Almora Versus Baez and Other Bullets

Everyone in the house has a sore throat, and The Little Girl’s daycare has a sign up about strep floating around among the kids … ruh roh …

  • As you know, Baseball Prospectus came out with its top 10 list of Cubs prospects earlier this week, and it had a bit of a surprise at the top, with Albert Almora taking the one-spot from Javier Baez. BP showed us a slice of discussion, behind the scenes, that goes into putting such a list together. Most of the discussion is a debate about Almora or Baez, with the top spot ultimately going to Almora because of his higher floor (i.e., less likely to completely flame out), even though Baez inarguably has the higher ceiling. Money quote? “Baez is a lunatic with a weapon.”
  • More on that prospect list: BN’er TC put together a recap of Jason Parks’ interview on the Score about the list from the other night. Among those thoughts: Kane County is going to be stacked next year, Dan Vobelbach has a MLB future, Jorge Soler won’t be in the minors for long (but needs to be challenged next year in High-A/AA so he can adjust), the pitching in the system is all about upside (and it’s “big”), and … impact is still far away. It’s all a good read, so check it out.
  • Keith Law chatted about mostly prospects, and his Cubs-related thoughts include: (1) Law suggests that many folks believe Albert Almora is now the superior center field prospect to Byron Buxton; (2) Jorge Soler is a possibility for 2014, but Javier Baez is not – “unless you want to see him knock himself over swinging at strike three 220 times that year”; (3) Matt Szczur will not be a big league center fielder, and Law says his AFL experience reinforces that; (4) Dan Vogelbach’s power is legit, but the rest of his game remains suspect; (5) non-prospect bit: adding Josh Hamilton, Ryan Dempster, and Shaun Marcum would not necessarily make the Cubs a contender.
  • There isn’t much here, but the Cubs have had a number of discussions with other teams and agents this week at the GM Meetings. That’s pretty much what folks do there.
  • USA Today with a 10,000 foot overview of the Cubs. Which, whatever; it’s Cubs-related reading.
  • Some Cubs are up for GIBBY Awards.
  • The MLBullets at BCB look at the Justin Upton trade situation. It really does sound like he’ll be moved this offseason.
  • written by

    Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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