Does anybody know if much happened this week in Chicago sports? It seems like it was a pretty uneventful week. Now, that can be taken as sarcasm, but I'm sure for some fans they would actually agree. By that, I'm talking real White Sox fans (not the ones that really just hate the Cubs more than they like the White Sox), but even then, if you look deeper into the moves made, there is something there for the White Sox fans to take interest in. I'll get into everything with the trade in the article. The Bulls are also have had a few things happen this week. As for the Bears, not much, but I'll throw something in there.
I'll get the quick stuff out of the way first. The Bulls haven't made any moves this week, but they did make a presentation to Carmelo Anthony in an effort to lure him to the Bulls. Supposedly the meeting went well into the night and the general vibes were positive. The chances of them getting Carmelo are still low, and after the Lakers presentation, are probably lower than they were a week ago, but the Bulls are still one of only a few teams that have any legitimate chance of getting him. More from this past week, the Bulls introduced Doug McDermott and Cameron Bairstow to the media, but there really wasn't anything there of note other than him saying he'll be ready to make an immediate impact.
With the Bears, nothing much of note, outside of the Bears preseason schedule begins in 33 days, but that's nothing earth shattering. Fear not though, training camp does begin in less than 3 weeks, so once that does start we'll start to know a lot more about the young players and how the veterans are fitting in with the rest of the team. This is football's dead time, so unless there's a roster move, the Bears news will be weak these next couple of weeks.
Blackhawks did make a few moves this past week, and 2 moves they didn't make that are still making news. The Blackhawks signed Brad Richards to help out with their problems at center. He's getting old, but can still be effective. They're also bringing back Morin, Raanta, and Smith, which is nice. Lastly, they signed Scott Darling, who should be in the AHL to start the season and serve as insurance in case of injury. The Kane and Toews deals are not yet done, but with deals as large as theirs will be, you don't worry too much about things not being rushed. The deals will get done and both will remain with the Blackhawks for a very long time. There is no need to worry about anything there.
Now for the White Sox. They finished the week at 3-3 after a rough start. The bigger news for them is that market prices are starting to be set. The White Sox may very well be looking to trade away some of the pieces on their team. Pitching probably won't be something that the White Sox will be looking to unload, but you can still get an idea of the value of the position players with pitching trades. Guys the White Sox may be willing to unload include Adam Dunn, Alexei Ramirez (very good player, but getting up in age), Gordon Beckham, John Danks, and Dayan Viciedo. If they do decide to sell, as they should, they can get a very nice haul with guys like those. I think it's time for Rick Hahn to abandon the whole "re-tooling" thing and just do the rebuild. The White Sox have been just as bad as the Cubs over the last couple of years, and the Cubs are doing a full rebuild. Might as well get everything you can and just hope fans show up to see Jose Abreu. The whole re-tooling thing just isn't working out, and they're averaging less than 20,000 per game anyway. Anyway, if they are able to put a competitive team out on the field in 3 years, you will likely see the attendance improve. The White Sox fans do show up more when the White Sox are playing well. Anyway, going on, Jose Abreu continues to crush every mistake that pitchers are making. He's breaking rookie home run records left and right and just saw a long hitting streak end, which is nice to see since his batting average was one of his biggest weaknesses to this point in the season.
Noooow, for the team that made what has been the biggest deal of the season so far. The Cubs trade is starting to see the guys come over. Addison Russell made his debut in Tennessee earlier today, and Billy McKinney and Dan Straily should be making their debuts soon. Straily at AAA and McKinney in Daytona. Russell didn't have a dream debut in the Cubs system, as he went 0-5 with 2 strikeouts and an error in the field. Before anyone starts freaking out, remember, it was a 1 game sample over the course of what has been a couple of years in the minor leagues so far. To go along with that, Russell isn't the only boost that AA Tennessee got today, Jorge Soler also returned to the Smokies and celebrated with a 2-5 game that included a home run and 2 RBI in support of Corey Black, who pitched well in the win. Also this week, AAA Iowa saw games with both Baez and Bryant going deep twice (as in, 2 games where each hit a home run). Also, Kyuji Fujikawa has begun the road back from Tommy John surgery tonight, as he is starting (despite being a bullpen guy, this isn't totally rare, especially at very low levels) for the Arizona rookie team. Also of note from Arizona, Torres and Jimenez continue to dominate the competition there. Both are really getting their careers started on the right note and probably could hold up at Boise right now, but the sample sizes are small, so you can't be too sure. I could continue to go on with the minor league teams, but I just wanted to hit on al the major notes and if I could hit a smaller one along with another, then hit that. Anyway, the Cubs record this past week was 4-2, but started with 4 straight wins, followed with 2 losses after the trade. Luckily, after the beatdown they got on Saturday, the Cubs rebounded and gave the Nationals a good game today behind another great performance from Jake Arrieta.
So, I always like to do something outside of news with one of the teams on occasion, usually I try to do it for a team that's in their offseason, but this time I'm going to look at the farm depth for the Cubs at each position (top 3). I am not going to stick strictly with each position, rather I will include guys who I feel can or may wind up at certain positions. This is more in response to everyone who is saying that the Cubs have too much organizational depth at shortstop right now (despite the fact that you can play shortstops almost anywhere, it's a good litmus test to decide who's too dumb to even bother discussing baseball with). Anyway, here it goes.
Starting Pitcher
1. CJ Edwards
2. Pierce Johnson
3. Paul Blackburn
People who talk about the Cubs having nobody at pitcher really don't understand what is actually there. Sure, there's only a few that have front of the rotation potential, but there are a ton of guys there that can still be very good starters. Corey Black, Duane Underwood, Kyle Hendricks, and Jen-Ho Tseng are just a few of the good pitching prospects that the Cubs have in their system right now.
Relief Pitcher
1. Arodys Vizcaino
2. Armando Rivero
3. Juan Carlos Paniagua
The Cubs have an especially strong group of relief pitchers. I actually went more with total upside here rather than how ready they are right now, although Vizcaino is about as ready as a pitcher can be. Still though, the Cubs already have a bit of a logjam at the major league level (which will probably change in a few weeks), and have plenty of guys ready to come in and fill any open spots.
Catcher
1. Kyle Schwarber
2. Charles Cutler
3. Rafael Lopez
Yep, this is a bit of a thin group. Schwarber has looked like a great bat, but there still remain questions as to if he can hold down the position. With Wellington Castillo's health looking to be a legitimate concern, someone like Cutler could come up right away and provide a decent backup bat. Baker's been better as of late, but when Castillo was hurt, his and Whiteside's bats were almost invisible.
First Base
1. Dan Vogelbach
2. Kyle Schwarber
3. Rock Shoulders
Let's face it, Anthony Rizzo is probably going to be holding this spot down for another 8-10 years, if not longer. However, past him isn't a great looking defensive group, but they are all guys with powerful bats. Vogelbach and Schwarber both being very complete hitters.
Second Base
1. Javier Baez
2. Addison Russell
3. Arismendy Alcantara
This is where having so many good looking shortstops will help the Cubs. They'll also be very strong at second base with the ability to move any one of them over to second base. So, it's pretty much the Cubs top shortstop candidates.
Shortstop
1. Javier Baez
2. Addison Russell
3. Arismendy Alcantara
Read the above. Alcantara was a shortstop before last season, so he is very likely able to continue to switch back, although he does seem very comfortable with second base right now.
Third Base
1. Kris Bryant
2. Javier Baez
3. Addison Russell
Well, this time I was able to fill Kris Bryant in there. I'm not saying that he's a higher prospect than Baez for sure (it's close, but I do have Bryant higher on my list), but his natural position is third base and he'll likely be able to continue to play there. Again, it's a very strong group there.
Outfield
1. Kris Bryant
2. Albert Almora
3. Jorge Soler
4. Arismendy Alcantara
5. Kyle Schwarber
6. Billy McKinney
7. Eloy Jimenez
8. Jacob Hanneman
9. Stephen Bruno
10. Matt Szczur
Bryant may well wind up in the outfield, especially if 2 of the 3 main middle infield talents pan out. Of course it could be Alcantara that winds up in center field too. There's a lot of combinations there, which is why there are a lot of infield prospects (including Schwarber too) on there. Left field is a great place to hide good hitting but poor fielding position players as well. I went with 9 initially due to that being 3x the outfield positions for each game. I added 1 to make it a round number and put Matt Szczur, as I think he projects to be a good 4th outfield type of talent. He is up there in age though, but he has great defense and can be a base stealing threat. Kind of like Tony Campana with good defense, and some sort of an ability to get on base.
So there it is, a very deep list. To put things into perspective, players from my top 20 list yesterday that didn't even get on this list include Duane Underwood, Kyle Hendricks, Jen-Ho Tseng, Corey Black, Gleyber Torres, Jeimer Candelario, and Christian Villanueva (even though the pitchers did get a mention). That's 7 top 20 prospects in a very deep organization that aren't even in the top 3 at their position. That's the type of thing that getting a lot of guys who can play multiple spots helps with. Also, I didn't include any relief pitchers in my top 20, only because I value them less for some reason, no matter how good they are.
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