Rob G.'s Archives

First, Bryant takes home the minor league HR crown over his buddy Joey Gallo...for that he got a trophy and $200 per home run.

- Well, the Cubs let someone else hand out the stupid contract and the Red Sox are the winner. 6/72.5M for Rusney Castillo...a little over $12M per which isn't terrible for a Shane Victorino comp, but I don't think the Cubs had a spot for him for 6 years (or even 3) and certainly not at a price higher than what Jose Abreu or Yasiel Puig got.

- Javier Baez watch: 5 Home Runs, 3 Golden Sombreros

The Cubs seem to be intent to on playing Monopoly with the entirety of future position prospects as rumors from Buster Olney indicate they may be in the lead to acquire Cuban outfielder/infielder Rusney Castillo. Own the entire board and they'll have to come to you and pay overmarket prices for your property.

There's not much in Cubs news or even anecdotes to pass on at this time. Rosenthal had a video report that Jon Lester's Boston teammates believe he'll sign with the Cubs, but that'll have as much weight as a feather this offseason. The Tigers may be down another pitcher in Justin Verlander, and I wonder if Edwin Jackson would be of any interest. The Cubs would probably have to pay a lot of salary and get little in return, but worth a phone call probably. As for the current team, Operation Draft Pick is moving along nicely...currently in the 4th spot (which will actually be the 5th spot in the draft because of the Astros extra pick). It's a tight race with 45 games to go and with Alcantara, Hendricks and Baez out there with something to prove, I expect them to drift farther back than closer to a #1 pick.

The Cubs worked out a deal with the Miami Marlins for the aforementioned former top prospect Jacob Turner. In return, minor league relievers Tyler Bremer and Jose Arias will go to the Marlins.

Well my browser crashed in midst of typing out something longer, but here's the quick version.

- Javier Baez debut was very Javier Baez. Lots of K's, lots of power and lots of swinging.

- Cubs activate Kyuji Fujikawa and put Nate Sureouts to rest, DFA'ing him.

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Yesteday, the Cubs acquired LHP Felix Doubront for a player to be named later from the Boston Red Sox. A trade that I like a whole lot presuming the PTBNL isn't much and considering Doubront's ability to strikeout many hitters. A move to the NL Central certainly won't hurt his numbers either.

Today, the deadline has been rocking and the Cubs big moves were out of the way earlier in the month, but they have just traded Bonifacio and James Russell to the Braves. In return, they got catcher Victor Caratini, the Braves second round pick from last year. Here's what Sickels had to say about him before the season:

10) Victor Caratini, 3B-C, Grade C+: Borderline B-. Solid line drive hitter with good strike zone judgment, hit just one homer in the Appy League but some scouts believe that the homers will come in time. Others aren’t sure, but at least he has a good eye. Will be interesting to see how he adapts defensively.

After the jump, a breakdown of some of the other trades from the last few days...

Survival of the fittest and all, and Darwin Barney has just been naturally selected off of the Cubs 40-man roster. So Emilio Bonificaio is activated and Barney gets DFA'd, with Alcantara and Bonifacio both in the starting lineup tonight. Barney will end his Cubs career with over 2000 PA's (holy shit..really?) and a place in the Hall of Cubs Punch Lines. I'm sure a stand-up guy and all and his glove work was spectacular, but he was the hitting equivalent of the sad trombone. But on this day, we celebrate his Cubs career, let's take a fond look back.

Some quick hits...

It was fun while it lasted, a 4-game win streak and a run of 18-13 since May 30th had visions of Cubs' relevance dancing in my head. But then TheJedi receivedt the the quality and depth of prospects they hoped for from Billy Beane and that Cubs 2014 ballon deflated and whizzed off into the darkness. Don't get me wrong, it's not that they really had a chance of doing much in 2014, but it was fun watching winning baseball over the last month.

And sure, maybe Hendricks and Wada provide a close fascimile of the two dearly departed hurlers or Wood and Jackson will make their inevitable improvements and it's all a wash, but more likely, more trades will be made and the Cubs make another run at a top 5 pick. And it had to be a bit of a hit to the team morale when two of your better players get moved. But we all know what was expected this year, although Theo did mention seeing a "light at the end of tunnel", so hopefully 2014 marks the end of the asset gathering and 2015 marks the beginning of the time to try and win some games.

Who the hell makes trades on July 4th? Iphone posts are my favorites...

So the A's are the lucky winners for Jeff Samardzija AND Jason Hammel. In return, the Cubs get their top prospect Addison Russell, also Billy McKinney (2013 1st round pick), Dan Straily and a PTBNL. No idea where Russell is gonna play but good bet someone is moving to centerfield between Castro, Baez, Alcantara and Russell or someone is getting traded. 

More later, but the days of a poor offense aren't going to last much longer.

I'm not around much this week, but a quick note to give you a new thread to chat on. 4th overall pick Kyle Schwarber assaulted the Northwest League for a few days and got a quick promotion to Kane County and the Midwest League yesterday. Then after Kris Bryant won the home run derby in the Southern League All-Star game, he got his promotion to AAA to play along side Javier Baez. I haven't seen what the Iowa roster shake-up will be to make room for Bryant to play 3b, but demoting Christian Villanueva would probably make the most sense.

I've got the draft signing block in the left sidebar up already with the Zagunis signing in there. Otherwise the final day has begun and I will be updating very sporadically.

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11th Round Pick #319 - Jordan Brink, RHP from Fresno State - Junior

There have been some interesting pitching prospects in recent Drafts who came late to full-time pitching, including first-rounders Braden Shipley in 2013 and Kyle Zimmer in 2012. While Brink isn't quite that high-profile, he has the chance to do well now that he's focused only on the mound. An outfielder for his first two years at Fresno State, Brink split time between playing that position and pitching as a sophomore then turned to pitching full-time in 2014. He's athletic, if a bit undersized, with the makings of two plus pitches in his fastball and spike curveball, which looks like a hard slider at times. He's working on developing his changeup. The jury is still out on whether Brink can start long-term -- sometimes a bias against undersized right-handers -- or he'll end up in the bullpen. Either way, his arm looks like it has a shot to pitch at the highest level.

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12th Round Pick #349 - Tanner Griggs, RHP from Angelina College (TX) - J2

Day 2 of the draft has just started and the Cubs are on the clock and will likely have their pick by the time I stop typing. As for Day 1, we know all about Kyle Schwarber at this point and how he's truly the player the Cubs scouts desired. Second round pick Jake Stinnett sounds like he'll be an easy sign and at some point (probably near or after Round 10), the Cubs will likely go for a few reaches in hope of signing some players that were deemed unsignable. If you're interested, Stinnett will pitch in the super regionals tomorrow versus Virginia and I believe all games will be televised on the ESPN channels.

As for Round 3, here we go... (UPDATE: Done for the day, hope they can sign most of these guys)

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3rd Round Pick #78 - Mark Zagunis, C from Viriginia Tech - Junior

A three-year starter at Virginia Tech and a Johnny Bench Award semifinalist, Zagunis is an athletic catcher who has performed in one of the better college conferences in the nation. The ACC standout has shown a propensity for putting the ball in play and hitting for average, albeit from a slightly unusual setup. He's shown some extra-base pop in the past, though not as much in 2014. He runs extremely well for a catcher and has shown that his athleticism plays well in the outfield. His arm is average but on target, and his other skills say he could stay behind the plate full-time. The team that believes he can continue to hit might think he has the chance to be an everyday backstop in the future, and it will draft him accordingly. At the very least, Zagunis' versatility provides a team with options if catching doesn't work out.