rawaction

No and Yes, Tampa would probably do it. Tampa has a ton of pitching. They'd probably be OK giving up 1 arm for a star position player. I wouldn't do it as the Cubs, because although good pitching is tough to find, so is a good shortstop. And for a team like the Cubs, good pitching is a lot easier to buy than a good SS is. Plus, Castro has more experience than Moore and is 9 months younger.

29-pitch 1st inning for Raley, over 1/2 of them out of the strikezone 1 IP, 2 hits, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 K

There's a whole bunch of ridiculousness here. First off, who cares if Colvin may have been gone 30 picks later, that is not reason to justify a reach of a pick like that. He had no business being picked by the Cubs where he was picked. It's not justy hindsight that views Wilken's horrible track record, it was at the moment "my god what are the Cubs doing" opinions by many. He didn't get the job done. There's no reason to make a bunch of excuses, he had a long time to do and didn't do nearly enough, much like his boss. The thing is... what player that was drafted in the first round after Colvin would you have rather Wilken drafted? Drabek looks like he may have things figured out and Kennedy had a good year last year but is off to a rough start this year. There is absolutely no success outside of those two. There were a whole lot of misses in the first round of the '06 draft. There often is, but the '06 draft was especially dreadful. Also, after last year's draft, it sounds like Wilken and RIcketts were insinuating that there were major financial restrictions put on the draft pre-Ricketts ownership. It's a shame that over slots won't be a major component in drafting going forward, because it seems like Wilken is quite productive with some money to spend. That's not really a good argument either.

Are there people that really want to trade a 22-year old player with success in the major leagues for players 1-2 years younger 1-2 years away from the majors?

Castro doing a Brett Jackson impersonation tonight.

Do you think that's just because it's not fresh, or some problem with how the NBA markets itself? On paper, it looks like a great matchup. The run and gun elite offense of SA vs the grind it out, elite defense of Boston. And all the stars are at the same positions on the court so they would face off quite a bit on the court. Yeah, it would be a great matchup. And the Spurs arent' really boring anymore. They go like 11 deep, they're actually kind of fun to watch, but they are historically boring and they do have times where they bog down and get back to that. Both teams have an interesting mix of old stars and extremely young role players.

And still this is probably the most exciting Spurs team to watch over the last 7 years. If the Spurs do manage to win it this year where would that put Popovich in terms of all time greatest coaches? Regardless of who wins I want the West to win it all. Preferably Durant and OKC. Pop is as good as it gets as a coach. Granted Jackson and Auerbach won about 11-13 rings each, but they also had devasting teams and the privelege of coaching top 10 players in NBA history. Duncan's pretty good himself, but Pop has made it work with him no longer being a superstar. He also made it work with Robinson/Duncan, something Houston could not do back in the day with Olajuwon/Sampson.

The Spurs are boring as hell. Ideally, I'd like to see OKC beat the Heat in the finals. Durant needs to get his respect as one of the game's elite. And LBJ needs to keep losing, but I don't want to see old ass Boston in the finals again.

I would have welcomed the "Soldier" on the Bears. Matt Spaeth may not have though, as he probably would have been cut. He's still a half decent player. Could have hung around for a year, pushing Kellen Davis and giving Rodriguez time to develop.

Oy, hope not, but yeah, it's a possible outcome. Stubbs defense in CF is a bit overrated, IMO (not sure what the advanced metrics say). The fact that Jackson walks more should help him be slightly better overall. Stubbs was a decent enough player in 2010. A 3 WAR hitter, with average CF defense. Stole 30 bases and didn't get caught much. Flashed pretty good power, decent enough patience. I actually projected him to really blow up last year, as I picked him early in my roto league (oops!).

Even I can't defend the K's anymore, and lord knows I tried on Sickels site for a year or so there. Even if he's over-thinking it, as I've heard, this is still bad, no matter how you slice it. There isn't even a built in Torreyes "positive spin on something bad" aspect (in Torreyes case, the fact that he's not striking out and poor BABIP). I sort of wish that they would sit him for a few days, but that won't happen, barring an injury. He pressed last year when he got to Iowa and eventually worked his way out of it, and I imagine he might do the same here, but a little time off seems like it could help. Yeah, I don't know what's going on with him. Can't be just pressing. And, he just struck out swinging at a pitch in the dirt. Damnit.

Jackson 0-3 with 2Ks. That means he has now struck out 16 times in his last 34 ABs. And since I'm a nice guy, I'll point out that on May 17th, he went 3-4 and put the ball in play every time. 16Ks in his other 30 ABs in the last week and a half.

Fringe interest, but still of interest. He's an OF without current power or much power potential. He's significantly boosted his discipline at the expense of additional K's this year. If he could get his iso around .150 while playing excellent CF, he'd have definite value. He did hit 11 HRs last year and 34 doubles. He's near the top of his league in doubles again this year. ISOP was .134 last year. That's obviously not anything special, but he's already shown the ability to split the gaps. I hate to make the Asian-to-Asian comparison, but if his walk rate stays the same (even if the Ks stay), he appears to have some Fukudome potential if he can play D (not really sure if he's a good fielder or not).

Does anybody else like HA? I think he's at least of interest.

The East got really interesting after yesterday. All 3 of the 4-2 lost, meaning 7 of the 8 teams in the East are within 1 game of 1st place. 5 of the 7 are within 113.2 points of each other, meaning there's a legit chance for any of those 5 to be in first place at the end of this week. This all comes just as the division games come to an end. Meanwhile, the West has NOBODY within 1 game of 1st place.

Yeah, I don't see any reason for Soriano to be the "odd man out" if he's still on the team. Campana is not tearing it up so much that he can't be taken out of the lineup. Soriano does give you the only potential RH power in the lineup, and you gotta play him to trade him. Soriano-LF, DeJesus-CF, LaHair-RF. Terrible defensive OF, but who really cares at this point. Campana can still see plenty of time when someone needs a day off, as a pinch runner, or as a defensive replacement....until Soriano gets dealt. Can end any Reed Johnson starts for all I care. As for the package for Soriano, I'm guessing most likely would be similar to the DLee trade. Maybe a hard throwing teenage arm and a couple early 20-something fillers who may have some Casey Coleman type potential to contribute in a spot start on long relief role, if all goes right. But they aren't getting any players worth serious development.

Jackson with a K and now a walk since his leadoff triple. The walk was a 9-pitch AB. The K was 6 pitches and swinging. Jackson 1-2, BB, K Rest of Iowa Cubs 0-15, BB, 4Ks Jackson was just picked off 1st.

I can't agree with that. I think Brett's floor is that he never fixes his strikeouts and doesn't reach the majors. I think Szczur is a minimum of a 4/5 OF. Jackson "reaching" the majors is not an issue. He's going to come up and play this year at some point unless something more disasterous happens than is currently going on in Iowa. Him sticking in the majors may be an issue, but with the current state of this team, he's either going to get every chance in the world in Chicago or be traded and get a shot there.

Jackson just led off the Iowa half of the 1st with a triple down the RF line.

Torreyes singled to load the bases for Szczur in the 5th and Matt hit a sac fly. Not sure if it was a really deep fly ball or the runners advanced on the throw but the runners on 1st and 2nd also tagged up.

And almost on cue with our conversation the last couple days, Szczur homers for the first time this year. He's also batting 3rd tonight. Now a double down the line in his 2nd AB.

Greatest thread ever!

Lake just grounded a 2-0 pitch back to the pitcher with runners on the corners and 2 outs. 1-4 with a K. Jae Hoon Ha is 2-3 with 2 doubles, he's now tied for 2nd in the Southern league with 14 doubles. Has yet to hit a HR though. If he can turn some of those doubles to HRs, and continue to make strides with patience (already 14 this year after 23 last year) he's worth keeping an eye on.

Dallas Beeler is starting for the Smokies.

Two pitches into the game and Junior Lake (back in the leadoff spot after batting 3rd yesterday) singles and steals 2nd. 3rd pitch he's bunted over to 3rd.