Little Slide Rooter

Thing about Castro is there's really nothing to do about it at this point. You can't bench him. Trade value may not be at an all time low, but he sure wouldn't fetch Syndergaard or Gray at this point. And sending him to Iowa to beat up on junkballers does nothing.

He would've just cost us Kris Bryant While Kris Bryant no doubt eases the Donaldson pain, damned if I don't wish we had Chris Archer. Today's line: 8IP 2H 0R 0/12 BB/K Season; 68IP 2.12, ERA 20/82 BB/K

Here's the list of Rule 5 eligibles: 1. A minor league player who was 18 or younger on the June 5th immediately prior to signing his first contract is eligible for selection starting with the 5th Rule 5 Draft after he signs, and a minor league player who was 19 years or older on the June 5th immediately prior to signing his first contract becomes eligible for selection starting with the 4th Rule 5 Draft that followed his signing. 2. If a player signs his first contract after the conclusion of the season of the MLB or minor league club to which he is first assigned, the next season is considered to be the player's "first season" for Rule 5 eligibility purposes. 3. A free-agent with prior MLB and/or minor league service who signs a minor league contract prior to the Rule 5 Draft is eligible for selection if the player was 18 or younger on the June 5th immediately prior to signing his first contract and it is at least the 5th Rule 5 Draft since he signed his first contract, or the player was 19 years or older on the June 5th immediately prior to signing his first contract and it is at least the 4th Rule 5 Draft since he signed his first contract. 4. Any player on a minor league reserve list who has either been released or had his contract voided, and then re-signs with the same MLB organization within one year is eligible for selection. 5. Any player on a minor league reserve list who has been outrighted to the minors previously in his career is eligible for selection. 6. A player on the Voluntary Retired List, Disqualified List, or Ineligible List is not eligible for selection. 7. An MLB club can designate any player on a minor league reserve list "eligible for selection" in the Rule 5 Draft even if the player would not normally be eligible, but once a player is designated eligible for selection, he remains eligible for selection in all subsequent Rule 5 drafts. However, a player who was signed after being selected in the First-Year Player Draft (MLB Rule 4 Draft) cannot be designated "eligible for selection" in a Rule 5 Draft until after the first anniversary of the player signing his first contract with an MLB organization. 8. A minor league player-manager who would be eligible for selection in the Rule 5 Draft if he was only a player can be selected, but if he is selected, the player-manager can reject the selection. He has 30 days to decide. If he rejects the selection, the player-manager cannot be re-signed as a player during the following season. CUBS MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS ELIGIBLE FOR SELECTION IN DECEMBER 2015 RULE 5 DRAFT (last updated 5-23-2015): Roney Alcala, INF Gioskar Amaya, INF-C John Andreoli, OF Pedro Araujo, RHP Jeffrey Baez, OF Corey Black, RHP David Bote, INF Matt Brazis, RHP Stephen Bruno, INF Jeimer Candelario, INF Ben Carhart, INF Francisco Carrillo, RHP Erick Castillo, C Zach Cates, RHP Gerardo Concepcion, LHP (Article XX-D player - can elect free-agency if drafted & then later re-claimed by Cubs) Josh Conway, RHP Blake Cooper, RHP Varonex Cuevas, INF Taylor Davis, C Andin Diaz, LHP Shawon Dunston Jr, OF Kevin Encarnacion, OF P. J. Francescon, RHP Anthony Giansanti, OF Michael Heesch, LHP Michael Jensen, RHP Pierce Johnson, RHP Danny Lockhart, INF Barret Loux, RHP Mark Malave, RHP (ex-C) Dillon Maples, RHP Ricardo Marcano, OF Justin Marra, C Trey Martin, OF Jonathan Martinez, RHP Alberto Mineo, C Yomar Morel, RHP Yoanner Negrin, RHP Ariel Ovando, LHP (ex-OF) Juan Carlos Paniagua, RHP Jose Paulino, LHP Carlos Penalver, INF Hector Perez, RHP Chris Pieters, LHP Ivan Pineyro, RHP James Pugliese, RHP Bijan Rademacher, OF Jasvir Rakkar, RHP Austin Reed, RHP Donn Roach, RHP (Article XX-D player - can elect free-agency if drafted & then later re-claimed by Cubs) Jacob Rogers, 1B Alexander Santana, RHP Tayler Scott, RHP Rubi Silva, OF Elliot Soto, INF Daury Torrez, RHP Dan Vogelbach, 1B Will be protected: -Johnson -Vogelbach (if he hasn't been traded by then, a huge if) -Black Any of these guys could be protected/picked in the Rule 5/be in the big league pen at some point this season: Paniagua Pinyero Cooper Jensen Martinez Francescan Pugliese Bruno, Torrez, Candelerio round out the list of his who could be protected. As for the current 40 man, Hererra, Schlitter, James Russell, Jokisch, Beeler, and German could all be relieved of their spot without anybody losing sleep.

To be honest, I only listen to music on my I Pod and sports on the radio. So I guess I missed that month.

Unless Bryant or Schwarber are ticketed for LF, we don't have an option there. I'd be all for Upton, Cespedes, or Heyward. But if that's not in the cards, he could be an interesting option. Granted, not too many guys return from a stint overseas to much success, but there is Cecil Fielder.

Your loss. It was great. I'm not going to lie, Even Worse was one of my favorite albums of the era, the video for "Fat" is a classic and UHF never gets old. But I didn't know Weird Al still existed outside of the occasional VH1 special.

Scherzer racks up 25 K's. Cubs win 2-1.

I went to the Weird Al concert last night, and the encore was actually pretty similar to this. I'll take words last spoken in the early 90s for $1,000, Alex.

He's going to be a free agent after this year. Good: -He's been absolutely dominant in Japan for the past 4 years, including 60 HR in 2013 (Single season HR record) -Only 31 years old next season Bad: -Injured himself in his second AB of the season, expected to miss the next 4-6 weeks. -Japanese stats, especially offense, should be taken with a grain of salt. -Arrested on assault and false inprosonment of his estranged wife in January 2014 Any interest?

I can only imagine the kind of bi-polar lunatic gold spewing from the beak of Hawk Harrelson all throughout that game.

You know who wouldn't jump at it? The Reds.

How are they doing it? I must know. Altuve is a stud at SS. They have a pair of relievers in Will Harris (6/29 BB/K, 0.40 ERA, 22IP,) Josh Fields (18/3 BB/K, 0.78 ERA, 10.1IP.) Then, there's some dude named Dallas Keuschal who's managing a 6-1, 1.98 ERA and a paltry 21/49 BB/K in 72.2 IP. But other than that, there's nothing particularly impressive. Not a single guy with an OPS above .800. Valbuena has 10 HR, but a .198/.257/.413 line to go with it. So how are they a .600 team 46 games in?

I very much agree. Back when the guy who started the game finished the game, or at least went 7-8 innings on average, it made some sense. But even then, when the guy on the tail end do a 1-0 game gets a L or the guy on the winning side of a 13-11 game got the W, it's meaningless. Also, the specifics are dumb. A SP must go at least a full 5 for a W, but can hypothetically throw a single pitch and be eligible for an L. (Say the first pitch he throws goes yard, he hurts his shoulder in the process, and the final score is 0-1.) But I digress. Meanwhile, a reliever can come in, inherit a 3 run lead, then give up a quick 4, and finish the inning. Then his team comes to bat, scores 2-3 of their own, and they win. The reliever gets the W. Bottom line is that the Quality Start should become far more of a thing.

Contreras was signed at 16-17 for $850,000, which was one of the biggest IFA bonuses given out in the Hendry era. The ones who were given more were Rubi Silva ($1MM) and Mark Malave (1.6MM,) who I believe is floating around the organization somewhere. At the time, that would have been viewed as the equivalent of, what, late 1st-supplemental round talent for a high school age player? He literally just turned 23, so who knows, he could be of some value in the near future.

We would have won had we outscored the other team.

Or hits a three run homer like on Saturday night. But that was almost two days ago so how could you be expected to remember that. You can drop all your fancy-schmancy saber-ma-what's-its, but the only statistic that matters is MRAB (Most Recent At Bat.)

Felix Pena had 1/9 BB/K in 6 innings. I feel as though he's been kind of-sort of on the radar in years past. Am I right?

What position does Martarano play? I have to assume that this is a somewhat large individual.

Do not pitch to Bryce Harper.

Bullocks.

Ever since being released by the Rockies toward the end of spring training, Vitters has completely fallen off the map. Yeah, 2014 was a rough one for him, but 2012 & what he salvaged of 2013 were encouraging in the OBP department. He's only 25, so you'd think that somebody would have picked him up as a no risk by now.

With 7 HR, Chris Coghlan is second only to Rizzo in that respect, and with 30 fewer ABs. Am I wrong in thinking that he's pretty much what we were hoping to salvage of post 2012 Brett Jackson?

If we're talking about Soriano in his prime, there probably isn't a position player prospect on earth whose team wouldn't be thrilled to death if they ended up that.

Nice to see Almora and Torres back in their respective lineups.

No to Latos, but I'd do all those trades. Does Gallardo really belong in that lot? Yeah, this hasn't been his best season so far, but how much of that has to do with Arlington and the AL?