TruffleShuffle

i would love to hear an explanation for why you'd leave your starter in to throw 113 pitches in a game you're leading 16-0. i mean, it's not an outrageous pitch count, but he's spent a lot of time getting cold on the bench (especially during the 7-run 6th inning) and you have expanded rosters. there's just no need for it.

wow that's quite a haul in nearly 6 years of work

vitters went 0-3 in game one of tenn's doubleheader but hit a 3 run homer in his first AB in the second game. also hit a sac fly in his second PA.... milb gameday makes it look like he just missed a 3 run homer on the sac fly. it was to straightaway cf and it advanced slow rebel ridling to 3b, so it had to be pretty deep.

a phillies pitcher issued 5 intentional walks today... he was pitching in extra innings and ended up with 7 walks in 3.2 innings. the game ended when he unintentionally walked mike cameron after intentionally walking two other batters in the inning.

i have 335 points this week with only 5 starts... brandon mccarthy had 83 points in 2 starts, marcum had 65 and austin jackson had 45 points. and my second baseman is on the DL so i got 0 points from that spot. could've been a 400 point week if i were actually playing this week.

[expletive] and i've booked a hotel in cooperstown, ny one weekend a year from 2017 because i don't want to miss kyle farnsworth's hall of fame induction ceremony.

also, never swinging at the first pitch.

you don't get a quality start for pitching 5.2 innings.

iowa cubs - 16th out of 16 teams in walks drawn (431 - top team has drawn 631) tennessee smokies - 10th out of 10 teams in walks drawn (442 - top team has drawn 566) daytona cubs - 9th out of 12 teams in walks drawn (375 - top team has drawn 513; bottom team 354) peoria chiefs - 16th out of 16 teams in walks drawn (350 - top team has drawn 544) boise hawks - 2nd out of 8 teams in walks drawn (292 - top team has drawn 370; bottom team 218) arizona league cubs - 13th out of 13 teams in walks drawn (164 - top team has drawn 244)

yeah, everything i've read about bourjos has him as an elite defensive cf. the question about him was his bat - his minor league line was .293/.346/.452/.799, which seems nice, but the angels have some crazy offensive environments in their minor league system - rancho cucumonga in the california league and salt lake city in the pcl, especially (arkansas in the texas league is also hitter friendly, though not as much as the other two places). his strike zone discipline isn't especially good, but with his elite defense in cf, the offensive bar is very low for him to be a productive player. as for trout, he went 3-4 tonight and has an .861 ops in the majors in about 85 plate appearances. here's the angels' OF situation: bourjos - young and under team control for a few more years trout - same as bourjos torii hunter - overpaid and has been pretty ordinary this year. due $18m in 2012 and has a no-trade clause. vernon wells - albatross contract that the angels inexplicably took on last offseason; has been bad this year and is due $21m each of the next three years. then there are a couple of odds and ends like reggie willits, guys who are 4th/5th OF at best. since the AL has the DH, their situation there - bobby abreu, who's still getting on base at a solid clip but has seen his power completely evaporate. hard to see the angels picking up his $9m option ($8m buyout) given the other choices in house. there's also the possibility that kendrys morales comes back to play... he got almost $3m this year to not play, but he was a very good hitter before the injury and i suspect the angels will resign him if it looks like he can get healthy. if he can play, then he'd probably become the DH and trumbo plays 1b. but i would guess that after missing so much time, they figure anything they can get out of morales is gravy. it would probably be smart to kick the tires on bourjos and see if they undervalue his defense. they could have 4 outfielders for 3 spots next year, with trout certainly looking like he's ready. i doubt it would work, but they were dumb enough to trade a good catcher (napoli) for a guy with one of the worst contracts in the game, so you never know.

if the cubs think starlin castro is so great, why don't they just make him team president?

this is another one that has me scratching my head.

nobody is going to give kansas state props on their come-from-behind 3 point win over eastern kentucky? tough crowd to please i guess.

guess we know what da bum's editorial will be about this week. also, congratulations to duke on (for the second time in three years) starting off their season by losing to richmond.

what the what?

throwing 500 major league innings at age 19/20 probably didn't help either.

ugh mcnutt terrible again

wow never thought i'd see murray chass start posting on this board

he lives on as a great tweeter:

it does not beg that question. at all.

the real tragedy about that home run is that the game thread would have had zero posts during the game if lee had made an out.

marmol and derrek lee, both committed to helping the cubs improve their draft position.

You can probably kiss the chances of bringing in Epstein, Cashman and Freidman goodbye. Ned Coletti anyone? come on.

what is it about notre dame that makes it so fun to watch them [expletive] up?

yeah 4th in 6 games. nice to see him starting to show the power in game situations... he hasn't been great, but for a raw talent out of an alabama high school, i'm reasonably happy with what he's shown with boise. jensen struggled - allowed a hit, 2 walks and 3 wild pitches in 0.2 ip. i don't know much about sandoval, but he's 23, so it's hard to get excited about him.