I took some notes during this year's Cubs Convention.  Since I owe Al a favor or two, I thought I'd post what I've got on a session Al missed, "Down on the Farm".  I'll start with descriptions of the people up front; if you want to read only the information the session produced, just skip down until you see some blank space, there'll be something there.

  As usual, former Cubs announcer Dave Otto hosted this session, standing (all 6'7" of him) at the podium to the right (from the audience point of view) of the table.
  Sitting at the table on Otto's right (the audience's left) was Cubs Minor League Pitcher of the Year Sean Gallagher, a righty starter who pitched for Peoria last year.  He went something like a dozen starts before allowing an earned run.  Gallagher's a slim, smiling 20 year old whose longish brown hair was streaked with blond highlights.
  Next to Gallagher sat Matt Murton, a chiseled red-headed kid.  Murton was besieged by autograph hounds as he entered the room and was besieged again when the session ended; he signed afterward until the long line was gone.
  Cubs Farm Director/Latin American Coordinator Oneri Fleita was next to Murton; this was his fifth year as the main attraction at this session.  For those who've never seen Fleita, he's a 6'5", athletic guy in his 40s with a round face and a balding head with some short hair.
  New scouting director Tim Wilken was seated at the far end of the table (the real far end: at one point after the main Q&A was over, Wilken shifted his weight in his chair, causing one of its legs to go over the edge and Wilken to take a tumble; luckily he was not hurt).  Wilken is a pleasant, skinny, white-haired gent of about 60.  Otto and Fleita made a point of mentioning Wilken's main qualification for the job: as a scout, crosschecker, and scouting director with Toronto from 1988 to 1999, 12 straight first round draft picks he had selected or recommended made the major leagues, among them Shannon Stewart and Roy Halladay (of the Cubs top picks over the same span of years, only 6 made the majors: Lance Dickson, Doug Glanville, Brooks Kieschnick, Kerry Wood, Jon Garland, and Corey Patterson).  Incidentally, if one other guy makes the majors, Wilken's streak will move up to drafting major leaguers with 16 straight first round picks.

  The floor was quickly opened for questions, eliciting the following answers:

  Top prospect Felix Pie, who missed half of last season with an ankle injury, has recovered and is running well.  His injury (a bruise of some kind?) was described as worse than a fracture because it had cut off blood flow in the ankle, slowing down the healing.  But he played a little winter ball and should be ready for camp.

  Sean Gallagher described his repertoire as fastball, curve, and change.  He had thrown a slider in high school, but the Cubs had him drop it in rookie ball to concentrate on developing just 3 pitches instead of 4.  He's still working on his change, but late in the year Tom Pratt (his pitching coach) had him start throwing the slider again.

  Matt Murton hangs out with Greg Maddux, who tells him how other pitchers will try to work him and get him out.  In the dugout, Maddux will say to Murton, "See what the pitcher just did?", and then explain what the pitcher is up to.  Matt has yet to be the victim of one of Maddux's well-known practical jokes, but Maddux did give Murton his clubhouse nickname: on Matt's first day with the Cubs, Greg spotted his red hair and called out, "Hey, who's the Orange Guy?"  Dave Otto made a point of referring to Murton as "Orange Guy" later in the session.
  Let me reinforce something Al posted.  I've seen a lot of young players at these Conventions over the years, and Murton was by far the most poised and polished I've ever seen.  Mentally, Murton's already got all he'll ever need for the majors.

  Double A shortstop Buck Coats's return to the outfield late last year wasn't a vote of no confidence in his ability to learn to play short; rather, he's being groomed as a multi-position guy.  Fleita was surprised at how good Coats outfield skills still were (Coats had played some outfield lower in the system).

  Fleita credited Double A hitting coach Von Joshua with getting Ronnie Cedeno back on track as a hitter.  Back when he was in rookie league, Cedeno won a batting title, and apparently that made him start thinking of himself as a home run hitter.  He struggled the next couple of years trying to overpower the ball.  Joshua batted him in front of the pitcher and got him to refocus on making contact and using all of the field.  This year, Cedeno won Rookie of the Year in the Venezuelan winter league.  Fleita added that Cedeno came close to winning the batting title -- and that no rookie has ever won a batting title in that league.
  It's not just the Cubs who are hot for Cedeno, either.  In a radio interview after he returned from Venezuela, White Sox coach Joey Cora stopped talking about Sox prospects a minute to rave about Cedeno.  

  Wilken said he'll meet with all of his scouts in Florida next week to get acquainted and start figuring out how to best work with them.

  Fleita expects a lot of guys drafted last June to make the Peoria team this year.  He mentioned first round pick Mark Pawelek (a lefty pitcher), second rounder Don Veal (another lefty), third rounder Mark Holliman (righty), fourth rounder Dylan Johnston (a shortstop -- hey, why didn't they draft another pitcher?), and possibly twelfth rounder Yusuf Carter (catcher), who is Joe Carter's nephew.  Since Fleita didn't mention the other third rounder Mike Billek (righty; the compensation for losing Matt Clement as a free agent) who did pitch for Peoria late in the season, I presume his plan at the moment is to move Billek up to Daytona.  Fleita also said Jonathan Mota, a shortstop signed out of Latin America who played for the Boise Hawks last year, is a good candidate to play in Peoria.

  Wilken was asked about his approach to drafting more than once and in several different ways.  From his answers, we learned that apart from trying to find enough pitching for the minor league staffs, he likes to draft middle infielders because they're usually good athletes who can easily change position.  Like a lot of old-time scouts, he had a jab or two for "Moneyball", but conceded he uses stats himself in his scouting.  He doesn't have a preference for college or high school players: he picks where he considers the draft strong.

  Fleita said Angel Guzman's pitches were all there and his command wasn't too far off.  But first he asked everybody to cross both fingers about Guzman's health.

  When asked why the Cubs let lefty pitcher Andy Sisco, Fleita said there are certain criteria for putting guys on the 40 man roster and Sisco didn't meet them all.  He didn't have all that good a season, and he had some off-field problems.  Putting him on the major league roster would have sent the wrong message to the other guys in the minor league system.

  Murton said playing in the Arizona Fall League was intended to give him a feel for playing during October (he hopes to do a lot of that with the Cubs!) and to make up some at-bats he missed.  After such a long season, on a lot of days he didn't feel like going to the park when he woke up; so that taught him how to get out there and play when his body is reluctant.  But Fall League didn't help prepare him for the majors.  He'd played in the College World Series for Georgia Tech in front of 25,000 fans; when he made his major league debut in Florida, that was no more intimidating than the College World Series had been.  Then he added, "But the College World Series didn't prepare me for my first time at Wrigley Field: that's a lot more intense than Florida!"
  Matt said that he still talks a lot to his friend Adam Greenberg (they have the same agent, both played in West Tennessee's outfield last spring, and came up to the Cubs together).  Adam's 100% again and waiting for spring training to start.
  That prompted Fleita to tell the story of Matt and Adam's call up to the Cubs.  Fleita was out of the country when he was told about the callup; but the callup couldn't be announced until after the Cubs' game that night was over.  So Fleita called West Tennessee manager Bobby Dickerson and told him to hold those guys out of that night's game in Chattanooga -- but he couldn't tell them why.  (Murton interrupted here to say the Diamond Jaxx were playing in Knoxville.  Fleita laughed and replied, "Well, like I said, I was out of the country.")  Unfortunately, West Tennessee's game was rained out.  The Jaxx left for Carolina, leaving Murton and Greenberg alone in a hotel room for hours not knowing what was going on.  When Fleita finally called to tell them to get on the plane to Chicago, Greenberg answered and said, "We've been traded."

  Second baseman Rich Lewis's bad year was blamed largely on the broken ankle he suffered at the end of 2003.  Fleita described Lewis as a tough self-evaluator.  Recently, a trainer verified that Lewis has regained some of the speed he lost to his ankle injury.

  Fleita still plans to move first base prospect Brian Dopirak to West Tennessee despite his poor season at Daytona last year.  He called Dopirak a wonderful guy ("He calls me up a lot, which other guys don't do.  Just last month, he rang me and said, "Merry Christmas, dude!").  He said Dopirak, who had hit 39 homers the year before in the smaller parks in the Midwest League, got off to a slow start in the Florida State League's big parks that are used by major league teams for exhibition games.  When May came around, Dopirak tried to play catchup for all the hits he didn't get in April; he just got in a cycle of pressing harder and harder, which just made things tougher for him.  But he never hung his head, so he should promote.

  Fleita's current inclination is to challenge second baseman Eric Patterson with an assignment to West Tennessee: a double promotion, though Patterson actually finished last year with the Diamond Jaxx.  Eric played well in the Fall League and should be ready.  So Nate Spears, the lefty second baseman the Cubs got from the Orioles for Eric's brother Corey, will probably get assigned to Daytona.

  Asked about players who could possibly help this year's big league club, Fleita rattled off Carlos Marmol (righty), Jose Reyes (catcher), Ryan Theriot (shortstop/second baseman), Casey McGehee (third baseman), and Brandon Sing (first baseman/outfielder).
  Fleita talked about Marmol as a closer in the making: throwing in relief instead of starting, he adds about 5 mph to his low 90s FB without losing its late life.
  Reyes had been a strong candidate for Rookie of the Year in the Dominican winter league, beating out a major league vet for playing time.
  Sing's playing in the outfield strictly to find some way to use him on a team that has Derrek Lee at first base, Sing's natural position.

  Righty Billy Petrick, recovering from a shoulder operation, should return by June.

  Righty Chadd Blasko, who missed last season after a shoulder operation, should break from camp with a team.

  Trainer Justin Sharpe runs rehab for all of the injured minor leaguers.  More than anything, though, the Cubs are trying to avoid injuries.

  Lefty reliever Raul Valdez had a good winter stint, but was shut down in December to have him completely fresh for spring training.  Last year, he broke a finger on a comebacker just days before camp began.  When he was well, Fleita thought that given his age (27), he ought to be able to handle Iowa.  He didn't, so Fleita blames himself for Valdez's bad year.  But Valdez could be the wild card in camp, the guy who unexpectedly pitches his way onto the big league club.  Fleita added that Valdez has a terrific pickoff move to first.

  Hitting coach Richie Zisk will work on tightening outfielder Ryan Harvey's swing at Daytona this year.

  Utility player Matt Creighton has been released.  He's going to be 27 and Fleita just couldn't see him winning a job on a team, so he let him go now.

  Righty Alberto Albuquerque has recovered "100%" from Tommy John surgery and should make the Boise staff this June.

  Fleita said he doesn't allow his coaches to see the scouting reports on the minor leaguers: he wants them all the players to be treated as though they have the chance to make the majors.

  Buddy Bailey has replaced Grady Little, who got hired by another organization.

  Chris Buckley, who worked with Wilken for years in the Toronto system, has been hired by the Cubs as a consultant.

  Steve McFarland, who managed the Daytona Cubs last year, also scouts minor leaguers on other teams in Arizona during the spring.

  Dave Bialas, the minor league field coordinator, was hired away.  Can't read the name of the guy who replaced him, though.

  After the session was over, I heard Fleita tell someone else the Patterson deal was tied to the Sosa deal in some unspecified way.  Maybe Hendry felt he owed the Orioles something after they took some of Sammy's contract off his hands only to watch Sosa flop.

  That's all I can decipher.  I hope some of it was interesting to you all.