erik316wttn

Seriously, Grabow, just go away already. Far, far away and don't ever come back.

I'll definately have to watch SportsCenter to see Castro's heroics tonight. I think it's time for the first highlight video of the year, featuring rookie phenom Starlin Castro.

Grabow working the 9th with a 10-run lead? Castro just may get that next AB after all.

Hopefully Lee's coming around.

And he gets one more AB yet. top of the order due up. Never mind then. Well, he still may tonight.

Marlon, you're up by 10. Don't risk hurting yourself going for those.

And he gets one more AB yet.

Now if we could only blackmail Grabow into retirement...

Tied or does he have it outright?

Starlin Wilkins

Colvin sucks too.

The Great One fouls out to 1B. Send him back down, the bum!

I just got in. HR in his first AB and 6 RBI for Castro tonight? Damn!

Did Harang ever face Randy Johnson?

Isn't that pretty common for highly-touted rookies when first called up? Take some pressure off before their home debut.

Fontenot and Baker haven't been good. Is Baker's butt healed?

My favorite part was the Branyan swing.

Fred, how long does it take you to put together those posts? It would take me forever!!

Read the second-to-last paragraph. Fangraphs seems to think that Theriot is some sort of god on defense.

How so? Both were top prospects with high celings (supposedly). Both were rushed to the majors well before they were ready, and both fizzled out and became completely worthless in the short span of a few seasons. This is following the same pattern. I don't see how it's out of line to expect the same result. Castro strikes out about half as much as either of those guys and actually earned this promotion rather than promoting Pie or Patterson when they weren't really dominating. Pie had a 973 OPS in AAA the year he was called up to the majors. Patterson was promoted without actually dominating past low A (like what they are doing with Vitters), but Pie fits the treatment. Yeah, Pie succeeded at every level of the minors. I don't know where this perception is coming from that he was Patterson Part Deux. This is my concern with Castro, that the fans are going to turn on him quickly when he doesn't dominate right away. If he struggles, I would hope the fans realize it's not his fault that he was promoted too quickly. I think the average Cubs fan is at least intelligent enough to know that.

I agree. Castro should stay in AA for the next few years, then take a few years to make sure he's got AAA figured out. There's no reason to rush him to Wrigley any sooner than 2015, at the earliest. What's with the sarcasm?

How so? Both were top prospects with high celings (supposedly). Both were rushed to the majors well before they were ready, and both fizzled out and became completely worthless in the short span of a few seasons. This is following the same pattern. I don't see how it's out of line to expect the same result.

Sure! Just like when I smash my hand with this hammer! Surely it won't hurt THIS time... ow

I don't like this move one bit. This is purely a panic move and will ultimately cause more harm than good to Castro. You would have thought that the Cubs would have learned a thing or two about rushing a promising prospect from the whole Corey Patterson and Felix Pie debacle, but that would require Cubs management to learn from it's mistakes, and that's not something it's historically known for doing.

The kid was fleeing arrest. The cop was well within his legal rights to use it. Cops are supposed to use the minimum amount of force necessary to end a conflict. Who knows how long the kid would have ran. The cop used a tazer and ended the situation as quickly as possible with as little force possible. I applaud him. i'd like to see you get tazed and tell us all how that's "little force". If I'm fleeing an arresting officer, (a) I would deserve to get tazed, (b) I would pray that I'd only get tazed instead of, you know, shot, and © I didn't say "little force", I said "as little possible." There's a difference. I have an uncle who's a cop and I know that every single interaction a cop has during his or her shift could be a dangerous one. Sure, we know now that the kid was unarmed. But he was resisting arrest in the form of running away-- he clearly was going to have no part of being arrested. Had the officers caught up to the kid and tackled him, they had no way of knowing at the time if the kid had a gun or a knife or some other sort of weapon on him to cause the officer harm. Using the tazer ended the conflict as quickly and as safely as possible for the officers and the players on the field, just like they're trained to do. Geez, there would be people on here complaining if the kid was tackled and got a broken leg or something because of it. Then the cops would have been too rough with the precious little snowflake. I find the overall lack of personal accountability in today's society deeply disturbing. He made a choice and he suffered the consequences. The cop wouldn't have used the tazer if the kid had stayed off of the field like he was supposed to. The kid is at fault here, not the cop.