At last viewing, the Iowa Cubs were in the middle of dropping the conference title series after winning their conference in the Pacific Coast League’s regular season. What we didn’t know then, of course, was that a novel coronavirus would begin to spread overseas a few months later, reaching the United States after the turn of the new year, and taking so much down with it, including the 2020 minor league season.
That Iowa Cubs playoff series was just over 600 days ago. The last Minor League Baseball we saw. Think about how long it’s been.
Minor League Baseball returns, finally, tomorrow. It looks considerably different than it did in those days, now with just four full-season affiliates per organization, no short-season Low-A, and everything kicking off much later than we’re used to. Fortunately for Cubs fans, the four full-season affiliates are familiar: the Triple-A Iowa Cubs (roster discussion here), the Double-A Tennessee Smokies (roster discussion), the High-A South Be
An Encyclopedic 60-Man Honorable Mention to Complete our 2021 BN Top Cubs Prospect List
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Keith Law of The Athletic reveals his Top 20 Cubs prospects
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Originally posted on MLB Trade Rumors | By Tim Dierkes | Last updated 2/16/21
Less than three months after their first-round playoff defeat to the Marlins, the Cubs traded second place NL Cy Young finisher Yu Darvish to the Padres. This occurred after the Cubs won their division with a .567 winning percentage, which would have extrapolated to about 92 wins in a full season. I looked back through the last 20 years, and this has never been done: winning teams simply do not trade top-two Cy Young finishers.
As you might expect, teams prefer not to trade top-two Cy Young finishers at all. In the past 20 years, it’s only been done twice in the offseason: the Mets traded 38-year-old R.A. Dickey to the Blue Jays after the 2012 season, and the Diamondbacks dealt 41-year-old Randy Johnson to the Yankees after Arizona’s abysmal 2004 campaign. Let’s see if the more recent Dickey trade bears any similarities to what the Cubs did.
Assessing the gloves of Cubs outfield prospects
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Clinton Cole
Much of affiliated baseball has numbers attached. From the spectrum of batting percentages, predictive pitching numbers (like xFIP), and stabs at running efficiency, projecting who will do what is important.
Among the tougher assessments is defense. Was that a 50/50 play, or a 30/70? Toss in minor-league venues, and no games in minor league ball for 18 months, it gets tougher regarding youngsters. With across-the-board designated hitter very likely in the 2022 season (fingers crossed on a season, at all), defense might not be as essential in National League organizations, but assessing what’s available seems useful walking into the 2021 season.