NSBB at the 2005 Convention

[mlpeel]

That ended the Down on the Farm session -- so now, my real Convention could begin.

 

John Stockstill on Grant Johnson: fastball topped at 97 last season, but his slider needs work. He fell to the Cubs' spot in the draft because teams felt he was over-pricing himself, *not* because of his arm injury the previous year. He'll probably start at Peoria, but may make Daytona.

 

Oneri Fleita: The Cubs still maintain their Venezuelan academy in Puerto Cabello, but have no plans to send the players there to the Venezuelan Summer League. When they're ready to face competition, they'll continue going to the Cubs' Dominican academy, which can accomodate 64 players. The Cubs are thinking of fielding 2 DSL teams as some other organizations do.

 

The Cubs tried to re-sign Scott Chiasson, but he felt he'd have better chances elsewhere and left.

 

Renyel Pinto's big improvement this year was due to increased maturity rather than an improved pitch or better location.

 

SS Nate Frese did not lose any running speed to the double fracture of his leg last spring. Had that not happened, Fleita felt he had a chance to make the big league team. As it is, Frese is ready for camp right now.

 

 

The room was just about clear by this time; I spotted Gary Hughes sitting in the middle of the room (he was just about the only person there). Like most scouts, he was a most affable soul; he and I started chatting, soon joined by his wife and Rich (who had just happened to be chatting also; Rich's conversation with Mrs. Hughes was why Mr. Hughes was still sitting around there). Some of his comments:

 

Gary Hughes: I really enjoyed the session Alan Schwarz set up for the scouting/stats debate.

 

Bobby Brownlie has the same kind of command and head for pitching as Greg Maddux; Brownlie just needs the experience. (I challenged this statement, and Hughes stuck to it: *Maddux* is the comp. Think about that.)

 

Zambrano is better than Prior or Wood.

 

 

And like all scouts, Hughes had a fund of stories.

 

During the session, Dave Otto had pointed out that John Stockstill's first draft pick was Mark Prior. Hughes mentioned that and said, "Ask me where my first draft pick is." The answer: San Quentin, doing 13 years.

 

He recounted how he became Montreal's scouting director when Jim Fanning was fired for drafting Pete Incaviglia; Incaviglia didn't want to play for the Expos and forced a trade to the Rangers (causing an amendment to baseball's rulebook, now referred to as the Incaviglia Rule, to prevent Inky's strong-arm tactics from working again). Fanning's second round pick that day: Randy Johnson.

 

When the Expos traded Johnson to Seattle for Mark Langston, the guy Montreal *really* regretted losing in the deal was RHR Gene Harris.

 

And he mentioned how he was on a Baseball America list of top scouts a few years back, "And now I'm the only guy on that list who's still alive."

 

 

Hughes's departure cleared out the Cubs personnel, but we still had one more stop: Rich wanted to meet up with some SABR members hawking their books downstairs. We found the stall where Dave Zeman (who used to take my newsletter) and Stuart Shea were located along with a woman from their publishing company. I bought Stuart's book -- "Wrigley Field: The Unauthorized Biography" -- and invited him to visit NSBB. I told him, "It's not really a SABR crowd, but there are a lot of Baseball Prospectus readers." Stuart answered, "You know, Chris is on Prospectus." Yes, the "woman from the publishing company" was Chris Kahrl, who writes the Transactions analysis for Prospectus.

 

We talked a lot of baseball; perhaps the most interesting discussion involved something Rich teased out from the Convention. Rich had asked MacPhail if Washington was going to become a major market team; we were quite surprised when MacPhail said no, that the franchise was likely to struggle despite selling 30,000 season tickets (a figure which surprised the Cubs). It turned out this wasn't just MacPhail's opinion: ticketing director Frank Maloney told Rich that "he wouldn't have any problem buying tickets for the Cubs at Washington on the day of the game." Evidently, the idea that the Nationals won't do very well in Washington runs deep in the Cubs organization. None of us could buy that; Chris rattled off some demographic data supporting the idea that Washington should do well. MacPhail also said the move into D. C. was likely to be just the first of several franchise shifts -- implying that perhaps the Nationals weren't going to stay there long. We were left wondering if there was more to the Washington deal than meets the eye.

 

 

The only jarring note of the day: I saw Ronnie Woo while we were searching for the bookstand. If I'd just left after meeting Hughes, I would have had a Ronnie Woo-free Convention. But on a day like Sunday, nothing could get too bad: I only *saw* Ronnie, I didn't *hear* him. So even that cloud had its silver lining. All in all, the 2005 Convention turned out to be the most fun of any I've attended.

[treebird]

Great stuff everyone. Thanks.

[UMFan83]

Man I wish I stayed for the Down on the Farm part. Getting Z's autograph was nice though :) Thanks for the notes.

[wvcbxl]

Now, maybe you can recruit our other fantasy league members who haven't found their way here yet (especially Dokta and Cindy).

 

NCCF,

Klaus registered here on 5/10/2003, he just never posted.

[JC]

 

Bobby Brownlie has the same kind of command and head for pitching as Greg Maddux; Brownlie just needs the experience. (I challenged this statement, and Hughes stuck to it: *Maddux* is the comp. Think about that.)

 

I have been a Brownlie fan from the outset. As such, this excerpt is particularly interesting/encouraging to me. If he does project to be in the Maddux mold, it would be nice if he got to spend some time around Greg. Maddux would likely have a larger impact on Brownlie than a Wood or Zambrano.

 

Oh, and thanks for the great reads, Mark. Your efforts, along with everyone's, are appreciated.

[USSoccer]

 

Bobby Brownlie has the same kind of command and head for pitching as Greg Maddux; Brownlie just needs the experience. (I challenged this statement, and Hughes stuck to it: *Maddux* is the comp. Think about that.)

 

I have been a Brownlie fan from the outset. As such, this excerpt is particularly interesting/encouraging to me. If he does project to be in the Maddux mold, it would be nice if he got to spend some time around Greg. Maddux would likely have a larger impact on Brownlie than a Wood or Zambrano.

 

Oh, and thanks for the great reads, Mark. Your efforts, along with everyone's, are appreciated.

 

I love hearing that, Mark. Brownlie is officially "my guy" in the Cubs' system.

 

Great updates. Mark, Jon, everyone that posted here, thank you so much. It's so neat to have a chance to know what goes on at the convention without actually being there.

[rawaction]

Agreed. Great job guys, putting in the hard work to do the writeups. A lot of solid information. Sounds like everyone had a good time, and I envy you all.

 

Starting today, I'm working on being the Member of the Year, so I can go next year! Have I even been in the running?

[Old Style Man]

I'll chime in here, though my thoughts aren't going to be profound. This, as I think I've mentioned, was my first convention. I ended up just going with my dad, who has been a huge fan forever. It was his first convention as well. One of my friends who was supposed to have driven up Saturday couldn't make it because of the weather. Too bad. We really had a great time. As noted in this thread, I met Mark Peel and JohnMDavis at the coaches session. The mysterious liquid Mark Peel observed was coffee. It was too early to start drinking. Had to wait until lunch for that.

 

My activities focused on the mangagement meetings primarily, though I did get to the John Williams' pitchers and catchers segment and the hitters segment with Banks, Williams, Cey, Glenallen Hill and Jody Davis. The pitchers and catchers session was great. John Williams did by far the best of any moderator I saw, and Barret, Dempster, and Prior were all hilarious. No doubt Dempster is a different kind of dude. If he can throw enough strikes he probably will be a very effective closer. I can't imagine much of anything rattling him. He said the Philidelphia fans are the worst hecklers. He once had to tell a guy that he doesn't heckle him when he's working at the drive through at McDonald's, so why was he helcking him?

 

I really enjoyed the sessions with Baker and Hendry, the farm report, and the business report with McDounagh and Mark McGwire. I concur that the new plans for Wrigley look pretty good. Of course we'd all it to remain exactly as is, but more revenue really has to be raised somehow from the ballpark considering everyone else in the division has a new stadium (the Cards will soon). I think these plans are a pretty good compromise. I didn't get any autographs. I'm not really too interested in that, but overall it was really good experience.

[Chris]

Thank you to everyone who reported, it was a great read!

[Stevietmoney]

Thanks so much everyone for all the reports! You guys are great! Glad you all had a good time and made it back home safely. :)

[Cubman15]

Yeah, not used to how the board is run yet, but I guess i'll get the hang of it eventually!

[Jon]

I'll chime in here, though my thoughts aren't going to be profound. This, as I think I've mentioned, was my first convention. I ended up just going with my dad, who has been a huge fan forever. It was his first convention as well. One of my friends who was supposed to have driven up Saturday couldn't make it because of the weather. Too bad. We really had a great time. As noted in this thread, I met Mark Peel and JohnMDavis at the coaches session. The mysterious liquid Mark Peel observed was coffee. It was too early to start drinking. Had to wait until lunch for that.

 

My activities focused on the mangagement meetings primarily, though I did get to the John Williams' pitchers and catchers segment and the hitters segment with Banks, Williams, Cey, Glenallen Hill and Jody Davis. The pitchers and catchers session was great. John Williams did by far the best of any moderator I saw, and Barret, Dempster, and Prior were all hilarious. No doubt Dempster is a different kind of dude. If he can throw enough strikes he probably will be a very effective closer. I can't imagine much of anything rattling him. He said the Philidelphia fans are the worst hecklers. He once had to tell a guy that he doesn't heckle him when he's working at the drive through at McDonald's, so why was he helcking him?

 

I really enjoyed the sessions with Baker and Hendry, the farm report, and the business report with McDounagh and Mark McGwire. I concur that the new plans for Wrigley look pretty good. Of course we'd all it to remain exactly as is, but more revenue really has to be raised somehow from the ballpark considering everyone else in the division has a new stadium (the Cards will soon). I think these plans are a pretty good compromise. I didn't get any autographs. I'm not really too interested in that, but overall it was really good experience.

As I've stated before on this board, I wasn't a huge fan of the previous bleacher expansion plans. With no vertical support beams and some tweaking, I actually like the pictures that I saw. It is a pretty good compromise.

 

As for John Williams, I don't listen to WGN Radio that much during the day anymore, but I enjoy his work. He's a funny guy.

 

Glad you both enjoyed it and were able to make it.

[mlpeel]

Yeah, not used to how the board is run yet, but I guess i'll get the hang of it eventually!

 

Hope so; thanks for posting your experiences!

[mhuber92211]

well let me add my thanks and my Grrrr....for all the teasing of Cubs baseball and the fun of summer. I guess us here in So Cal do have one leg up. At least it literally FEELS like summer out here with the sun shining and the bikinis already in stores. Funny to see all the winter clothing on 50% off at the stores! Gotta love California

[markkanges]

Any word on whether or not Kanges went off at the question session?

 

I'm sure he'll post his full report tomorrow.

 

After everything that went on, I wasn't sure if he would even post it here. I've been keeping up with the "other board" to see if he's posted anything but I am yet to see it.

 

It's there now, for your perusement....I had to recover all day monday, and wrote it Mon nite/Tues morning...all from memory.

 

Best wishes,

 

Mark

[markkanges]

I obviously didn't go to the Down on the Farm session, but I'm sure Mark will post about that. We may even get the audio of it from Burnt.

 

I have it on video. By the way, are you not in Richmond IN anymore?

 

Just was wondering...

 

Great job. I thoroughly enjoyed your posts and wish I could take notes as well as you do. {its very hard for me to write after surgery last year}

 

All the best,

 

Mark

[markkanges]

Hello Fellow Cub fans. In case some of you don't know me, I'm a long time member of Cubs.com. I still recognize many of your names from the old board and its nice to see that Tim has started a site that everyone can discuss the Cubbies in a troll free environment.

 

Now that I have the introductions (and "re-introductions") out of the way, I'll let you know a little about my experience today.....

 

My friend knows a guy that works for the Cubs marketing department and was pretty much in charge of this weekends festivities, so we were able to get in for free. We got to the Hilton about 20 minutes before things began. It was great to see all of the Cub fans there, even though Sunday was basically a day to wind down from the rest of the weekend.

 

The first thing we wanted to do was get a couple of autographs, so we went and did so. It took about 30 minutes to get Jason Dubois autograph. He had a smile on his face as he signed the memorabilia, but wasn't too talkative, so I wished him luck on the upcoming season and moved on.

 

We went to one of the rooms with the open discussion, apparently this one was one public relations/advertising/promotions. A couple of people whined about the Mother's Day figurines no longer being available (or at least my understanding). One gentleman pretty much begged them to stop the 7th Inning Stretch Guets, to which he got a good round of applause from the crowd. When one of the guys on the panel explained the concept behind it (not sure who he was), the other half of the room applauded him. All in all it seemed split down the middle about the 7th Inning Stretch Guest Composers.

 

At 10:30, they began discussions on the Cubs minor league system, something I was looking forward to. I was actually sitting in the 4th row, about two rows behind someone wearing a NSBB t-shirt! I wanted to introduce myself, but never got the chance as my friend received a phone call from his buddy that was in charge of the event, telling us that Carlos Zambrano snuck into the building and would be signing autographs pretty soon. Dave Otto, Jon Leicester, Jason Dubois, Oneiri Fleita(sp?), and stockstill were there answering questions. I actually got to ask the very first question of the day, about Feliz Pie, so that was very cool. (I'll start another post with some of my notes from "Down on the Farm")

 

At about 10:50 or so, I snuck out of the discussion to go and get Zambrano's autograph, since it was a surprise appearance. On my way out of the discussion, I actually passed Jim Hendry and got his autograph. He was very nice, shook hands with me, and just seemed like an overall good guy. Once in line, it took about 45 minutes to get Carlos' autograph. When I got up there, he seemed like he was getting a little tired of signing, so I wished him good luck and told him to say hi to Jim Edmonds again for me. He kind of laughed at that one.

 

Overall, it was a fun experience today. I realize that this was the slowest day of the three, but I'm sure I'll be going to many conventions in the future.

 

wow..its nice to see you again. I still have that picture of you at Mark Prior's debut. I hope all is well. I still have videos if you like. E-mail me through the board.

 

Best wishes,

 

Mark

[markkanges]

The only jarring note of the day: I saw Ronnie Woo while we were searching for the bookstand. If I'd just left after meeting Hughes, I would have had a Ronnie Woo-free Convention. But on a day like Sunday, nothing could get too bad: I only *saw* Ronnie, I didn't *hear* him. So even that cloud had its silver lining. All in all, the 2005 Convention turned out to be the most fun of any I've attended.

 

My word! :o You don't like Ronnie Woo-Woo? Our unofficial mascot?

[Chris]

Any word on whether or not Kanges went off at the question session?

 

I'm sure he'll post his full report tomorrow.

 

After everything that went on, I wasn't sure if he would even post it here. I've been keeping up with the "other board" to see if he's posted anything but I am yet to see it.

 

It's there now, for your perusement....I had to recover all day monday, and wrote it Mon nite/Tues morning...all from memory.

 

Best wishes,

 

Mark

 

Recover? Are you ok?

[Jon]

I obviously didn't go to the Down on the Farm session, but I'm sure Mark will post about that. We may even get the audio of it from Burnt.

 

I have it on video. By the way, are you not in Richmond IN anymore?

 

Just was wondering...

 

Great job. I thoroughly enjoyed your posts and wish I could take notes as well as you do. {its very hard for me to write after surgery last year}

 

All the best,

 

Mark

No. I transfered to Northwestern this fall and haven't been there since last May.

 

Thanks. I looked back over my notes and was still amazed that I was able to easily decipher what was written. Maybe I'll try to sell them on eBay.

[AFCubsFan]

Thanks to everyone for their convention reports. You guys did a great job for those of us who couldn't make it.

[mlpeel]

The only jarring note of the day: I saw Ronnie Woo while we were searching for the bookstand. If I'd just left after meeting Hughes, I would have had a Ronnie Woo-free Convention. But on a day like Sunday, nothing could get too bad: I only *saw* Ronnie, I didn't *hear* him. So even that cloud had its silver lining. All in all, the 2005 Convention turned out to be the most fun of any I've attended.

 

My word! :o You don't like Ronnie Woo-Woo? Our unofficial mascot?

 

I had my fill of Ronnie out in the bleachers back in the Kingman days; my overstock of his act hasn't run out yet.

[BigbadB]

Ronnie really likes to be heard at Spring Training.

 

Less spectators, smaller venue= hearing Ronnie no matter where he's at for the entire game.

[mlpeel]

Ronnie really likes to be heard at Spring Training.

 

Less spectators, smaller venue= hearing Ronnie no matter where he's at for the entire game.

 

Yes, he comes across all too clearly on the radio sometimes...

[Mark Priors Calves]

Ronnie really likes to be heard at Spring Training.

 

Less spectators, smaller venue= hearing Ronnie no matter where he's at for the entire game.

 

He's a big fan of the front row behind the plate seats at Miller Park as well.