Notes from Day 3, Pie traded, other Notes

Well, the 2009 Cubs Convention is in the books. Today was the last chance for autographs. We spent some time on autos today and ended up with Lee Smith and Alan Trammel. The only session worth going to today was "Down on the Farm". Oneri Fleita and Tim Wilton talked about the Cubs minor league organization with Micheal Huang from Vineline. Cubs minor leaguers Darwin Barney and Brandon Guyer were also a part of this panel. This session provided a lot of good info:

• Oneri was asked to give 1 hitter and 1 pitcher in the minors who he thought would have a big impact on the big league team some day. He said Andrew Cashner for the pitcher and Ty Wright for the position player.
• They revieled that only about 13 percent of guys who play in the minors make it to the bigs.
• They also talked about how the team gets ready for the draft. Tim says that they have a board with about 900 guys and then they look at the team need. Wilkins added that if there is a very talented player, you take him no matter what position he plays.
• Tyler Colvin is recovering from surgery and will be at Class A Daytona to start the season because of the warm weather in Daytona and because they use a DH is A ball.
• Sam Fuld is recovering from his injuries and Oneri expects him to be on the big league radar in 2009.
• Spring Training will be a "last chance" for Rich Hill who is out of options or else the Cubs will have to part ways with him.
• Darwin and Brandon talked about being drafted. Darwin had baseball practice so he didn't find out that he got drafted by the Cubs until he got a phone call. Brandon was watching the draft with his dad. Guyer said he would have been better of not watching all the rounds go by until he finally got drafted.
• Wilkins and Fleita said that Wellington Castillo should be at AAA this year. The Cubs feel confident with their depth at each position in the system.

News has just broke that Felix Pie traded. Ken Rosenthal and the Sun-Times are reporting that the Cubs and Orioles have agreed to a deal that would send Pie to the O's in exchange for pitchers Garrett Olson and Henry Williamson. The Padres were rumored to be interested in acquiring Olson in a Peavy deal. Williamson pitched at Single-A in 2008. Here are the stats for Olson and for Williamson. Cubs.com is reporting that the deal is official.

A few other Cubs Notes:

• Carlos Zambrano is going to have LASIK surgery on his eyes.
• Most Cubs fans have good first impression of Milton Bradley because he signed tons of autographs all weekend long at the Convention. On the other hand, Big Z wouldn't sign at all after his sessions.
• Lou was MIA all weekend because he has the stomach flue.
• Santo wasn't seen after the opening ceremony because he wasn't feeling well.
• The Iowa Cubs will play a game at Wrigley on Aug. 9 like the Peoria Chiefs did last year.
• Sweet Lou reveled that he plans to read some books on sports physiology and winning.

The Convention was amazing. Lots of great places to buy stuff, very organized, lots of people but very spread out, most players are nice and sign autographs, and lots of good sessions with good inside info. I highly recommend going if you can.

I'll have more links and recaps from convention segments throughout the week. And of coarse, I'll keep you posted on all rumors and news.