CubinNY

Yes, Ohio State, Northwestern, Perdue, and Michigan didn't blow out their opponents by enough points. EDIT: I forgot to mention Iowa and Indiana too.

So who won the Minor League player of the year award?

And people said that David Eckstein shouldn't play sports because he was so small, or not toolsy enough, blah, blah. If Theriot can play, like him play. You never know what Theriot can do, unless you give him the opportunity to play. So, yes, I like to see him be seriously considered to start in 2007. On the flipside of that thinking, that's pretty much how we got saddled with Cedeno. Your quotes can come back to haunt you. Cedeno needs a good hitting coach. When he was with Joshua he didn't hit like this. Moreover, he's been moved from SS to 2nd, then sat a number of games, then played at 2nd, then moved back to SS. Not smart moves by the Cubs with a rookie who has been struggling at the plate. But then again, they are the Cubs. More moreover, in Winter ball last year he didn't play an inning at 2nd even though the Cubs were supposedly hot and heavy after Furcal. Again, not a smart move by the Cubs, but then again they are the Cubs. BTW: Cedeno was rookie of the year in his league in Winter ball. Ronnie has hit very poorly and has showed very little plate discipline. He's never had much, but at least he use to be able to pick a pitch to hit.

My bet would be someone pitching in the NL or Felix Hernandez.

You know who you are. IMO, the jury is STILL out on Hill. He just hasn't pitched enough yet. But as one of the people who didn't say he was going to be great, that it was too early to judge him, and that is minor league numbers indicated he could be pretty good, I am real happy he is doing well. You won't hear any "eat crow's" or "I told you so's" from me though.

Go Georgia Tech! Go Memphis Tigers. Where are you OleMiss!? Olemiss is going down.

Well, I can agree with Dusty on this one. Bruce Miles is the only beat reporter of the Cubs to focus more on the game than on the personalities who play the game. I don't even bother reading the Suntimes or Tribune/chicagospors.com any longer. Sullivan should have been let go a long time ago and Kiley was already fired. I miss the days when Teddy Greenstein was the beat reporter for the Trib. I guess he did his job too well or something.

I tottally agree. He's having a bad year this year, but he is exactly like the player Hendry looks for but rarely gets. He can play a lot of positions and he can actually hit.

The Djaxx will be the Cubs AA affiliate next year? I am hoping they will be, but judging by the crowd size at the game I went to I highly doubt it.

Because he is a bad baseball player and if Aramis leaves he can't do much more harm. Sarasm

I wouldn't be one bit shocked if Brenly got the job. I would be royally pissed, but not shocked. However, I don't see the manager mattering much as long as Hendry consistently builds weak to medicore teams. He may have been a good scout and perhaps a good farm director, but he is not a good GM. And Hughes makes me want to vomit. A team cannot win with a bench full of Freddy Bynums, a pitching staff full of ? and two guys who can drive in 100 runs.

I remember when Dusty was hired and I was listening to ESPN radio. They had a sportswriter on from SF, a city that supposed loved Baker. He said much the same thing except he was more nice with his language. He said Dusty was very thin skinned and as long as everything goes well Dusty will be ok. He went on to say that Dusty has a hard time taking responsiblity, but he thought Dusty would do well in Chicago unless things went bad quickly. At the time I was excited to get Baker. Shows how much I knew.

I like Murton quite a bit, I hope he remains with the Cubs. Having said that, is he really the type of player that would haunt the Cubs for a long time? If so, I haven't seen it. I think he will be a sold ML player, but nothing near a superstar. Carlos Lee isn't a superstar either, but he will be paid like one. I'll take a solid player at the MLB minimum. Ditto. Lee will be spactacularly overpaid for the remainder of his career and he is exiting his prime years. He's no hustler either. Nor is he scrappy. And he is slow. And he is not a good fielder. I don't know why JH would want him, except for the fact that he played for the WS and use to pound Cub pitching. When he's with the Cubs he won't be facing Cub pitching.

mmmm, cabbage.

Steroid Policy anyone? I think it has more to do with poi then steriods.

He played nearly 450 games in CF in his career. Where'd you get that number? Baseball Reference lists 57 games in CF, out of 2850 games played. BP says 446. Baseball Reference lists him as an "OF" for over 2000 of those games. Yeah, I noticed that. I wonder why that is. Anyway, 2,421 games at left versus 446 games at center supports the spirit of neely's post. If you're looking at the fielding stats on Baseball Reference and it just says "OF" rather than RF, LF, or CF, follow that stat line to the far right. It gives the breakdown of games played per OF position. And while the numbers may support the "spirit" of his post, nearly 450 games at a position is a far cry from never playing it. There were two seasons with the Yankees (1985 and 1986) where he was pretty much a full-time centerfielder. I put him in CF becuase I would have Bonds in LF and Gwynn in RF. Rickey could play CF very well, as he did for three years. 400 plus games is a far cry from 0, spirit or not.

He's the starting CF in my all-time team of players who played in my lifetime.

I don't know by Cedeno looks like he needs Vaughn Joshua more than ever. His bad habits have returned with a vengence. I guess Dusty is correct, you can't teach in the bigs.

He was damaged goods when the Cubs traded him. Frankly, I suprized the Cubs didn't get called out.

He's sweet on my wife.

The 1,000th time he grabbed his crotch in the batter's box, June 7, 2005. The time he said to Prior or Z or whomever, "you see this golve, it's made of gold. Make him hit it to me" or something like that.

Just one question. Why do you have Samardzija ranked in the top 25?

in 2002 at GT, Murton slugged .536. in 2004, before being traded to the Cubs, his SLG was .452. he faded once with the Cubs, but that slg would currently rank him tied for 14th in that league. in 2005, he slugged .498 in an extremely pitcher friendly league. if he finished the season in AA in 05 and kept that slg %, it would rank him 10th in the league. instead, he followed it up with a .500 slg % at AAA and a .521 slg % in the majors. there's very little in his past that suggests he won't hit for more power than he is this year. someone brought up Giles. I was just looking at his stats in a different context. look what he slugged when he was 24. look at Edmonds. there are plenty of players that take a year or two of ML ABs to develop their power. Bonds slugged .426 at age 24. Adam LaRoche slugged .455 last year at age 24, right around where Murton will probably end up this year. think the Braves are glad they didn't platoon him and his .555 slg % at age 25 this year. You've got to look at IsoP. His year at Georgia Tech was under .200, not very good at all for a top college player. That .452 SLG was accompanied by a .301 AVG for a .151 IsoP. He did have a better run in his first major league stint, but his performance before and since then have proved that to be an anomaly. It goes back to the point that Minor League numbers in the right context are very good predictors of major league performance. It's not an absolute, but exceptions like Edmonds don't make it any more likely that Murton adds power. why do you call players like Edmonds the exception? seriously, how many players do you think hit 20 HRs at age 24 in the major leagues? 4? maybe 5? I understand the concept of predictability, but I think this is a case of looking too much at the stats and not enough attention to the obvious observations. Murton has the make up (strength, strike zone judgment, patience, etc.) of a guy that can hit for power. some decent coaching and a few adjustments to make him stop pounding the ball into the ground, and he'll hit for power. his IsoP isn't so low because he's slapped singles over the secondbaseman's head. more likely it was because his hits were line shots through the infield instead of line drives off the wall or in the gaps. if he doesn't hit for more power, the Cubs should have three positions in the top three or four offensively in the NL (as pathetic as the NL is, four if they found a different platoon partner for Jones besides Murton), and you can get by with Murton's OBP for another season and see if that power develops. with the potential for an Izturis/Cedeno middle infield, the point I am about to make is not so obvious as it was three weeks ago, but I really don't understand the mentality that says you have to have a power bat in leftfield because that is 'traditionally' what has been done, especially when you have a .900 OPS catcher. give either Cedeno or Izturis the SS position, get a .360 OBP for second and center, get a righthanded platoon partner for Jones in right. .360 (CF/2B) Murton Lee Aram Jones/platoon partner Barrett .360 (2B/CF) Cedeno if Murton's power comes around, swith him with whoever bats seventh and let him drive in some runs. cheap, easy, done. (caveat - I realize this team is heavily dependant on Lee returning to form and Aram coming back, but if both those things don't happen, nothing will matter anyway.) I agree completely. As the steriod era falls by the wayside, guys like Muton will become more valuable. 15-20 HRs 300ish average and 380is OBP will look very good.

Great news.

Dusty's allergic to putting the best offensive team on the field. :jocolor: