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.

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.

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!