Bertz

S.A.N.D.E.R.S.

I'll be interested to see what the approach at the deadline is. Last year after not being able to get the Marlins or Nats to play ball Jed went with a "depth-maxxing" play and punted on getting a playoff starter. Does this year go similarly, or are there enough differences to lead to a different outcome? - The team is more acutely in need of depth than it was last year. That's not at all to say they couldn't use impact, but I think it's even harder to poo poo Soroka/Kittredge types - Last year aside from the Twins the teams selling were all prolonged bottom feeders that had mostly been stripped for parts already. This year I'm sure 1-2 of these teams will get back in it but the Mets, Tigers, Bosox, Jays, and Orioles are all at least 5 games under .500 and were very much not supposed to be. The Angels and Giants appear to have truly bottomed out, and the Astros are 3 games under. "How much of a hardass is Pete Pendix feeling like today?" is not as load bearing of a question on this year's market, at least as it sits today - Last year Gore and Cabrera trades got punted to the offseason. With the lockout honestly teams probably can't count on being able to get big deals like that done over the winter - Last year's Cubs were slated to lose Tucker and a bunch of relievers to free agency, and that was it. The scariness of the "roster cliff" has subsided to an extent, but that's very much not the case this winter. Feels like this point combined with the one above should force some action on a cost controlled SP? - Last summer Jed had Owen Caissie, the ~50th ranked prospect in baseball, more or less burning a hole in his pocket. This team still has plenty of young position player depth, but no one as obvious as Caissie I am in the spirit of plan for the worst and hope for the best expecting something in line with last summer, probably a bit better of a rental SP than Soroka both for availability reasons and because they don't need a Willi Castro. But I do think things are materially different enough that we shouldn't just throw our hands up and say "if it didn't happen last year why would it this year?"

Nice! Really glad we'll have these guys in front of Statcast every game going forward

Yeah I was definitely guarded for something like this. This was one of the few times I checked an ACL game live instead of after the fact.

I'm not sure if this is new or something that's been true for a while, but Conrad is listed as active on the ACL Cubs bench.

I am almost certainly Alcantara's biggest cheerleader at this point so I'm biased but yeah he's been crushing it. Last two months at Iowa: 144 PAs, .315/.410/.573, 148 wRC+, 13.9% BB rate, 26.4% K rate, 8 homers

Yeah probably Shaw to the IL, that's a shame Shaw had some runway and was producing That said unlike last time Alcantara was up there are some actual lefty SPs on the docket over the next 10 days so hopefully he gets a chance to shine.

Yeah I feel like Wilson was more solid than anything yesterday. He got some good fortune, and probably doesn't miss enough bats to consistently put up 0's. Though the Brewers are a very high contact team so maybe he gets a few more whiffs against some softer lineups. That said Craig clearly likes having a long guy in this vein and this is also the type of arm Hottovy tends to get the most out of. I'd be very surprised if he doesn't make it until at least the ASB. To your point if they dump someone just to get a fresh arm up here it'll be Roberts (for Antoine Kelly?). Wilson makes it to the TDL I'd suspect.

I mean, feels like it probably should? Once a decade there's a Posey or a Rutschman but in between there's mounds of Henry Davis, Joey Bart, Kevin Parada types. If you told me that college catcher was a worse performing draft demographic than high school pitcher I'd probably believe you.

I wonder if the team considers piggybacking Shota and Assad tomorrow. The bullpen is shredded: - Webb has worked 4/5, he's definitely down tomorrow and honestly you'd probably try to avoid him Tuesday as well - Wilson is obviously down - Rolison only threw 23 pitches, but over two innings plus he warmed up in last night's game - Roberts has worked 3/4 so he's down - Ferguson has worked two in a row so you'd like to stay away from him - Wicks didn't work that hard today, but as a career SP how confident are we feeling about him working back-to-backs right now? - Thielbar and Thornton are fine Meanwhile Boyd and Rea are lined up to go Tuesday/Wednesday no sweat, and there's an off day Thursday to let you line up the rotation a little bit.

There was obviously some good fortune for the pitchers today but Bryse Wilson looked solid and Ferguson continues to look great.

Alexis Hernandez is a 21 year old shortstop running a .370ish OBP. Not a headliner in the system but goid guy to keep an eye on.

Owen Ayers on base 5x today We're now at 226 PAs at Tenn with a 1.061 OPS. Feels like it's no longer jumping the gun to wish him to Iowa? Maybe post Futures Game?

Drew Pomeranz struck out two in a hitless inning for Iowa and had the half a tick on his fastball back that he lost YoY. We're not as desperate for LH relief help as righty, but he might be a legit option again if we need him

FWIW looking at Savant statcast did a dogcrap job identifying Kipp's pitches, and that's understating his velo. Looks like he was 93-96 on the FB, 90-93 on the sinker, 88-91 on the cutter

I suspect it's actually Rolison to Wilson, and then whether they go to Wicks or the short relievers from there depends on the score

I think Detmers is on paper pretty on par with Cabrera/Baz/Gore from the offseason. You're paying a premium for it being the deadline, but ballpark that should be where your mind goes. Someone that is or very recently was in the middle of a top 100, a second piece that would hurt a good bit more than losing Hernandez (because it's the deadline), and something lottery ticket-y? Let's call it Rojas, Kepley, and Mule for sake of discussion? Like Jason said it'd hurt.

Rolison opener tomorrow, presumably handing off to Wilson from there.

Velasquez getting into this game and only pitching one inning is...curious. I assumed he was up to give length at some point this weekend. I would have expected him to get both the 8th and 9th, or be held back for tomorrow? I wonder if they have a roster move coming (Wicks?) and he's getting cut again prior to tomorrow's game regardless.

Trent Thornton's peripherals make me want to inject heroin into my forehead. But one small glimmer of hope I have is that the stuff models are both starting to think he's rounding back into form. He is coming back from a pretty gruesome injury so hopefully it is just a matter of needing time and innings.

I know he looks primed to be a tweener but man Jose Escobar will just not stop hitting

(Very much in a good way) WTF is going on with Ferguson's velocity?!

The MiLB app has Kipp starting for both Iowa and Tenn. Given both games will be going concurrently feels like that would be a severe strain on both his arm and legs

"Plus breaking ball and a lot of average to go with it" is a pretty standard scouting report for a quality middle reliever. Plus he's got a strikeout rate a hair under 25% at AA, and has done that in the rotation, so I reject the premise that he hasn't had big K numbers.

It's not especially necessary to arbitrary endpoints Jace Beck's season, but since 5/19 10 games, 3 starts, 31 IP, 55 (!!) K's, 14 BB, 2 dongs, 1.17 ERA And probably most notable, not only has he not regressed as he's gotten stretched out (last time was his forst time seeing the 3rd time throughthe order), he's gotten better