TruffleShuffle

speaking of people drawing walks, vogelbach has been walking a crap-ton lately. 11 in his last 10 games.

I, for one, hate that in their minds this vindicates all the idiotic Yankees fans who went on and on about how ARod wasn't a "true Yankee". which is funny, because a crap-ton of "true yankees" have been on PEDs during the past 15 years. andy pettitte jumps to mind immediately.

i don't see why some random person would feel sad about a-rod. he's a phoney and a douche. sure he was a supremely talented player, but much like bonds, he made his own bed... now he can lie in it.

interestingly enough, many viewers also fantasize about hawk dying during a broadcast.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/mccarto01.shtml worse bWAR than rey sanchez, steve buechele, mark grudzielanek, jeromy burnitz and jerry hairston jr.

home run by the fat man. nice outing by rhee, although he gave up a 2-run homer to the last batter he faced.

sano is not one of the two best prospects in baseball.

So Rosario has been really [expletive] bad tonight you guys. Not exactly a "a couple pitches here and there and he'd have had em sort of a situation". don't usually see minor league pitchers left in long enough to give up 12 runs.

not sure how rhee's stuff has rebounded from his injury problems, but his results have been good so far this year (and in tonight's game).

It's amazing how unnoticed his season is going behind the likes of Matt Harvey and Shelby Miler. He turned 21 just a couple weeks ago and he has posted a 2.74ERA along with a 1.04WHIP. All while striking out more than a batter an inning. Not really that amazing that it's going unnoticed. The Marlins are MLB's version of the witness protection program.

Being able to throw 5 innings without issuing a walk is a pretty drastic reversal of where Maples was just a month or two ago.

It's not controversial, it's one [expletive] douche of an alderman being a whiny child No kidding. A drunk fan could drop something over the railing of the bridge? Then put fencing over the bridge like what exists on highway overpasses. Or just make it enclosed. The threat of somebody dropping something off a bridge is something that could be used to stop construction of any bridge anywhere. This Tom Tunney guy sounds like a real dick.

So I am thinking about the Cubs' future, and am also stuck at the Brisbane airport on a [expletive] 6 hour layover because my connecting flight had to circle the [expletive] airport for 40 minutes before landing. Ultimately, the goal of hiring this new regime was to put in place a system that would lead to sustained success. Obviously the Jim Hendry years had some successful years, but the farm system failed to develop enough impact players and the big club was left in pretty sorry shape - especially in terms of long term assets - by 2011. The Rizzo trade was an enormous heist and gave the Cubs an impact player at a position that was pretty bereft of organizational talent - and they made this trade while avoiding the obvious move of handing a massive contract to Pujols or Fielder. Some of the mid tier players that were signed in 2012 did not work out, but there was better success this season. The farm system has quickly gone from poor to one of the best and deepest in baseball, without having to sell off major parts of the big club's future. There haven't been any flame outs of top prospects, although Brett Jackson stings. They have done well in trades and the 2013 draft to address the weakness in pitching. The trades have also brought in some quality arms that may patch up another organizational weakness (bullpen) in the next year or two. On the business side of things - which I follow less - it seems like they're slowly moving toward fixing up Wrigley, building revenue streams and hopefully getting a much more favorable cable deal. So in terms of building an organization that will experience sustained success, I think most of the building blocks are there. Hopefully two of Baez, Almora, Bryant and Soler can provide star level production, and another top of rotation pitcher is needed. I guess a lot of people are still pessimistic because the big club is mediocre, but I'll take some temporary pain over dumb contracts that weigh down the organization for years. To me, things have gone almost as well as I could have hoped, with a couple of exceptions (Darvish, Delgado)

If the Cubs agreed with that evaluation of his ceiling, they would have taken the rumored AA reliever. Whitley, I think it was? Plus, most are saying his change is a plus pitch. I'm guessing the Cubs either disagree with that evaluation or still prefer Black to other options. It sounds like Parks was just stating what he knew of him personally form seeing him pitch, and it sounds like he's inferring he hasn't seen a lot of him so he's just going off of what he knows. It's a pretty reasonable stance. Smallish frame with a big fastball and spotty control. Those guys usually end up in the pen.

How many people predicted that Travis Wood would have as many home runs as Welington Castillo in late July?

brb need to change pants.

Given the scouting report, I'm fine with passing on him at that price tag.

Grimm's start has not gone so well.

If they trade Baez, I assume it would be in a deal where the Cubs get something really good, so I don't really care either way. Although Royals fans are REALLY not going to enjoy watching what the Rays get out of Wil Myers the next several years.

Hurry back Soler, so we can have all our top prospects raking at once. The minor league threads in August and September are going to be 5x longer than the Cubs game threads.

Black seems like a reasonable return. Don't know much about him, but judging by his smallish size and spotty control, I'm thinking his long term future could be as a bullpen arm.

Reasonable deal if the Yankees are paying a solid chunk of his contract. Don't see much reason to give away a league average player who's popular with his teammates, pay most of his contract, and only get a middling prospect in return.

That was not the debut I was hoping for.

jose paulino (DSL cubs) has a real nice K rate. struck out 10 in 5 innings today.

that would be awesome. every time lake makes an error, the announcers could say something about mistake by the lake.