Post Count Padder

Horvath and Baumeister both roughly top 20 prospects in the O's system. Etzel unranked. Seems underwhelming, though Baumeister is having a nice season. This a rough outline for a Taillon trade?

We seemed to learn our lesson. I looked and the only trades we've made with the Rays since the Garza deal are: minor league pitcher for Mastrobuoni, Harold Ramirez for Esteban Quiroz, 40-man roster rearranging trade of Manny Rodriguez and Adrian Sampson for essentially cash.

Fascinating baseball trade. Dominguez is frustratingly inconsistent but at his best is a solid hard-throwing reliever. In Baltimore he's probably 4th on the pecking order so he won't be expected to pitch in a lot of high leverage situations. The Phillies have been desperately trying to figure out center field. Now they buy low on a decent outfielder and can move him and Brandon Marsh between left and center with Jojan Rojas backing up both spots. Also doesn't necessarily preclude them from another move.

Puk to the DBacks for prospects Deyvison De Los Santos and Andrew Pintar. Puk is on a run of 16 scoreless innings. De Los Santos is absolutely crushing the ball this year and Pintar is having a nice season too.

Interesting pick up. He's been in the majors before, is hitting fine in AAA and was a top 10 prospect in the Twins system a couple years ago. Does make you wonder if there's a trade coming soon or if Canario is hurt and they didn't want to roster any of the other Iowa guys.

Yeah I haven't read Law's stuff much but IIRC he's painfully stubborn. And a bit of a contrarian.

I know they've given him a lot of at bats but do you think they'd part with Austin Wells? I'd also be interested in Brock Selvedge and Roderick Arias but I don't know that I'd part with Nico for that.

Yeah I assume Happ isn't going anywhere and I'd like to think it would require a hefty return to consider dealing Hoerner. That said, the Dodgers have some nice prospects and I wonder if Gavin Lux would be in play as a buy low option.

That's 2016 World Series champion Rob Zastryzny to you.

I think Taillon and Tauchman are as good as gone. Maybe Leiter and Neris and Wisdom. I don't expect much else. Soft sell, and maybe acquire someone to help in the immediate future

Seems like there aren't many great available starting pitchers this deadline. He's having a great season and isn't a rental. I'm not expecting back an elite prospect but feels like we should get something certainly worthwhile and then we can add another starter in the offseason. Is the Jordan Montgomery trade last year a good outline? A couple of borderline top 100 guys?

I know Baty hasn't hit at the big-league level yet but he was a top prospect as recently as last year. I don't think the Mets are trading him for a 4th OFer, unless the deal is expanded. I like Wisdom a lot but I'm fully expecting by this time next month he's been DFA'd or traded for a lottery ticket to a team needing a power bench bat.

Yeah I'm not giving up on Amaya. I've wanted him to be the next guy for so long so I'm hoping he can figure it out. I'm just sensing who's next up in the pipeline. Hearn stalled. Opitz might make it but as a glove-only guy. Mike Carico and Adan Sanchez are far away. Etc.

Is Aliendo getting good reviews for his receiving? I know I've seen Ballesteros may have to change positions. Most of the other catchers in the system are too far away or have not progressed to where they're anything other than a backup or Iowa shuttle.

So we have all our scouts in the Cape it seems. I like these recent pitcher picks. They do seem sneaky good, especially Ashenback like Tom said. Part of me wonders if with some of these college guys, the scouts/front office identify one or two that would be solid out of them pen and they just push them through.

Pipeline says some scouts see our 7th rounder with 70 grade power if he can tap into it more. They have him at 55 with it. Could be something there.

That's some insane EV and there's power projection there. I guess what we're wondering is why he was unranked or ranked so low if he has these intangibles? College commit? Too raw? Questions about defense?

I didn't follow this draft lead up as much as previous years but I was a big fan of Cam Smith so I'm thrilled with the pick.

The mid-late 1990s were a great time. This new thing called the Internet was becoming more popular. Alt rock and boy bands dominated the radio. People started thinking about Y2K. And the Cubs thought they had their solution at the hot corner. Since Ron Santo was unceremoniously jettisoned crosstown to the White Sox, third base became a bit of a black hole for the North Siders. Following the December 1973 trade of Santo, this is the list of third basemen who logged the most innings there each season until 1997: Bill Madlock Steve Ontiveros Lenny Randle Ken Reitz Ryne Sandberg Ron Cey Keith Moreland Vance Law Luis Salazar Steve Buechele Todd Zeile Leo Gomez That's 12 different starters over 24 years. Madlock and Cey had some decent seasons. But the rest was mostly dreck. Sandberg played one season at 3rd (1982) before moving full-time to 2nd. Moreland was a utility player who stood in as a passable third baseman in 1987. A notable thing all 12 had in common? None were homegrown. Each player was acquired via free agency or trade. It appeared there was a curse at third base. Then, in 1993, the Cubs used their first-round pick on Kevin Orie out of Indiana University Bloomington. The West Chester, Penn. native came into the organization with high expectations, given the state of the hot corner. He worked through the system quickly and reached Triple-A in 1996 after torching Double-A, pitching to the tune of an .883 OPS. This was good enough to rank him 42nd on Baseball America's Top 100 prospects list ahead of the 1997 season. He opened the year as the Cubs' starting third baseman and held his own but still scuffled to a .239 average into May. A wrist injury sent him to the disabled list, and his first major league season was not off to a spectacular start. However, the resulting rehab stint did wonders for his bat. He hit an obscene .375/.460/.594/1.053 in 9 games in Triple-A before returning to the big league club. From May 30 through the end of the season, Orie posted a solid .283/.348/.448/.796 slash with a .309 BABIP. His 2.3 fWAR was third on the team behind Sammy Sosa and Mark Grace, and his 101 wRC+ was fourth among Cubs with at least 100 games. The performance earned Orie some down-ballot Rookie of the Year votes and seemed to cement him as part of the next core. That, unfortunately, did not happen. He opened the 1998 season with a dreadful .181/.241/.282/.523 batting line and was demoted to Triple-A. He also earned some notoriety amongst fans for his play in a May 6 game. Orie could not cleanly field a ground ball by future Cub Ricky Gutierrez during Kerry Wood's historic 20-strikeout performance. The play was ruled a hit rather than an error, ending the no-hit bid for Wood, and it would be the only hit surrendered in the game. Orie once again posted incredible numbers in the minors and earned a call-back but didn't fare much better against big-league pitching. At the trade deadline, the Cubs gave up on their former top pick and prospect, sending him to the Marlins for pitcher Felix Heredia. My note here is that I was reading the newspaper's agate/sports stats page the following morning while on vacation with my family, and I was quite unhappy when I saw the news. This was not the first, nor would it be the last, time the Cubs disappointed me. Orie would hold his own with a .739 OPS in 125 games with Florida but was granted free agency following the 1999 season so the Marlins could make room for top prospect Mike Lowell. Orie would bounce around the minor leagues, playing in the Royals, Yankees, and Phillies organizations before returning to the majors with the Cubs for a brief 13-game run in 2002. He played several more seasons in the minors with the Guardians, Astros, Brewers, and Nationals before retiring after 2006. He finished with a .709 OPS in 316 MLB games against a .926 OPS in 498 Triple-A games and a 3.1 fWAR. Following his retirement, Orie moved to Pittsburgh and worked in real estate before landing a gig as a commentator for 93.7 The Fan. Orie was supposed to be the future at third base for the Cubs but became a mere footnote in a long dry spell at the hot corner. The Cubs would not have a steady presence there until a 2003 lopsided trade brought Aramis Ramirez into town. He would man the position until 2012. The Cubs' draft selection of Kris Bryant in 2013 and the quick promotion of the future World Series champion gave the club a homegrown asset at third. For a time, at least. View full article

Wrigley Citizens Bank Park (I live in Philly) Yankee Stadium Fenway Truist Park Rogers Centre Coors Field Old Yankee Stadium Shea Stadium The Vet I would love to see more. I do love CBP. Went to Coors last year and it lived up to expectations. Truist was a pain to get to and from staying downtown but they did a pretty great job with the ballpark and area around it.

As a Cubs fan who lives in Philly and follows the Phillies a bit too, I have looked at their farm often. I like guys like William Bergolla and Gabriel Rincones a lot. Neither would be a headliner for Bellinger though. Abel's stock has slipped a bit so it makes you wonder if he's not off the table. I assume Painter and Miller and maybe Crawford are untouchable.

Amaya has been disappointing and isn't Ballesteros getting mixed reviews on his receiving? I wonder if we target catching at the deadline.

Fangraphs list is quite good. Been waiting awhile for it to come out. There's a few guys I'd put higher on my (Derniche, Gallardo, Drew Gray) but it's hard to argue with for the most part. Christian Hernandez really took a tumble. And they are not buying Mervis and McGeary's numbers.

Hodge got the call up but the pen is taxed and injured. Wieck and Riley Martin have looked quite good. Either of them get a shot soon? or Carl's Jr?