Named After Maddux

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.

Shark strikes out the side in the 5th. His current line is 5ip, 2 H, 0R, 5 K, 1 BB And as I'm writing this he TRIPLES leading off the bottom of the 5th! Kyle beat me too it. Exciting nonetheless.

Eh I was worried we were going to get a message like this. Here's hoping it's something minor. Something to consider, even Spring Trainings for more experienced plays can cause you to tweak something by trying a bit too hard too fast. Wishful thinking, but I really hope it's not anything arm/elbow/shoulder related.

He wasn't a target I really wanted the Bears to spend much time pursing, but I was kinda hoping he would be on the market a little longer, if for no other reason than to have another WR on the market to distract other teams a tad. Overall though, I completely expected he'd return to the Saints.

Ok that sounds like when all is said and done he will have a good shot at ending up in Daytona when camp breaks. Also likely considering the similar climate in Daytona verses Peoria come April.

I actually think Noah and Howard together reaches the point of diminishing returns. Too much paint clogging to let Rose operate. I'd rather have a stretch 4 playing alongside Dwight. Anyway, the theoretical cap space that would be made available if Dwight left is only worth spending on Dwight and I guess Eric Gordon. Deron is the other big FA fish and obviously not a fit. I'd love Gordon to play off of Rose but a Rose, Gordon, Noah core isn't getting it done, IMO. I wouldn't be too excited about Rose, Gordon, Noah as a core for next year, but speaking of a stretch 4: hopefully Mirotic will be able to come over either next year or the one after.

The thought of Williams and Peppers on the outside and rotating Melton, Okoye and Paea in the middle would be pretty amazing. That would effectively limit any chance to double cover Peppers on the outside, which is awesome by itself. Man, just being able to rush our front four everytime with a rotation like that is just drool worthy.

That's really exciting to hear! And on a side note Cabrera has long since been a project that always seemed to be just a little bit away from really clicking (in rotation or more likely the bullpen). I'll be intrigued to see his results along with the other pitchers in camp.

Especially after Wilken highlighted lefty SP as a weakness of the system that they want to address in the draft, it wouldn't surprise me if they went that way early (1st/Sup/2nd round). I agree you take BPA, but I would be very happy if we could find a high upside lefty SP early.

I love this deal. I think the key take away point is we added a quality prospect at a need "position" (Wilken said the area we needed to improve the most was young left-handed pitching). The price hasn't been officially announced and if it is as high as mentioned then I appreciate Ricketts spending the money to add a prospect in the last open off season for IFA. Regardless of the exact price it appears to be a quality addition to our farm.

Especially with the jokes about moving to Vegas, can we just name them the Houston Craps? It fits in both cities!

I want no part of Marrero. I know it's not a fair comparison (AZ st verses HS, more talent etc), but whenever I think of Marrero I have "I'm Matt F--g Bush!!" pop in my head". For the 6th pick I would much rather go the other way. There's too much talent there, for me, to get a no-power but good hit tool SS at 6.