KingKongvs.Godzilla

Sucks to read that about Kurcz. I still like the arm more thanmost future pen types.

Toonster BA never lets some numbers get in the way of liking a prospect they really like. I'm with you on Lake, but I chalk it up to pubs sleeping onthis system. Lake showed some real talent this year and his power/speed combo canbe as good as the Cub s currently have.

No way in hell the Cubs give up Castro or Garza for a GM. Ricketts is probably a little crazy, but not dumb.

So Dave Martinez looks like he's jumping onto the list of people who I wouldn't mind seeing the next manager.

Tell me about it. He's tough at least. Jeebus...D'you just see that? AS I WAS TYPING.

That fumble sucked as much as th Buff Wild Wings commercial.

Man Muhammad Wilkerson can play. Linden being productive.

Iunno I have had fun watching the Brewers. Fielder and Braun are everything I thought they'd be so far. Hoping to see Lee dominate between the million commercials during SNF.

Future Cubs RF Justin Upton hits one of his soon to be trademarked line drive HRs. Guy is years away from his prime and he's already one of the very best in baseball.

Little late but that Texans/Steelers game was fun to watch, which is something I rarely say for non-Jets games. Mario Williams is a monster. If it's even possible he might soon pass Johnson as the most dominant player on that team. He's one of the few who have the talent to do that. I'd also like to say [expletive] the Packers. The only haven away from their fans is atheist Jets board I frequent. They never stfu about super special awesome their team is.

Jets on primetime...should be fun. I'm reeeeeeaaaaalllly hoping that the Texans pull off an upset on this the 2nd of October.

Oh please oh please give up that Logan Morrison fella for Z! One player who pisses everyone off for another player who does the same. I wonder how much salary the Cubs would have to eat.

Guys who have that moustache are usually doing something illegal.

It wasn't much of a mistake...they never were on bad terms nor did Beane want to lose him...the Rangers simply offered him a better job (assistant GM). See one of the truly negative effects of Moneyball was that way too many got convinced it was an us vs them thing. Fuson was more the Hunsicker/Baird to Beane's Epstein/Friedman, if you want to look at it that way and place those men as extremes one way or another. They're all too smart and forward thinking to be extremists in the first place... Decent read on that situation: http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/09/21/3386776/mac-engel-moneyball-paints-grady.html

A 6'3 16 year old lefty should be all arms and legs. Does he have a good arm?

Man I love watching Prince Fielder hit. That guy is aging as well as a guy who once weighed over 300 possibly can. Thank you diet and exercise. I really, really want the Brewers to go all the way. The way that roster is stacked they're a really fun and interesting team in the postseason. Hopefully Greinke can help out Gallardo, who's makeup I have 0 questions about. That guy has always been fun to watch simply because nothing seems to phase him and his game is on point.

I'll say this about Sherman...he, more than any other sports reporter in NY, tried to understand what was going on in the game during the great Stats vs. Scouts debates in the early and mid-2000's. It made and makes me respect his work more, even if he does write for the crowned king of all rag "news"papers. I don't know who the new GM is, but the amount of work Ricketts is doing has impressed the [expletive] out of me. He said he'd put money into the farm system, and it happened. I've defended Hendry in recent times, but he made the right choice in firing him. He kept the two best and most proven scouts in the organization. He's getting the ball rolling on Wrigley renovations, and seems to have huge (and mostly realistic) dreams in that area. He's shooting for the best of the best GMs. I know we're already hyping up new GM in our hearts and heads, but the real driving force behind what happens will be Tom Ricketts and the choices he makes (and has made ie Hendry). He'll be the one mostly responsible for who the next GM is. He'll be the one who (hopefully) pays up for big money FAs. This could (should?) be the offseason he chooses to put himself on the map as an owner. Beyond working out the details with the big name FAs, new GMs biggest task and what will make him awesome is what happens with Soriano/Zambrano, if anything.

I like to think I somehow inspired that title today, even though I didn't.

One of my favorite managers. Itd be very nice to bring him on, but there is a bs worry that the magic is going to be a little harder to capture with team 2. He's being Randolph for my next manager hope.

I think they bring back Ramirez to a fair deal for both sides. Other names I wouldn't mind hearing/seeing (Note: I have no suggestions on a how for any trade candidate this is just names): David Wright Chase Headley Ian Stewart - Reclamation project. Will Middlebrooks - Red Sox prospect who probably won't be able to usurp Youkilis. Sounds like a solid, albeit unexciting talent if there's a way to get him. Chone Figgins Doesn't seem very promising...Stewart's the only one I could see as an easy enough possibility. I really like Headley, who is a career .303/.364/.441 hitter away from Petco.

Yes, and yet he didn't shut down a pick we know he absolutely hated. So, maybe by the word active the rumor meant possibly present and moving, but not in the mood to say no to what his scouts were saying about him. I've done the same with the A's system. I remember the Richie Robnetts, Danny Putnams, and Javier Herraras of the world too. Michael Choice...Ryan Flaherty? Michael Choice is a CF possibly RF who projects to hit in the .240-.260 range, walk, and hit with power. Ryan Flaherty? He's also 4 years younger than Flaherty...Grant Green just won the MVP of the Futures Game this year...a lame award I know, but check out the alumni...guys like David Wright and Alfonso Soriano....Tyson Ross has been pretty good and might have good upside as a reliever...we're not talking a dead system here. We're talking about a system that just 10, 12 years ago was one of the most productive in the game, under the very same GM who was and is considered amongst the game's elite GMs. I have alot of trouble believing that this is anything more than a phase for their farm. They have the pitching, it's the bats that need to come around. Personally, I like Brandon Allen and I've always been a Chris Carter fan, so there's a chance bat talent will be coming through soon to go with Weeks.

Completely agreed. It's on the up. It's really been on the up since one of the first round picks clicked early and held/raised his status (Jackson). Oh, and when it (the entity known as the farm system) was able to land a prime pre-FA playoff caliber vet, Matt Garza, especially since half of the big get for the Rays was a prospect who's profile raised greatly in his time with the Cubs. Again completely agreed. The thing I like too is that alot of the hitters have a much better approach than the the guys from the early 2000 and mid 2000's. Guys like Ryan Harvey and Bryan Dopirak were hackers with power and raw upside. Brett Jackson is the only one of the top hitting prospects I can think of who K's alot, but he also walks alot to balance it out. Matt Cerda is another young guy who K's, but balances it out with walks. Guys like Vitters, Szczur, LeMahieu, Flaherty, and Ha may not walk a ton (rates vary between them), but they all make consistently solid contact and don't K much. There's alot of gap and doubles hitters too, and everyone's a good athlete. It's more balanced, and more of a focus on athleticism and being loose on the field.

So now I know I wouldn't mind three guys for sure as the next manager...Willie Randolph, Bobbie Valentine, and Terry Francona. I think Francona might be best off with a little time in between his next big managerial job, but if he wanted to jump right right into the fire and the new GM endorsed it...

He was in the draft room when Bonderman was drafted. He probably could have stopped the pick from happening. It happened. Sure, Bonderman got traded, but he got traded for an impressive young lefty who was picking up K's with the Yankees in AL East named Ted Lilly. Most people's ideas of what Beane prefers in the draft are shaped from what was outlined in Moneyball's passages. College players have more of a track record, there's more numbers and information on them, they theoretically can get to the big leagues sooner, and they're further out of the injury nexus. Therefore, the A's prefered college players. Within 3 years that strategy flipped, and they went after the most volatile of all draft prospects, the HS pitcher (Italiano, Langsford, and Mazarro in '05, mostly because teams started copying the college thing to help fill farm system up with solid talent that serves as the basis for a foundation). As far as the lag in their farm system in recent years...and I'd say it's closer to 5...I'd chalk it up to attrition. No one has a permanently good farm system, particularly poor teams who consistently draft low in the first round.

White Sox White Sox Diamondbacks Most of the guys you mentioned were from a very long time ago. Despite having pretty high rankings, the A's have been unable to develop a lot of impact talent. Can't blame them for guys like Harden, but overall their farm system has been a disappointment under Beane for the past 10 years or so. Alot of those guys are still playing, so it wasn't so long ago. Hell, a few just started playing.