Just thought I'd pass this on.

Dave Cameron over at Fangraphs has an excellent blurb on the success of the Seattle Mariners this season in upgrading their defensive UZR rating, and in turn, improving their overall team success. They did this without spending much in the offseason.

Perhaps there are internal defensive options to consider before setting our rosters next season, or as we consider swapping contracts with someone for Bradley. I wonder if there are a few upcoming free agents that we could offer 1 year or minor league contracts to.

Anyway... random defensive-minded thoughts.

This isn't exactly a killer article, but it does give some props to the Cubs for their focus on Korean baseball talent. Some hope for the future?

The Iowa Cubs are doing a contest until June 9th for fans to vote for the next Iowa Cubs t-shirt giveaway. Last month it was Jake Fox who won, and they gave away Fox shirts at a game last week.

This month, the participants are J.R. Mathes, Bobby Scales, Lee Smith and So Taguchi. As I write this, Mathes has a big lead over Scales.

As an Iowa Cubs season ticketholder, I appreciate the great season that Mathes is having right now, and I like him to make some sort of small contribution to the big club sometime this season, but I think that Bobby Scales deserves his own shirt day for the contributions he's made to the Cubs this season. So please help me out here and vote for SCALES!

http://iowa.cubs.milb.com/index.jsp?sid=t451

For any fantasy baseball dorks out there like me, here's an entertaining preview from Razzball.com of the Cubs for fantasy baseball purposes.

Here's the second day of Fangraphs.com's Cubs Clearinghouse series, with today continuing with a discussion of Ronny Cedeno and the Cubs predicament there... My favorite part was this:

*****
"Here is a comparison, offensively, of some of the players being considered for starting gigs by the teams listed above - all of whom are at least two years older than Cedeno.

.269/.328/.352 | $0.8 M | Ronny Cedeno (Chicago NL)
.267/.332/.356 | $1.1 M | Marco Scutaro (Toronto)
.265/.289/.429 | $1.3 M | Wilson Betemit (Chicago AL)
.284/.344/.382 | $4.0 M | Nick Punto (Minnesota)
.237/.296/.349 | $5.3 M | Bobby Crosby (Oakland)
.265/.343/.349 | $0.9 M | David Eckstein (San Diego)"
*****

There's gotta be a team that wants that, right?
Anway, it's a good article.

This is a pretty fair article from Fangraphs' Marc Hulet describing the predicament the Cubs are in with out of options guys Rich Hill and Ronny Cedeno. Today they tackle Hill and tomorrow they're discussing Cedeno.

This article on Rich Hill today is just a reminder of how sweet our team would be if the 2007 Hill showed up to Spring Training.

QUOTE FROM THE ARTICLE: "Unfortunately for the Cubs, both players are also out of minor league options, which means the club has three options: 1) Keep them on the 25-man roster; 2) Trade them for other talent; 3) Expose them to waivers in an attempt to send them down to the minors. If the club chooses the third option, each player would definitely end up in other organizations with zero compensation, which really leaves the club with two options: Play or trade."

A nice article from Forbes.com that discusses the possible financial ramifications of a Cubs sale.

I'm worried that a hefty pricetag will lead to a restriction on spending in the coming years, or worse, inflated ticket prices. Anyone else want to weigh in?

I don't know anything about this player, but it's nice to see the commissioner doing something about PED's for a change.

From MLB.Com:
Cubs Minor League player Pineda suspended

The suspension of Pineda is effective immediately. He is currently with the organization's Dominican Summer League team.