Bertz

The Cespedes BBQ guys wrote up the draft. Obviously not as insightful as a lot of other sources but they're good writers so it's also not as dry if you're just jumping in this weekend and trying to catch up.

The Cubs are a half game out of the #1 seed in the NL. This fanbase is deeply deeply dumb

I think it depends on defensive reports on Moises and how much you want to discount Wiggins for the crime of being a pitcher, but yeah honestly if you wanted to argue him #1 even right now I wouldn't push back.

For knowing how to count?

Ariel Armas is on a little bit of a heater. With his defense if he hits *at all* he's a thing

I can assure you from experience facts hold no sway in this particular discussion

You brought up his innings in the context of injury so majors or minors is pretty meaningless.

You seem pretty confident in this and it's extremely not true

Patrick Mooney and Sahadev Sharma of the Athletic emptied their notebooks this morning with notes on what they're hearing about the Cubs' trade plans as we approach this month's deadline. Among the many players touched on were two pitchers currently convalescing at AAA: Jon Gray and Tanner Houck. Jon Gray has been on Cubs' fans radars for over a decade. First as the primary alternative to Kris Bryant in the 2013 draft, and subsequently many more times over the years as a potential trade or free agent target. Gray is a pending free agent, and now firmly in the "boring innings eater" stage of his career. Though he has quite a bit more fastball velocity than the innings eater archetype tends to offer, so he may still have some untapped upside. Tanner Houck is a much more intriguing option. A year ago at this time he looked like a full blown superstar, ranking 3rd in the league in pitching fWAR heading into last year's All Star Break. But a mediocre second half followed by an injury marred start to 2025 has changed things in a hurry. Houck is not a free agent until after the 2027 season, so he would be a long term contributor if he can put the injury troubles behind him. Mooney & Sharma touched on a number of other names, including many of the usual suspects. It's clear that Jed Hoyer and the Cubs' front office are casting a wide net for potential upgrades. View full rumor

The Yankees not having a bullpen of doom is low key one of the most shocking things league wide this year. Like they've been as consistent as the Brewers about it over the last 10ish years

Every NL playoff hopeful except Philly is worse vs. LHP than RHP, and Philly is very nearly flat. So if anything a lefty would be a positive unless/until we got to the World Series (the AL is kinda the opposite where they all mash lefties). I'm willing to take that chance

The K's are still way too high (31%) but after Lumpuy's cycle last night he has a .259/.328/.428 line over the last month. My the lowly offensive standards at Myrtle Beach that's a 129 wRC+

On the one hand I'm not feeling any of the high school bats in our range this year On the other hand, the Myrtle Beach lineup has been horrific, so it's hard to argue against the idea that in terms of organizational depth teenage hitters who can actually hit is a pressing area of need.

This would be an extremely stupid game for the Cubs to win so that makes it more or less a lock

A few things IMO #1. Like Muntjack said, the bar is on the floor right now #2. It has definitely gotten harder for hitters to break into MLB than in the past, but that's not to say *nobody* can have early success. It's just now gone from like a 50/50 deal to like a 30/70 deal #3. I see Long's long term role as owning the Turner role on this team. I'm fine pulling the trigger on giving it to him now. "But what if he's bad?" doesn't really move me because the pressure to compete is going to be just as strong next year

Caissie is the most likely prospect to be traded this month by a fairly significant margin

He's still too old for SB but Cam Sisneros just continues to mash

I'm curious if Cristian Hernandez makes the jump to Tennessee with Rojas in a few weeks. On the one hand he's doing well at SB but not really dominating in a way that calls for that mid-season promotion. On the other hand he is approaching a calendar year at the level, and I think there is some value to moving guys through the org with a buddy.

I'm actually down for making the Long/Turner swap whenever. Long's had a prolonged slump and worked his way out, which tends to be the last box to check for the Cubs' to move a guy up a level. And Turner's had another month to show its not gonna happen. And letting him hold on to get dong #200 is the kind of good gesture the players see. Turner and Brujan out with Long and Willi Castro in would be a pretty perfect way to tie a bow on the position player group IMO.

Lumpuy is 2/2 with a dong. He's actually been hitting a bit the last few weeks

I think a couple things are true here with Moises - The raw power is pretty firmly average, and at 5'8" that's probably not going anywhere. That said some incremental improvements to his pull rate and GB rate should get him a little more over the fence production. His statcast data isn't that far off of e.g. Josh Naylor - The total offensive production on an age relative to league basis is incredible. He's the 4th youngest player in AAA this year, and yet is rocking a ~85th percentile xwOBA - His contact ability is superb, he looks like he should rock a sub 15% K rate long term So I do think most of his ceiling is riding on him sticking behind the plate. But the floor feels pretty high even as a 1B/DH, as I'm not sure there's more than a couple of bats in the minors who are more likely to be above average MLB hitters.

Nico's a free agent after next season, which lines up more or less exactly with when you'd want to hand Rojas a job if he continues to progress at a good pace. And as much as I'm not wanting to take Shaw out back and shoot him like most of our fanbase, he's hardly done enough for us to consider 3B settled for the foreseeable future.