Little Slide Rooter

You're not kidding. 2012 Position Player of the Year – Logan Watkins Pitcher of the Year – Nick Struck 2011 Position Player of the Year – Bryan LaHair Pitcher of the Year – Jeff Beliveau 2010 Position Player of the Year – Brandon Guyer Pitcher of the Year – Chris Archer 2009 Position Player of the Year – Kyler Burke Pitcher of the Year – Casey Coleman 2008 Position Player of the Year – Micah Hoffpauir Pitcher of the Year – Mitch Atkins 2007 Position Player of the Year – Geovany Soto Pitcher of the Year – Kevin Hart 2006 Players of the Year – Rich Hill and Donald Veal 2005 Position Player of the Year – Eric Patterson Pitcher of the Year – Sean Gallagher 2004 Position Player of the Year – Brian Dopirak Pitcher of the Year – Renyel Pinto 2003 Player of the Year – Chadd Blasko 2002 Player of the Year – Hee-Seop Choi 2001 Player of the Year – Nic Jackson 2000 Player of the Year – Ben Christensen 1999 Player of the Year – Corey Patterson 1998 Player of the Year – Brian McNichol 1996 Player of the Year – Kerry Wood 1995 Player of the Year – Brooks Kieschnick 1994 Player of the Year – Scott Bullett 1993 Player of the Year – Eddie Zambrano 1992 Player of the Year – Steve Trachsel 1991 Player of the Year – Pedro Castellano 1990 Player of the Year – Gary Scott http://chicagocubsonline.com/cubs-minor-league-player-and-pitcher-of-the-year#.UazTS0Dkvzx Literally seconds after reading this and wondering whatever happened to some of these guys, this came up on Twitter @ajcbraves: Braves signed RHP Mitch Atkins out of independent league (3-2, 3.97 ERA in 7 starts for Somerset) and assigned him to Double-A Miss.

Speaking of appreciative smile producers, Villanueva with a 3B.

If it's razor thin, why not go with the guy who already has shown to be productive in the pros? (in a difficult league for that, mind you) Because Soler's production gives me more of an appreciative smile than a raging boner, and the pick has boner potential. Aren't you selling our guys a bit short? Kyle Hendricks and Matt Szcur should produce an appreciative smile. Soler and Almora should elicit at least some level of unpure thoughts.

Some moves of slight interest @smokiesbaseball: Roster Moves 6/3: OF Pin-Chieh Chen added to roster from @KCCougars. INF Tim Torres placed on DL. @smokiesbaseball: Roster Moves 6/3: P Austin Kirk added to roster from @daytonacubs. P Matt Loosen sent to Daytona.

Nor do I, but I'd then like to see them aggressive pursue a somewhat sure thing front end starter like David Price or/and try to do business with a pitching rich organization like Oakland or Arizona.

I could see Hendricks and Geiger earning the dreaded Cubs Minor League Pitcher and Player of the year awards. Man, those lists are like a who's who of sorrow and despair. You've got Kerry Wood, Geovany Soto, and then a steep decline into oblivion.

And a Merry High Ceiling if They Can Stay Healthy With Consistant Control Eve.

Very encouraging stuff lately: -Almora bursting out of the gate, sans the injury scare -Baez and Candelerio turning on the afterburners after rough starts; Villanueva too to a lesser extent -Soler and Johnson's consistency the whole way through -Alcantara's strong rebound after a rough stretch -mostly consistent seasons from Vogelbach, Hendricks, Szczur, Rosscup, Cabrera, and some others. -and of course, the draft a few days away. -whatever else we add once the truck backs up to Wrigley. -even Dunston tearing through EXST, though it's been a few since I've caught any reports. I feel as good about our farm system as I have since I've started following it (didn't follow very closely back when Prior, Z, C Patt, Choi, Cruz et al were coming up, only that we had these all studs coming up in the near future)

Knowing that bullpens tend not stock more than 1-2 lefties at a time; and when there's 2, the 2nd tends to be a LOOGY, assuming they feel that Rosscup could fill his shoes I'd shop Russell without question. Also, relievers seem more likely to fall off a cliff out of nowhere after a few successful seasons than other players. Remember, shopping a player and trading a player just for the sake of trading him are two very different scenarios. Whereas Marshall may have the better track record, we basically gave the Reds his final year under our control; Russell still has 2 full years after this. If we could get something similar to what we got for Marshall, or even a package spearheaded by a top 50-100 prospect, then you bet. I understand his value, but if nothing else, Team Theo has been very good at getting top value in trades and walking away when nobody's offering what they want.

And a new manager making the rest of the decisions.

Really, wow.

E Jax doubles as his own Carlos Marmol.

The talk of Baez out of the Cubs top 5 was pointless hand wringing from Kyle. On the other hand, Soler's peripherals (ISO, BB%, K%) show he's definitely a better prospect than Baez and it's going to take a lot more for Baez to supplant him. All true, but as I recall Soler has always been touted as the better offensive prospect; possibly one of the best in baseball, but it was Javy's position that gave him the leg up. This being said, he's abundance of errors may hold him back, perhaps as low as 4 behind Soler, Almora, and Good Ole #2. Of course once he burns off that little wart, he may leapfrog his way back up in no time.

After last nights festivities, Javy's line up to .277/.319/.519 and 9 HR. .333/.396/.643 in his last 10.Enough to reclaim the NSBB #1 prospect crown? It wasn't long ago that there was talk of his falling out of the top 5. Certainly expect to see him on next weeks BA's Hot Sheet. Certainly alleviates the pain of Rock Shoulders Bryan LaHair impression.

Smardz was at 115 pitches, and Russell relieved him, and then Villanueva relieved him. Marmol had his own inning to piss all over. Now what I hate is when they insist on replacing relievers too soon because they allow a baserunner or 2, and/or they're too knee-jerky when it comes to lefty/righty matchups. When you have 3 competent reievers, you shouldn't waste 2 on one inning that clearly didn't seem in danger of getting out of hand. More importantly, Villanueva is a recently converted starter, so he could have gone more than one inning, especially when there's so little reliability coming out of our pen.

I know it seems like a lifetime ago that we had Josh Donaldson, but he's currently hitting .324/.398/.536 with 8 HR. And only 27 years old. Even if it does prove to be SSS, nobody can really fault the trade because nobody complained when he helped us land Rich Harden, but how was he viewed as a prospect back then? I didn't follow the farm quite as closely as I do now.

I made sure to label him "Jo. Paniagua" when I typed in the box score in the OP.

I havn't seem this here yet, but whilst checking the minor league boxes, I could help notice that Jeff Antigua popped up on Iowa's roster.

In figure that the past two years, the bullpen has been such a topic, be it their blowing games or the revolving door of futility First Up; the shuffle; I guess that my main question is while Alex Burnett and Edwardo Sanchez may not be Dennis Eckersley and Rollie Fingers, but they're established veterans with some degree of big league success. So why are they stashed away in the cornfield while they keep the revolving door going regardless of how the last guy did? I could understand if it was August and it was early Spring Training audition time, but it's June and they should be going with the guys with the best chance to help us win. With Gregg, Russell, and Villanueva as the end game, Burnett and Sanchez should be given at least the chance to prove a respectable middle core.

Yesterday: Marmol IS our closer Today: Marmol IS our set up guy Tomorrow: Marmol IS our mop up man Next Week: Marmol DID cost me my job

Dale's still learning the little things; like never put in Marmol when there's a chance to win the game.

Fascinating. They're getting him ready to fill a supersub role in the majors, methinks. May as well give him the rounds. I've heard for a while that they were toying with the idea of him on center; his 3 positions being SS, 3B, and CF, all are in theory spoken for by either top prospects or Castro who's signed long term.

It's not abnormal to claim a guy off waivers and immediately DFA him in hopes that nobody claims him an he accepts his minor league assignment. If it works, free depth. If not, you've lost nothing. I'm thinking that the only reason that he was put on the big league roster was the timing of the Fujikawa injury, and Burnett may have been in somewhat close proximity at the time.

The Iowa Cubs pitching staff is essentially a living Pez Dispenser.

Yuck to Almora's not so triumphant return. 0-5, 2 K. Nice nights by Soler, Alcantara, Villanueva, and Golden though.