CaliforniaRaisin

Of course he's valuable, which is why he would probably get us some of the big name pitchers we've been discussing. I think you're totally exaggerating by saying "It would be devastating to go from him to Baez in 2018", when he showed that he was more than able to replace him when Russell was out with an injury. The defense would suffer at 2B, but not at SS. Also, there is some concern that his injury and off field problems might end up being a problem. Russell is literally the best or 2nd best defensive SS in baseball, Javy is not Third at best (Simmons and Lindor, for sure) but my God do Cubs fans underrate Russell's SS defense and overestimate Javy's.

4th or 5th round pick.(5th, I think) Big power, had some hamstring issues during his HS season in Puerto Rico last year, so underperformed a bit. Healthy now, seems like we got a steal. Was over slotted, slot was 285k and we gave him 400k. 5th round. I can't remember who it was, but one of the national guys was commenting on how legit he was after the season. Went on to compliment the Cubs for being able to look past the injury-plagued HS season to see his talent. I believe it was Longenhagen at Fangraphs, who lives in the Phoenix area and gets in a lot of AZL games.

The projected lineup in 2021 is amusing. Between the position players and pitchers, there's one prospect. One position player over 30:

Cubs Top 10 Prospects 1. Aramis Ademan, SS 2. Adbert Alzolay, RHP 3. Jose Albertos, RHP 4. Victor Caratini, C 5. Alex Lange, RHP 6. Oscar De La Cruz, RHP 7. Brendon Little, LHP 8. Thomas Hatch, RHP 9. Jen-Ho Tseng, RHP 10. Nelson Velazquez, OF BEST TOOLS Best Hitter for Average: Victor Caratini. Best Power Hitter: Nelson Velazquez. Best Strike-Zone Discipline: Mark Zagunis. Fastest Baserunner: D.J. Wilson. Best Athlete: D.J. Wilson. Best Fastball: Dillon Maples. Best Curveball: Alex Lange. Best Slider: Dillon Maples. Best Changeup: Jose Albertos. Best Control: Jen-Ho Tseng. Best Defensive Catcher: P.J. Higgins. Best Defensive INF: Luis Vazquez. Best INF Arm: Luis Vazquez. Best Defensive OF: D.J. Wilson. Best OF Arm: Eddy Martinez. Read more at http://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/2018-chicago-cubs-top-10-prospects/#FzqEYRKc3TfKizCm.99 Read more at http://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/2018-chicago-cubs-top-10-prospects/#kScctYXLA7w8Yr4E.99

Woof.

Haha, they might have the advantage at quarterback for the first time in 25 years and they're losing.

Eligible when the Cubs are out of the penalty box, but we're getting to the point where many big spending teams have already allocated their funds with pre-arranged deals. That's the type of arm you'd love to get in the system. The curve looked fantastic too.

Even if the Yankees or Rangers, who have the *most* money to offer Ohtani get him, they're going to do some under the table stuff. MLB basically guaranteed under the table stuff with the new CBA.

FYI: John Andreoli and Trey Martin were the most well known names amongst Cub minor leaguers electing free agency.

New Cuban defector is waiting to be granted free agency. He's subject to the new CBA rules since he's only 21, so hopefully he'll be granted free agency by July when the Cubs are out of the penalty box. http://www.baseballamerica.com/international/outfielder-julio-pablo-martinez-leaves-cuba-sign-mlb-team/#YormXEPqQcwhHGRD.97

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Heyward was committed to UCLA coming out of HS in the Atlanta area.

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horsefeathers. [tweet] [/tweet]

Not sure why the Giants would do that.

[tweet] [/tweet] Yeah, that's Lonzo's younger brother.

maybe wade really believes in himself, but if i was him i would be so terrified of falling off a cliff in 2018 that i would take the best multi-year offer and roll with it Yeah, a pitcher would be silly to not go with a multiyear contract as long as it's remotely close to the AAV of the 1-year offer.

Sup davell:

Doesn't that probably happen every year though? It stands to reason that Cy Young candidates are pitching for playoff teams and are going to make multiple starts in any playoff series. Not really... Looking at ALCS and NLCS teams the last few years. If a Cy Young finalist played for the team in question, I went down 1 spot in the voting. 2017 Dodgers: 0 out of 15 games (although we don't know who is 4th in NL Cy Young voting, so not sure who to replace Kershaw with. If its Greinke, then 1 out of 15 games) 2017 Cubs: 5 out of 10 games (Strasburg x2, Scherzer, Kershaw x2) 2017 Astros: 5 out of 18 games (Sale, Severino x2, Kershaw x2) 2017 Yankees: 2 out of 12 games (Kluber x2 - Same as Dodgers, don't know who finished 4th) 2016 Dodgers: 5 out of 11 games (Scherzer x2, Lester x2, Hendricks) 2016 Cubs: 6 out of 17 games (Bumgarner, Kershaw x2, Kluber x3) 2016 Blue Jays: 2 out of 9 games (Kluber x2 - Kluber is the only pitcher in the Top 10 of voting that the Jays faced that year) 2016 Indians: 5 out of 15 games (Porcello, Lester x2, Hendricks x2) 2015 Mets: 5 out of 14 games (Kershaw x2, Greinke x2, Arrieta) 2015 Cubs: 1 out of 9 games (Cole) 2015 Royals: 3 out of 16 games (Kuechel, Price x2) 2015 Jays: 0 out of 11 games 2014 Giants: 2 out of 16 games (Wainwright x2) 2014 Cardinals: 4 out of 9 games (Kershaw x2, Bumgarner x2) 2014 Royals: 0 out of 15 games 2014 Orioles: 0 out of 7 games So on average, a team faced a starter who is a Cy Young finalist 45 times in 204 games (22% of the time). The highest percentages in a run were the 2017 Cubs (50%), 2016 Dodgers (45%), 2014 Cardinals (44%), 2015 Mets (36%) and 2016 Cubs (35%). Of course its kind of limiting to draw the line at Top 3 Cy Young finishers as there are plenty of extremely good pitchers who didn't finish top 3 for whatever reason. BTW, in the games the Cubs didn't face Kershaw, Strasburg and Scherzer, they faced Alex Wood (2.72 ERA), Gio Gonzalez (2.96 ERA) x2, Rich Hill (3.32 ERA), Yu Darvish (3.44 ERA). And a CYA finalist (Scherzer) pitched out of the bullpen in one of their other 5 playoff games.

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Alex Cobb got a QO.

You probably don't like Homerpalooza as much because you wouldn't miss a Cubs playoff game for any of the bands in that episode.

He's entitled to his opinion the same as the guys that are kneeling are entitled to theirs. He's certainly entitled to his opinion, and we're entitled to call out his [expletive]. Vin often talks about how meaningful his friendship with Jackie Robinson is, yet he says something like that?