TruffleShuffle

The wind was blowing straight out. If it didn't get out tonight, it's not getting out any other night. he meant if they were using the rock n jock softball game fences.

we should get extra points for that one not being wind aided.

I know! He smoked that ball. call me crazy, but i think balls hit higher in the air may get more help from the wind. also bryce harper may have more raw power than addison russell.

mostly because our shortstop who's supposed to be good is not hitting, and our right fielder is practically an automatic out against sliders. i forgot to add that our hitting with runners on base and runners in scoring position has been atrocious.

mostly because our shortstop who's supposed to be good is not hitting, and our right fielder is practically an automatic out against sliders.

[expletive] that, he called that exact same 3-0 pitch a ball to montero earlier in the game.

wouldn't you pick the dodgers the next 5 years? loads of talent right now, seager and urias still on the way, and practically unlimited payroll resources.

don't do that

thought there was no chance that wasn't a hit :shock:

starlin castro hasn't played well this year? this guy might be onto something.

gleyber torres went 3-5. he's 3rd in the midwest league in batting average and 5th in obp, which is pretty good for being the youngest player in that league.

yes, based purely on his defense. his offense was bad. i don't see why it's lazy to compare him to other players who were bad in their first stint against mlb pitching. yes, baez was especially abysmal, but we already knew that his risk profile was much higher. he'll probably end up not being good. but it's possible that he ends up being really good. i can't really say what "selling high" on him would be, because i'm not sure how other clubs will value him. he can rebuild his value above where it was after last season, but it's never going to be higher than it was before he was called up, at least until he actually shows he can face major league pitching without striking out half the time. But that's actually where he is similar to Rizzo; teams are going to still be willing to go in big for him if he keeps mashing and being more patient in the minors. They'll be willing to take that chance because of the expectations/hopes for what he can be. Plus I disagree that the highest time to sell on him was before when he was first called up; you could argue it's higher if he keeps improving in the minors since it could be looked at/hoped that he went through a good chunk of his major league growing pains already. And it's lazy to just point to someone like Rizzo and Trout and say, "see? He can be fixed!" when basically all they have in common is they weren't as good as anyone wanted in their first go around. It would hold a lot more weight if you point to players who have similar skills/flaws/results as Baez and then succeeded after initially floundering. He just doesn't seem very similar to Rizzo or Trout at all. he's similar in that he sucked in his first crack at the big leagues. plus i don't understand your angle here at all. you seem really down on baez because couldn't make contact for [expletive] when he was in the majors, and his flaws are not similar to other players who turned it around. yet you believe that other GMs are going to overlook this information because he starts hitting well at a level he already hit well at last year? this isn't to say that he won't have significant trade value, but people seem to believe that baez can be a cornerstone in a deal for a frontline starter, and i don't really think that is true.

yes, based purely on his defense. his offense was bad. i don't see why it's lazy to compare him to other players who were bad in their first stint against mlb pitching. yes, baez was especially abysmal, but we already knew that his risk profile was much higher. he'll probably end up not being good. but it's possible that he ends up being really good. i can't really say what "selling high" on him would be, because i'm not sure how other clubs will value him. he can rebuild his value above where it was after last season, but it's never going to be higher than it was before he was called up, at least until he actually shows he can face major league pitching without striking out half the time.

it seems rather dumb to bury a guy after a piss poor debut in the big leagues at age 21, especially since mike trout and anthony rizzo were also God awful in their first crack at the bigs. the risk is still high, but i don't think the ceiling is any lower than it was before he stunk it up the second half of last year.

Mets would laugh and hang up if the Cubs offered Baez for Syndergaard.

wow the padres thought the trade they agreed to with the cubs was a "decent deal at the time"? you don't say. i also like how the padres had no way to know that a guy who missed a month with a strained oblique in 2010 and then pitched all of 15 innings in 2011 would be injury prone.

also, it appears that just about everyone was quite happy with this deal. which makes me wonder, what were the padres thinking at the time? did they get spooked by rizzo's terrible first crack at the big leagues? were they really that excited about yonder alonso? (a prospect whose hype i never really understood) and as a side note, the cubs had a black hole at first base in that offseason, and steered clear of contracts that now appear disastrous (pujols, fielder) and instead got a guy who seems likely to be an absolute crazy discount for basically a decade with the cubs. cheers to you, theo and co. this was a master stroke.

in hindsight, this appears to have been an astute trade.

cubs and small-faced slugger anthony rizzo, fresh off his clutch 6 rbi performance, take on the diamondbacks. series is tied 1-1 after a pair of close games. here are the pitchers: http://a.espncdn.com/combiner/i?img=/i/headshots/mlb/players/full/6480.png&w=350&h=254 versus let's hope we see many pitches like this from hellickson: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7339/9564803759_10b7840a33_o.gif http://gamereax.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/bautista-admires-homer.gif go cubs.

by the way, there was random cheering during bryant and rizzo's at bats. were people doing the wave in a tie ballgame in the 9th inning? if so, they richly deserved that rizzo home run.

http://gifrific.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Jennifer-Lawrence-Fist-Pump.gif

smooth move russell

angel hernandez is incompetent, what else is new. after bryant and fowler swung and missed 5 times in a row against the same pitch, i did not have high hopes for scoring runs that inning.

yes, considering that the pitcher would no longer be leading off the next inning. I don't buy it, you have to score runs, getting one more position through the order is not a significant enough gain to rule out more chances to score. Coghlan has been hitting the ball hard, with bad luck... the chance of an extra base hit is not out of the question. so if he hits a double, he's in scoring position for a guy with a career .120 batting average.