TruffleShuffle

the other problem for teams like the reds is that, while they're good or at least contending, it's hard for them to make the types of trades that smallish market teams need to make in order to stay good. look at the reds, for example. bronson arroyo is the type of pitcher that would draw plenty of interest around the trade deadline - durable, consistent, can slot in and be solid as a #4 on a contender. but they can't really trade him because cueto keeps getting hurt and i'm sure good ol' dusty would like a proven veteran for the stretch run. (although if everyone is healthy, arroyo might be their 6th best starter, which speaks to how good their SP is). same with choo - he's one of the better OF in the game this year, and he could bring a really solid return at the deadline, but contenders don't trade players like him. so they'll just have to let him walk. IMO the reds are really only going to be able to keep one or two of their starters long term, so their best bet is to maximize the return for a starter with arbitration years left - probably at least two of latos, bailey, cueto and leake will need to be dealt in the next two years. end up with a rotation of something like bailey, cingriani, leake, robert stephenson (if he's as good as everyone thinks he is) and some mid-tier FA, scott feldman type.

i don't think so. at least they have money, which is really important. they have some bad contracts into next season, but then by 2015 the only bad contracts are danks (if he doesn't bounce back from injury) and alexei ramirez (if he doesn't remember how to hit). they should definitely be able to spend. and the AL central has been pretty bad in recent years. i'd still rather be the white sox than the brewers (not much young talent, bad minor league system, pretty small market) and the padres (decent farm and some young talent, but market is tiny compared to the dodgers and to a lesser extent the giants). the royals kind of suck too, especially if hosmer and moustakos don't turn into good ballplayers and they don't make much out of the shields acquisition. definitely wouldn't like to be the marlins either, because their owner is satan and they REALLY don't have any fans.

i hate to say it, but the cardinals are positioned nicely to be good for quite a while. hopefully [expletive] goes wrong for them. i'm not really going to lose too much sleep on whether the cardinals will be really good, because there are two wild cards now. to make the playoffs the cubs need to get better, not win as many games as the cardinals. the pirates will always have payroll problems; some of their prospects will flop. a team in that market is pretty much always going to have to have a high hit rate on mid-priced free agents to remain good over a prolonged stretch. the reds have a lot of good young pitching that's about to start getting a lot more expensive, so they're going to have tough decisions to make on latos, leake, bailey and chapman. and they'll be paying phillips and votto a truckload of money as they get worse at baseball.

marcos mateo pitched an inning for the AZL cubs. forgot he existed. he's 29.

hannemann is out for the second straight game. what the dillyo.

alcantara has a pretty extreme switch hitting split - .222/.292/.309/.601 against lhp (batting RH) and .299/.375/.525/.900 against rhp (batting LH). anyone know if this is consistent with previous years? his K rate is actually worse against rhp so it's not like he's clueless against lefties (reasonable 22.2% K rate), but he's shown way more power against rhp.

hr and walk for alcantara.

never thought i'd be happy that we got through the bad part of our bullpen so that we could turn the ball over to one of our top relievers, kevin gregg.

We just DFA'd the other complete dog [expletive] pitcher in the pen like a week ago. It'll be at least another month before we're rid of Camp. marmol wasn't even complete dog [expletive]! he was actually okay when not used in high leverage situations. and at least marmol USED to be good not too long ago. camp's average fastball is a robust 86mph, which most of our rookie ball players can probably manage. the fork in his back is actually visible. almost anybody from the tennessee and iowa bullpens would be a better option, honestly.

i think we've reached the point where camp needs to be DFA'ed so that sveum can't use him any more.

yeah, if there are scouts with radar guns behind home plate and you can get down there when blackburn is pitching, do it. then report back here. in other news, daytona rained out. \:D/

he's made two starts and neither one (especially the first) was even that bad.

agreed, baseball is a lot more fun when the cubs are playing teams like the mariners who are also bad.

dunston doubled and then was immediately replaced by a pinch runner. assume he got hurt during the play. hope it's not a long term injury, because he's been off to a nice start.

trey lang was all over the shop again. 5 hits, 4bb and 1 hbp in just 2.2 innings. nathan dorris managed to blow saves in the 10th and 11th inning and get the loss. good work, kid. paniagua didn't pitch for dsl cubs.

http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m8bq3zrWym1rd2qw6o1_400.gif

And for about a month he had a brutal sub-.600 OPS. Soriano is what he is and everyone knows it at this point. He's a streaky player and nobody is going to be fooled into overpaying for him if they want him. well, if he goes on a monster streak and ends up with an OPS similar to what he had last year (low 800s) before the trade deadline, he'd probably add to his value. but nobody is going to look and see a corner outfielder sub-700 ops and get excited about a hot week.

oliver perez now? the mariners are like the witness protection program for past-their-prime ballplayers.

good call.

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Of course he is promptly walked in typical bullpen fashion. always a good move to walk a 41 year old backup catcher. those guys are dangerous.

hank white is still around?!?!? jeez.

holy hell. i didn't think davis would figure it out. whoops.

another hard hit ball. fixing starlin is one of the few things i care about from this cubs team.

castro seems to be extracting his head from his ass. hopefully that day off was a turning point.