Laura

Is he injured? ETA: I realize you meant his roster situation and that he's unlikely to get the roster nod, but I was wondering because I hadn't heard either way.

Scout.com has more on the AFL pitchers.

Excuse me for a second. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You are so funny. Since when were we even in the race to begin with? What's this ?? ...... There's a race going on ?? ..... We'll, I'll be !! :shrug: More like Survivor: Wrigley Field.

The Cubs had the lead? Meh, these days a tie almost seems like a lead.

I've been worried that might be the case for awhile now. The repeated trips to the DL with amorphous elbow / shoulder / side pains seemed really similar to what Wood went through last year. It really sucks. No flames please, just going to throw out another potential factor: steroids and/or HGG. There is certainly some circumstantial evidence: Prior's longtime association with Tom House and Tom House's admitted substance use. As I said, no flames. I'm not asserting he did or didn't, but the evidence is worth addressing. Thoughts anyone? No one is above suspicion. If Prior and Wood both go down with the same injuries after both were pitched as they were in '03 (and Prior for parts of '04), I guess I'd be more inclined to look at the similarities in their use before the injuries than to assume one or both were on 'roids. We can speculate who on the Cubs is on illegal performance enhancers now; unfortunately, it is what it is and absent stringent testing and controls, there's no way to know for certain.

I leave for a moment and the Cubs lose the lead. :(

Somewhat obviously, the game thread rotation is on hiatus right now. Starters just dropped like flies and with summer and vacations and the Cobs not doing well, it has been hard to find people to keep it going. So I'd like to give Fred a big thanks for the being the Iron Man of the rotation and keeping things together with all the stats. THANKS, Fred!!!!

A belated YAY MURTON!

Nice!

There are several players who have put up great '06 seasons. I narrowed my choice to Gallagher and Veal, both of whom have been exceptional this year and both of whom are excellent choices. I'm choosing Gallagher based on the following: --he's continued to post silly numbers as he continues to rise through the system; --he posts those numbers in advanced leagues in which he's among the youngest players if not the youngest player; --he continues to trounce expectations and projections, which is amusing (at least to me); and --a couple of other observations. :) By The Numbers Yr Team Level IPs ERA WHIP K - BB OpAvg/OpOBP/OpSlg..OpOPS '05 Peoria low-A 146 2.71 1.11 139 - 55 .206 /.297 /.317 ...615 '06 Daytona hi-A 78.1 2.30 1.23 80 - 21 .259 /.318 /.341 ...659 '06 WestTen AA 73.2 2.44 1.51 74 - 50 .234 /.356 /.303 ...658 Rewind: Gallagher steamrolled the Midwest League last season at age 19. He started out the season with the 40.1-inning scoreless streak, which established the new team record but fell 4 outs short of the all-time league record; he no-hit the opposing team twice (lifted after 6 innings each time due to strict pitch counts -- the first became a 10-inning combined no-hitter with Walt Nolan & Jon Hutton; he finished tied for the league lead in wins and second in ERA among qualifiers. He was named the Cubs minor league pitcher of the year. It was an impressive first full season. He followed up that season with another strong start in the Florida State League at age 20. He improved his K/BB ratio; he was equally brutal on RHBs and LHBs; and upon his June promotion to the Southern League, he was briefly the youngest pitcher in that league. Gallagher won't qualify for the leaderboard in either the Southern League or the Florida State League due to the IP requirements, but the links will bring you to the respective leaderboards and show you how he compares. And he compares very well. A few other pitchers are in the same boat due to mid-season promotions -- like Homer Bailey and Yovani Gallardo. The one concern since his promotion to AA has been the spike in his BB rate. This is primarily due to a spike in the BB rate to LHBs, who account for half of the BBs. He's never shown such a strong RHB/LHB split before this recent promotion: Yr Team vs RHBs vs LHBs 05 Peoria .200/.275/.295 .213/.326/.338 06 Daytona .250/.318/.320 .264/.302/.363 06 WestTenn .196/.302/.281 .287/.426/.343 Perhaps this indicates that he might need to break the slider back out of retirement. I haven't seen him pitch this season, but I have listened to most of the game broadcasts and he is throwing the changeup frequently for strikes during games now. It sounds from broadcaster descriptions like it's still under development but progressing nicely. The fact that his splits haven't been extreme in the past leads me to think that it's just another adjustment that needs to be made. What's interesting to me is that he's been able to compensate for the BB spike by pulling a Z -- he's been absolutely brutal on RHBs and hasn't allowed hitters to hit their way on base. He's allowed 15 extra-base hits -- 13 doubles and 2 HRs, both solo -- in 73.2 innings. What is NOT to love about that oppo slugging %? How is he adjusting to West Tennessee? He was promoted in mid-June. Here's a breakdown by month (AA-only for June): Month IPs hits/9 k/9 bb/9 June 16.2 9.8 8.1 7.0 July 35 7.7 8.7 5.9 Aug 22 5.3 10.2 5.7 So far in August: 4GS, 22IPs, 0.82 ERA, 1.23 WHIP, 25K/14BB, .169 / .297 / .234 ... .530 OPS That's awesome. He seemed to hit a wall for awhile last season at about the same time he was promoted to AA this season. He's turned on the after-burners over the last few starts, though. The final decision for me came down to Gallagher and Veal. Here's a comparison. There's a lot to like about each. The difference to me came down to Gallagher being younger and putting up the stats at a higher level. Veal's stats from Milb.com (I'm getting error messages at minorleaguesplits.com for now). Player Yr Team Age IPs ERA WHIP K/BB Gallagher 05 Peoria 19 146 2.71 1.11 139/55 Veal 06 Peoria 21 73.2 2.69 1.16 86/40 Gallagher 06 Daytona 20 78.1 2.30 1.23 80/21 Veal 06 Daytona 21 69.1 1.82 1.13 67/36 Another slice at the Daytona '06 Numbers: Player IPs hits/9 k/9 bb/9 Gallagher 78.1 8.6 9.2 2.4 Veal 63.2 5.5 8.7 4.7 Veal has been harder to hit in Daytona; Gallagher K'd more and walked fewer. Pick your poison. But if you're concerned about those BB numbers in AA, consider that Gallagher was walking fewer than Veal in high-A. By Age I can pretty much just hit the refresh button from last year. Gallagher is 20 years old (12-30-1985). He's the 3rd youngest pitcher in the Southern League,behind Homer Bailey (05-03-1986) and Yovani Gallardo (02-27-1986). That's pretty good company. When Sean was promoted to the Southern League, he was briefly the youngest SL pitcher. He was promoted a week before Bailey & Gallardo, both of whom were also pitching in the FSL. With a handful of games left in the SL, two shortstops have been promoted to the SL in August -- Reid Brignac (01-16-1986) (former SWM Devil Ray) and Jodam Rivera (02-04-1986) -- so Gallagher is now the 5th youngest player overall in the Southern League. He's the youngest Cubs pitcher above Peoria; he has been the youngest pitcher to play continuously in full-season ball this season. Fabien Jimenez's (08/27/86) recent promotion to Peoria now makes him the youngest pitcher on a full-season team roster. Gallagher is the second youngest Cubs player above Peoria; Jonathan Mota (06-01-1987) in Daytona is the youngest. To put this in perspective: if, instead of pitching in AA ball, Sean was pitching for the Boise Hawks, he'd be the 3rd youngest pitcher on that staff behind Mark Pawelek (08/18/86) and Jake Renshaw (04/29/86). (This is per MiLB rosters) Expectations Gallagher didn't make BA's Top Ten Cubs Prospect List from last November. He did slip into BA's Top Twenty Midwest League Prospect list last September with a lukewarm review: They asked him about that loopy curve in an interview they did right around the time he was promoted to AA: Basically, the rap on Sean was that he was able to be successful in Peoria because --low-A hitter have a tough time with breaking pitches --he could throw strikes --he knew how to pitch (see above) but that he would get pounded as he moved up through the system. There's been a lot of discussion about his increase in velocity on his fastball, which he attributes to better mechanics as well as some off-season workouts. That's definitely a factor here and BA has highlighted that. A year ago it may have been difficult to find anyone who would assert that Gallagher would actually get more unhittable as he advanced, and that the one nitpick with him in AA would be the BBs. As BA said, he continues to live the good life. :) Other Stuff An aside -- Sean picked up a win vs Mobile on August 15 which gave him his 25th pro win with the Cubs. He's 26-10 overall. Gallagher secured his spot in the Peoria rotation by showing up at spring training in '05 after having worked out like a maniac in the off-season and then by pitching very well in spring training. He did the same thing this past off-season and once again showed up in AZ ready to pitch. I wish that some major league ballplayers who make millions could show the same commitment. There are a lot of really great guys who don't have the talent to succeed in baseball. That doesn't mean you can't appreciate someone with talent who stays dedicated to the goal. Finally, I've got to wonder what a minor league pitcher needs to do win this if he can't win it. No-hitters, ERA Title Contention, WHIP / K / BB / Opponent Avg etc ratios and age relative to performance and league landed him in 2nd place last season. BA gives their own awards out. This should be NSBB's award. It's probably the last year Sean will be eligible, since he'll hopefully be pitching at Wrigley at some point next season. And hopefully he'll just keep on kicking butt. :)

GO GUZ!

I'll try to get something up later tonight ... I've been swamped!

A fair number of people want a manager who will hold players accountable and reward players who play well. I'm really reaching to think about what manager would praise that Theriot play. I didn't see it; maybe there's more to it than meets the eye. I'm not a big fan of trying to steal 3B with 2 outs and the only remaining semi-consistent hitting threat in the lineup at bat. I don't really see the point in doing it as a learning experience when it wouldn't be a good play next year, either. Maybe there's a more nurturing way to counsel Theriot that it wasn't a good idea. And maybe Theriot now realizes that it's not AA anymore (despite the current lineup) and sometimes you rely on your 3-4 hitters to hit instead of trying to steal your way to homeplate. Of course, Theriot shouldn't lose playing time to Bynum because of this, but probably will.

There are several players who have put up great '06 seasons. I narrowed my choice to Gallagher and Veal, both of whom have been exceptional this year and both of whom are excellent choices. I'm choosing Gallagher based on the following: --the silly numbers he's posted in Daytona & West Tenn; --he posts those numbers in advanced leagues in which he's among the youngest players; --he continues to trounce expectations, which is always amusing; --a couple of intangible observations, which I promise won't be nearly as dreadful as it sounds. By The Numbers I'll state at the very outset of this that the current concern with Sean is that his BB rate skyrocketed upon his promotion to West Tenn. I'm not going to shy away from that -- I'm posting the WHIP and BB numbers -- but, although it is a concern, it doesn't detract from his other numbers; his ability to mow down RH hitters in particular has compensated for the BB rate so far; and I believe the BB rate is a reflection of his adjusting to the more advanced AA hitters. Otherwise, he's been stellar and would be among the league leaders. Yr Team Level IPs ERA WHIP K - BB OpAvg/OpOBP/OpSlg..OpOPS '05 Peoria low-A 146 2.71 1.11 139 - 55 .206 /.297 /.317 ...615 '06 Daytona hi-A 78.1 2.30 1.23 80 - 21 .259 /.318 /.341 ...659 '06 WestTen AA 73.2 2.44 1.51 74 - 50 .234 /.356 /.303 ...658 Gallagher won't qualify for the leaderboard in either the Southern League or the Florida State League due to the IP requirements, but the links will bring you to the respective leaderboards and show you how he compares. And he compares very very well. (In the interest of full disclosure, a few other pitchers are in the same boat due to mid-season promotions -- like Homer Bailey and Yovani Gallardo.) He has compensated for the spike in his BB rate at West Tenn by not allowing hitters to hit their way on base. He's allowed 15 extra-base hits -- 13 doubles and 2 HRs, both solo -- in 73.2 innings. Is he adjusting to West Tennessee? He was promoted in mid-June. Here's a breakdown by month (AA-only for June): Month IPs hits/9 k/9 bb/9 June 16.2 9.8 8.1 7.0 July 35 7.7 8.7 5.9 Aug 22 5.3 10.2 5.7 So far in August: 4GS, 22IPs, 0.82 ERA, 1.23 WHIP, 25K/14BB, .169 / .297 / .234 ... .530 OPS Finally, I noted that to me, the final decision came down to Gallagher and Veal. Here's a comparison of their Daytona stats. There's a lot to like about each (and of course Gallagher is a RHP, Veal an LHP). Since this the segue to the next section, I'll note that Gallagher is a year younger. Veal stats from Milb.com. Daytona '06 Numbers: Player IPs hits/9 k/9 bb/9 Gallagher 78.1 8.6 9.2 2.4 Veal 63.2 5.5 8.7 4.7 By Age I can pretty much just hit the refresh button from last year. Gallagher is 20 years old (12-30-1985). He's the 3rd youngest pitcher in the Southern League, behind Homer Bailey (05-03-1986) and Yovani Gallardo (02-27-1986). That's pretty good company. When Sean was promoted to the Southern League, he was briefly the youngest SL pitcher. He was promoted a week before Bailey & Gallardo, both of whom were also pitching in the FSL. With a handful of games left in the SL, two shortstops have been promoted in August -- Reid Brignac (01-16-1986) (former SWM Devil Ray) and Jodam Rivera (02-04-1986) -- so Gallagher is now the 5th youngest player in the Southern League. He's the youngest Cubs pitcher above Peoria. Fabien Jimenez's (08/27/86) recent promotion to Peoria makes him the youngest pitcher in full-season ball. Gallagher is the second youngest Cubs player above Peoria; Jonathan Mota (06-01-1987) in Daytona is the youngest. To put this in perspective: if, instead of pitching in AA ball, Sean was pitching for the Boise Hawks, he'd be the 3rd youngest pitcher on that staff behind Mark Pawelek (08/18/86) and Jake Renshaw (04/29/86). Expectations Gallagher didn't make BA's Top Ten Cubs Prospect List from last November. He did slip into BA's Top Twenty Midwest League Prospect list last September with a lukewarm review:

Thanks for the list! Glad to see Grant Johnson there. Looks like he's the >AA choice? Those are my questions. And here's an aside: I know there's kidding around about Prior here, but just in case people were actually wondering based on comments in the Chicago papers about him pitching in Arizona in the off-season, Prior isn't eligible to pitch in the Arizona Fall League.

I know there are many factors at play with PBs ... Robinson did have 16 with Lakeland despite getting designated the best defensive catcher in the Tigers minor league org. How does that compare in high-A?

Rowand left the game, looked like his left leg was hurt but he bounced in all sorts of ways when he hit the ground, so he may have other injuries.

Rowand and Utley were both running after a Mabry blooper in short center and completely crashed into each other.

He's lucky he didn't break his neck. Yech.

whoa, that looked ugly

I think one or two had to be earned... not sure though Any runs scored after what should have been the 3rd out are unearned, at least that's my understanding. The box score and announcers agree that all four runs are unearned. The Utley HR is an earned run. Time to lift Hill as he is at 101 pitches. GameCenter often doesn't update to distinguish between earned and unearned runs until after the game. I know sportsline doesn't, at any rate. As Jim Ignatowski notes, the MLB.com program is showing 5R, 1ER.

Thanks!

Details plz! I have the volume down. :)

1-0 Huntsville, middle 2. Shaver has thrown a ton of pitches -- ~46 or so -- in the first 2 IPs as he went to full counts on the first several batters. Still 5-1 Daytona through 5.