Iceblink

Perhaps a lighter workload on Prior and Wood in 2003 would've allowed two rookies to be eased instead of being depended on. Only two rookies - Murton and Cedeno - are being depended on for any offense. Baker can't pretend that this isn't at least partly self-inflicted.

Begs for a "Chasing Melillo" crawl on ESPN, and a "Game of Onoz" tell-all book.

He was safe, but total brain cramp with nobody out.

He hit 94 at least once and 93 at least twice. Hm. I need to watch more closely. But he still can't outrun Byneifimack.

Prior nice and smooth so far. Topping out at 92. If he were faster and could play second base, he'd be perfect.

Self-inflicted noice catch by Bynum.

Wow, he can't even walk. Hope he's ok - looks like some kind of low back injury. Spasm or a hernia? Slipped disc?

Get The Riot a plane ticket.

Womack down on the field.

So if you're a pitcher with a chance to go to say, St. Louis, New York, Boston, Los Angeles, or even the ChiSox, would you pass on that to join a team that's spent 2 years being bad on the field, in the dugout, and, most importantly, in the front office?

Restovich would be fine. It won't change the outcome of this season. However, I've got little faith in Hendry's ability to trade well at this point. If he's going to add two more AAAA players who can play second base or be a 6th starter, I'd just as soon overpay Jones for two more years.

Bowa is no bueno.

Tell me more about this pumpkin. Can it put together a lineup card?

I like the low-ish OBP, but I need him to be skinnier and faster - but not good at stealing bases...and he needs to be best suited to play second base.

I don't think that gets it done, and I wouldn't do it unless the contract is split up great for the Cubs. Here's some facts. Hunter is being paid 10.75 million for this year and 12 million for 07 with a 2 million buyout option. Juan Pierre is being paid 5.75 million for this year. Hunter turns 31 this July. This year he has an OBP of .333 and .419 slg compared to career numbers of .321/.456 So, to get a declining, unproductive player, you'd have to take on ~ 2.5 million for the rest of this year and either have to pay him 12 million next year or buy him out for an additional 2. I'm assuming you'd want him for more than this year, considering this team likely isn't making the playoffs, so you would have to pay that amount. The Twins could probably get more than a rent-a-player at his lowest value and a pitcher at low value and a B prospect. Not a good deal for either team. I'd rather save that cash, sign a SP in the offseason and watch Felix Pie put up comparable numbers to Torii Hunter at the league minimum. Right on.

If you put any weight into salary, Walker isn't ridiculously far behind Soriano - and Soriano is not any better defensively. Cedeno has a long way to go before he's a viable lead-off man and Murton really shouldn't be in RF with his arm. Awful lot of RH hitters, too. Would it be any worse if you didn't sign Lee and put Soriano in LF with Walker back at 2B, and spend the millions you'd save on another starter? (I know Walker won't be back, just saying.)

We're total sellers, but so are a lot of other teams. Unfortunately, nobody on the roster who's likely to be traded can command anything in return. Maddux - Barring a great June/July, he'll return a mid-level prospect at best. If he were still pitching halfway like he did in April, it'd be a different story. Today, he's a 6 inning pitcher with a 5 ERA. Walker - Same, regardless of his June/July. A contender might overpay if they suddenly needed a bat, because Walker has been a consistently good hitter for years (and so, of course, the offensively desperate Cubs should trade him.) Pierre - We'd have to pay someone to take him. If a team needs a defensive replacement/pinch runner, maybe they'd give us a AAAA pitcher to go along with the 6 we already have. Wood - No value today. If he came off the DL and pitched healthy until 7/31, he'd possibly command the best prospect of any tradeable player we have - which would still be someone who isn't on anyone's top 10. Like Patterson and Sosa before him, Hendry has waited until the player has the lowest possible trade value before considering a move. The only players on the roster with any real trade value are Zambrano, Lee, Ramirez, and Barrett, and Eyre, Howry and Dempster in the pen. Teams can easily pick up bullpen help for a marginal youngster, so there'd be no reason to gut our bullpen for pennies. Williamson isn't healthy enough to get anything back. Prior aside, the rest of the pitchers aren't good enough to bring anyone in return. Prior's value is as low as it's been in his career, however, and that is when Hendry likes to strike. If you had a decent (not good) prospect like Guzman, would you give him up for a pitcher who has performed like Maddux? How about for the worst offensive OFer in baseball? Me either.

The Houston guys have been saying Z has a you-know-what at least four times an inning for the last 5 innings. Desperately trying to jinx him.

And to take a shot at guys in the later rounds who slipped because of signability concerns.

My pleasure. Pie really glided around the bases, too. He may have thought about a triple on the second double, but Hill was in front of him and couldn't score. In the post-game segment, the Round Rock announce team had good things to say about Pie and Hill, and they were most impressed with Aardsma. For what it's worth, they touted his stuff as better than what you'd see in most major league pens.

So here's the report from Round Rock where the ICubs beat the Express: Hill was looking great early. He came out throwing a lot of fastballs - most in the 88-91 range. He seemed to work low and in, especially to righties. He threw a few curves, including a total knee-buckler to strike out lefty Luke Scott, but was mostly working with heat. The only hard hit ball against Rich through the first four was a sharp liner for a single. He did look really, really bad trying to field a push bunt to first by Charlton Jimersen leading off the 1st. He took a bad angle on the ball, then sprawled out trying to dive and flip and made a dirt angel. I'm not even sure he touched the ball. In the 4th, the leadoff guy got on, then the pitcher bunted to third. McGehee fielded and threw a strike to 2B and should've got the lead runner, but Ojeda wanted the double-play too badly and didn't look it in. Ball in short center, E6, runners on 1st and 3rd with nobody out. Hill really bore down and K'd Jimersen, then popped out the next guy. The Express manager then inexplicably tried the double-delayed steal with the pitcher on first. Easy run down and out of the inning. Soto showed some nice poise walking out to the middle of the diamond and calming down the team after the error. In the 5th, the velocity dropped to the 86-88 range and the Astros farmhands started to get better contact. He gave up the triple to Jimersen that drove in their run, and it was a legit rope to right center. He reached back and hit 90 to get a popup and get out of the inning. After that speedbump, he got through the 7th and 8th without a lot of trouble. (EDIT: meant to say 6th and 7th.) Aardsma was absolutely filthy. He was throwing 94-95 and causing horrible swings. Really impressive outing. I caught some of the 9th on the radio and the announcer said it was the best hard, sinking fastball he'd seen since Carlos Silva pitched there in the AA All Star game in 2002. Looking at Silva's career numbers, he must not throw anything else well. As for position players, Pie was the best player on the field. He had a sharp ground-ball double down the 1st base line early, then a smoked liner that one-hopped the wall down the RF line late. Both drove in a run, and both came against the softish-tossing lefty starter, Barzilla (great name). He also walked and fanned. The K was swinging at a pitch that was well out of the zone. Augie Ojeda produced two terribly weak pop liners to the right side, including one that was a "line" out on a hit & run for an easy double play. So, with two outs and a man on second, the manager channelled Monty Burns and decided to play the percentages. He walked Ojeda intentionally. Hill hit a pretty sharp grounder that the third baseman sprawled for. His throw went into right center, the go ahead run scored, and Pie took the next pitch into right for his second RBI double. Between the error and hitting balls that would have bounced off of wet paper towels, Ojeda looked rough. Not sure why he's in the lineup with that kind of game. Buck Coats hit two sharp lined singles against the lefty starter. He hit a ball off his instep in his third AB and then struck himself out. He struck out looking in the 9th and complained about what looked like a definite strike. He lost a fly ball that Pie wound up catching. Sing didn't get many good swings. Soto, Theriot, and Hill all laid down very good sacrifice bunts. Soto looked very comfortable behind the plate. Seems like one of those guys who was born to play that position and control the infield. One interesting side note that won't show up in the box score. In Pie's second AB, he took a tight fastball at the waist and glared at the pitcher. Seemed like an overreaction. He wound up walking on 4 pitches. He wound up on second after Theriot's sacrifice, which Theriot may have beaten, but was called out. McGehee grounded out to short and probably beat the play at first, but was also called out. McGehee took a couple steps toward the umpire (who made the call from in between first & second in the 3 umpire rotation) and gave him a loud, two syllable retort that may have rhymed with pull snit. So, the next batter also grounded out. Pie ran out the play and ran full speed to the dugout, where he was visibly hot. A few guys seemed to try to calm him down. He put the helmet up with some force, and took a few moments to vent and calm down. I think he was angry at the calls by the umpire, especially the second one on McGehee. Definitely seemed like a fiery guy, but got it under control - gotta like that. So, a very good game by Hill and a dominant one by Aardsma, and Pie was as advertised.

I should be going to Round Rock tonight to see the Cubbies. I'll try to post a report if I'm not in a ballpark-food-coma. :)

You guys/gals must be seeing some substance there I'm not. A team saying they haven't had any offers worth taking is a common way of saying they want better offers. There's no denial of interest in trading him, just that they haven't seen what they want yet. "An Orioles official", whomever he/she/it is, doesn't seem to be ruling out anything either way.

Meh - negotiation tactic. Means nothing either way, IMO.

If that's the case, then I'd rather Hendry cut out the middle man, lose his obsession with Tejada, and go after some of the Angels' best prospects.