After what felt like months of chatting about compensation, GM's, presidents and managers, the new powers-that-be finally get around to some player juggling. The deadline to protect players from the Rule 5 draft is soon approaching and the Cubs had some decisions to make. The lucky 4 deemed worth protecting were Josh Vitters, Matt Szczur, Jeff Beliveau and Junior Lake. The Cubs cut some dead weight by outrighting Esmailin Caridad, Luis Montanez and Kyle Smit and according to the press release, their roster stands at 34 at the moment. Ideally AZ Phil will come along here shortly and remind us who that leaves unprotected, although I do believe the big surprise is Ryan Flaherty being left off. I wonder what the Cubs brass knows that I'm not seeing.
UPDATE: I recovered Phil's work and on the lower right sidebar, you'll see an updated list through 11/4/11 with whom is eligible, including such names as Ryan Flaherty, Jay Jackson, Blake Parker, Dae-Eun Rhee and Marwin Gonzalez.
AZ PHIL UPDATE: I have updated the 2011 Rule 5 Draft eligible list, the post-2011 Minor League FA list, and the current Cubs Roster & Contract Status lists on the right side-bar to reflect today's roster moves, and I have also updated the 40-man roster file in AZ PHIL'S CORNER.
Gordon Wittenmyer@GDubCub
Sveum says Cubs likely to get bench back to full strength for weekend Houston series, get pen back to 7 guys. Clev or Sappy are possible.
welly with his 9th walk on the season...8th since may 23rd. ...still waiting on his 1st xbase hit of the month (9 singles).
also, cubs tie bottom 2nd on a play at the plate that rizzo would have been out by a mile on if y.molina didn't drop the ball.
I thought the Hannemann bonus was high because of comments his father made right after the draft about what he'd be signing for. More like slot. Which was higher than most thought because they had him ranked lower on draft boards.
The guy is already 22 with minimal baseball experience. I'll be rooting for him to turn into the next Ellsbury (without the injuries). But...
COL is going to option j.francis to AAA
Beat the Streak players everywhere groan. There's always Pelfrey.
COL is going to option j.francis to AAA...roy oswalt, welcome back to the bigs.
it's $263,800 over slot ($736,200), they paid $261,900 under slot for Zastryzny, doesn't seem that crazy since he had some leverage. So far 4th rounder Skulina is the biggest overslot at $323K, although if 12th rounder Clifton did get "3rd round money", he'll probably net the biggest difference.
Bryant is probably going to come in under $6M, so Cubs should save there as well.
damn...that's about 400-500K more than most people in round 3 have signed for so far.
it's pretty much early/mid 2nd round loot...and 100K less than the cubs very early 2nd round pick Z-nasty.
they also signed their 4th round pick for $800K...which is about 300-400K more than expected.
here's a tracker btw,
http://www.baseballamerica.com/draftdb/2013xteam.p...
"Cubs manager Dale Sveum said Wednesday that he expects David DeJesus (shoulder) to miss about a month."
Holy overpay Batman.
Jim Callis@jimcallisBA
#Cubs, 3rd-rder Jacob Hannemann agree on $1 million. Brigham Young OF/cornerback, VG speed, also bat, power & CF skills. #mlbdraft
Groan
Sandberg never made sense as a base coach because he was best going from third to second.
"The Houston Astros say they have signed right-handed pitcher Mark Appel of Stanford, the No. 1 overall pick in the draft earlier this month.
Terms were not disclosed Wednesday ahead of a news conference with Appel."
http://espn.go.com/mlb/draft/2013/story/_/id/94038...
Somebody e-mailed me to ask why Gerardo Concepcion is eligible for selection in the December 2013 Rule 5 Draft if he signed his first contract in March 2012.
Concepcion is eligible because any player who has been outrighted previously in his career is eligible for selection in all subsequent Rule 5 Drafts, even if he otherwise would not be eligible.
Have they changed the meaning of extend again? Kids these days, just when I've gotten used to bad meaning good.
The Cubs should extend Marmol now while he's in his little slump.
(Ducks)
A+