Weekend Catch-Up: Baez Break, IFA Rumors, Cubs Wins, Gearing Up for the Draft, More

bn baseball featureIt 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!
  • 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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