mul21

No one seems to know or is willing to say. It's not an injury. Also not sure why his play is bumming you out. He's playing against AA/AAA players as the second youngest guy in the AFL. i know, and i wasn't expecting him to rake, but still. i think all of us were hoping he would do better than he's doing right now. he still has time to turn this stint around though, and it's not like he's been atrocious. and even though it's aa/aaa pitchers, isn't it more like A+ talent for pitching due to a lack of top end guys? I'm completely okay with it. I think he's a guy that needs to struggle to get that he'll need to change his approach to have long term success. I really think that's part of the reason he was picked to go to the AFL. He gets a taste of higher level pitching that he can't completely dominate and it allows the FO to reinforce that he has some things to learn still. If you can do that without wrecking his confidence, I think that'll go a long way to his long term development.

Right forearm? I was wondering what that was. More likely a band-aid covering up an affliction tattoo that's affiliated with a gang that MLB didn't want shown on National TV. I'll go with a birth control patch as my guess.

bears win, you [expletive] mook. cutler did exactly what he is supposed to do and led two huge scoring drives in the 4th quarter and the bears beat an inferior team, like they were supposed to do. at no point was the game carolina's to lose. i know that doesn't fit your "the bears are terrible, the coaching's terrible, nobody wanted to coach this team because of its terrible reputation, this barf bag i ate is just terrible and everyone should be fired and die because that's the kind of guy i am this week and my friend theo, the other hanger-in-the-ass-attempted-abortion on this board, agrees" narrative that you've been spinning since before the season, but the bears are 6-1 and cutler is 11-1 in his last 12. so [expletive] off Oh, come on, that's a poor effort. Tell him how you really feel.

That safety was in position. I'm still not sure how he whiffed on the ball.

Maybe it'd be easier to list what didn't get broken and torn. How would they have gotten an MRI already? No way the swelling has gone down yet. You don't need an MRI when it's trashed that bad. A good PT/doctor can tell what is and isn't intact just by manipulating the joint.

I just saw the replay. That was absolutely awful. And you really do have to feel bad for the guy. I'm surprised if he ever sees a football field again.

It's not going to be anything more anecdotal because Castro is probably more talented than 98% of guys who ever put on a major league uniform and more than likely has a much greater capacity to "learn" selectivity than the other average type guys you're referring to. You skipped a step logically to make that connection. Let's break it down. Castro is probably more talented than 98% of guys who ever put on a major league uniform This may be true. more than likely has a much greater capacity to "learn" selectivity than the other average type guys you're referring to. The logic here assumes that Castro is a more talented hitter than 98% of guys. That's much less certain. Castro's ability to stick at shortstop and provide above average offense at the position is why he's an extremely talented baseball player. Castro's ability at the plate is far from being in the 98th percentile. He's certainly above average in that regard, but he's probably closer to the 75th to 80th percentile in terms of a hitter. He's probably going to settle in as a .300-.310 BA guy with power to hit 15-20 homers a year. That's outstanding as a shortstop, but as a hitter that kind of upside is good, but not super-duper. If we assume that only super-duper offensive guys can be forced to learn to walk, then he's not one of them. He's a early-count hitter whose value is spraying line drives around. He's more or less league average at swinging at good or bad pitches. He's not overly aggressive to do that. He just doesn't swing and miss. Do you want him to start swinging and missing? Excuse me for not specifying I'm of the opinion his overall hit tool is better than 98% of guys who ever put on a uniform and that's why he will be able to learn something he's never been exposed to before.

It's not going to be anything more anecdotal because Castro is probably more talented than 98% of guys who ever put on a major league uniform and more than likely has a much greater capacity to "learn" selectivity than the other average type guys you're referring to.

"Getting excited" in this case meaning "posting a link to a blog post without comment and without reply before you decried it as being more or less pointless". I see even the moderators get in on the fun. See, the problem is that this "half season" was under completely different management who, if you read a bit, you'll find really emphasizes seeing pitches and patience and has just come out and said how devoid this organization was of any thought of teaching prospects in that manner. Everybody else here is aware of the different circumstances this spike in walks was achieved under and due to the approach change, some decline in BA was expected as Castro made the adjustment. Does that make you feel better?

And who writes an entire article full of single sentence paragraphs? Guys who have a certain number of inches to fill with their column and can't come up with anything insightful to say.

It was McCarver and I took it with a large grain of salt because of that. My biggest issue in the citing of that rule is that you don't really know if the ball was in fair territory or not. It may have still been in the batter's box when the bat hit it again.

http://images.wikia.com/mk/images/e/eb/Fatality_motor_kombat.jpg

You rang?

Ok, that Pence hit is seriously the weirdest damn thing I've ever seen. How the hell does the ball hit the bat twice? And I'm loving McCarver whining about everything going right for the Giants. Because the Cards haven't had so much sunshine blowing up their collective asses for the past 14 months.

Giants need to tack on here. I have a feeling Cain will be lucky to get through 6 at this rate and that bullpen has to be getting fatigued.

Definitely the worst thing in a baseball broadcast. I hate it live. No idea if the pitch is even anywhere near the zone.

I pick the Cardinals. To LOSE! 7-3 and the man god that is Pete Kozma strikes out to end the game after a Daniel Descalso error blows it wide open in the 7th inning. Take that N&G!

At least Carpenter wasn't awful in the minors and had a pretty decent season in limited duty this year. It's still horseshit, but not nearly as ridiculous as Kozma and Descalso.

What about Eric Karros? I think he'd be a decent addition.

Please tell me more about Iowa State. The Cyclones are almost as interesting as Notre Dame Says the guy in no position to say anything about any other college program ever.

What, this? http://i603.photobucket.com/albums/tt112/MrWookie47/1231448056721-1.jpg

Theriot is much easier to stomach when he's contributing to beating the Cardinals than I expected. Although the comment about him pestering Scutaro to get in the game is a bit grating, but certainly not surprising. Go Giants!

You shut your whore mouth. I'm down here on the front lines fighting the good fight every damn day. You want me on that wall. You need me on that wall! (Insert green font in case you weren't sure)

i thought the cubs losing 90+ games last year and the cards winning the WS would be rock bottom, and once we hired theo that it would be our climb back. if the cards win another miraculous WS after the cubs lose 100+, i guess rock bottom was a little lower than i thought. This whole thing wouldn't piss me off nearly as much if they were consistently putting up 100+ win seasons. But the horseshit records/lineups they've won with in '06 and '11 and now this year are just so beyond ridiculous.

The HR variation is pretty extreme. Which is even stranger considering the park he was pitching in. Also, the K/9 (barely 6 vs. 7+) and WHIP (.28 lower) are pretty extremely different. Like N&G said, as a whole the season isn't even really an outlier, but good lord, the stark contrast in numbers, especially ERA (yes, I know), between the two teams he was with is mind bottling.