davell

Whe Josh Sale was still sitting there at 16, I was thinking we would pass on him to take O'Conner and it would have made me a little mad, but I would have been alright with it eventually. But, to see us take this guy instead of either of them is just odd, to say the least. I know Wilken is good, but we BETTER spend some damn money tomorrow, or else I'll be questioning ownership bigtime.

I'm with Tim. I'm wondering if the Cubs are under a HUGE budget restraint right now. If not, this is Wilken screaming I AM SMARTER THAN EVERYONE ELSE at the top of his lungs. It's like when Oakland reaches 3-4 rounds to draft a speed guy in the NFL or something. Nothing can convince me this guy wouldn't have been there in the 2nd round at the very least. That said, there are definitely some damn good guys left out there for some reason and if we get 1 or 2 of them, I'll be much more apt to let this pick pass without too much bitching about it. I'm HOPING beyond hope we can get Allie or Cole with our 2nd rounder. I think Cole has struggled recently, maybe he falls a bit and we can overslot him? I'd be great if we somehow got Eibner in the 2nd as well, same with Austin Wilson, who's going to be a very tough sign. Cabrera, LaMarre, and Jarrett Parker would be solid picks for the 2nd round too actually, as far as hitters go. Hell, I'd take Brandon Workman at this point, Ryan Stanek would be great also. Just throw us a damn bone and make up for this crap somehow.

I'm not a fan of Colon personally, especially for the bonus you're probably going to have to ante up for him. Plus, I just don't see the big upside either with him. First 7 seem to be fairly locked in at this point, with Harper, Taillon, Machado, Grandal, Pomeranz, C Sale, and O'Conner to the Mets at this point. I'm hoping somehow that Josh Sale or Whitson falls to us. Doubtful Sale drops that far, but fairly optimistic on Whitson.

I'm surprised Kvasnicka was still there in the 2nd for you. I'd find it hard to pass on him too. I wish everyone had done the same thing strategy-wise. I liked the fact you went with what were Wilken-type picks. Some of the guys were pretty "out there" with what they were doing. Smith does seem like a solid 3rdish rounder too.

1st round and supplemental 1st round are going to be on June 7th. June 8th and June 9th will cover the remaining rounds, although I can't find anything on how the rounds will be split on those days. I could be wrong, but I THOUGHT I heard somewhere it was 2-30 and 31-50 on the 8th and 9th. Can't find it now though.

Today concluded EXST games. Jesus Morelli hit safely in his last 20 games. Surely he can find a spot in Peoria and stick the rest of the year.

Pathetic day on the mound. Raley's given up 6 earned in 4 innings so far. Cabrera had another subpar outing in Tennessee. I'd give someone else a shot at this point, perhaps Rusin. And even McNutt has given up 4 runs(only 1 earned though) in 2 innings so far.

Wimmers, Vitek, Colon, and O'Connor would all fall into the Cubs' laps here. Interesting scenario. If that's the way the board looks, I'm taking Stetson Allie. Although I do like O'Conner. It's not even that I don't LIKE Wimmers. I just want someone who has the upside to be something special. It's the same thing with Deck McGuire. I think he's going to be a very solid major leaguer, but he doesn't have the upside to become an ace.

Looks like Yasmani Grandal has a deal in place with the Royals at 4.

There's no way in hell we offer Lee arbitration after this year, nor should we. Because he'd accept. No team in their right mind is going to give up picks for him, unless he REALLY picks it up over the rest of this season.

I'd be fine with Wojociechowski, if alot of the high schoolers are gone. I like him much more than Wimmers anyway. DeShields Jr DOES seem like a reach at 16, but I read somewhere the Astros are on him at 19. I am really starting to doubt O'Conner is there for us, Oakland at 10 seems to be gaining lots of steam.

I'm really expecting there to be some "out there" type picks in the 1st round, from what i'm reading. Grandal could really drop some, if he truly is wanting more money than Posey got, which is rumored to be the case. The guy on Fanhouse has said the Royals WILL do something crazy, like maybe Kvasnicka at 4 overall. I'm starting to see guys like Deglan and DeShields Jr show up in 1st round mocks too. Not to mention guys like Vitek and O'Conner looking more and more like they won't even be around for the Cubs, if we are interested in them. I really think we're going to see alot of the guys like Allie/J Sale/Cole/Whitson/Covey available and I don't want to see us take Wimmers or Colon or some other college guy that has a relatively low ceiling.

are you kidding a 2 year extension? off of this year? He is in Jermaine Dye territory right now. He gets no more than a 1 year 3-5 million dollar deal next year and hopefully not from us. I too find it hard to believe that the Angles want him. But if they show any interest I say jump pay whatever they want and maybe get a decent prospect back. I wouldn't mind seeing Nady take over at first he's starting to heat up and he at least had a bonefide excuse for starting out slow. I'm not saying this is what I want, just what I think is the most likely scenario from the Cubs standpoint. I do think he'll end up with relatively solid numbers by the end of the year. But, it doesn't matter to me, because I don't want him back. I would rather us keep Nady and use him at 1B fulltime next year until AGON comes on the market around midseason. If that doesn't happen, he and Fielder will be free for us to bid on after the end of next year anyway. I'm HOPING that Ricketts is looking at this as his first realistic shot at making a true splash for us.

Very solid outing from Archer again. 5IP 4H 1R 1ER 1W 6K

Now that Eibner appears to be wanting to play in the field, instead of pitch, what's everyone's thoughts on him at 16?

Griffey was always one of my favorite players growing up. I remember wanting us to trade for him a few years back too, even though I didn't think he necessarily would have helped us all that much.

Unfortunately, economics would play a part in trading DLee right now, even if he DID waive his NTC. I just don't see teams lining up to pay off the rest of this year's salary(right now it's around 8 mill left or so) to get a guy who has not exactly had a strong season to date. I think his numbers will go up, but I figure the Angels will make a move before this is the case. My best case scenario for us trading Lee, would be for us to fall completely out of the race, to where Hendry can't justify adding anything, but Lee gets hot between now and the deadline. Come the end of July, a team will only be taking on 4 mill or so and he'd probably be willing to move on to a contender at that point as it is. Hopefully, we'll take what we can get at that stage, as I see it pretty unlikely we'd offer arbitration to him. In the end though, I think that us signing him to a 2 year extension at less money, is the most likely ending to this.

Reading through the profiles of all these kids on BA has me thinking this as far as the first 5 rounds go......In order of my preference. 1st round- Allie/J Sale/Covey/Cole/Whitson/O'Conner I think we have solid pitching depth throughout the system, but adding a high schooler with the potential to be a staff ace would be very nice. Sale probably won't be there, but if he is, he's VERY tempting, as we also need to add some power bats to the system. O'Conner would be a decent pickup as well, since we have no catching prospects whatsoever in the lower levels. 2nd round- Tago/J Parker/Solis/Deshields Jr/Sanchez/Cecchini I wouldn't want to take Tago or Sanchez unless we took a hitter or a college pitcher with our first pick and same with Solis, except in reverse(don't want him unless our first pick is either a hitter or a high school pitcher), since he's a fairly projectable lefty who seems like a safe college pick. That said, it's likely neither of them will be there. I'd love to see Parker fall to us and think that it's at least a possibility anyway. Deshields Jr seems like he has some decent pop and is very toolsy with great bloodlines obviously, so if he's there, it'd be surprising, but I'd be very happy if we got him. Cecchini has been hurt, but has good projectability at 3B, but he's going to have to be someone we overslot pretty decently, if we take him. 3rd round- Ficociello/Jaffe/Perkins/Cunningham/Cisco/Rasmussen Ficociello is one of the more intriguing guys out there for me, as he has the potential to have a very heavy bat. And he's a 3rd baseman, which is something we're not all that strong at too. I'm leaning towards ALOT of high school pitchers with Jaffe and Cisco in this group as well. Along with a decent amount of toolsy OFers, with Perkins on here as well. That said, Rasmussen actually SEEMS like a Wilken type pick here, being a college lefty. 4th round- Duke/Brantly/C Lewis/Barbato/Gibson/Goodrum Once again, the guys who intrigue me are high schoolers, as this entire group, other than Brantly, fit the bill. Barbato and Duke throw hard and have solid control, while Gibson is another projectable lefty. Goodrum is a 6'4 SS, who's very toolsy and will likely wind up in the OF and Lewis a very solid hitting 3B who projects to have solid power. 5th round- Rosin/Peavey/Buckel/Stanley/Southall/Longmire Rosin and Peavey are both big, solid college pitchers and I could see them being Wilken type picks here. Buckel is another high schooler that I just liked his profile. Advanced and throws 94ish. Stanley is a solid small college catcher that doesn't do anything great, but doesn't really have any glaring weaknesses either. Another Wilken type guy. Southall is a toolsy high school OFer and Longmire is a toolsy college OFer. Most of these guys are probably not Wilken types, but I'd like to see us take some chances this year. It's a fairly weak draft, according to most, and we've got plenty of future relievers, backup infielders, and some 5ish type starters in our system as it is, so I hope we take a few shots on some guys with this draft. If our system was stacked differently, I'd have a different approach, but with what's out there, I'd really like some high ceiling types and obviously quite a few of them are high schoolers. As far as positions go, I know it's impossible to say what you're looking for, as you usually take the best available anyway, but if we could find a High School pitcher, a College pitcher(preferrably one lefty and one righty), a corner infielder with pop, a catcher, and a high ceiling OFer fairly early on, it's what I'd like to see addressed at least. Assuming guys are out there that fill these needs......

Yes, quantity over paying out big bonuses in Central America is what I'm talking about. Nothing whatsoever with what we're doing in the Pac Rim.

Brett Jackson is now 4 for his last 39.

You really have to wonder whether the Cubs have totally embraced quantity over quality here. And you also have to wonder whether or not they may be on to something with this approach too. With the very limited viewings you evidently get of these guys, doling out millions for a guy who may have just had a damn good day at the batting cage, is awfully risky, to say the least. That said, it'd be nice to make a splash on July 2nd....... :D

Not much on the hitting side of things today whatsoever. Glad to see Lee get 2 hits, Jackson seems to be struggling a tad right now. On the pitching side though, nice to see Jackson have a solid outing. Even if we don't see Cashner as a starter at any point this season, maybe we will see Jackson, maybe after trading Lilly? I wish Rhee would start to show some consistency, but he still has time obviously and I don't know how much to expect with this being his first season off TJS anyway. On the other hand, ABD keeps right on dealing. He's 25, while obviously a tad old for a prospect, surely he's turning some heads within the Cubs organization at this point. I'd certainly like to see him in AAA at some point this year, it's kind of hard not to think he's earned it already.

I would also think that Willson Contreras, who the Cubs gave (supposedly anyway) 700,000 or more last year, will be back there this season, after his 50 game suspension is over and done with.

By the way, if ANY of Cole, Whitson, Cox, Choice, or either Sale drops to us, i'd take them over anyone else I just listed. Although, I figure Cole and Whitson are about the only 2 of those who have a fairly realistic shot of actually dropping.

If that's the way the board sits when the Cubs turn comes up, I'll be upset if that's who we pick. In order, I'd take Allie, Covey, Eibner, Hahn, Castellanos, Wojciechowski, Wilson, and Ranaudo all before I'd take O'Conner.