Rob G.'s Archives

- Alfonso Soriano had a "scheduled" off day on Wednesday versus the Diamondbacks despite some gaudy career numbers against Ian Kennedy (6-for-13, 3 HR's, 7 RBI's, 3 BB's). The Twitter-verse was having none of it and the conspiracies flowed that the Cubs were just awaiting his approval on a deal. Soriano showed up though for a pre-game chat with the reporters and spilled the beans that he would accept the a trade to the Yankees and apparently gave TheJedi a list of a few other teams he'd be willing to say yes to...so it's Soriano waiting on the Cubs and the rest of the league. As of now, a trade has not been made, but somehow Soriano didn't manage to even get an at-bat in a 12-inning affair last night that the Cubs eventually won 7-6.

The N.Y. Post is reporting that the Yankees and Cubs are close to deal that will send Alfonso Soriano to the Yankees for a mid-level prospect. The Cubs owe a little over $6M for the rest of 2013 on Soriano's deal and then $18 million next year and the Cubs will pay the bulk of it, and whatever the Yankees are contributing will be for this year as the Yanks are trying to avoid luxury tax hell next season.

Rumors be the Cubs were just waiting to see if the news on Clay Bucholz turned for the worst in a hope to get the Red Sox heavily involved. That didn't happen and now Garza is headed to Texas, a team he had nearly joined two other times (before being initially traded to Cubs and last trade deadline).

Not yet...

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.

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.

UPDATE: Bryant has indeed signed at slot value of $6,708,400, according to Sullivan. That would put the Cubs at $10,743,400 and $186,900 over and would still have $340,925 to play with before having to worry about losing a draft pick.

Lets see what a post on my iPhone looks like...apologies in advance.

After a nice little run where the Cubs took 6 of 9 versus the baseball bottom-feeders (Astros, Brewers & Mariners), the Cubs are back to playing the major league teams and have promptly dropped 3 of 4 including yet another loss to Fransisco Liriano this afternoon. 3 More months of this fun...

Busy morning in Cubville...to the news ticker!

The Cubs have dealt RHP Scott Feldman and C/INF Steve Clevenger to the Baltimore Orioles for Brian Roberts.

I keed!!

It's for RHP Jake Arrieta and RHP Pedro Strop and some international pool money (more on that in a bit).

Here's the pertinent details...

- 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.

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.

TheJedi took away some of the Blackhawks thunder this morning by finally ridding the Cubs of long-time heart attack-in-waiting, Carlos Marmol. The Cubs will have 10 days to trade him or he'll be released, either way the Cubs are going to be on the hook for the bulk of the rest of what he's owed (around $5M). They also announced that the suspension of Ian Stewart was upheld and he's been released as well. There were earlier rumors that the two sides were discussing a settlement, so I'm unsure if he'll get all of the money still owed to him or just a portion. Brian Bogusevic is the next up on the Price is Right and will take Marmol's spot on the 40-man.

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:

And we're back at it today...with their first two picks Cubs picked Kris Bryant out of San Diego and then LHP Rob Zastryzny out of Missourri, the latter certainly being a signability pick to save some money to help secure the junior Bryant, who will have Boras and leverage in his corner.

The Cubs round 3 pick is CF Jacob Hannemann out of Brigham Young, a lefty at the plate and with the arm, the 22-year old is just a freshman, but that's because he took a few years off on a Mormom mission.

The MLB.com scouting report is below the fold.