Rob

The first thing that popped into my mind was Manny Ramirez leaving the Rays for personal reasons.

You are seriously pathetic. Take out the word meaningless if it's going to keep you up at night. Makes no difference to me. (a) personal attacks are against board rules. (b) if i take out the word meaningless, it reads: "You see nothing resembling that in the video I linked of Pie freaking out in a winter league game?" the part about the winter league game, even without meaningless, suggests to me that you believe these games do not matter. Haha you'd have 80,000 posts rather than 40,000 if you spent your day policing every personal attack on this board. I guess I'm special. :blush: Maybe this will help you see the light friend: if Pie had behaved this way in a MLB game, I'd have the same reaction. So all of your semantic hand-wringing is a pointless waste of time. Don't pretend for a moment that the way Pie behaves has anything to do with how you react. Your [consistently opposing] reaction is a function of the way the board feels about a topic, not some strongly held beliefs you already possess. As to the point of semantic hand-wringing... aren't you the one trying to prove the difference between calling Pie a savage and saying he's acting like one? It seems you're playing up the semantics angle stronger than anybody else.

I know this kinda jumps between forums, but i gotta ask. I've got an opportunity to watch a couple games on 4/30 and 5/1 in Nashville. Would I be better off watching Vanderbilt vs. Tennessee (college) or Nashville vs. Albuquerque (AAA, from the looks of it.) ? Also, who should I be watching for? I'm catching a Stone Temple Pilots concert 5/1 and might not be able to watch all of that game. Whoever convinces me to do what they'd like me to go to wins a half-assed scouting report from a guy who is pretty likely to be drunk enough to spend 10 minutes fixing up his post to look like this.

Kidding, right?

Another five years tacked onto the current contract. He's now signed through 2020 with a mutual option for 2021.

I know every organization has a JR Mathes or 2 or 3 stashed in their AAA affiliate, and we have 3, but It does frustrate me that we have him, Diamond, and B-D in the rotation with an actual prospect in Chris Carpenter in middle relief. And then the Iowa rotation was made even more pointless with the Ortiz signing. Maybe the assumption is that he would be more useful as a reliever if needed for the big league club, but as we found out early this season, you can never have too much starting pitching depth. The only big league ready starters we really had on the farm were Carpenter and Jackson, and Jacksons either injured or working out some kind of issue at Fitch. Have we been given a definitive answer as to why Carpenter is in the pen? Carpenter isn't in the pen because he's blocked by guys like Mathes. He's in the pen because: 1.) His stuff plays way up in relief. 2.) His lack of a good third pitch becomes less of a problem in relief. 3.) He's got significant durability concerns. 4.) His control issues were leading to high early pitch counts and therefore an inability to work deep into ballgames. It was the right thing to do to have a good prospect like him start his career in the rotation. Regardless of whether or not the Cubs thought he was going to end up a starter, it wasn't a bad idea to give him extra reps to work on his control and maybe develop a good changeup. But ultimately this was always the most likely outcome. The good news is that the fact the Cubs have bothered to officially convert him to the pen means that they likely see him as being close to major league ready. If they thought he would still need all the extra reps, they wouldn't have made the conversion this soon. Also weren't there reports of him consistently pitching in the upper 90's out of the pen in the AFL? I was trying to say that with bullet point #1. But yeah, in relief he's hit the upper 90s on his fastball. BA's prospect handbook even has him hitting 100.

I wish that Ha wasn't allergic to taking walks, but if he wants to hit .415 I won't stop him. I'm starting to get behind the idea of aggressive promotions for guys with excellent hit tools and an impatient approach. Either they keep hitting (Castro) or they falter a bit and maybe find themselves in a position where they need to change their approach at the plate to find success. (Vitters?) Sometimes the struggle is necessary.

I know every organization has a JR Mathes or 2 or 3 stashed in their AAA affiliate, and we have 3, but It does frustrate me that we have him, Diamond, and B-D in the rotation with an actual prospect in Chris Carpenter in middle relief. And then the Iowa rotation was made even more pointless with the Ortiz signing. Maybe the assumption is that he would be more useful as a reliever if needed for the big league club, but as we found out early this season, you can never have too much starting pitching depth. The only big league ready starters we really had on the farm were Carpenter and Jackson, and Jacksons either injured or working out some kind of issue at Fitch. Have we been given a definitive answer as to why Carpenter is in the pen? Carpenter isn't in the pen because he's blocked by guys like Mathes. He's in the pen because: 1.) His stuff plays way up in relief. 2.) His lack of a good third pitch becomes less of a problem in relief. 3.) He's got significant durability concerns. 4.) His control issues were leading to high early pitch counts and therefore an inability to work deep into ballgames. It was the right thing to do to have a good prospect like him start his career in the rotation. Regardless of whether or not the Cubs thought he was going to end up a starter, it wasn't a bad idea to give him extra reps to work on his control and maybe develop a good changeup. But ultimately this was always the most likely outcome. The good news is that the fact the Cubs have bothered to officially convert him to the pen means that they likely see him as being close to major league ready. If they thought he would still need all the extra reps, they wouldn't have made the conversion this soon.

Glad to see Soriano throwing well in the early going. When his arm is on he's got defensive value.

Poor CPatt. He was so good in 03 and 04. It's a shame people remember him more for how bad he was when he was called up (when he was obviously not ready) and before he left (when dusty was busy trying to turn him into a slap hitter).

Another WCIU game? Didn't we just have one like 3 days ago?

In my pants. Post of the year.

Honestly, I still like Mateo quite a bit.

Of course.

Jackson was pinch hit for in the 9th today. Anybody know why?

Unless he leads the league in hitting, it's going to be hard to make an ALL Star team with Tulo and HRam in the same league. you underestimated the vance factor Don't say his name... he needs his rest before the ballot opens. Then the beast awakens.

http://jumpkickpunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/charlie_excited.gif That about sums it up, yeah.

His success as a starter has been almost entirely predicated on an untenable 0.55 HR/9 rate. That rate would have put him 10th amongst qualified starters last year, behind only Josh Johnson, Billingsley, Ubaldo, Liriano, CJ Wilson, Anibal Sanchez, Clay Buchholz, Jaime Garcia, and Mike Pelfrey. The astute amongst you will have already noticed that a lot of the names on that list aren't expected to repeat their performance... and each of them (including Pelfrey) is significantly more talented than Coleman. In short, Coleman is going to give up home runs... and when he does, it's going to get ugly in a hurry. It's best he stay in the rotation no longer than absolutely necessary and the Cubs should be looking for replacement options even during that time.

Indeed. Felix Pie to the Orioles for Olson. Olson and Cedeno to the Mariners for Heilman. Heilman was later traded to the Dbacks for Scott Maine and Ryne White. Maine looks like he could end up a pretty good bullpen guy. And OP, I know it's a huge nitpick but it's Olson, not Olsen.

Good nickname choice, SSR. I really don't like Olson, but he probably wouldn't be a bad pickup.

Remember Prince is a Boras client, and Scott is going to probably use the A-Gon deal as his measuring stick. There are more teams than the Red Sox and Yanks out there with money that would be willing to spend big for either Princ or Pujols. The Angels, Dodgers, and Mets could all be very much in the race, and teams like the Mariners, Orioles, and maybe even the Nationlals could get in on the fun. The Blue Jays recently dumped that massive Wells contract, so they could be in. Dodgers and Mets definitely cant afford him. Angels have Morales at 1B and just took on that awful Wells contract, which will make another big contract hard to fit. Mariners have Smoak as their long term 1B (and Jack Z doesn't seem the type to overspend) and the Nats just signed LaRoche to a multiyear deal. Of the teams you listed, I only see the Orioles and Blue Jays as teams that will likely be in on the bidding.

This feels like it needs posted... These are the thresholds at which statistics tend to stabilize: 50 PA: Swing % 100 PA: Contact Rate 150 PA: Strikeout Rate, Line Drive Rate, Pitches/PA 200 PA: Walk Rate, Groundball Rate, GB/FB 250 PA: Flyball Rate 300 PA: Home Run Rate, HR/FB 500 PA: OBP, SLG, OPS, 1B Rate, Popup Rate 550 PA: ISO For more reading, check out this article on fangraphs.

I didn't feel like this deserved its own thread, but it needed to be shown... Check Out Coco Crisp's New 'Do.

2 more doubles and another walk for Vitters. I know, I know, small sample size and all... but damned if it isn't easy to dream about a high ceiling prospect having a breakout.

The thing is, there's a right way and a wrong way to lose weight. If you're trying to take too much off too fast, you'll just end up losing a lot of muscle mass. Aside from the first ten pounds or so which is mostly water weight, trying to lose any more than about 1-2 pounds a week is going to hurt more than it helps.