzgerald .110k Total 1.976m We've signed 14 others as well, including Jokisch, our 11th rounder, who probably is going to get around 100k or so. Austin Reed, our 12th rounder, and Colin Richardson and Ryan Hartman, our 14th and 16th rounders were all high school pitchers, so I'd be shocked if they didn't get 100k or more themselves. Once you add in LePage, Soto, and the rest of what we've signed, it wouldn't shock me if we were pushing 3 mill right now. And that doesn't include Golden, who I've read thought he was going in the top 35 or so. If that's the case, and we give him close to a mill, we're already at the 4 million mark. With some guys like Wells, Geiger, Harman, Brooks, Stites, Crum, Pinckard, Rhoderick, Cox, Harper, and Szczur left to go, of which we obviously won't sign all of them, but signing 2-3 of those guys could push us up to 5 mill or so. as it is. Like I said, I'm not enthralled with this class right now, but it is POSSIBLE we spend 5 MILL+ getting them in here anyway. Which, for Ricketts first draft, wouldn't be all that bad monetarily, and could at least give us the notion he's committed to the draft. Just maybe didn't want to rock the boat TOO MUCH with his first class......

Ricketts was the one that gave Hendry the extension through 2012, so while I totally expect Lou to be gone, I'm actually preparing myself for Hendry to still be here next year. I hope I'm wrong though.

I expect the team to be the same as it is right now, minus Lee at 1B, Theriot at 2B, and Lilly as a SP. I figure we'll sign a cheap stopgap to play 1B, maybe even keep Nady around to do it.(with the reasoning being we want to be players for either A-Gon or Prince) 2B will be handled by Fontenot, with Darwin Barney as a platoon partner/backup SS. The rotation next year will probably be Demp/Z/Gorz/Silva and one of Wells/Cashner/Diamond/J Jackson...... I don't expect Fukudome to be moved personally, as we're going to have to eat alot of money to make it happen and even then, we probably won't get much of a return as it is. I doubt we decide to eat Z's deal either, although that one's possible, depending on how things are handled over the next few weeks. If he IS gone, I'd think we sign a stopgap SP to a one year deal or so. In the end, I see our payroll next year dropping off to around 115-120ish, with Ricketts selling Sandberg as our big acquisition to everyone, as I see him as our next manager, whether we like it or not.

It wouldn't surprise me at all to actually see Campana moved to AAA to accomodate Brett's move to AA, when it happens.

Other than the fact that Ricketts has said he was expanding the player development and scouting budgets. That's the main thing that I'm worried about right now. Just because they didn't do it this year doesn't mean they never will. They have a huge initial investment they need to be able to move on from. It just seems really presumptuous for people to already be seriously worrying about their ownership this early in the game. Very true. I'm just your typical pessimistic Cub fan though, waiting to find the first thing to worry about. Hopefully you're right and this isn't an indication of future things to come.

Other than the fact that Ricketts has said he was expanding the player development and scouting budgets. That's the main thing that I'm worried about right now.

How could this possibly make you or anyone else long for the Tribune over the Ricketts this early into the Ricketts' ownership? Considering this year's draft budget is likely around $4m (which is bad), I'm beginning to wonder. You're kidding, right? Looks that way. Even the over-slot guys we drafted that are remaining out there aren't million dollar type players. They're 50-100K over slot players for the most part. I'll admit I'm worried about Ricketts' as well already, especially after hearing some of AZPhil's comments about future plans(although we don't know how plugged in, Phil truly is) As far as the draft goes though(and I wasn't all that happy to begin with) I'm at least thinking that out of Crum, Harper, Harman, Geiger, Cox, Pinckard, Wells, and Szczur, one or two of those guys will be a surprise sign that's for alot more than what we were thinking.......Not to mention, Golden hasn't signed yet either, so he could conceivably cost us alot more than what we were thinking as well. I'm still hopeful we spend 5 mill or a tad more, which would at least make me feel a little better about Ricketts......

Is it getting safe to say that Golden is going to be an overslot, if we sign him? I'd have thought most of the slot guys have signed by now personally.......

Man, I hope that it's just precautionary. On a better note, Vitters had a double and a homer tonight.

I'm putting this here, although it's possible that it should have it's own thread, depending on what people think of AZPhil from TheCubReporter......(some may not even know him). That said, in his most recent comments(which appear in the Who's on Deck? comments section, he throws out a bunch of stuff. The reason I'm putting it here is because it does at least involve the draft and the minors partially. Anyway, some of the notes from Phil included the following. Payroll could drop from 140ish range all the way to 110ish next season. Does not expect to see long term contracts to be given out like this regime has done. Ricketts' are very profit oriented folks, with more of a bottom line feel than the Trib. Ricketts wants Cubs ran as if they are the Twins(with a Red Sox feel), with emphasis on player development and scouting. Expects Hendry to be replaced by a younger Theo Epstein type over the offseason. Expects Sandberg to be manager next season, as Ricketts feels it will be easier for Cub fans to have him as their manager while they transition back to a 100ish mill payroll team from where they are now. Anyway, I like the fact that evidently more emphasis WILL be put on player development and scouting. Maybe this means we do spend more this year on the draft than what we originally thought? I love the idea of an Epsteinian type GM. :D Of course, there is tons of info in there that will cause an uproar too. By the way, Phil also mentions that Harman won't be easy to sign. He was a 6-10th rounder originally, but has let it be known it will take 3rd round money for him to possibly be pried away from Clemson, which is why he fell to where he did. I asked my friend if he could tell me anything on Harman's situation and he told me that Harman's family isn't in need of money and his dad is very close friends with Clemson's coach, for what it's worth as well. Like I said, sorry for not knowing where to put the majority of this info, but I didn't really want to start a thread based on AZPhil's comments. He has a wealth of knowledge on some things obviously, but really don't know exactly HOW plugged into things he is, especially on the major league level.

Austin Kirk made his Boise debut tonight and pitched 4 innings, giving up 5 hits, 3 runs(all earned) walked 2 and struck out 5. He gave up 2 homers.

Lee is definitely in my top 5 right now and Rhee is still somewhere in that 13-17ish range, with the chance to move back into the top 10 still, depending on how his season goes from here. Of course, he could also fall obviously. Based on some of AZPhil's comments about Ha and how he's performed in limited PT since being moved to Peoria, I think he's at least someone to talk about right now as far as making the back end of a top 30 as well. And I certainly don't see you as someone who just rags on our system obviously. :D I think we just appear to see differently on the possible outlooks of some of these Pac Rimmers. I'm not sure where our system CURRENTLY would rank right now, in comparison with other teams, as there have been lots of graduations and not only from us already this year. And there are plenty of top guys who are struggling pretty badly as well for some other teams too. I guess I think our system is STILL slightly better than average right now, even with Castro, Colvin, and Cashner all graduating.

If we trade Lilly, which at least seems plausible, at the moment, I'm not so sure I want to deal Gorzelanny at that point. We're not going to be moving Marshall out of his 7/8th inning spot and Gorzelanny is our only other lefty starter candidate at the moment.