TruffleShuffle

yeah, weren't people bitching after last year's draft and every time we didn't sign an expensive international free agent that ricketts' talk about investing in the farm system was just lip service? well, the cubs are going to be one of the top spenders in the draft this year and signed a bunch of cubans (who don't appear to be any good, mind you) and i believe spent 7 figures on a pair of players from the dominican and venezuela. so maybe we shouldn't flip out and start whining every time someone who may not know anything sends out a tweet.

i can't imagine he would... he just doesn't hit enough. he's good defensively but i doubt you'd find enough teams who will value that highly enough, or at least would be willing to admit valuing it during trade negotiations. i do think that if the cubs were to work out a trade for one of the braves' young starters, the cubs would have to deal from positions where they have depth. Lord knows the cubs don't have many of them, but a few that come to mind are CF (byrd, jackson, szczur, maybe ha, easterling, silva), catcher (soto, castillo, clevinger) and middle infield (castro, barney, gonzalez, flaherty, lemahieu, etc). problem is, the braves don't have any use for a 2B or a C, so really we'd be looking at dealing them a CF (jackson or byrd) or a SS/3B (is chipper still retiring after this year?). they couldn't possibly value someone like flaherty enough to deal him for minor or delgado.

If I'm the Braves, there's no chance in heck that I deal Mike Minor for Marlon Byrd. A potential cost-controlled mid-rotation lefty starter for Byrd? There's also growing concerns that perhaps Delgado and Vizcaino could both end up in the pen. I actually like Vizcaino as a starter. they could end up in the pen because the braves have more SP than they know what to do with. vizcaino was an obvious choice to move to the bullpen short term because his fastball approaches 100 mph and he also has a good, but inconsistent, curve. his changeup is still a work in progress. but there's no doubting his arm. delgado is less likely to be a front-of-the-rotation guy, but he's probably more polished than vizcaino. i'd be perfectly happy to take either one of them.

No, but Hendry typically talks himself into a corner by enraging the meatheads to the point that no solution is acceptable other than the banishment of said player. GMs will lowball him because they know he HAS to make a move. Had all parties just shut up and kept the clubhouse business in the clubhouse, no one would be wise to any of this today. this is just silly. zambrano has had public spats and meltdowns just about every year. how are the cubs going to hide it when he comes out and says they suck and play like a AAA team? and even if they managed to keep it behind closed doors, players and clubhouse attendants talk, and everyone would know that zambrano's act had worn thin with his teammates. i like Z, but he's quite obviously got some serious self-control issues and he no longer is a very good pitcher, so nobody was going to have much interest in him. i don't think there's anything the cubs have done to diminish his trade value; he's done that on his own.

they need to get out of this mentality that spending big money is automatically a disaster. yes it is, if you spend it on a good-not-great player like soriano and give him a ton of years, or give it to zambrano who's a headcase and not a true front of the rotation pitcher. albert pujols has been one of the best hitters in baseball for 10 years; he's not a marginal star.

no, not good.

thanks to chuck's surprising hot streak, i'm likely to have the top pick in both the prospect and the major league drafts \:D/ unfortunately there's no bryce harper this time around; no prospect really stands out as an obvious #1.

the braves have great pitching depth. here's their current rotation when people are healthy, along with their contract situations: derek lowe, age 38, 4.89 ERA, 1.49 WHIP, 6.3 K/9 IP, due $15m in 2012 and is a free agent after that tim hudson, age 35, 3.18 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, 6.5 K/9 IP, $9m in a 2012 and a $9m team option for 2013 jair jurrjens, age 25, 2.63 ERA, 1.15 WHIP, 5.7 K/9 IP, made about $3m this year and came into 2011 with just over 3 years service time tommy hanson, age 24, 3.60 ERA, 1.17 WHIP, 9.8 K/9 IP, only 1.1 years service time coming into 2011 brandon beachy, age 24, 3.43 ERA, 1.19 WHIP, 9.5 K/9 IP, is a rookie this year. in addition, they have at the high minors: julio teheran, age 20, 2.18 ERA in AAA, 1.12 WHIP, 109 K in 123 IP (made two spot starts for ATL - 8.2 ip, 10 h, 5 er, 4 bb, 2 k) mike minor, age 23. in AAA - 3.13 ERA, 1.19 WHIP, 99 K in 100 IP (in ATL - 8 starts, 4.84 ERA, 1.61 WHIP, 7.5 K/9 IP) randall delgado, age 21. combined stats between AA and AAA - 3.45 ERA, 1.33 WHIP, 125 K in 130 IP arodys vizcaino, age 20. combined stats between AA and AAA - 3.06 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, 100 K in 97 IP. pitched in the bullpen with gwinnett and now is pitching in atlanta's bullpen. that's five starters, all of whom besides lowe have been very effective this year, and all of them except for lowe are under team control past 2012 (assuming that hudson is healthy, his option seems like a no-brainer). then they have four highly-rated prospects in the high minors, with most of those guys ready or almost ready to pitch in the majors. the cubs need pitching... young pitching ideally. is there room for a trade here? do the cubs have anything the braves would want that would cause them to give up one of their good young arms? what about a prospect-for-prospect trade like the garza for delmon young deal? the braves' outfield has been lousy this year and they have needs at LF and CF... would a brett jackson swap make sense?

I'm sure we were all thinking that. Thank you for being the only one brave enough to bring it up. :lol:

does brian kelly have an alibi? i doubt it.

:?: he had pitched 4 innings there coming into today. also, suarez has allowed 5 earned runs and 5 home runs this year, which is a really neat trick.

and posting in the wrong thread :x

the phillies are really good because their pitching is crazy good.

davearm2, if i ever find out who you are in real life i'm going to run you over with my car.

like washington dc? You can swim across a river into Virginia from DC ergo it's not in the Northeast. It's south of the Mason-Dixon. and I've never heard anyone consider DC a "big market". in baseball they don't act like a big market - partly because they're new to the area and partly because the team sucks so people don't go - but they absolutely have the population base to spend like a big market team. http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2008/09/10/nielsen-local-television-market-universe-estimates/5037/ as for it being northeastern, i consider it to be northeastern but maybe that's just because so many northerners live down there. it's much less southern than, say, richmond. anyway, if the bet is who harper ends up playing for after his initial round of contracts, and the options are (yankees, mets, red sox, phillies) or (everyone else), i'll take the field.

like washington dc?

holy hell did paul goldschmidt ever hit a bomb to tie the game with 2 outs, 2 strikes in the 9th inning. hit off the face of the second deck in left-center field, which is no small feat in arizona. in related news he's on my team :-o

erik = terrorist sympathizer

vitters went 2-5 and hit a game-winning single off jeff allison (remember him?) someone needs to tell vitters to stop trying to steal bases, though. 4 SB/9 CS this year.

austin reed is back to throwing batting practice.

well obviously, i mean what other way is there to watch baseball?

WE'VE MADE A HUGE MISTAKE

viewtopic.php?f=44&t=58773&start=1200 also, that site has been wrong on multiple occasions so let's not go overboard yet.

http://deadspin.com/5829808/it-sure-looks-as-if-one-mexican-soccer-player-had-some-bowel-issues-tonight