Weekend Catch-Up: Baez Break, IFA Rumors, Cubs Wins, Gearing Up for the Draft, More
It was a very busy weekend around here, even with The Taylor Family on the road. If you took off for a vacation and didn’t nerd it up like I did, you’re going to want to peruse the headlines.
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Friday, June 5
- The Cubs kinda walked-off on the Nationals to start their series – you can’t actually walk off on the road, but David Ross’s pick-off throw ended the game.
- The South Bend Cubs have some All-Stars.
- Luke wrote that the Cubs are reportedly showing serious interest in the top international prospect, Cuban Eddy Julio Martinez.
- The second in a two-part primer for the draft (with a link to the first part if you missed them and want to know what to expect, logistically, from the draft).
- Michael looked at spin rates and how Jake Arrieta is up there among the leaders.
- Luis wrote about Jen-Ho Tseng’s conscious efforts to improve his velocity.
- There are three teams most aggressive on Rafael Soriano according to reports, and the Cubs are one of them.
- The Cubs went down early, but came back on the Nationals – just not quite all the way.
Saturday, June 6
- We looked back at Anthony Rizzo’s two massive homers from the night before, and talked about how he’s pretty much the third best hitter in baseball right now.
- Addison Russell got a start at shortstop with Starlin Castro getting a day off.
- The Bullets on Saturday focused on the returns of Chris Denorfia and Javier Baez, each of which proved timely for different reasons.
- Luis noted how Anthony Rizzo is getting so many more opportunities to drive runners in (and taking advantage).
- The Cubs held on to beat the Nationals 4-2 on the strength of another great Jason Hammel performance.
- Matt Szczur was optioned back to AAA Iowa.
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Sunday, June 7
- The day started nicely, with a look at a massive homer by Javier Baez, and talk of how close he might be to returning to the bigs. Sigh.
- Luke checked in on the minor league affiliates.
- I wondered how Hector Rondon’s role might change in the wake of him being pulled from the 9th the day before.
- Luke looked at the latest mock draft from Baseball America.
- Chris Denorfia returned for the second time from a hamstring injury. Hopefully he’s back for good this time, because the bench could use him.
- The Cubs beat the Nationals again, locking up a 3-1 series win. Nicely done.
- Ugh. Javy Baez broke a finger. No good way to share that news.
- I closed out the weekend with a handful of random draft rumor bits, and an open thread. BECAUSE THE DRAFT STARTS TODAY!
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