KaiserCesar

I'm takin The Who all the way. Quadrophenia and Tommy are my 2 most favorite albums of all time.

Seems like Fox has been settling into the AA role of late, good news.

Also scoring more runs then the opponent, the most accepted way of "winning ballgames" as you put it. Guys with sub .650 OPS need to have some really spectacular defense to make up for their shortcomings, and you could easily have 2 of these guys.

Here's a crazy idea Dopirak in September! If his bat continues to come around it aint a bad idea at all.

He was actually drafted late beacuse he was a junior and was going to go back to school and teams didn't think he would sign. But he grew up a Cubs fan and Wilken saw him in the Cape where he hit better with a wood bat than he did his last year in college so they took him late. Sounds great, I was impressed by him at the plate and actually in the field last night.

Well, like I said I was at Peoria last night. I had the pleasure of sitting 2 rows behind some guy with a radar gun that was visible to me. Samardzija started off the game with good mid 90's heat, 94 several times and I remember 2-3 times of 95 when I looked. He also seemed to get good movement on a 90-91 2 seam fastball. His velocity waned down towards just the low 90's for the rest of the night, but it was a pretty well controlled pitch, missing high when he did. I beleive only one was hit hard to the opposite field for a double. His slider started out off and on. A couple were hung and hit hard. He did do a nice paint job on a RH hitter on the outside corner with a low 80's pitch, maybe it was his changeup. He got a few swings and misses with a low slider, but overall his control of it wasn't great. The changeup I didn't really notice and it may have been something I mistook for a hanging breaking ball, but I'm guessing the HR was a slider that never broke.since it was on a 0-2 count Overall, I was pleased with his fastball control. I believe consistency with his slider will make him very effective and being able to throw a changeup would grealtly help his repetoire. As for the hitters, Norwood had the bomb of a first pitch homer. Malone, despite his stat line had a good night. His two walks were coupled with 2 good at bats where he hit line drives to center field that were caught for outs. I was looking forward to seeing Mark Reed, and he really didn't have a good at bat until his last one from what I remember. Also, it seemed to me that Yusuf Carter simply can't recognize/hit a curveball. He looked real bad in a couple of his at bats.

Goin' to Peoria tonight!

Nice to see two Cubs position prospects in there. Hopefully The Don and The Sean will break some of these lists very soon.

I'd imagine he will if he keeps this up. He'll definitely be there by September, imo. plz plz Samardzija and Colvin this Friday

I have suspicion it may be due to his size (5-8 160) and his lack of speed. Not exactly the type of player Cubs management is too fond of. Hendry was trying to trade Todd Walker, and essentially Fontenot is just a smaller version of Todd Walker. Or maybe they are just waiting until he can get the starting job and trying to maximize his playing time. Coming up due to injury for a bench/part time role would be hard since he's not on the 40 man. The only thing a little concerning to me about him is his strikeout rate. While not abnormally high, he did have some problems making contact in the minor leagues. Fortunately, he has a redeeming BB rate.

And the 5 BB's and 2 HR's in 4 innings didn't help either. In which game? The same game you mentioned. The Sox game. Actually, I was mentioning the 1.1 inning outing last year when I believe Nomar made his return at SS and he and Walker had a bunch of mental lapses.

And the 5 BB's and 2 HR's in 4 innings didn't help either. In which game?

Hill hasn't had the chance to progress. The problem with your theory is that if your 4 best starts are your first ones, then you get to keep your job, but if they are your 11-14th starts, and your first 4 were as bad as the other guys 5-8, then you lose out while the other guy keeps pitching. Doesn't make much sense. It's not like Hill has never gotten through a major league inning. Just look at Hill's first 4 extended outings last year. 4.1, O H, 0 R, 6 K, 2 BB 5.0, 5 H, 2 R, 5 K, 2 BB 6.0, 5 H, 2 R, 4 K, 2 BB 1.1, 7 H, 7 R, 1 K, 2 BB The difference with him is he had a full month between his first opportunity and his 2nd. He suffered a setback and then was given no chance to redeem himself later. Marshall had some decent, but hardly special outings early, suffered some setbacks, and was allowed to keep pitching. That's good. But that's the same chance Hill should have gotten. And that 7 run game was just a defensive fiasco where groundballs didn't turn into outs. Hill needs his chance at age 26. He's too much of an unknown at this point and an extended look allows Hendry to handle filling out the rotation a little more in the offseason.

Theriot can play sort??? did you mean Short. if thats the case then yes... I say make Theriot a utility man and Fontenot a starter. That's been my thought process for a little while. It's a good way to address the position and 1 spot on the bench for little money, but in order for it to fly for a contending team, OF and SP have to be addressed with the leftover money.

I wouldnt... Pierre is 3 years younger. I'm not on board with signing either Mattews or Pierre. Matthews career numbers aren't too awe-inspring, he's getting into his 30's and he's having a career year that's going to cost a lot. Pie likely won't be ready at the start of next year, but I think he's close enough where you could plan on him in 08 with a good degree of certainty. Dave Roberts could be a cheap, 1 year option, with possibilities of Chris Walker or another minor leaguer. I'd prefer to go cheap in some way and leave money for a corner OF via trade of free agency and also a good front 3 starter.

I would do this if Theriot was not involved... cause if he is we would not have a second baseman. Then again... i guess you could put Tejada at second I like Fontenot's power potential and good discipline at 2B more than Theriot. He would probably be better. Theriot is probably going to be best as a utility man, not a starter. Any pursuit of Izturis is a waste of time. I agree that Izturis would just be a straight waste of time..... and to me Theriot and Fontenot are basically the same player except for the fact that Theriot has less power. Theriot brings a little more versatility than Fontenot. Theriot can play sort, but I'm pretty sure Fontenot is limited to second and third. Theriot's defense is a bit better than Fontenot as well. So if you already have a starting second baseman, Theriot is more valuable, but as a starting second baseman, Fontenot is likely better due to his bat? Agreed.

I'd put Soriano in LF and have Pods take a seat. As mentioned a few posts earlier, their starters are all in pretty big deals. They essentially have to hope that a couple of their guys get it together, since they really can't make a move for starting pitching. There's nothing wrong with making the best offense even better.

I would do this if Theriot was not involved... cause if he is we would not have a second baseman. Then again... i guess you could put Tejada at second I like Fontenot's power potential and good discipline at 2B more than Theriot. He would probably be better. Theriot is probably going to be best as a utility man, not a starter. Any pursuit of Izturis is a waste of time.

I find it weird that I am saying this to a couple of people far more into Moneyball philosophy and SABR than I am, but with Cedeno in the lineup, Jones as an everyday player is unacceptable. two guys that make way too many outs day in, day out. You could also find a platoon partner in CF. This year Jacque has a .361 OBP vs. righties. I think giving him any playing time against a left handed pitcher (except maybe Mike Remlinger) is unacceptable.

I'm pretty sure Ryu hurt his ankle and is probably out for the year viewtopic.php?t=33803

I don't get the motivation for the dump, although I have been sort of predicting something like this for about 2 years. The ridiculous thing would be if the Cubs don't get involved. Abreu is exactly what they need, and while they will have money to improve, they won't have the players to spend it on. I understand dumping Abreu. They do have Victorino who needs PT and is ready. Abreu isn't part of their future. They are a sub .500 team w/Abreu, they can be sub .500 w/o him and spend the money elsewhere. I understand the motivation to move him....don't understand on Burrell other than the fact they just don't like him there. Don't know why, though. Inconsistent #1 draft pick

According to Don Cooper, innings pitched has nothing to do with it. The strike zone has changed this year (he used Greg Maddux as an example) and his pitchers just aren't adjusting. Poor location is the reason they are struggling. So, he's ignoring Garcia's drop in velocity? Also, since when has Mark Buerhle laid balls down the middle of the plate, new strike zone or not? Fatigue/strain could be a very real answer to a loss of velocity and lesser control.

I can't see him being any worse than Pierre. I'm agreeing with you a lot lately, goony. But that statement is true. Jones might not have the range of Pierre, but I think he gets better jumps. His arm even when spiking the ball in the grass on a third of his throws is better than Pierre. That being said, wouldn't we want someone better than both on defense, all things being equal? More importantly, I guess my question is would it benefit the Cubs to move Jones to CF and find a RF bat (in that case who?) or keep Jones in RF and go with a Pie/Lofton (or someone comparable) platoon? A Lofton/Pie platoon isn't likely with both of them being left-handed. You could platoon Pie with Murton in LF, if you move Jones to CF and sign a big bat for RF. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought someone had posted that Pie is actually hitting lefties pretty well this season. If he can continue to do that, and you go with the outfield that I just listed, you could start Murton in LF, Pie in CF, and in RF, with Jones on the bench against some lefties. So in essence, you'd be looking at more of a Murton/Jones platoon. Yeah, I think I've seen that Pie is hitting lefties better than righties this year. I also don't think it would be smart to platoon a 21-22 year old with a pretty big ceiling. The next year and a half could be pretty vital to his development and he needs to play as much as possible.

I'd like to see Murton develop, which is why I think he should play the rest of this year, I see why anyone would think he shouldn't. I also think that the FA market is reasonably favorable for this team to make a push in 07. Adding a good SP and corner OF like Lee, maybe trading for one, and then a Murton/Jones platoon gives you 5 very good spots of production. Then CF and 2B can be filled cheaply or from within. (for example: Roberts, Fontenot) If a very productive corner OF is retained after next year, you could trade Jones in the offseason with 1 year left on his deal, maybe with his numbers inflated due to the platoon, and hand the job over to Murton. Platooning Murton still doesn't mean "giving up on him"

I was thinking the same thing. It's a 4 team division and he hardly mentioned the Bears. How hard can that be? And its not just one of the 4 teams, its the reigning division champ.