TruffleShuffle

real classy move by proctor, fastball at the face of an opposing batter. f the yankees.

fire lou piniella, hire tom emanski

lmao

didn't see that one coming

do i smell a gidp? i think i do.

i thought you were a red sox fan now

I don't think he will be a great power hitter, but I can see him averaging about 15-20 per year and ending up as a Youkilis type of hitter.

AA flame out? Yeh right. http://www.minorleagueball.com/story/2007/5/25/155416/658#commenttop Not that Sickels is a god, but... Worst case is a AAA flameout...by a guy who isn't in love with Vitters at all. I'm sure people didn't think Montanez and Harvey (top 10 picks) would be complete busts either. Come on, doesn't this just have all the signs of a bust? -Cubs history of drafting high school hitters - not good -Vitters isn't known for having particularly strong plate discipline -Cubs pass up a low-risk position player with good patience

let's keep the losing streak alive fellas

And Hendry gave him a two-year deal worth $5.5M. Simply mind-boggling.

yup... I've read says his reflexes are really good, so he swings at pitches he shouldn't swing at, because he's able to hit them. Sounds like a future Cub to me.

rules at what? not getting on base? His OBP was a slightly less than spectacular .313 last year in rookie ball. A first round draft pick from a major college should be able to do better than that. I'd have taken Matt Antonelli ahead of Colvin, no question.

A lot of people were pretty pissed when Colvin was taken, but I have yet to see the anti-Colvin bandwagon in the Minor League forum this year. count me in. I don't believe he'll be a productive major league ballplayer.

not signing Vlad was a huge mistake too

I can't wait for this sequence of events: 1. With Wieters available, the Cubs select future AA flame out Josh Vitters 2. Cubs trade Eric Patterson for a veteran middle reliever with one pretty good season under his belt 3. TruffleShuffle gets tired of the team he loves sabotaging every chance they get to become a successful franchise; becomes a die-hard Twins fan.

MLB encourages teams to stay within slot money every year. The Cubs gave Prior $10M and Samardzija $16.5M as a fifth round pick. They've consistently given more money to lower choices who slid due to signability concerns. Given that there's a stud catcher likely to be sitting there at the third pick, now would be a really terrible time to start obeying the wishes of Bud Selig by staying within slot money.

Supposedly he wants 10MM and a ML contract. We can't exceed slot according to Callis. What do you want the Cobs to do? I don't really believe that. I've heard that said a lot, but I'd like to see the actual quote from Callis. Haven't the Cubs said that Hendry has authority to add a little more salary to this year's team? If so, it doesn't make sense that they wouldn't allow him to go over slot money. Besides, slot money for that position is around $4M, which would mean the Cubs would be shelling out about $6M more than necessary. Then spread that out over the length of the contract. That's such a small amount of money for a team with a $100M payroll. It would be just like the Cubs to shell out $16.5M on a player with marginal first round talent, and then not give a $10M to a guy with consensus top-five talent.

When was that and what exactly happened? I don't remember... it was a game at wrigley either in '05 or '06. prior was pitching for the cubs. somebody hit one down the right field line, lee approached 2nd base and was heading towards 3rd. uribe's at 2nd with his hands in the air. lee slow down and looks to right field where the ball was. he realizes its fair and only gets to 3rd, but he could've/should've scored if he had kept running. I remember that play. I thought it was cheap and pissed me off. Yeah... I think that's different, because infielders giving baserunners the "slow down, ball was fair" sign is a common courtesy.

Hoops, I don't think there's a lot to figure out here. It's a matter of teams getting desperate and overpaying at the trade deadline - in this case, overpaying would be taking on another year or two of a bad contract. DeRosa certainly has value, but I'd be somewhat surprised if the Cubs deal him. I could see a team picking up more than half of the Howry/Jones contracts, and all of Dempster's contract. Blanco doesn't have a lot of value unless you find a playoff team with a significant injury risk at catcher. Eyre has rendered himself completely worthless; that's one that the Cubs just have to eat. What's frustrating is that the Cubs have such a large number of players with little trade value. Dempster and Howry (if he gets things back together) have probably the most value of people who can be traded, and that's not saying much. Still, I have little confidence in what we'd end up getting back, given Hendry's poor track record of evaluating talent. I have no idea how to fill the void at SS. There are no good SS on the market this offseason, and there isn't a good solution from within. The Cubs might be best served to bite the bullet with Theriot for next year. If the Cubs draft Wieters, I think it's possible to look toward the following lineup in the not-too-distant future: C Wieters 1B Lee 2B Patterson SS Theriot 3B Ramirez LF Soriano CF Pie RF Murton Util DeRosa Backup C Soto BN Moore BN Fontenot SP Zambrano (if resigned)/Prior (if surgery was successful) SP Hill SP Lilly SP Marquis SP Marshall/Veal/Gallagher RP Guzman RP Wuertz RP Ohman RP Rapada RP Cotts/Cherry CL Marmol That's a team with some high-priced players, but also some good low-priced options from within. But, the Cubs actually have to commit to giving guys like Pie, Patterson, a starting pitcher, and some of the relievers a chance to work through the rough patches in the big leagues. If they keep trying to fill needs with knee-jerk, overly expensive signings of "proven" talent, then they'll descend even further into salary hell. There are certainly worse positions to be in that the one the Cubs are in now. But it will take some good decision-making (gulp) to put a good team on the field in the next 2-3 years.

With all due respect to Tim Wilken and his track record, it's a mistake if Wieters is available at the third pick and we don't grab him. Great patience, plays a position the Cubs need, low risk factor, and isn't far from being major-league ready.

And Jeter is pretty good (although not great at SS). Laughable. Every defensive metric said that Jeter was consistently one of the worst SS in baseball. but he dove into the bleachers oh yeah... headfirst too! well in that case he's better defensively than ozzie smith

And Jeter is pretty good (although not great at SS). Laughable. Every defensive metric said that Jeter was consistently one of the worst SS in baseball.

what kind of stuff does mitch atkins have?

yeah, and all of them suck

that's the problem with actually believing the cubs can win, you get disappointed when they don't