CubsWin

how did this happen with runners on second and third? couldn't have been the usual runner from first stealing second and drawing a throw. maybe the pitcher just fell asleep? Straight steal. It looked like he went on his own. I doubt it, but it had that random look.

Alcantara steals home!

Indeed. It's nice to have the tie-breaker over everyone except Houston. Even though the Cubs are currently tied with Milwaukee for the 4th pick, they are effectively a game ahead. This makes them 1.5 ahead of San Francisco, 2 ahead of the Phillies, 2.5 ahead of the Angels, and 3 ahead of San Diego, Minnesota and Toronto. There are 43 games left to play.

Is anyone else drooling over Alex Jackson as much as I am? Jason Parks has a write up of him over at BP.

What position is he playing? 3b. Olt is DHing. I still like Vitters more as a prospect than Olt As an offensive prospect right now? Yes. As an overall prospect as a 3B? No. There's reason to believe Vitters can hit at the major league level. I'm just not sure where he can play without hurting a team's defense. I've never seen his inability to play 3B first hand, but the reports on his defense are seemingly universal that he is below average. I want to believe that he can gradually make himself average over the next couple years, but I have no evidence to suggest that he will.

THE OUTFIELD Ryan Sweeney is a free agent. Schierholtz and DeJesus are each under team control for one more year. Lake, Gillespie, Neal and Sappelt are all controlled until 2019. With the way Lake has played to date, he is the front runner to be the everyday LFer in 2014. However, this is the one area where some good FAs are available, the top 2 being Shin-Soo Choo and Jacoby Ellsbury who will be 31 and 30 next spring respectively. There's sure to be plenty of debate amongst Cubs fans as to whether the team should invest the big bucks it's going to take to bring in one of these guys. You can have Lake, DeJesus, Schierholtz with Gillespie and whomever as reserves or you can have Lake, Choo/Ellsbury, Schierholtz with DeJesus and Gillespie coming off the bench. Interesting...

THE INFIELD In 90 July and August plate appearances, Wellington Castillo has struck out 19 times and walked 18 while hitting .310 with 5 doubles and 2 HRs. From the start of the season thru June, he struck out 53 times, walked 10 and hit .267 with 13 doubles, 2 HRs in 240 plate appearances. Castillo will still be 26 for the 1st three weeks of next season. His defense needs work, but his bat may be rounding into above average form. C - Castillo 1B - Rizzo 2B - ? SS - Castro 3B - ? The Cubs obviously value Darwin Barney's defense and leadership, otherwise they wouldn't have put up with his lack of production at the plate this season. Like it or not, Darwin may still be the Cubs best option at 2B next season. Major league ready in-house options are limited to Logan Watkins and scrap heap signings like Donnie Murphy. This front office's penchant for giving prospects 500 PA in AAA before bringing them up takes Baez and Alcantara out of the running. In general, rules don't seem to apply to Javy, but I doubt the Cubs want him at 2B anyway. The list of free agent 2B aren't great after Cano, and we all know he's not leaving NY. Utley signed an extension to stay in Philly. Kelly Johnson will be available along with personal favorite Omar Infante, who was a Cub for 3 weeks during the '07 off season but never played a game for them. They will both be 32 next spring. Third base is a total clusterf*#k. Valbuena, Olt, Vitters and even Lake could see time there next spring. It seems clear the Cubs want Olt to take the job, but he hasn't looked good all year. Vitters can't stay healthy or play passable defense at the position apparently. Lake has played a total of 65 games at 3B over the last two seasons, and there is likely a very good reason he has played OF exclusively since being called up. The free agent class is even less inspiring than the one for second. Unless there's a trade, all signs point to a platoon of Valbuena and whoever wins the job in spring training between Olt, Vitters and whoever else they bring in. Outside of Rizzo and Castro continuing to develop, it doesn't seem like the Cubs infield is likely to improve much in 2014.

With the trade deadline past and the off-season quickly approaching, we might as well have a thread on what the roster for the upcoming season will look like. Two guys who will have to be on the 25-man roster or risk being claimed off of waivers are Jake Arrieta and Alberto Cabrera. Unless, he implodes in spring training, I think Arrieta has to be penciled in for the 2014 rotation. Cabrera was stretched out and used as a starter in AA this season and acquitted himself nicely. The thinking is that the only reason he is currently in the Iowa bullpen is to limit his innings. Unless and until trades happen, the starters look like: Samardzija Wood Arrieta Jackson The pen should include: Strop Russell Parker Cabrera Villanueva There are a lot of in-house options for both. Cabrera, Rusin, Villanueva and Grimm along with some FA signings will likely compete for the 5th spot in the rotation. Cabrera must be kept, so if he doesn't get it he will go to the pen. Rusin and Grimm each have options left so if a notable FA is signed and stays healthy, they likely start 2014 in Iowa. Villanueva obviously would return to the pen. If he does, that would leave 2-3 open spots in the bullpen. Chang-Yong Lim has a good shot at breaking camp with the Cubs next spring. If 1 or 2 FA relievers are signed, that could be it. Interesting side note, if Grimm doesn't break with the Cubs, Iowa would sport its most interesting rotation in a while. It's not great, but it's at least follow-worthy... Grimm Hendricks Jokisch Loux Raley

Then there's rehab guys Michael Jensen, Ryan McNeil and Josh Conway...

Ivan Pineyro, Eric Jokisch, Zach Rosscup, 6th rounder Scott Frazier and overslot 12th rounder Trevor Clifton are worthy of mention in my book. Obviously, Vizcaino, but you might not have been able to list him due to the fact that he hasn't pitched this season. You can take Whitenack off the list. If guys like Hatley, Loosen and Struck are on this list, others might argue for Michael Hamann, Armando Rivero, Dayan Diaz, Jose Rosario, Carlos A. Rodriguez, Jeffry Antigua, Hunter Cervenka, Yeiper Castillo, Dae-Eun Rhee, Brian Schlitter and Brooks Raley. But for me, the list is already too long.

The Cubs haven't signed two better IFAs in recent memory than Jimenez and Torres. Usually, a guy who hasn't played a game in the organization and is 16/17 years old wouldn't even sniff a prospect list. I assume that has more to do with the lack of any meaningful information on them than it has to do with how good they are. Normally, IFAs are so far away that we don't even know how far away they are. There's no gauge, so how can you compare them to anything. But, we do know something about these two. Eloy was the consensus top prospect. Torres was consensus top 3. Again, really difficult to say with any certainty (of course what prospect can you speak about with certainty besides top 5 guys), but where does Eloy go? Is he a better prospect than Balaguert who never got hype anywhere near what Jimenez got? Or is the bust factor too high, the unknowns too great to even rank him at all?

Given Hendricks' proximity to the bigs and the distance away guys like Blackburn, Paniagua, Maples and Underwood are, what do you value more: Hendrick's floor/proximity or the other guys' ceiling? I struggle with this one and would love to hear other people's thoughts.

Because I wasn't thinking...

The Cubs are currently 5th. 1.5 games back of Milwaukee for 4th. A game ahead of the Twins, Giants and Rockies. It's tenuous and there's a long way to go. Two days from now the Cubs could be in the 11th slot.

For the purposes of these lists, should we consider Arrieta a prospect still? Grimm?

I have Balaguert and Dunston in the same boat. Both seem ready for Kane County and both will be age appropriate (21) when they start there next season. Hannemann's missed so much time this season, but if he's who the Cubs think he is, he'll likely join them forming the Cougars starting OF for 2014. Balaguert's gotten very favorable scouting reports lately, with some saying he stood out from everyone else they saw that day. He's got a shot. Another question: The Cubs haven't signed two better IFAs in recent memory than Jimenez and Torres. Usually, a guy who hasn't played a game in the organization and is 17 years old wouldn't even sniff a prospect list. I assume that has more to do with the lack of any meaningful information on them than it has to do with how good they are. Normally, IFAs are so far away that we don't even know how far away they are. There's no gauge, so how can you compare them to anything. But, we do know something about these two. Eloy was the consensus top prospect. Torres was consensus top 3. Again, really difficult to say with any certainty (of course what prospect can you speak about with certainty besides top 5 guys), but where does Eloy go? Is he a better prospect than Balaguert who never got hype anywhere near what Jimenez got? Or is the bust factor too high, the unknowns too great to even rank him at all?

On a good day, he sneaks into my top 20. Wow, you think the lack of stuff puts him that far out? I'm becoming a believer that he's got a good shot to become a back of the rotation type anyway. Obviously guys like Maples, Underwood, and Blackburn have more upside, but with Hendrix being closer, I've got him higher. I think he's got a better shot at the rotation than Cabrera, although that may very well be influenced by Cabrera getting limited innings at this point and Hendricks staying on a roll. I think it speaks more to the depth of talented prospects in the organization right now than it does Hendricks. I've got him 15-20 right now, but that's with Arrieta and Grimm being considered prospects. Take them off the list and he moves up a bit. For me, my top 10 looks like: Baez Almora Bryant Soler Alcantara P. Johnson Edwards Olt Candelario Arrieta/Vizcaino/Vogelbach And then there are guys like Grimm, Villanueva, Pineyro and upside guys like Blackburn, Maples, Underwood, etc. I have Kyle mixed in amongst those guys. If Hendricks keeps facing down AAA hitters for the rest of the season like he did today. He'll move up. Question. Given Hendricks' proximity to the bigs and the distance away guys like Blackburn, Paniagua, Maples and Underwood are, what do you value more: Hendrick's floor/proximity or the other guys' ceiling? I struggle with this one and would love to hear other people's thoughts.

i would say that bryant will probably start in daytona next year regardless of where he plays the rest of this season. although candelario's presence does make things a little more complicated. candelario should move up a level and bryant is too advanced for the low minors. maybe they do a platoon where one plays 3b and the other plays 1b or corner OF. wouldn't surprise me if bryant could handle AA right now, frankly. in other news, all the tennessee hitters have reached base safely except for baez. :( he's 0-4 but at least he hasn't struck out (2 ground outs, 2 fly outs) Daytona has the DH. They could alternate 3B and DH. Maybe some 1b (Jeimer) and OF (Bryant) also. I'd guess both will start at Daytona, with the goal of Bryant forcing a promotion after a couple months at most. That's how I see it playing out, too.

Have we seen anything about what his stuff is looking like this year? I can't seem to recall anything. I've not heard or read an updated scouting report to see if he's added an velocity or improved any of his breaking balls, but here is the report from when he was acquired in the Campana trade. chicagocubsonline.com

This. I can live with just drafting hitters forever and scoring 950 runs a year and hoping that our coaching can keep turning out OK pitching staffs. Agreed. If the position player is a better bet to succeed, value is value. Find the right fit with the right team, and you can trade great hitting prospects for a great pitcher.

Remember the 24 year old RFer the Cubs signed as a minor league free agent, Johermyn Chavez? He disappeared after playing 24 games for Tennessee. He just reappeared. As a pitcher in tonight's AZL game. Speaking of the AZL, Erick Leal is pitching another gem so far tonight. Thru 4 1/3, 4 hits, 0 runs, 1 walk and 5 Ks.

Agreed. He's also third in the league in doubles. I think he's going to break out in 2015 in Tennessee. I second that. But I disagree with those who think that Candelario needs more time in Kane County. If he needs anything next season, it's time against FSL pitching. It's a tough hitter's league, but I expect to see an even better slash line from him next year. I think he'll show improvement next season and has a high likelihood of breaking out in AA.

Nope. Dry as a bone in Daytona though...

I'm guessing Edwards also threw on the side and won't be an option to start tonight. Edwards gets the start, pitches 1 inning, giving up 1 hit with a strikeout and no walks. And then rain set in.

I want to see highlights of both the Villanueva leap and the Baez dive. They sounded incredible.