TruffleShuffle

very good to see. that's one thing i remember people saying about rhee; he had a heavy fastball and very good change and worked down in the zone. on a side note, i think some of MiLB's box scores have the GO/FO ratios exaggerated because they don't consider line drive outs to be fly outs.

Seriously, it's like Macha started Vargas in the pen and then had some sort of narcoleptic episode for the rest of the inning. hey here's a long string of hitters (baker, soto, theriot, byrd) who hit lefties better than righties; think i'll just sit here and do nothing while my mediocre lefty gets knocked around.

is ned yost still managing the brewers? this is terrible.

narveson sucks; no idea why he's pitching in a non-mop up situation.

fans not so excited any more

a person with a fatass in wisconsin? you don't say.

come on, it's doug davis... he sucks

i feel like i could have hit one of those pitches.

apparently colin campbell told someone that hamhuis didn't seem to be injured as badly as brian campbell, and that's why he wasn't booted from the game. the nhl is so stupid. PUNISH THE OFFENSE NOT THE OUTCOME. hamhuis went into the boards like a cannon; if he wasn't seriously injured then it's simply because he was very lucky.

i really like don orsillo and jerry remy (red sox) sarge matthews is a horrendous color commentator for phillies games.

giving up a shorthanded goal with 14 seconds left to end up in overtime, failing to score on a five-minute major, then immediately giving up a goal to lose. only [expletive] sulley's teams.

hutton is scottish; that's how he probably looked before the incident.

Impressive restraint for not giving that goon a real reason to fall down after that dive. thankfully that other guy got tossed too. i thought there was going to be no punishment for throwing the ball at altidore while he was on the ground. and you're right, that flop was embarrassing.

gonna be a quiet night in the minors. tennessee and iowa rained out, peoria may end up suffering the same fate.

myron rolle just got picked by tennessee. i bet he ends up being good... he's probably the type who just does well at everything.

penguins fans also crazy

no surprise that randy jones was in the lineup for that one

starting only 2/3 of the games is a really low number for a young catcher who's way better than the backup.

We're in the middle of a whole bunch of days in a row and it was a travel day. Geo needs an occasional day off as a catcher. hill started a game three days ago.

why does [expletive] koyie hill keep playing

yeah that's nice that soriano has been paid less than he has produced over the course of his career; unfortunately, he is vastly overpaid at this point in time and will continue to be paid a very large amount of money to be not that good at baseball for the next few years. same with zambrano. how much they've produced over the course of their careers has nothing to do with whether they are worth what the cubs will pay them over the course of their current contract.

Yeah, that jumped out at me too. That slugging is all kinds of nice, though. he didn't walk much last year, but if he can make consistent hard contact (which seems to be his greatest asset at the plate) and keep the ball in play, he projects as a .300+ hitter in the big leagues and the lack of walks won't kill him. the biggest concern with guys who have a poor walk rate is that they can't make enough contact. obviously castro's numbers are a little crazy right now - his BABIP is something like .470 - but the emergence of power is really exciting. he has 15 singles, 6 doubles, 4 triples and 1 homer so far, or 42.3% of his hits have been for extra bases. last year only 22.9% of his hits went for extra bases. i noticed in the game recaps and minor league gamecasts that it seems like he's hitting the ball in the air more, and this is the case - his fly ball rate is up (from 31.4% in 2009 to 37.3% this year) and line drive rate is up (from 16.2% to 23.5%) while his ground ball rate is down (from 52.2% to 39.2%). while more fly balls turn into outs than ground balls, you're also going to get more extra base hits this way. let's face it, if castro hits .305 every year with little patience, little power and a good glove, then he's a good shortstop but not a top-tier guy. if he develops power where he can hit 55-70 XBH's and pitchers have to approach him more carefully, then you might see some patience emerge and he'll be an all star. gap power emerging just after turning 20 is another really promising sign for his future.

castro was probably removed because they were beating the hell out of their opponent. h-j lee was removed in the next half inning after this: so it's possible that lee was injured during that force out.

Really? Under 100 ABs of domination elevates him to that level? I do love how he has responded to the prospect hype, but every player goes through highs and lows throughout a full season. he hit really well all of last year, including a very strong showing as the second-youngest player in the arizona fall league. he has to still be one of the youngest hitters in the southern league and continues to rake. the three editors of the BA prospect handbook ranked him at 13, 16 and 29th best prospect in baseball, and obviously he's not moving down anyone's list at this stage. by midseason i'd expect some of the guys ahead of him to not be rookies any more (heyward, matusz, escobar, neftali feliz, maybe guys like strasburg, carlos santana, pedro alvarez) so assuming he continues to play very well, he'd almost certainly have to be considered a top 10 prospect.