Outshined_One

They have one of the best farm systems in all of baseball if not the best and they have Jason Heyward who is going to be a star. Well, outside of Freddie Freeman I can't really think of many other offensive threats besides Heyward in their system. They've got a couple pitchers in the wings who are supposed to be good... Arodys Vizcaino and another guy... forgot his name though. Outside of those guys (and maybe one or two others I'm forgetting) I think the drop off is pretty steep Most of their good pitching prospects have limited experience above High A. Mike Minor might get a callup this season depending on how he develops, but he doesn't have the makings of an impact pitcher. Plus, Freeman had a wrist injury and is a bit of a question mark going into this season.

Wallace is a big guy, but Decker...well... http://media.scout.com/Media/Image/56/560514.jpg

Andy Seiler's 2010 Chicago Cubs Draft Preview Not a whole lot we already didn't know, but still a nice read.

BA Top 100 Rankings: Starlin Castro - 16 Josh Vitters - 70 Brett Jackson - 74 Andrew Cashner - 95 Jay Jackson - 98

Lee has very little patience? Granted, he's only played one season of low-A ball, but he walked 31 times in 304 plate appearances (10.2 % of the time). That's not that bad. Lee also has less power than Castro. Lee's IsoP last year was .090. Castro's IsoP last year was .093. Then in the AFL it was .099. Having watched Lee thanks to Boise putting its home games up on the internet, I feel comfortable in saying Lee's power numbers have been inflated due to his excellent speed. Castro currently is a much safer bet to hit 10-15 HRs a year than Lee is.

Considering the Cubs' recent signing, now seems as good of a time as any to start this thread. Signings and bonus information will be posted as they become available. Cub Six-Figure Signees (age as of 3/2/11): RHP Kim Jin-Yeong (South Korea) - $850,000 bonus - age 18 SS Carlos Penalver (Venezuela) - $550,000 bonus - age 16 3B Jeimer Candelario (Dominican Republic) - $500,000 bonus - age 17 OF Jeffrey Baez (Venezuela) - $350,000 bonus - age 17 SS Francisco (Daniel) Sanchez (Dominican Republic) - $350,000 bonus - age 17 LHP Angel Mejias (Venezuela) - age 17 C Alberto Mineo (Italy) - $225,000 bonus - age 16 RHP Alexander Santana (Dominican Republic) - age 17 SS Antonio Gonzalez (Dominican Republic) RHP Gilberto Abreu (Dominican Republic) - age 17 - pre-July 2 signee OF Rubi Silva (Cuba) - $1 million bonus - age 21 C Yaniel Cabeza (Cuba) - $500,000 bonus - age 21 RHP Juan Yasser Serrano (Cuba) - $250,000 bonus - age 21

Moving this where it belongs and merging it with the existing thread...plus now seems like as good of a time as any to start the 2010 International FA Market thread. $1.2m? Holy crap.

I'll go with a win total in the low 80s, with the team being in contention until August, and then slowly falling out of it.

Lee has very little patience? Granted, he's only played one season of low-A ball, but he walked 31 times in 304 plate appearances (10.2 % of the time). That's not that bad. Lee also has less power than Castro.

Go back through those BA Top 100 lists that I posted above and look back at all of their Top 25s. How many of them were, at the time, "sure things"? Of those guys who were sure things, how many of them actually lived up to their potential?

Considering we've already mentioned and heard of comps for Castro ranging from Derek Jeter and Hanley Ramirez on the high end and some of those names on the low end, I think that's a rather unfair statement. Furthermore, Castro is much more of a prospect than any of those three ever were (Check BA's Top 100 Lists from the past), especially considering he's got a better combination of plate discipline/defense/power potential than those three had at the age of 19. Don't get me wrong, I think Castro has plenty of issues and has been horrifically overhyped since the Arizona Fall League began. However, I don't think it's fair to say that he'll be a boom or a bust just because he profiles similarly to certain SS prospects who came before him.

For some reason I have a fairly vivid memory of watching him pitch against Atlanta while I was in a Dick's Sporting Goods in south Jersey, and he was decent. I always remember the shutout he threw against the Dodgers in '99. Didn't he only give up a hit or two in that game? 2 hits, 3 walks, 2 strike outs http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/gl.cgi?n1=farnsky01&t=p&year=1999 That still ranks among the most bizarre games I've ever seen.

Peoria and Daytona have the DH, so that should give some roster flexibility in putting these together. I can see Lake repeating Peoria for that reason.

I was excited because my friend got free tickets to this game and let me have one of them. Wow, was that an abomination to watch in person. I know this team doesn't have much depth. I also know that without Noah and Rose, they're not good. Nevertheless, that was some incredibly sloppy and poorly-played basketball. It was like the Bulls didn't even have a coach tonight.

It looked kind of like Peyton Manning.

Tom Benson secretly wants to put the Lombardi Trophy in his trophy case in Los Angeles.

You don't want to know what they did off-camera to get them.

well it's still too early to rape and rob Give it an hour.

Hey everybody, we're all going to get laid! http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn260/angrycarpenter/rodney.jpg

It's like they booked a mediocre cover band to play the halftime show.

The chick with a perm has a decent voice.

I asked him a question about some of the lesser-known Pacific Rim guys in the system. My gut is that he doesn't have much info on any of them, but it'd be nice to learn a bit more about guys like Spencer and Hams. As for my picks... Well-known Cubs: OF Brett Jackson and P Andrew Cashner Responding to Tim's remark about Vitters being the only potential 3/4 hitter in our system, I think Brett Jackson has the potential to fit that mold. He doesn't have Vitters' raw power, but he has a really tantalizing combination of power, speed, and patience to go with the ability to play CF very well. Frankly, I think he has it in him to be a Top 10 prospect in all of baseball, although that would require plenty of things to break in his favor next season. As for Cashner, he has some of the best pure stuff in the Cubs' system. It's hard not to get excited over a guy like him, especially if he can show he's a good starter. Sleepers: OF Dong-Yub Kim and P Jon Nagel I'm intrigued with what I read about Kim down in instructs. The Cubs forked over six figures for him and apparently he might be a five tool OF. That'd be pretty nice to have. Unless he blows everyone away in spring training, I don't see him starting in full season ball. I'm guessing he'll be in Boise. As for Nagel, I think he's been lost in the shuffle. He has TJS back in 2008 and the Cubs were enormously cautious with him in Boise last season. However, he had pretty nice strikeout numbers to go with a strong groundball rate. I have a pretty good feeling about him next season. Non-Cubs Prospects: SP Stephen Strasburg and C Buster Posey Kind of obvious picks, but I'm really excited to see what they can do in the majors.

240 IP last season. Yikes.

Volquez will probably be back around the All Star break, last I heard.

I'm looking forward to Miles leading off in at least 80 games.