Parker Chavers – Pic by Rich Biesterfeld

Today, or should I say tonight, is going to be a lot of fun. The Cubs are going to make two picks tonight, eight picks on Monday afternoon, and then 10 more on Tuesday in the Major League Baseball Draft. North Side Bound will be covering the first round of the draft live tonight starting around 6:00 central. We will be talking about the draft as it happens and then we will analyze who the Cubs take and who they possibly could take in the second round. Here is the link to watch the video tonight. If you are on Twitter, we will tweet it out live several times throughout the day.

The Break

After today’s games, minor league baseball will be taking a break for four straight days. We will not have Tuesday transactions this week. Instead those will probably happen on Friday. I’m expecting a lot of moves as the Cubs have some rehab guys coming back like Miguel Amaya who looks pretty close to being ready. They also have Sam Thoresen and Ben Hecht getting in action along with Andricson Salvador. All three are in Mesa.

 In addition, Parker Chavers played a little bit this past week in Mesa and tore it up and I’m excited to see him debut at full season baseball. He was the Cubs’ 7th round draft pick last year and I’m pumped to see him in action at Myrtle Beach.

As well, Drew Gray showed a video of himself just tossing a baseball for the first time since Tommy John surgery back in February. For me, Gray holds a lot of potential as one of the Cubs’ top pitching prospects. Had he played this year, he might be a top 10 guy right now. Still, there’s nothing stopping him from becoming a top 10 guy next year. But soft tossing right now just shows you how long of a process it is to rehab from Tommy John surgery. The arm, muscles, tendons, and ligaments have to relearn how to work together slowly. He is still months away from reaching 100%.

Cool Videos of the Week

This one comes from Candace Martino. who is a sports reporter in the Myrtle Beach area, who did a wonderful profile on Slider, the Pelicans’ bat dog

Though he is not a dog, it was still cool to see the fun side of Jordan Wicks or as I called him in person, Mr. Wicks.

BA Hot Prospect List

It was cool to see Yohendrick Pinango make it on to Baseball America’s hotlist on Monday. He’s hitting close to .500 the past couple weeks. He’s not walking much or hitting home runs in that timeframe, but he is just punishing baseballs. Even when he makes an out, it’s loud.

Baseball America also released their new top 100 prospects and they have four Cubs in there including Pete Crow-Armstrong, Brennen Davis, Cristian Hernandez, and Caleb Kilian. If you noticed the rankings, you see that PCA is listed higher than Davis and that holds true on their top 30 Cubs midseason list. The best thing I can say about that list is it is a list.

Later Today at North Side Bound

The Rookie League Recap will be out at noon and then we will be live on YouTube at 6:30!!!

Draft Cards

I have fallen off the card making wagon for whatever reason. I don’t think I have made any “regular” prospect baseball cards for a few weeks but it’s on my to-do list for this week after the draft. I’ve been pretty busy here at home and traveling to Beloit, the Quad Cities, and Peoria this summer that it hasn’t leave a lot of free time to do a lot of baseball cards. I did however, make some “irregular” cards for the upcoming draft. I made nine cards of guys who will most likely be the player the Cubs take at #7. They are all placed in a 1973 template for this year! I am excited about those and hopefully having a pre-made card of the player the Cubs actually do take!

Blue Collar Jam of the Week

I have always enjoyed when a musical artist takes one of their best known songs and reinterpret in a different fashion. I used to love when Bob Dylan did it and also when Sting did it. I always like surprise. This video is from five or six years ago when Tommy Shaw of Styx performed with the Contemporary Youth Orchestra. I’ve seen several rock stars perform with them and this reimagining of “Blue Collar Man” is a pretty powerful song and I just love how it’s got a full sound at the same time it sounds sparse and much more emotional because of the arrangement. It still rocks, but in a totally different and powerful way.