Trade Deadline has Come and Gone

Another trade deadline has come and gone, and a lot of deals were made, just not a whole lot in Chicago. If you go back to the Samardzija and Hammels deal, the Cubs have made 4 trades that involved them trading away 6 guys, and saw them receive 7 guys. There's a player to be named later involved in each of those totals. As for the White Sox, unfortunately they did nothing, which I call unfortunate because it really would have been in their best interest to have traded away some guys, but I guess they somehow feel like they have a chance at going all the way this year. However, the worst thing they could have done was stand pat, because Garcia and Lindstrom won't put a sub .500 team over the top. Anyway, I'll go further into that and go over the trades that were made.

Darwin Barney Traded, More Training Camp, and Derrick Rose Practices

Busy Monday today in the Chicago sports scene. The Cubs traded away Darwin Barney after DFAing him less than a week ago. Also, I'll share some more thoughts on the Cubs presence on mlb.com's top prospects list. On top of that, the Bears continued training camp, and speaking of practice, Derrick Rose has practiced with the US team, and the reports coming through are not bad at all.

Another Prospect List and Bears Training Camp

Fun weekend, so instead of going over the whole week in sports, I'll just cover what has happened since Friday. The big news in Chicago baseball is that a new list, this one by mlb.com, has been put out ranking the top 100 prospects in all of baseball and the top 20 in each organization as well as the top 10 at each position. Of course I have my issues with some of it, but there are 10 Chicago players on the top 100 list, 8 Cubs and 2 White Sox prospects. Also, Bears training camp has started. I'll go over some of the notes that have come out from there and give my thoughts. There hasn't really been any Bulls or Blackhawks news outside of an interview with Joakim Noah that some reporters tried to blow out of proportion.

Catching Up With the Cubs System Shuffle

Many Cubs fans are probably confused at this point as to where everyone should be. Sure, it's easy to tell where the big names are, but there's a whole lot more to it than that. Players were shipped up, down, and all around over this past week, and it's time to take a look at where they are and what it means for them and the organization, of course there will be a ton of speculating as well. I'm going to include a lot of content, and I'm sure there will still be things that I miss.

Worst Chicago Prospect Busts of the Last 15 Years

With all of the Cubs prospects nearing the big leagues and the White Sox working on their "retooling" at the current time, I thought it would be a great time to dash everyone's hopes of any of them being successful baseball players by naming all of the worst busts for each team over the last 15 years. Now, understand, these are guys that the Cubs or White Sox actually gave at least a good season worth to. If the player was given up to bring someone to the Cubs or White Sox, then that forgives them and keeps them off the list. So someone like Hee-Seop Choi gets off since he was what brought Derrick Lee to the Cubs (also, his bat might actually play well today with the steroids era over). So here we go.

This Week in Chicago Sports

Well, it was a little bit quieter this week, largely due to the All Star break. Still, there was news on the farm for both the Cubs and White Sox. Also, the Bulls introduced Pau Gasol and Nikola Mirotic. The Bears inch closer and closer to the start of training camp, and the Blackhawks had their convention this week, but I guess there's not a lot of news for that.

Great Night on the Farm, Bulls Close to a Championship

Things have been fairly uneventful for the most part over the last few days, but things are going to be shaken up a bit in the near future. First off, the Bulls summer league team is now playing in a tournament to try to become the champion of the Vegas league. They need to win this game as well as 3 more to win the tournament, but they've been the best team in the Vegas league so far. Also, a rarity tonight in the Cubs system, and great performances outside of that. I'll also talk about the double cycle from the other night too.

The Bulls Train Keeps Going

Didn't expect to make another post today, but here we go. The Bulls continued to make things happen today, and they're looking pretty good in a Summer League game right now too. Anyway, the two big things as far as personnel goes is that they have made it official that Mirotic is coming over, and they have brought Kirk Hinrich back for another 2 years.

At the All-Star Break, 3 Positives and 3 Negatives

We're getting to the All-Star break in this Major League Baseball season. While it's not exactly the midpoint of the season, it's the symbolic midpoint of the season. So what's something that a lot of sites do? They review the season up to that point. Often you'll see a website grade every player on the team, or something like that. What I'll do is, for each team I will mention 3 positives and 3 negatives. While it would seem that with how poorly each team has played that there wouldn't be too many positives, there really are plenty.

NBA Going Crazy, Bulls Offseason Now Seems More Clear

The last couple of days has seen the NBA turned upside down. There was LeBron going back to Cleveland yesterday morning. Since then, Carmelo has also decided to stay in New York. This really makes the situation for the Bulls much more clear. Of course we still don't know the exact players who will be involved, but we at least have a good idea. On top of that, Bulls Summer League action is now underway with the Bulls going against the Clippers in Las Vegas. I'll go over that game (which is currently in the 3rd quarter) as well.

Late to Mid Week Chicago Sports Update

I would wait until the end of the week for this, but there's just so much going on right now with 4 of the 5 major Chicago sports teams, and I think all of this needs to be addressed now, because this has been such an exciting week. We have a couple of huge Blackhawks signings, what looks like what will be the Bulls moving forward with their offseason plans finally, and in both the Cubs and White Sox camps there's great All Star news and some more as well.

Midseason Prospect Rankings Coming Out

With convenient timing, the midseason prospect rankings are starting to be pumped out. I was made aware of this by this article on Bleacher Nation. Anyway, today I'm going to focus on the negative, which is rare for me and look at the guys who have seen a reasonable drop in their value over the last few months. The players in question will be Albert Almora, Jorge Soler, and CJ Edwards. The lists in mind are from Baseball Prospectus and Baseball America. I will not totally forget the guys that have moved up, and I will be using the Bleacher Nation article linked above as my main reference, at least with where the players are ranked, especially since you need a subscription to view the Baseball Prospectus list anyway. The opinions and views will be my own.

This Week In Chicago Sports: Trades and More

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.

My Thoughts On The Huge Cubs Trade

This is honestly the biggest trade I can ever remember the Cubs making. In case you didn't hear the news, the Cubs traded Jeff Samardzija AND Jason Hammel to the Oakland A's for Addison Russell, Billy McKinney, Dan Straily, and a PTBNL. I'm going to go over the pieces the Cubs got in return and look at what it means for the Cubs system now and in the future. This may be a bit of a mind bending type of post, as it will go in many directions, but the bottom line is that this trade was huge, and the return for the Cubs was even more massive.

Cubs Minor League Players Who May Still Get Promoted

The Cubs minor league system has been going absolutely crazy lately. Not to say that the White Sox system has been bad, but the Cubs system has seen a ton of players outplaying their current levels. I will bring up the White Sox minor league system in this post, but the majority of the guys who were looking good for them were guys who I feel like are the type that you move up after the season, and I will bring some of them up. The Cubs, however, have many players who are very likely to move up a level before the end of the season, and I will be covering those players first.