TruffleShuffle

man soriano is projected to be horrendous. well maybe not horrendous but certainly way, way, way below what he's paid to do. i will probably [expletive] myself if the nationals end up above .500. and it would be wonderful to see the yankees have the third-best record in baseball and miss the playoffs, though that's extremely unlikely to happen.

fannnnnnnnnnntastic.

Gaub does have good stuff. Commanding it has sometimes been an issue, but he's got decent - good raw stuff. yeah that was a brain fart, i meant someone else. gaub's stuff is good enough to at least be a solid loogy at the big league level; his command is what is spotty.

off the top of my head i could name at least a dozen position players who have had TJ surgery. that being said, i'm not sure i could name another one who has had two.

i can't really agree on some of those. archer has extremely erratic control and may never make an impact. carpenter has a long history of arm trouble, gaub's stuff isn't really that great. watkins has zero power, hak-ju lee is like 18 years old, brett jackson has strikeout issues that could conceivably prevent him from being more than a AAAA guy, burke wasn't even regarded as a good prospect before this past season. the system is a lot better than it was but it's easy to see how a lot of these guys could or could not work out.

they have jason heyward #1. man i would love to have him in our system.

12, 30 and 79 Jackson is 50 which jackson?

DO NOT WANT

if what i heard is correct, the teams are making players leave at halftime and fly home to n.o./indy, so they can fly back to miami with their teams. if true, then the teams are just as stupid as the nfl.

so assessments of his speed range from below-average to outstanding.... got it.

yeah crispin is awful. besides openly rooting for penn st he also keeps injecting junk like "playing with swagger" into his comments. side note, a friend of mine played basketball for pitman high school with the crispin brothers, and he told me a while back that they're both a-holes who took almost all of the shots, didn't play much defense or rebound, and chewed out teammates regularly.

whichever crispin brother this is needs to stop rooting for/talking about penn state all the time.

his k-rate and bb-rate took a disturbing turn in the wrong direction last year. i guess i'd take a minor league flier on him but i wouldn't guarantee him anything.

i'm surprised he follow up on milton bradley's lead and take out a full page ad in the tribune to announce his gayness.

And Seattle has a player that likely will be a first-round NBA draft pick. i didn't even know there was a seattle university. Elgin Baylor led them to a runner-up finish in 1958. thanks fred

And Seattle has a player that likely will be a first-round NBA draft pick. i didn't even know there was a seattle university.

also drink a lot of red bull. between friday night and tuesday you will probably sleep like 10 hours. i remember eating lunch on ash wednesday and feeling like i'd been run over by a cement mixer. it was incredibly fun, though.

uh oh, guys in their 20s going out and partying? this [expletive] is out of control.

what a dumb rule

warms my heart to see the brewers, cardinals and astros in the bottom 5.

it's almost certainly not. it's very, very, very rare for any minor league system to produce that many good players without many busts. let's take a look at the BA top 30 for the cubs in 2001: 1. corey patterson 2. juan cruz 3. hee seop choi 4. ben christensen 5. carlos zambrano 6. luis montanez 7. david kelton 8. bobby hill 9. john webb 10. nate frese 11. eric hinske 12. julio zuleta 13. aaron krawiec 14. wilton chavez 15. ryan gripp 16. michael wuertz 17. joey nation 18. scott chiasson 19. jeff goldbach 20. mike mallory 21. carlos urrutia 22. ryan jorgensen 23. steve smyth 24. ross gload 25. will ohman 26. chris gissell 27. matt bruback 28. jaisen randolph 29. jason smith 30. nic jackson only one real star (zambrano) in that list and then a handful of guys who made some contribution, and a whole lot guys who flamed out well before getting close to the majors. as for teams that did the best job of turning players in the top 30 into major league players who stuck for longer than a year or so, these were the best that year (along with where BA had those players ranked): braves: wilson betemit (1), marcus giles (3), matt belisle (4), jason marquis (5), adam wainwright (7), wes helms (8), horacio ramirez (11), damian moss (19), kelly johnson (25) white sox: jon rauch (1), joe crede (3), matt ginter (4), aaron rowand (8), josh fogg (9), gary majewski (11), rocky biddle (13), matt guerrier (16), miguel olivo (17), josh paul (20), gary glover (22) indians: sabathia (1), danys baez (2), willy taveras (4), jake westbrook (7), brian tallet (14), david riske (15), jhonny peralta (19), ryan church (30) rockies: juan uribe (2), aaron cook (4), jasno jennings (6), shawn chacon (8), matt holliday (10), garrett atkins (17), brad hawpe (18), josh bard (23), jody gerut (30) marlins: josh beckett (1), miguel cabrera (3), adrian gonzalez (4), claudio vargas (6), blaine neal (7), pablo ozuna (9), denny bautista (14), josh wilson (17), jason grilli (20), nate bump (30) twins: michael cuddyer (2), luis rivas (4), justin morneau (5), rob bowen (7), bobby kielty (8), juan rincon (13), grant balfour (15), kyle lohse (16), a.j. pierzynski (18), j.d. durbin (20), chad moeller (23), lew ford (24) expos: brandon phillips (2), brad wilkerson (3), grady sizemore (6), brian schneider (13), cliff lee (21) - really just including them because they turned out three really good players and not much else a's: ryan ludwick (3), freddie bynum (6), chad harville (7), eric byrnes (9), gerald laird (11), luis vizcaino (14), mark ellis (17), jon adkins (19), chad bradford (22), aaron harang (27) phillies: jimmy rollins (1), brett myers (2), ryan madson (4), chase utley (5), brandon duckworth (9), marlon byrd (10), johnny estrada (19), carlos silva (20), jason michaels (24), taylor buchholz (26), nick punto (29) devil rays: josh hamilton (1), carl crawford (3), aubrey huff (4), bobby seay (8), rocco baldelli (9), travis harper (10), toby hall (11), jason tyner (14), jorge cantu (19), seth mcclung (21), alex sanchez (24), joe kennedy (26) blue jays: vernon wells (1), felipe lopez (2), cesar izturis (3), josh phelps (10), mark hendrickson (11), ryan freel (12), jayson werth (14), dewayne wise (15), brandon lyon (16), alex rios (17), chris woodward (19) so it seems like 12 of 30 is about the highest number that these teams had contribute at any level to the major league team. as far as overall positive contributions, seems like the marlins, phillies and maybe twins did the best with the players in their system.

wut

And now he's woken up. He must have money on himself winning the fourth and the match going five sets. so is it generally assumed that he was throwing that match and they just couldn't find any proof of it?

i think davydenko gave up.

[expletive] i still love rich hill, but now i have to root for him to be awful.