Named After Maddux

On phone but Joel Sherman on twitter reporting it was down to Cubs and Yankees, but Cubs won. Brett and Goldstein also twitted that. Edit: good timing everyone :)

He said top 5. I can see Correa and Buxton going 1-2 still because of age, but I have a hard time believing Soler would have gotten past 3 in this draft. On pure talent I 100% agree. I don't think the Mariners would have passed on Soler assuming everything financial remained the same. All the more reason we need to get him. This is a top 3 pick for the highest bidder.

11th round Rashard Crawford apparently signs.

I cannot even imagine the damage Rizzo could do against the Iowa pitching staff.

Interesting story concerning the number 67 pick in the draft (ended up becoming Duane Underwood). With the pick Sam Gillikin was apparently called by Cubs FO and asked if he would sign for, presumably, 800,000 slot. I hadn't seen this story anywhere. It was another high upside talent, who was almost drafted twice in the first round (21 and 26). If we called him and he turned it down, hopefully that means Underwood was called and they roughly agreed to something.

In Raisin's post above (Courtesy of BA), Carhart is on the smaller side and a College Senior destined to be, most likely, an organizational player. No terms announced, but probably nothing of consequence. Edit: 35th round

BTW, Baez apparently stole a base after this. He just continues doing whatever the **** he wants In a perfect world this would be his HOF speech some 30 odd years from now.

Speaking of Baez. Here's some great footage of his 3/4 day and play in the field. http://www.cinewsnow.com/sports/Peoria-Chiefs-win-4-0-Baez-goes-3-4-157664565.html Edit: Hawkeye already posted! Oops!

When I saw him, that wasn't the case. He wasn't covering foul line to foul line, and at the MLB level he might be average at best, but from what I've seen and heard I'm not relegating him to 3B for certain. I agree. When I saw him (same day as TT) he showed good range. His plays seemed to be a product of his aggressiveness and good first step. I'm not saying he will stick at SS or that he won't. It all depends on how his body matures and whether he retains the lateral quickness he showed in the game.

They can offer that to him, but bonuses over 100K get subtracted from your slot amount. So teams would lose 2 mil from their pool.

Actually I'll add another one by Baez!! Deep throw from grass! He is having a great game!

Great play to his left and off balance throw by Baez to get Jorge Bonifacio by a step.

Baez deep hr to center!!

Giansanti is down after getting hit at third making the play. Called ambulance and will be going to the hospital. Baez in at SS.

I remember a BA article after Prior was drafted that gave an in depth analysis of whether the author felt that Cruz or Prior should be higher ranked and ended up going with Cruz, admittedly because he had pitched against professional hitters. It was a very interesting read and frankly, for a Cubs fan... Really exciting. But I think you're right. People forget about how highly thought of Cruz was.

Just curious, do you know if he's been dealing with this his past couple starts? I believe he had an uncharacteristic bout of wildness last start IIRC. Thanks in advance. I'm looking forward to seeing Kyler have the starting role tonight.

Rizzo with an amazing save to his left! He then dove to the bag to end the inning. It was unbelievable! His defense this game has been great!

Toonster, Kelly has been pretty on most of the game. Only Jackson (0/2 with two hard hit balls) and Rizzo (1/1 with a BB) have been squaring him up. Lots of broken bats and weak grounders. Rizzo is Kelly's one walk and it was very patient by Anthony.

Vitters with an E. it'll go down as a throwing E, but it was mental. He made a great stop and came up firing... Right over Rizzo's head. He should have put it in his pocket. Jay Jax has been missing his spots around the plate. He has settled down a bunch, but his breaking pitches haven't been very crisp. Redbirds are sitting back and hitting his 89-92 mph fb.

I'm at the ICubs game and I'll have a detailed report later, but I can already say the Memphis Redbirds are squaring Jay Jackson up pretty well. Brett Jackson crushed a long fly out to deep center that the CF made a good catch in the 1st.

Hopefully he can get it down to a very manageable 27.00 or even 18.00, but let's not get too carried away.

He is piggybacking Wells on Monday but with a Sunday off day for Easter he couldnt go without throwing. I think Cruz, our Tuesday starter, is going to do the same tonight. Ok so the Peoria Rotation looks like this to start the season: Michael Jensen, PJ Francescon, Jose Rosario, Ben Wells, and Willington Cruz with some piggybacking going on. Interesting group. Also, really nice to see Jensen pitch so well last night. I know he's been viewed as a sleeper.

I read that it's Wells-Burke game 4. That would leave Cruz for game 5, presumably, with Wang/Liria/whomever as other piggy-back types. I'm glad that Jensen is starting. Not big, he had good velocity but not overwhelming and I'm not sure how fast he'll really be when he's grinding out a start every 5 days, his breaking stuff hadn't scouted as being super exciting, and his signing bonus wasn't extraordinarily large. But I'm a big believe in control, and I thought he had that, and whatever his stuff it seemed to do very well in a very competitive California JC league. So I'm optimistic that he might emerge as a good prospect. Perhaps a flip is that perhaps having Jensen and francescon starting doesn't reflect super well on the international prospects. If Liria/Wang/Cruz were looking like big-time arms with big-time major-league rotation potential, they'd probably get rotation spots even if you did have a little 23-year-old changeup guy like Francescon. Ok I'm feeling pretty good about that game 4 pitching set-up. I am quite surprised at the international prospects: Liria, Wang, Cruz, (and I'd add in Starling Peralta, who's in EXST). Obviously one or two will be still in line for game 5 work, but I'm still mildly surprised this is the current Rotation. That being said, I find it encouraging that Jensen is in the Rotation. He obviously showed something this spring or in Instructs to warrent a rotation spot. After last summer, Rosario in the rotation makes perfect sense. He was really impressive down the stretch for Boise. Overall this is a rotation that is intriguing on most days. I'll be following Jensen, Wells, Burke and maybe whoever is set for game 5 pretty closely.

I'm really hoping Wells is 5th. I remember his stamina was an issue and they were trying to stretch him out. I'm hoping for big things with him this year.

Brad Zapenas is starting at Daytona this year. I'm a little surprised, but he may be seeing the ball better this spring. He had LASIK surgery in the offseason.