John Sickels has published his 2013 farm system rankings and the Cubs are 10th. That's 10 spots better than a year ago. The Cubs system has improved quite a bit.
10) Chicago Cubs (20): Another system that has improved quickly. Strengths: hitting at the top: Javier Baez, Albert Almora, Jorge Soler, Dan Vogelbach is a very impressive quartet and there is depth beyond them. Good developments with recent Latin American prospects at the lower levels. Weaknesses: pitching is much, much weaker than the hitting. Improving that has to be a priority.
Of the four mentioned, only Baez is above Low A so the Cubs will have to wait awhile for this group to arrive. It will also be interesting to see how the Cubs go about improving their pitching. They'll take the best player available in the draft when they pick 2nd and my guess is that will be a position player. They'll probably stock up in the next few rounds as they did last summer and hope some of them stick.
It's good news that the Cubs are 10th, but there wouldn't be good news without bad news. The Cardinals have the best farm system in baseball and another NL Central team, the Pirates, also rank higher than the Cubs at 9th. So even with an improved farm system, the Cubs are still middle of the pack in the division. The Reds aren't far behind either.
Reading “Baseball Between the Numbers.” Who’s this Barry Bonds guy they keep talking about? He sounds like a first ballot hall of famer.
@ josh:
Nice little player.
In reference to the wins projection of last thread, Myles mentioned they are going to be bad on defense again. I think that annoyed me more than anything last year. There weren’t very many leads last year, and the ones they had you could bet they were going to blow. At least, that’s how it felt.
@ josh:
I think defensively they’ll be OK. Not good or anything, but not terrible.
I do hope that we can mine Garza for an upper-level pitching prospect this season. Would certainly be nice.
I hope the Royals are still contending at the deadline, because based on their trade of Wil Myers to the Rays, we should be able to fleece them for whatever is left in return for Ian Stewart and Soriano.
@ SVB:
@ Rice Cube:
And now Bill Murray is playing FDR? Isn’t that like sending a 24 year old infielder back to learn how to be a pitcher?
@ SVB:
I had no idea Bill Murray was going to play an American badass.
Also, this is a sad:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2013/01/30/porn-star-ron-jeremy-aneurysm/1878273/
LaTroy Hawkins —-> Mets
@ Rice Cube:
Probably too many PEDs…..
@ Rice Cube:
I’m sure he will film one more porno before he croaks.
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2013/01/rodriguez-may-not-return-to-yankees-1.html
Why would he retire/settle? It’s to his benefit since the contract is unlikely to be voided etc. and the Yankees can’t get rid of him without taking a massive hit to keep stretching this out such that he gets paid all the money. I don’t think they can force him to retire. He also has the championship ring already. I get that he’s competitive and wants to break Barry Bonds’ homer record, but that’s a shitload of money to consider walking away from. I’d want the whole bag.
Or he could do as Calcaterra said and just take the 50 game suspension while recovering from surgery (dying laughing) Then he only loses $10MM or so. I don’t think they could void the rest of his contract post-suspension either. Not a lawyer…
We need a GBTS signal.
@ dmick89:
He’ll probably work long and hard to make that happen.
Can we stop it with these fucking puns?
http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/01/31/people-continue-to-assume-a-rod-is-going-to-simply-walk-away-from-114-million/
@ dmick89:
That’s awesome.
@ Mish:
Agreed. Maybe they’ll use the OV logo when this blog turns 94.
@ dmick89:
I didn’t have a lot of time today, but here ya go…also put this on your FB…
@ Rice Cube:
I’m sure one of you guys can clean it up a bit later so as not to get super-sued. Feel free to delete if that becomes a problem.
@ Rice Cube:
Google would find some clever way to embed their name into the forest gif
Carlos Marmol ————> accused of domestic violence in DR
New Shitling
Berselius wrote:
(dying laughing) @ the commenter making the George Costanza at Play Now comparison.
@ Myles:
This should have been a dingleberry.
Life imitates Spaceballs:
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/cans-fresh-air-sale-china-234302171.html
New (awesome) Shit