Szczur Article (Warning: Phil Rogers Idiocy)

[apete6]

Phil Rogers is 100% on the Matt Szczur bandwagon, anointing him our next CF hope. Apparently old Phil not impressed with Brett Jackson in CF and putting all of his old-man creepy love to a guy with 25 minor league games:

 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-spt-0323-rogers-cubs-chicago--20110322,0,4674688.column

[davell]

There are certainly parts of the article that are dumb. No doubt about it. And forgetting about Brett Jackson is stupid obviously. But, I hate to say it, but I'm actually impressed Phil Rogers has ever HEARD of Szczur, much less written what qualifies as a fluff piece about him.

 

 

The more I've read on Szczur, the more excited I am to see what he can do. Carl Crawford is a potential comp according to some guys. He's not hitting for power yet, but hits 400 ft. bombs in BP. Jim Callis of BA gushes over him, for those of you who don't go into the minor league forums all that often. Don't get me wrong, some guys don't understand us handing him a 1.5 million bonus to keep him from being tempted by football. But, he's a classic "upside" guy and there's probably not a guy in our organization who has better intangibles to go with it. It looks like he's going to start off in A ball this year, but I could see him moving to A+ quickly, with an outside shot of seeing AA by the end of the season.

[Backtobanks]

There are certainly parts of the article that are dumb. No doubt about it. And forgetting about Brett Jackson is stupid obviously. But, I hate to say it, but I'm actually impressed Phil Rogers has ever HEARD of Szczur, much less written what qualifies as a fluff piece about him.

 

 

The more I've read on Szczur, the more excited I am to see what he can do. Carl Crawford is a potential comp according to some guys. He's not hitting for power yet, but hits 400 ft. bombs in BP. Jim Callis of BA gushes over him, for those of you who don't go into the minor league forums all that often. Don't get me wrong, some guys don't understand us handing him a 1.5 million bonus to keep him from being tempted by football. But, he's a classic "upside" guy and there's probably not a guy in our organization who has better intangibles to go with it. It looks like he's going to start off in A ball this year, but I could see him moving to A+ quickly, with an outside shot of seeing AA by the end of the season.

 

The gist of the article is the black hole the Cubs have had in CF for decades. Might be a nice problem to have 2 great young CFs.

[Rob]

There are certainly parts of the article that are dumb. No doubt about it. And forgetting about Brett Jackson is stupid obviously. But, I hate to say it, but I'm actually impressed Phil Rogers has ever HEARD of Szczur, much less written what qualifies as a fluff piece about him.

 

 

The more I've read on Szczur, the more excited I am to see what he can do. Carl Crawford is a potential comp according to some guys. He's not hitting for power yet, but hits 400 ft. bombs in BP. Jim Callis of BA gushes over him, for those of you who don't go into the minor league forums all that often. Don't get me wrong, some guys don't understand us handing him a 1.5 million bonus to keep him from being tempted by football. But, he's a classic "upside" guy and there's probably not a guy in our organization who has better intangibles to go with it. It looks like he's going to start off in A ball this year, but I could see him moving to A+ quickly, with an outside shot of seeing AA by the end of the season.

 

The gist of the article is the black hole the Cubs have had in CF for decades. Might be a nice problem to have 2 great young CFs.

 

Of course, we haven't really had a black hole in CF. Maybe we haven't had superstar production, but we've only really had 3 bad years in the last decade.

 

2010 - Marlon Byrd was great.

2009 - Kosuke Fukudome was good offensively, not so much on defense.

2008 - Jim Edmonds was great, Reed Johnson was good.

2007 - Jacque Jones was solid on both sides of the ball.

2006 - Juan Pierre hit just enough and played good defense.

2005 - Corey Patterson was awful.

2004 - Corey Patterson was good.

2003 - Corey Patterson was great, Kenny Lofton was great.

2002 - Corey Patterson sucked.

2001 - Gary Matthews Jr. sucked, Michael Tucker was good.

[MSG T]

I'm not going to claim any Rogers love, but it appears he's thinking (or that Hendry is thinking) Jackson is going to be a LF, not CF. The last comment kind of gives that away.

 

Cubs general manager Jim Hendry said he could foresee him quickly climbing the developmental ladder to join Tyler Colvin and Brett Jackson in a homegrown outfield at Wrigley Field.

 

Not saying he's right, or that Hendry's thinking is right, just comment on why Rogers might think of Jackson as a LF, not CF. And to be honest, if Szczur can progress, I wouldn't have problem with him moving Jackson to left. I have no idea how likely that is, though.

[Irrelevant Dude]

2006 - Juan Pierre hit just enough

He did?

[davell]

I actually thought I had read somewhere that Hendry's vision was Szczur/Jackson/Colvin from left to right, could be wrong though. I do think he said that was his expectation in 2014.

[Rob]

2006 - Juan Pierre hit just enough

He did?

 

Yeah, he did.

 

If you provide enough value with your defense and baserunning, you really don't have to hit particularly well. Pierre was excellent in the field for us (god bless Wrigley being small enough his arm never mattered), and while he didn't add much with his SB totals, he was excellent in the other aspects of the running game.

 

Any way you want to cut it, 2.9 WAR. We gave up too much for him, but he was a valuable player for us.

[NonProfitCow]

He's not hitting for power yet, but hits 400 ft. bombs in BP.

 

Awesome. Majestic flyouts to the CF track.

[Abe Frohman]

I just can't get excited about Colvin being the "future" until he starts taking a walk and increasing his OPS.

[XZero771679666304]

I actually thought I had read somewhere that Hendry's vision was Szczur/Jackson/Colvin from left to right, could be wrong though. I do think he said that was his expectation in 2014.

 

I think it was Szczur in CF, which makes sense. I am under the impression that he is a better defender than Jackson.

[Pushfrog98]

I actually thought I had read somewhere that Hendry's vision was Szczur/Jackson/Colvin from left to right, could be wrong though. I do think he said that was his expectation in 2014.

An all-white outfield? We're doomed.

[SouthSideRyan]

He's not hitting for power yet, but hits 400 ft. bombs in BP.

 

Awesome. Majestic flyouts to the CF track.

 

Not in Wrigley it's not.

[NonProfitCow]

He's not hitting for power yet, but hits 400 ft. bombs in BP.

 

Awesome. Majestic flyouts to the CF track.

 

Not in Wrigley it's not.

Oh yeah. So caught at the wall or dropping into the basket.

[jiml60]

He's not hitting for power yet, but hits 400 ft. bombs in BP.

 

Awesome. Majestic flyouts to the CF track.

 

Not in Wrigley it's not.

Oh yeah. So caught at the wall or dropping into Banks Boulevard.

 

Joe Morgan'd

[MSG T]

He's not hitting for power yet, but hits 400 ft. bombs in BP.

 

Awesome. Majestic flyouts to the CF track.

 

Not in Wrigley it's not.

Oh yeah. So caught at the wall or dropping into the basket.

 

If he hit it 400ft anywhere other than CF, it's going into the stands. 400ft to CF, it's dropping into the basket.

[NonProfitCow]

If he hit it 400ft anywhere other than CF, it's going into the stands. 400ft to CF, it's dropping into the basket.

I get it. Saying he's hitting 400 foot bombs just sounds funny.

[questionmarkgrace]

There are certainly parts of the article that are dumb. No doubt about it. And forgetting about Brett Jackson is stupid obviously. But, I hate to say it, but I'm actually impressed Phil Rogers has ever HEARD of Szczur, much less written what qualifies as a fluff piece about him.

 

 

The more I've read on Szczur, the more excited I am to see what he can do. Carl Crawford is a potential comp according to some guys. He's not hitting for power yet, but hits 400 ft. bombs in BP. Jim Callis of BA gushes over him, for those of you who don't go into the minor league forums all that often. Don't get me wrong, some guys don't understand us handing him a 1.5 million bonus to keep him from being tempted by football. But, he's a classic "upside" guy and there's probably not a guy in our organization who has better intangibles to go with it. It looks like he's going to start off in A ball this year, but I could see him moving to A+ quickly, with an outside shot of seeing AA by the end of the season.

 

The gist of the article is the black hole the Cubs have had in CF for decades. Might be a nice problem to have 2 great young CFs.

 

Of course, we haven't really had a black hole in CF. Maybe we haven't had superstar production, but we've only really had 3 bad years in the last decade.

 

2010 - Marlon Byrd was great.

2009 - Kosuke Fukudome was good offensively, not so much on defense.

2008 - Jim Edmonds was great, Reed Johnson was good.

2007 - Jacque Jones was solid on both sides of the ball.

2006 - Juan Pierre hit just enough and played good defense.

2005 - Corey Patterson was awful.

2004 - Corey Patterson was good.

2003 - Corey Patterson was great, Kenny Lofton was great.

2002 - Corey Patterson sucked.

2001 - Gary Matthews Jr. sucked, Michael Tucker was good.

 

 

You seem to forget that Jacque Jones couldnt hit a cut off man that entire year and was personally responsible for an earthworm genocide as a result of the thousand hoppers from the outfield in. He also fell off the earth power wise. not exactly a good year for centerfield.

[SouthSideRyan]

No, Jones had an above average year for a CF.

[daske17]

You seem to forget that Jacque Jones couldnt hit a cut off man that entire year and was personally responsible for an earthworm genocide as a result of the thousand hoppers from the outfield in. He also fell off the earth power wise. not exactly a good year for centerfield.

 

Earthworm genocide: NEVER FORGET!

[mike2482]

I actually thought I had read somewhere that Hendry's vision was Szczur/Jackson/Colvin from left to right, could be wrong though. I do think he said that was his expectation in 2014.

An all-white outfield? We're doomed.

 

Could you imagine the team chemistry we would have though?