TruffleShuffle

oh i have been in "lose cubs lose" mode for a month now. this team is just bad, and losing brings a better draft pick and more chance that hendry and piniella are gone.

that is [expletive] awesome

oh come on let castro hit, who gives a [expletive] about nady

2-run homer for brett jackson in the 5th inning

wanna bet?

if lou is managing to lose games then i fully support the job he is doing.

let's be honest, you probably wouldn't be paying attention to the cubs either if you weren't being paid to do so. there are better things to do in life, like everything.

dolis and mcnutt sucked. antigua was pretty good. iowa was rained out. brett jackson has singled and flied out.

apparently kevin goldstein didn't check the southern league box scores. BA daily dish did, though:

fifa addressing the officiating problem - no replay in stadiums now

it's actually in chester, PA which is about 15 miles south of center city, philly. [/nitpicking]

he's not great but he's at least average. you can win a cup with an average goalie. you can't win one with michael leighton and brian boucher.

we're going to try to sign him... we traded for hamhuis and then dealt him away to pitt because he wasn't going to sign with us ($$$ being the issue, i'm sure). hopefully we can get something done with nabakov.

marlon byrd has hit really well this year and tried hard; i guess that gives him the excuse to flip out on his underachieving teammates and try to fight them in the dugout.

yeah i didn't really like the brett jackson pick. my bad. on the other hand, i loved mike trout and he's destroying low A ball as an 18 year old.

jackson singled in the 8th to go 2-4... tenn has only 5 hits on the game and it seems like the opposing starter was pretty tough. the gamecast makes it look like jackson's second out (fly ball in the 6th) was very close to the LF wall. his home run was also oppo (LF).

with cashner and castro gone i'd definitely put him #1 on the cubs' list... i could see him making top 25 on some overall lists. tarlandas mitchell must throw mid 90s, because his control is just awful. 43 IP and 45 BB since signing with the cubs.

if jackson keeps this up, one would think he'd have to rank pretty highly on overall prospect lists after this season. first round pick and two strong minor league seasons under his belt.

I agree. Scouts have questioned whether he'll be able to continue to draw so many walks as he moves up to higher levels, so it will be interesting to see whether he can prove them wrong. I don't know why that would change much as he advances. Patience is the one thing that usually translates pretty well to the majors. not if a guy can't hit for power (reggie willits' walk rate evaporated, theriot's is down, etc), but jackson at least will have doubles/triples power and should hit 10-15 homers a year, if not more. if he hits for jeter-type power and keeps up his patient approach, there's no reason he can't draw a good number of walks in the high minors and eventually the majors. Comparing him to Reggie Willets? Seriously? First off, that's a horrible comparison. Willets' ISOP in the minors was .091. Brett Jackson is at an even .200 this year. Jackson has 6 HRs already, while Willets never hit more than 5 in any season and just 15 in his entire baseball career (2500 ABs in minors and majors). Secondly, it's not at all true that Willets' walk rate evaporated. His walk rate was .130 in the minors. It is .136 in the majors. Theriot's is lower, but if that's your argument....see the 1st paragraph. also, willits' walk rate declined the past year or two because pitchers figured out there was no reason to keep walking a guy like him. the argument isn't that they will just stop walking when they reach the major leagues, but that major league pitchers will start to figure out that there's no reason to issue a free pass and instead will just throw the ball over the plate.

loria is lucky to have won a title. all the stars aligned and the marlins won, it's not like he turned into a big spender in 2003, they were still a low to mid salary team that happened to have some very good young players and a handful of veterans that caught fire at the end of the year and did well in the playoffs. i'd be fine if the cubs bought a world series and dismantled for the next seven years, but it's more likely that you'd still lose that one season and then suck ass for the next seven.

I agree. Scouts have questioned whether he'll be able to continue to draw so many walks as he moves up to higher levels, so it will be interesting to see whether he can prove them wrong. I don't know why that would change much as he advances. Patience is the one thing that usually translates pretty well to the majors. not if a guy can't hit for power (reggie willits' walk rate evaporated, theriot's is down, etc), but jackson at least will have doubles/triples power and should hit 10-15 homers a year, if not more. if he hits for jeter-type power and keeps up his patient approach, there's no reason he can't draw a good number of walks in the high minors and eventually the majors.

i missed the second half (church), but rooney was just awful in the first half. passes to nobody, runs that didn't accomplish anything, no ability to beat a defender in space. i don't know if he was putting too much pressure on himself or if he's just wildly overrated, but you're right, he was downright bad the whole tourney.

lollllllll

wretched coverage downfield by england

brett jackson's ranks among the FSL leaders: 6th in batting average 2nd in OBP 2nd in SLG 1st in OPS 1st in runs T1st in hits T2nd in doubles T2nd in triples T15th in homers T13th in RBI (not bad for a leadoff hitter) 1st in total bases T1st in walks T15th in SB T5th in caught stealing that's filling out the stat sheet.