TruffleShuffle

Hey, maybe Remmy can be a decent relief pitcher when his IDIOT MANAGER ISN'T USING HIM AS A LOOGY

Jim needs to say this to Dusty: Do one of the following things: 1. Stop playing Hollandsworth every day, or 2. Find a new job

1 less bwgn fan :wave: Apparently the art of exaggeration is lost on you. :x

OMG Macias is worthless. If he is on the Cubs next year I am finding another team to root for.

No, the Cubs need hitters who know how to get on base... Perez, Barrett, Hollandsworth and Patterson were killing the team in that department.

Yeah, but it's not like you don't know what you're getting into when you go sit out there. If you don't want to sit around people who drink a little more than the average fan and don't want to get heckled for not throwing an opponent's home run ball back, sit somewhere else. There are plenty of other seats where you won't have to deal with that. It's like going for a stroll in East St. Louis at 2 a.m. and then complaining after you get beat up and mugged.

Keystone Kubs... ump screws Neifi out of a walk that would've turned into a run; Hill trips over the base and can't score on what would've been a double, and then Burnitz misses a grand slam by a few feet. There's Luck of the Irish, and then Bad Luck of the Cubs.

Add another half inning onto the long, illustrious history of Cub bloopers.

2-run homer! Oh wait, Neifi didn't walk.

My fantasy team (recently renamed "Larry Needs A Walker") in the Cubs vs. Cards league is fresh off a 9-1 pounding of Cardinal fan "Longhorns", and has now surged into 4th place! The current standings as of this past week: Man Eating Tarps 100-53-7 Vance's Cubbies 91-58-11 Thrillride 86-63-11 Larry Needs A Walker 83-66-11 Napolean Dynamite 86-69-5 Fire Dusty! 81-72-7 All-American 75-71-14 Cubtownies 71-81-8 Redbird Storm 68-84-8 Ankiel's Dealer 60-90-10 Longhorns 56-90-14 Seth's Water Midgets 45-105-10 Funny how they alternate like that. Anyway, Larry Needs A Walker has a huge battle with Man Eating Tarps this week. The positional breakdown, with my players listed first: C: J. Varitek vs. B. Inge 1B: M. Sweeney vs. Paul Konerko 2B: C. Utley vs. Marcus Giles 3B: A-Rod vs. D. Wright SS: B. Crosby vs. D. Cheater OF: T. Nixon vs. M. Cabrera OF: L. Berkman vs. K. Mench OF: I. Suzuki vs. C. Beltran Util: J. Edmonds vs. A. Jones Bench: T. Walker, P. Feliz, J. Vidro, B. Wilkerson vs. P. Burrell, J. Lopez (DL) SP: M. Mussina vs. J. Lieber SP: B. Zito vs. J. Garland RP: B. Lidge vs. D. Hermanson RP: H. Street vs. C. Reitsma P: C. Schilling vs. J. Weaver P: B. Wickman vs. D. Cabrera P: J. Rincon vs. M. Hampton P: B. Myers vs. M. Morris Other pitchers: D. Riske, C. Silva, D. Lowe, J. Westbrook vs. M. Mulder, G. Mota, G. Rusch, D. Graves, J. Williams, R. Halladay (DL)

Well I guess we will have to agree to disagree on him. I tend to favor "numbers" guys over "potential" guys, and I favor guys with a well-developed sense of the strike zone over guys whose plate discipline is marginal. I think Sing has a fair shot at becoming at least an average major leaguer... we'll see if I'm wrong.

Er, for someone drafted out of high school, 24 is ancient for AA. "A little old for the league" would be a little more accurate than "ancient", wouldn't you say? Obviously. And 4 years being a lifetime when it comes to prospects, that's why they're not freaking out about those numbers. What? Walk and strikeout rates going in the wrong directions at first when promoted to the big leagues is what's happened to just about every single hitting prospect that has ever lived. How on earth can you say that they aren't likely to happen to everyone? They have, they are and they will. In the minors, Dubois had a BB/K ratio of 201/430 in 1633 ABs. This year he had a 7/49 ratio in 142 ABs. See where I said sharp decline up there? You mean to tell me that most guys start striking out about 50% more frequently when they get called up, and they walk less than half as much as they did in the minors? His BB and K numbers in the big leagues weren't just an indication of growing pains, but a suggestion that there are serious flaws with his swing and his approach. You'd probably be hard pressed to find a guy whose BB/K numbers slipped that badly in his first crack at the big leagues and still turned into a good major league ballplayer. You want a better comparison to Sing the last two years? Check out Dan Johnson of the A's. He has good control of the strike zone and playing some good baseball for the A's this season. He's a much better comparison than a guy with serious holes in his swing and questions about his plate discipline and athleticism.

No homers on Saturday or Sunday, but plenty of walks. 60 BB in 91 games now, and a .410 OBP. Gooooooooood stuff.

.347/.419/.536 1st in league in BA 1st in league in OBP 2nd in league in SLG Bump for good luck in Oneri Fleita finally realizing Eric isn't learning much at Low A ball except that he's way too good for that league.

Hopefully E-Patt doesn't make Nomar look too bad out there :wink:

It almost takes a conscious effort NOT to walk to be a regular player for about 80 games and still not have double-digit walks.

Furious rally by Peoria falls just short... * Anthony Granato homers (4) on a fly ball to right field. * Alan Rick triples (2) on a line drive to center fielder Yuber Rodriguez. * Joseph Simokaitis singles on a line drive to right fielder Eric Nielsen. Alan Rick scores. * Drew Larsen walks. Joseph Simokaitis to 2nd. * Pitcher Change: Daryl Harang replaces Joey McLaughlin. * Sam Fuld grounds into double play, third baseman Christian Snavely to second baseman Eugenio Velez to first baseman David Hicks. Joseph Simokaitis to 3rd. Drew Larsen out at 2nd. * Eric Patterson walks. * Ryan Harvey homers (18) on a fly ball to right field. Joseph Simokaitis scores. Eric Patterson scores. * Jesse Schmidt singles on a line drive to center fielder Yuber Rodriguez. * Bo Flowers grounds out to first baseman David Hicks. 5-5 in the on-base department for the great Eric Patterson. 4 RBI for Harvey, although with the guy ahead of him getting on base 5 times he should knock in a lot of runs.

E-Patt with four singles in four ABs today! No stolen bases, probably due to the poor conditions and the fact that the Chefs were behind by a fair margin most of the game.

The reason I don't think this is the greatest comparison is the BB/K ratios of the two players. Dubois' best BB/K was 0.6 at Daytona, and then he posted 0.5 and 0.4 ratios the next two seasons. Sing was at 0.8 last year and then 0.7 this year. Sing also has 140 walks in 210 games over the past two years; Dubois walked only 201 times in 456 minor league games. That's a huge difference in patience. Plus, I wouldn't say that Dubois' struggles as a big leaguer would likely happen to everyone. His sharp decline in walk rate and increase in strikeout rate were hard to foresee, given his play in AAA last season. It's certainly possible that Sing could have similar problems at the big league level, but I don't think it's as likely, given an approach at the plate that is clearly more selective. Also, someone noted that Sing more athletic than Dubois. Sing played SS in high school and played some 2B and 3B in his early years after being drafted. Nobody could have seen Dubois as a 2B or 3B. For this reason, I would guess that Sing could be a better OF defensively than Dubois as well.

I think I heard somewhere that Wood has a no-trade clause...

^^^ POST OF THE WEEK ^^^

Looks like Exxon Valdez did not have his best game today :!: Iowa Cobs are getting trashed 10-0

As a proponent of the "walks are good" movement, I would like to voice my support for Brandon Sing, who is tearing up minor league pitching for the second straight year. After a terrible 2003 got mono, lost 25 pounds and played like crap, Brandon went down to Daytona in 2004 and was the overwhelming choice for league MVP. This year he could be making another run at the same honor in AA. He's only 24, which isn't too old for that league, so it's time to start thinking about this guy as a real solid prospect. At the very least, he'd be a guy that some of the OBP-focused AL teams would be interested in (i.e., Boston, Toronto, Oakland.) His plate discipline has improved every year, and as that has happened his batting average and power numbers have increased as he's swinging at better pitches. His swing and approach were retooled by Daytona hitting coach Richie Zisk, who obviously knows what he's doing. Brandon's numbers over the past 2 years: Year G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO AVG OBP SLG OPS 2005 89 295 58 88 25 0 20 53 56 81 .298 .406 .586 .992 2004 122 408 86 110 27 0 32 94 84 101 .270 .399 .571 .970 If he were a #1 draft pick or 20 years old, people would be freaking out about those numbers -- which, mind you, have been put up in leagues that historically have been more friendly to pitchers than to hitters. True his 2003 season was a complete dud, and 2004 was his third crack at Daytona, but I think one has to say that there were circumstances beyond his baseball abilities that caused his washout in 2003. So my biggest question is, can the guy play left field? Obviously first base is blocked, but the Cubs obviously could use a LF who hits for power and draws a lot of walks. I know he's playing a lot of 1B for WTenn, but that was b/c Murton was in LF every night. Maybe it would be a good idea to get him some practice in LF, and stick someone else at 1B? It also would be nice to see him go to the Arizona Fall League and play some LF there.

2-2 with a dinger for E-Patt! \:D/

What is the main focus of a pitching coach at the minor league level? Do you get the sense that it's any different than what a major league pitching coach focuses on with his pitchers?