Cubs rumors
Matt Garza to Rangers Imminent...Until It Wasn't
So the Twitter-verse exploded Thursday night with numerous reports that the Rangers and Cubs were nearing a deal to send Matt Garza to Texas for up to 3 prospects. Names were even bandied about that included the likes of Luke Jackson, C.J. Edwards and a position player that varied between Mike Olt, Luis Sardinas or Jorge Alfaro.
All-Star Break Rumor Thread
Not that there will be too many over the break, most of the league takes a vacation along with the players, but Kaplan is spinning his wheels on a Matt Garza one.
I'm hearing Garza will be traded by Sat. Cubs won't move him though until they get what they want. They won't panic out of fear of injury.
An AL scout just told me that he thinks Garza is throwing so well that the Cubs are in a phenomenal spot to land a tremendous deal.
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We Shall Rumor On...
- Ricky Nolasco got shelled versus the Padres last night, one of the teams rumored to be in on him in trade talks...whether that will stunt his value or not remains to be seen, but it certainly didn't help it in any way. After Garza got himself injured before the Cubs could deal him last season, you kind of hope a deal could be had before Garza's next start on Wednesday versus the A's.
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Soler Broken and Other Cubs News
A few weeks back, Jorge Soler fouled a ball of his shin...a seemingly common occurrence in baseball that carries little consequence past the few moments of stinging pain for the offending party. This being the Cubs and all, the foul ball sent Soler to the 7-day disabled list of which he returned off of this week. The leg still hurt though and now it's being reported that he has a stress fracture and will be out 4-6 walks and possibly the rest of the season. Oh Cubbery...you strike in mysterious ways! Soler will of course miss the Futures Game as well over the All-Star Break, which him and Arismendy Alcantara were named to the World rosters.
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The Trade Winds Blow
Undoubtedbly the Cubs wil be selling as the July trade deadline approaches with Matt Garza, Scott Feldman, Kevin Gregg & Nate Schierholtz being the most likely chips on the table. There certainly may be others, but those players make the most sense. Let's take a look at some potential trade partners:
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Cranking Up the Rumor Mill
First off, Darwin Barney is a "finalist" for a Gold Glove at second base...as if they dont' already know the winner. But they've decided to drum up interest by naming the top 3 or 4 at each position and then announcing the winner in a televised event on ESPN2 tomorrow. Holy overkill Batman!
2012 Trade Deadline Free-for-All
3:16 PM: Nevermind, looks like 3B Christian Villanueva and RHP Kyle Hendricks. Villanueva was #100 on BA's top 100 prospects in baseball list before the season. He was #7 on Goldstein's top 11 list:
Year in Review: After impressing last year in the complex leagues, Villanueva was a Sally League All-Star in his full-season debut.
The Good: Villanueva has outstanding bat speed and impressive power for his size, projecting to hit for average with 15-20home runs annually. He's an impressive athlete with average to slightly-above-average speed; he has improved his defense at third base, and has good hands with a strong arm.
The Bad: Other than the bat, Villanueva is not exceptionally toolsy. His approach could use improvement. He's filling out and getting stocky, and will likely lose some of his speed down the road.
Ephemera: Villanueva was used in six different spots of the Hickory batting order in 2011, but had the most success in the six-hole, hitting .357/.410/.629 in 20 games.
Perfect World Projection: Above-average third baseman.
Fantasy Impact: A good batting average with some power and more speed than your average third baseman.
Path to the Big Leagues: Villanueva is buried in Texas at the hot corner, and the Rangers have experimented with him at other positions. He'll begin the 2012 season at High-A Myrtle Beach.
ETA: 2015
Not finding much on Hendricks.
3:14 PM: Heh, on that note, one dude is hearing that it's Odor and Roman Mendez. Don't take that too seriously yet.
3:12 PM: Pure speculation on my part, but Rougned Odor (that's a terribly unfortunate name) is a Class A position player in that top 20 list.
3:06 PM: Rosenthal says a Class A pitcher and a Class A position player are headed to the Cubs.
3:03 PM: Here's a Rangers top 20 prospect list to start speculating upon. It won't be Profar or Olt.
3:00 PM: And fin. I'll try and get the prospects for Dempster up before I take off here.
2:58 PM: Scott Miller of CBS saying Rangers as well for Dempster...and so is Buster Olney.
2:57 PM: Whomever Ken Gurnick is, he's dropping the Rangers as the destination for Dempster. I believe he's the Dodgers beat writer for mlb.com
2:50 PM: Bowden saying Yanks "may have" acquired Dempster.
2:49 PM: Dodgers beat writer for the L.A. Times Dylan Hernandez says Dodgers are out on Dempster and they're done making deals today.
2:41 PM: The NL Central has been busy, Pirates get Gaby Sanchez and Travis Snider (that happened last night). Cardinals get reliever Ed Mujica and Reds get Jonathon Broxton.
2:15 PM: Nightengale saying that Soriano likely staying put, but of course he'll easily clear waivers, so an August deal is always possible.
2:06 PM: Kaplan says Tigers and Cubs are hard at work trying to complete a deal for Soriano.
2:03 PM: Dempster has allegedly said he'd waive his NTC for the Yankees, Rangers and Dodgers.
1:25 PM: Heyman tweet claim Dempster has already told Cubs he'd agree to a trade with Yankees...sure. Rothschild and Hendry are over there, so it does make some sense.
1:09 PM: Some Dempster to the Yankees or Diamondbacks rumors floating.
12:33 PM: Olney saying that Diamondbacks are working on something big and then teases a Justin Upton for Matt Garza deal as making sense. Of course the Cubs are on Justin Upton's no-trade list.
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Dempster "Blindsided" by Trade, Confused by Baseball's News Cycle
So the latest on the Dempster saga is that Ryan Dempster was "blindsided" by the trade yesterday and because of this, he's going to take the full week to decide. Rumors are that he strongly prefers to go the Dodgers and seems to be trying to push the Cubs into accepting a deal from them, although it certainly won't be as good as getting Randall Delgado from the Braves.
Other things Dempster has been blindsided by (a few I'm stealing from Twitter):
- His Birthday
- the birth of his chidren
- the start of the season
- spring training
- warmer temperatures in the summer
Yeah, it would have been great if the Cubs got to him before the news leaked out, but you work in a multi-billion dollar business with reporters that are good at their job, throwing a temper tantrum over it isn't particularly professional.
Braves Appear to Win the Ryan Dempster Lotto
David O'Brien started it all with a tweet saying that the Braves were close to finalizing a deal for a starting pitcher and then Jon Heyman, Jerry Crasnick and Jason Stark said it was Ryan Dempster.
Byrd Flying East for the Summer
UPDATE #2: @Sean_McAdam: Red Sox will be responsible for only the pro-rated minimum - about $400K -- of Marlon Byrd's $6.5 million salary. Cubs eat the rest.
UPDATE: @Sean_McAdam Baseball source: Byrd to Red Sox for Michael Bowden and PTBNL done. Cubs will pick up "most'' of Byrd's $6.5 million.
Nick Cafardo was the first to report that the Cubs and Red Sox are working on a deal to send Marlon Byrd to the Red Sox. It would also make sense of the earlier roster move today where the Cubs called up Tony Campana to put Ryan Dempster on the disabled list since they still need to lose a body to make room for Randy Wells tomorrow.
Bruce Levine is saying the Cubs will get a left-handed reliever and a minor leaguer in the deal and it should be completed today. I'm presuming Cubs will pay a healthy portion of Byrd's roughly $6.5M salary as well, but no word on that yet. Franklin Morales and Justin Thomas are the 2 lefties on their current active roster. There's also Michael Bowden, a righty, that was DFA'd last week by them.
Lineups for today's loss after the jump...
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Recent comments
Arizona Phil (view)
azbobbop: Yes.
Mike Wellman (view)
I’ve got Tim’s The Last Out too, along with some other prints of his work.
TarzanJoeWallis (view)
Very well played game all around tonight.
crunch (view)
best starter and 2 top hitters from the team gone...and they keep on winning.
little ahead of myself here, but the RSox got 9 outs to find 6+ runs.
TarzanJoeWallis (view)
Richard Gallardo just left the Smokies game with an arm injury after going to the ground following a pitch. Doesn’t sound good at all.
azbobbop (view)
Phil, do you think Wiggins will start out in ACL?
azbobbop (view)
The level of conversation on this site is intelligent, reasoned and informative. Miles ahead of other Cub sites.
Arizona Phil (view)
This was Jaxon Wiggins previous "live" BP on 4/5:
JAXON WIGGINS:
ONE INNING (20 pitches - 10 strikes)
one batted ball in play (F-9 by Stevens)
one walk (B. Davis)
one HBP (B. Davis)
two strikeouts (Peralta & Escobar - both looking)
three swing & miss
two fouls
four called strikes
nine called balls
Arizona Phil (view)
Prior to the Cactus League game at Papago Park, three Cubs pitchers threw "live" BP on Field 1 at the Cubs Sloan Park complex, including RHRP Ethan Roberts (June 2022 TJS) and Cubs 2023 2nd round draft pick RHP Jaxon Wiggins (February 2023 TJS).
Wiggins last threw "live" BP three weeks ago before being shut down for a couple of weeks, and this was the first time Roberts has thrown to hitters in almost two years.
JAXON WIGGINS:
ONE INNING:
25 pitches (11 strikes)
no batted balls in play
two walks (Suriel and J. Diaz)
three strikeouts (Carico, Lubo, and Escobar - all three swinging)
six swing & miss
two fouls
three called strikes
14 called balls
one WP
ETHAN ROBERTS:
ONE INNING
15 pitches (7 strikes)
two batted balls in play (G-3 by Carico and L-9 by Suriel)
two walks (Lubo and Carico)
no strikeouts
no swing & miss
two fouls
three called strikes
eight called balls
one WP
Mat Peters was bumped by Justin Steele from his scheduled game work at Giants, so he threw two innings of "live" BP with Wiggins & Roberts.
MAT PETERS:
TWO INNINGS
44 pitches (23 strikes)
five batted balls in play (F-7, L-7, F-7, G-6, G-3)
three walks
two strikeouts (both Lubo and both looking)
six swing & miss
three fouls
nine called strikes
21 called balls
three WP
crunch (view)
wall stole a HR from busch...double. nice to see him destroy a curve ball.
upon further viewing, that might not have been a homer in too many parks...it had a lot of hang time, though.