is there a cheater’s way to find out which Cubs will be eligible for the Rule 5 Draft this year? I’m contemplating putting together my lists of the 40-man, 39-man, and 37-man rosters. (If you don’t know about the 39 and 37 man rosters, don’t sweat it.)

Otherwise I’ll have to figure out signing dates, years since being signed, and all.

Thanks in advance.

Just copied this down, forget where I read this but I’ll try to keep this short.
1st category 2 OUT RBI’S (minor league organizational rankings for Cubs)

1. Marquez Smith 26
1. Kyler Burke 26
1. Rebel Ridling 26
4. Robbie Chrinios 24
5. Jovan Rosa 23
6. Ryan Flaherty 20
7. Jason Dubois 19 (traded to Mets 3a)
8. Matt Camp 18
9. Josh Vitters 17
10. Blake Lalli 16
10. Darwin Barney 16

interesting note
DJ Lemahieu 9 (in his 1st 16 games Boise/Peoria)
Brett Jackson 6

Last years leaders for 2008
Jake Fox 26
Tyler Colvin 26

August 1st stats.

This category is TWO STRIKE HITS. (Cubs organization leaders.)

1. Sam Fuld 29
1. Darwin Barney 29
3. Tony Campana 28
4. Brandon Guyer 26
5. Starlin Castro 24
5. Jason Dubois 24 (traded to Mets 3a)
5. Chris Robinson 24
5. Jake Opitz 24
9. Doug Deeds 23
9. Rebel Ridling 23
9. Bobby Scales 23
9. Tony Thomas 23

Interesting notes
Hak Ju Lee 19
Brett Jackson 15

Last year leaders 2008
Tyler Colvin 40
Matt Camp 33

Our catchers and there caught stealing %

1. Wellington Castillo 47.2
2. Michael Brenly 35.1
3. Steve Clevenger 27.7
4. Robinson Chrinios 23.9
5. Chris Robinson 16.1

Posted: Saturday, Aug. 08, 2009
ATLANTA When Orlando Hudson enters the gymnasium at the Carver YMCA south of Turner Field on a recent Friday morning, he is greeted by an adoring throng of 200 or so children.

The Los Angeles Dodgers second baseman is here to promote the "Around the Mound" program aimed at encouraging blacks to play baseball. Hudson tells the Little Leaguers, a smattering dressed in the No. 42 Dodgers jersey of Jackie Robinson, that he is one of only 48 African Americans in the major leagues.

Hudson tells of how anyone can make it to the big leagues, even someone from the most humble of upbringings such as himself. He tells the kids even a self-proclaimed "old country boy" from Darlington can find fame and fortune in the big leagues.

"I still go out at every stadium and look around and say, ‘Wow! I’m in the major leagues,’" Hudson says an hour later, having autographed his picture for every Little Leaguer at the event.

Hudson is a two-time All-Star and counts three Gold Gloves on the mantel of his parents’ home in Darlington. Eight seasons into his career, "O-Dog" is regarded as one of the game’s best middle infielders. His play this season has been instrumental in the Los Angeles Dodgers standing atop the National League West with the best record in baseball.

Thanks to incentives in his one-year contract with the Dodgers, Hudson has made $6.2 million this season. If he he stays healthy the remainder of the regular season, Hudson could collect another $1.8 million. The biggest contract of his career awaits this winter, when he again will test the free agent market.

Still, Hudson remains the kind and caring young man those in Darlington have known and loved.

"When he comes home, he’s the same kid who was there in high school," says Richard Drawdy, Hudson’s baseball coach at Darlington High and now the school’s athletics director. "The fame and fortune has not changed his personality. He’s still caring and outgoing, personable."

Early on, the Hudsons knew they had something special in Orlando Thill Hudson. He gained his first name in honor of his father’s brother, who was hit and killed by an automobile when he was 7. The middle name also was in tribute to an uncle.

By the time Orlando was 5 or 6, he had an idea what he wanted to do in life. Watching an Atlanta Braves game on television, Orlando turned to his mother and declared, "I’m going to play baseball on TV some day."

There was no doubting baseball was Orlando’s love. He cleaned the pecan trees in the fields surrounding the family’s Mechanicsville home, using the small ovals as baseballs as he tossed one after another into the air and hammered them with a bat.

Marcus Hudson supported his family – Orlando has an older brother and younger sister – by working at the Wellman Palmetto Plant in Darlington.

Marcus lived for the weekends when he could hunt and fish, and play first base for one of the numerous black teams that dot the state’s baseball landscape each summer. He still plays first base, at age 53.

Once Orlando graduated to organized sports, Dad had another pastime: Following his son. As a junior in 1995, Orlando led St. John’s High School to the Class 3A state baseball championship. His play in football a year later in the first year of the newly formed Darlington High earned Hudson recruiting letters from some of the nation’s top programs.

Unfortunately, when the Darlington basketball team advanced deep into the playoffs, it cut into Hudson’s baseball season. He missed the first month of baseball practice and several games. When he finally made it to the field with only a handful of swings in the batting cage, Hudson’s play did not impress many of the 30 major-league scouts in attendance.

As a result, Hudson slid to the 33rd round of the Major League Baseball draft that June. Toronto selected him.

"I appreciate you drafting my son, but I don’t even want to talk about money," Marcus Hudson recalls telling Toronto scout Tim Wilken. "Orlando’s going to college to get an education, get some discipline and learn to live away from home."

The Hudsons visited South Carolina baseball coach Ray Tanner, but it became apparent to both parties it was not a good fit. On the trip back to Darlington, Marcus told his son he would attend Spartanburg Methodist College.

The Blue Jays again drafted Orlando, this time in the 43rd round, following his freshman season at Spartanburg Methodist. Again, Orlando declined to sign. Then, since it retained his rights until the next June draft, Toronto signed Hudson in May 1998, attaching a $90,000 bonus to his minor-league contract.

"Give me three years to get to the big leagues," Hudson recalls telling Wilken, the Toronto scout who signed him.

The scout and prospect shook on it. Three and a half years later, late in the 2002 season, Hudson was cemented on the Toronto roster and has not seen a day in the minor leagues since.

After three seasons with Toronto, Hudson was dealt to Arizona two days after Christmas in 2005. His batting average increased each of his three seasons in Arizona – .271 to .287 to .294 – and his market value would have soared as well had he not broken his wrist late last season.

Most teams on the free-agent market were unwilling to sign Hudson to a long-term deal this past offseason, wanting to see how his left wrist would respond to surgery that required five pins to heal. So, Hudson’s agent approached the Dodgers about a one-year deal that included incentive payouts based on plate appearances.

By passing 475 plate appearances this past week, Hudson collected $2.8 million in incentives, bringing his total contract for the season to $6.2 million. He can still collect $1.8 million in incentives by the end of the regular season. To the Hudsons, the money is unfathomable.

Hudson remains true to the caring and generous ways his parents remember when he was young.

He is heavily involved in the Curing Autism through Change and Hope Foundation, with in-season fundraisers held in Los Angeles and numerous off-season benefits scheduled in Darlington.

"God put me in position to make a lot of money," Hudson says. "What am I going to do, keep it to myself and don’t do anything with it? Hey, I’m rich. What do you want me to do, just keep it to myself in this life? No, I can’t do that."

With the rest of his earnings, Hudson takes care of his family.

On June 26, 2004, Marcus Hudson drove his wife, Mae Alice, in the 1999 Chevy pickup truck he had purchased for him from their Mechanicsville home to Pocket Road outside Darlington. Marcus pulled into a driveway, and, to her surprise, presented the key to the house. The $250,000, four-bedroom birthday present for Orlando’s mom sits on three acres.

Just down the road, Orlando has bought 60 acres where a retirement home for his parents is under construction. A quarter-mile farther are the 14 acres on which Orlando is building his $4 million, 16,000-square-foot estate. Hudson insists nearly all labor and materials be local.

Hudson could easily have built his future home in Los Angeles. Or, he could have built in Atlanta, the hometown of his wife, Keisa. But he is proud to reside in Darlington.

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