mg420

not sure who will be pitching then but hopefully you will get to see wells, shaver and gallagher starting. other than ep, scott moore (3b) brian dopirak (1b) & miguel negron (cf) are the guys i would look out for. there are a few guys in the pen that have been lights out all year in AA too including rocky cherry, clay rapada, juan mateo & carlos vasquez. atlee was great too but was promoted to iowa. if you are really lucky, maybe the cubs will have promoted jake fox from daytona by then. he's a catcher who's hitting .313 with 16 hr's & an obps of .957. heres the website in case you dont have the link: http://www.diamondjaxx.com/

Agreed. Aardsma needs to work on his control but if he can improve on that, he'll be an effective big league pitcher. This describes a lot of Cubs pitchers. If they could have greater control they'd be good pitchers. The problem is they don't. I'm not sure why, but the Cubs just don't seem to emphasize throwing strikes, or location. Or they don't know how to develop guys who can throw strikes. he seemed to be ok in iowa with 6 bb in 20 ip. the control is there he just needs to find it in the majors (ala hill).

i agree that wuertz should get a call up soon but i wouldnt be so quick to trade aardsma. he has an overpowering fastball and a good breakingball and could be a future closer imo. trade novoa & williamson & keep wuertz & aardsma in the pen. atlee (now in iowa), rapada & cherry have been dominating out of the pen this year in AA so they might get a look this year too. lightenberg has been lights out (no pun intended) at iowa and a club looking for a closer might be interested in him too. perhaps the cubs should even consider trading howry with so many good young arms in the pen on the horizion.

is this a precursor to the cubs perhaps trading novoa & bringing wuertz back up?

Looking back after the draft and a bit of this season has gone by, I wonder if the Cubs woul offer arbitration to any of these players. The only one I would is to Todd Walker, and Cubs management can't stand him and might not do it. It'd be great to see the Cubs get some extra picks in 2007 to make up the loss of 3 picks this year. i dont see walker being with the cubs after the july trading deadline. with womack producing so far at 2b, walker will be prime trade bait imo.

if he keeps this up maybe the cubs will trade pierre & give him a shot at cf. when pagan gets back they could split time there.

Bruce, any chance the Cubs would be willing to have a Jones/Murton platoon in LF in 2007? why would you want to platoon jones just when he has started hitting lefties? i would be much more concerned about cf than left or right if i were the cubs.

Me too. What's funny, and I probably shouldn't even mention his name in a thread like this, is that Marmol was reminding me of another Cub prospect who was being compared to Pedro Martinez. Marmol looked like a confident and slightly less wiry Juan Cruz. Similar stuff but Cruz always seemed to have a scared look on his face while Marmol had the eye of the tiger. marmol's stuff reminds me of dotel's. hopefully he will have much greater success starting than dotel did.

zito's stuff is very similar to hill's imo. if hill can find his control in the major's i dont see why he could not have similar success.

if he can stay healthy and throw some quality innings, i see the cubs dealing with miller the same way they did with dempster. give him another one year for 2007 to see how he can hold up for a full season.

z prior or miller (depending on which one is/can stay healthy) marshall marmol hill or guzman

uh, the cubs already have a closer in dempster.

hill turned 26 in march. if you look at his stats in the minors the last 2 years i dont see how you cant put him in the "prime pitcher" catagory. age aside, he has been the most dominate lefty in the minors the last 2 seasons. he also has had great command in the minors this year as opposed to when he has pitched in the bigs (for whatever reason).

I see Murton being trade for the sole reason he doesn't have the SLG and HR power a LF should have. And if you have people like Pie and Jones in CF and RF next year. You are gonna have to unload SOMEONE for some power. I like Murton and Cedeno. But of the 2 I see Murton going because in Cedeno's case he gives you above average #'s for his position. Murton much much below average. If Murton in addition to some other peices could get us someone real good in LF, I would do it. Even though I really like the kid. the cubs think (as do i) that murton will develop power. he is a big strong guy and has hit a few bombs already in the majors. i think he can easily be a 25 hr guy in lf. with a healthy lee, team power is not that big issue imo. jones is on a pace to hit 30+ hr's & aram will most likely start to pound the ball when lee gets back in the lineup. i hope they keep both murton & cedeno myself to go along with the up and coming pie & ep.

the original poster indicated that Encarnacion could possibly move to first, and that we would also make a deal for Josh Fields from the sox to man third. Personally I would much rather try and use Aramis in some sort of ARod deal. who's to say the sox would even consider trading fields (especially to the cubs)? even if they would by some outside chance (and the cubs would most likely have to way overpay for him btw) whos to say he's ready to play in the majors every day?

given the history of prior & miller, i hope the cubs wait and see how they do before trading away any prime pitching. i would rather see them deal vets like walker, maddux, & williamson than any young pitching. i dont see murton being traded anytime soon either.

dont forget his horrible defense. i would rather have aram & murton than dunn & i hope the cubs would too.

Samardzija to be signed this week according to this article: http://www.suntimes.com/output/cubs/cst-spt-cubnt12.html

i would much rather see a youth movement than a payroll increase and more huge salaried, broken down veteran players. they have guys like guzman, hill, gallagher, rappada, fox, fuld, ep, & pie hopefully ready to contribute in the majors in the next few years. i hope the cubs follow the marlins way of thinking than the yankee's.

You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about, none. Hill has not had near enough oppportunity to show what he can do. I said it before and I'll say it again, jerking a pitcher from starting in the minors to relieving in the majors, to starting in the minors, to spot starting in the majors, to relieving in the majors, to starting in the minors, to starting in the majors is not the way to develop a pitcher. Each time Hill has started in the majors his "life" was on the line. Not everyone is Wood or Prior. Hell, Baylor could decide if Z was a starter. yea ok....so should we just put him in the rotation and let him get beat up in the majors? Don't pull him out and let's see how he pans out. Is that your suggestion? He has 2 pitches. 1 mediocre fastball and 1 good curve. I think Marshall has a better curve. hill just doesn't have the mental makeup to play in Chicago, not everyone can deal with the fans. Maybe if he goes to a smaller market he will be successful. that should read average fastball (87-90) and excellent curve. he also throws a change & cutter from what i understand but doesnt use them much when he starts in the bigs. perhaps the pitch calling by the dugout might have something to do with this. It's partly because he's not comfortable throwing the change and cutter and needs to work on them to make them acceptable big league pitches. As an aside, Hill's curve is better than Marshall's. again, is it that he's not comfortable throwing them or is it that the dungout isnt calling those pitches for him? whatever the case, his dominance in the minors should prove that he can be a quality ML starter imo.

You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about, none. Hill has not had near enough oppportunity to show what he can do. I said it before and I'll say it again, jerking a pitcher from starting in the minors to relieving in the majors, to starting in the minors, to spot starting in the majors, to relieving in the majors, to starting in the minors, to starting in the majors is not the way to develop a pitcher. Each time Hill has started in the majors his "life" was on the line. Not everyone is Wood or Prior. Hell, Baylor could decide if Z was a starter. yea ok....so should we just put him in the rotation and let him get beat up in the majors? Don't pull him out and let's see how he pans out. Is that your suggestion? He has 2 pitches. 1 mediocre fastball and 1 good curve. I think Marshall has a better curve. hill just doesn't have the mental makeup to play in Chicago, not everyone can deal with the fans. Maybe if he goes to a smaller market he will be successful. that should read average fastball (87-90) and excellent curve. he also throws a change & cutter from what i understand but doesnt use them much when he starts in the bigs. perhaps the pitch calling by the dugout might have something to do with this.

walrond has 5 ip with 0 runs & 1 hit so far. does he have a future with the cubs or should they trade him? hoffp is 3-3 so far-when do they get rid of maybury & give this guys a chance in the majors?

i agree with you about the pitch calling thing. i really wonder how a pitcher can get into a groove with the dugout calling his pitches. i noticed in his last start that the catcher looks over before every pitch when hill is on the mound. what a stupid practice imo. hill seems to be ok with pitch selection in iowa so why mess with it when he comes up? i think pitch calling is right up there with the towel drill as far as effectiveness goes.

Agreed. Baylor had/has no clue. Hill should be given a better opportunity to show what he can do. Unfortunately I think it will be for another organization when he gets dealt at the deadline for a bat. with the state of the pitching staff, the cubs would be insane to trade hill imo. after this year, wood & maddux will most likely be gone, the health of prior & miller is questionable, williams & rusch are boderline at best & guzman has control issues & has never pitched a full season in the minors. that leaves Z, marshall & perhaps marmol. as poor as the offense has been, its been the starting pitching which has sunk this team imo. i hope the cubs dont make another mistake as they did with nolasco and we have to watch hill find his control in the majors with another team.

Yeah, I'm really not so sure about that. I mean, what else can he work on? He clearly dominates AAA hitting, it's almost not even fair. But every time we bring him up he gets rocked like nobody's business. I think Hendry has realized this, and will probably include him in a midseason trade. Hopefully for someone like Dunn, Cabrera, Carlos Lee, or Manny. That's more wish-list than reality though. :D its obviously a mental thing with hill. he has above average stuff and has found his control in iowa. i dont think its unliklely that he puts it together in the majors if he gets a chance to start again. he is still only 25 and lefties tend to mature later than righties for whatever reason.