Kids

[Longhorn20]

Anyone else find it more fun to watch Caissie, Shaw, Crow, Triantis, etc. play than the regulars?

Hate "PCA". not the player, just the reference.

[Irrelevant Dude]

During spring training, absolutely.  There is nothing to be learned by watching Ian Happ or Patrick Wisdom take exhibition at bats, but it is fun to watch the lesser known quantities to see how they perform against Major League caliber pitching.

[CubinNY]

You can add Canario in that list too. I think he's going to take a big step forward this year. 

[I owned a Suzuki]

Absolutely.  I really don't mind being bad if the team is bad with young kids getting better.  Nothing is worse then being what the Cubs seemed like they were almost all my life up until 2000....older and not good

[LBiittner]

11 minutes ago, Irrelevant Dude said:

During spring training, absolutely.  There is nothing to be learned by watching Ian Happ or Patrick Wisdom take exhibition at bats, but it is fun to watch the lesser known quantities to see how they perform against Major League caliber pitching.

For some reason my wife enjoys watching Patrick Wisdom's video from his days with Driveline this winter?

[LBiittner]

18 minutes ago, Longhorn20 said:

Anyone else find it more fun to watch Caissie, Shaw, Crow, Triantis, etc. play than the regulars?

Hate "PCA". not the player, just the reference.

Its wonderful feeling, multiple quality prospects. Back before the Theo days, Cubs were lucky to pin their hopes on maybe one prospect every few years. 

I'm becoming a prospect hugger. Just such a nice feeling to see Cubs getting major props for their system

[CubinNY]

15 minutes ago, LBiittner said:

For some reason my wife enjoys watching Patrick Wisdom's video from his days with Driveline this winter?

He's a sexy young man with a winning smile. But he also cannot hit a fastball up in the zone. 

[squally1313]

4 minutes ago, CubinNY said:

He's a sexy young man with a winning smile. But he also cannot hit a fastball up in the zone. 

[Bull]

PCA is a nincompoop.

I don’t care if you do score. You do not run through a Willie Harris stop sign if you’re a rookie trying to make the team in spring training.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

1 hour ago, LBiittner said:

Its wonderful feeling, multiple quality prospects. Back before the Theo days, Cubs were lucky to pin their hopes on maybe one prospect every few years. 

I'm becoming a prospect hugger. Just such a nice feeling to see Cubs getting major props for their system

This is early 2000s cubs erasure and I won't stand for it 

[LBiittner]

12 minutes ago, Hairyducked Idiot said:

This is early 2000s cubs erasure and I won't stand for it 

You will If I sing the Star Spangled Banner

[Hairyducked Idiot]

I'm not very patriotic 

[LBiittner]

Not even when Toby Keith sang Courtesy of the Red White and Blue?

[Hairyducked Idiot]

28 minutes ago, LBiittner said:

Not even when Toby Keith sang Courtesy of the Red White and Blue?

Especally not then. His only good song was As Good as I Once Was.

[squally1313]

3 minutes ago, Hairyducked Idiot said:

Especally not then. His only good song was As Good as I Once Was.

Should Have Been a Cowboy and, maybe once a year, I Love This Bar erasure

[Ding Dong Johnson]

God took toby keith for a reason. This thread is about the kids.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

I get annoyed when people say "OMG we never *really* had a farm system before Theo.*

If you didn't have a worn-out printing of the 2002 Baseball America Q&A (I wanna say it was keith law but I could be wrong about that) where they raved about our farm system's 7 top-80 prospects and how we went 60+ deep with legit MLB prospects, then get off my lawn.

[Post Count Padder]

I had so much fun following those early 2000s prospects. Who remembers Nic Jackson and Brian Dopirak and Luke Hagerty and Bobby Brownlie?

[Post Count Padder]

Oh no I forgot about David Kelton and Jason Dubois.

[Layoutman]

Add Kevin Orie...Felix Pie to the pile.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Who was the guy who Baseball Prospectus loved and put a Pujols comp on.  I can't remember his name now.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

On 3/1/2024 at 12:16 PM, Post Count Padder said:

I had so much fun following those early 2000s prospects. Who remembers Nic Jackson and Brian Dopirak and Luke Hagerty and Bobby Brownlie?

Almost everyone has forgotten that the 1990s Cubs were one of the pioneers of overslotting .  MacPhail diverted a chunk of the MLB budget toward it. Brownlie was one of the last ones before the Tribune started to pull it back a bit.

[Post Count Padder]

13 minutes ago, Hairyducked Idiot said:

Almost everyone has forgotten that the 1990s Cubs were one of the pioneers of overslotting .  MacPhail diverted a chunk of the MLB budget toward it. Brownlie was one of the last ones before the Tribune started to pull it back a bit.

We didn't hit on many but you can see a pattern in the 90s to early 2000s where we had some guys who became decent big leaguers or at least were highly ranked prospects and then sometime around Felix Pie we had like nothing for a few years. IIRC the 2004 and 2005 drafts seemed pretty bad at the time and are pretty bleak in hindsight.

[LBiittner]

17 minutes ago, TomtheBombadil said:

Brownlie also had famously lost his fastball and curveball to shoulder injuries by the time the Cubs took him. They wanted to make a splash and pickings were slim at 21. Maybe most funny is there was another first round college arm with the most biggest of draft demands, Jeremy Guthrie, but the Cubs saved a whole $500K going with the cheaper, pre-injured guy. IIRC Guthrie wanted a ML deal and got one so maybe that was the hangup. There’s some realities where Cole Hamels or Scott Kazmir gets to 21 and the Cubs don’t screw it up, but making a splash with the second most expensive college pitcher with a known drop in stuff is so in the spirit of the 2000s Cubs 

—-

This happened too:

https://www.espn.com/minorlbb/news/2003/0425/1544757.html

 

Was the bird euthanized? 

[chopsx9]

2 hours ago, Hairyducked Idiot said:

Who was the guy who Baseball Prospectus loved and put a Pujols comp on.  I can't remember his name now.

Brendan Harris ?  Louis Montanez, Brooks Kieshwhatever, Hanks Boy, Brett Jackson, Gary Scott, Hee Sop Choi...wait... let me shift through another $1000 of worthless RC cards from back in the day for some more names.  Going back a little deeper - for some reason I always remember a write up in some mag that went something along the lines of "It's true the Cubs don't have very many legitimate prospects but when you have one as promising as Kevin Roberson it doesn't matter." LMFAO

Edited March 3, 2024 by chopsx9