Todd Johnson

The Weekly – Rule 5 Draft News, Kilian Video, Injury Updates, Picking Up Some Hardware, and a Jazzy Jam

It is getting to be that time of year where I take a couple days a week off and I just relax for a little bit now that the season is pretty much complete. I’m pretty sure I’m going to write about five days a week for a while. My three off-season series will be ready to roll the week of Thanksgiving. There will be the minor league mail bag, the position breakdown series, and what I am calling the 2022 to do list, which is going to be a fun thing once you see it.

Rule 5 Deadline Is Friday

As the general manager meetings come to a close in California, I still have not seen a lot of movement on either MLB free agency or MiLB free agency. However, there will be some news this coming Friday. That is the deadline for the Cubs to place players on the 40-man roster to protect them from being taken in the Rule 5 Draft.

In a perfect world, the Cubs would protect anywhere from 8 to 10 guys but they just don’t have that kind of roster space.

We could see anywhere from 1 to 3 players getting protected on Friday. The most certain player is Nelson Velasquez and we might also see relievers Ethan Roberts, Brandon Hughes, or Bryan Hudson get a nod. 

Based on the Cubs’ current roster crunch, I would not be surprised to see Nelson Velasquez be the only one who gets protected. That would be it. I would love to see Ethan Roberts and Brandon Hughes get nods, but the Cubs’ system is pretty deep right now. They could absorb losing a reliever, which some of you might find sad to say. That doesn’t make it any less true that the Cubs can take a risk in not protecting them.

Poll of the Week – And a very timely poll at that

Weber and Kilian Steal the Headlines for a Day

This will also be the final week of the Arizona Fall League with the championship game being played later this week along with the All-Star Game. I feel like a broken record when I talk about what’s going on because Nelson Velasquez is still hitting home runs, Andy Weber is stroking singles and triples, and Caleb Killian for the third week in a row is putting up donuts across the board. 

Prospect Injury Updates

At the winter meetings, the Cubs gave updates on some injured players this week. It was good to see that Brailyn Marquez is going to be ready for spring training and it was also good to see that that Brendon Little does not require surgery at this point. However, Little is not in the clear as he will be reevaluated later for a stress reaction in his elbow. That explains why he was pulled in his only AFL game. 1B Alfonso Rivas is also expected to be ready to go after a finger injury.

My Newest Babies

Over at North Side Bound, I spent several hours putting together a database of international free agents the Cubs have signed the past 20+ years. It’s still a work in progress but I have a pretty good head start from 2012 up through today. I also made some cool affiliate depth charts yesterday that will be easy for me to update!

Pictures of the Week: Picking Up Some Hardware

I was cool to see Brennen Davis tweet that he and DJ Herz both received their player of the year awards this week. Normally, the Cubs do those in September at Wrigley, but Davis was still playing at Iowa up through the end of the month.

Finally!!!!!!!!!!!!! A New Look in Iowa Is Coming

A little over a year ago, I wrote that the Iowa Cubs should re-brand. It looks like they took my advice, finally! The new look could come as early as next week

Baseball Card of the Week

It’s like everybody’s taking pictures of Velasquez, Weber, and Killian. So I had plenty to pick from and I decided to roll with this one of Andy Weber by the Arizona Fall League.

Jazzy Jam of the Week

On Friday afternoon, we had a school improvement day at the school where I teach. We had some time to work in our classrooms and I was grooving to some Amy Winehouse all afternoon. I just love the groove of “You Know I’m No Good!”

5 comments

  2. Todd,

    Caught Kilian’s 42 pitch outing last night. He was immediately squeezed out of his first K, which became his first walk, on the first batter of the game. Kilian froze him with an 89 MPH cutter middle in, the magic TV box caught it, but the ump called ball 3*

    He picked up 11 whiffs, all but one (an 88-89 MPH cutter) on four seams and sinkers between 93-96. I was impressed by his power sinker at 94-95 getting at least a couple of those whiffs as well as some ugly swings on the four seam. He also was able to locate his four seam inside, both sides of the plate, for strikes. I really like the fastball command, gives him a real shot to start…Woulda coulda shoulda had 5 Ks and a BB during his two innings

    *He was gifted strike two on a 94 MPH sinker a little in to set up the K (4S up) that closed the first

    I have less to say on the offspeeds. He didn’t have great feel for the curve, got a called strike to open the second with it but couldn’t use it as a putaway pitch. I’m impressed with the fastball dominance anyway

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