davell

Conspicuously quiet today, right?

JFC, that's awesome.

I'd think part of that is for when KB pinch hits once Lynn is out, he's in his normal lineup spot.

Neither has defected to my knowledge.

http://www.baseballamerica.com/international/mlb-makes-major-change-cuban-players/ Absolutely GREAT news for the Cubs. There's going to be an influx of very good Cubans(on top of what's already out there) that will be eligible to sign prior to next signing period. Man, we really need to take as much advantage as we can here.

Damnit, I hate that.

After looking over the earlier predictions, I'm wondering what was the nicest surprise of the year now.....Here are my choices. Arrieta taking the next step to being an unconditional ace/top 5 pitcher in baseball..... Schwarber making his major league debut as early as he did and producing close to a .900 OPS thru 200+ AB's..... Russell coming up as early as he did and being OK at the plate and great in the field..... Coghlan putting up over a 3 WAR season..... KB putting up a relatively quiet 6 WAR pace season and being very solid at 3B defensively in the process..... For me, I truly didn't expect Schwarber would be up at any point, so that has to be mine. Russell is a fairly close 2nd, I didn't suspect he'd get much of a ML audition either for some reason. Arrieta would be 3rd for me, it probably shouldn't be that surprising, after last season. But I expected him to go the opposite way a bit. Coghlan had had a solid 2014, but I didn't expect that to continue either. I'm not sure what I'd say I really expected from KB, but it wouldn't have been a 6 WAR season at least.

I was going to be happy with a split. Taking the final 3 here is phenomenal.

I didn't realize he played some CF. But I think we'd have enough in the budget that we can keep Fowler and go after one large FA target.(trading Castro to open up some cash) If its Heyward, we'd have to trade for a cheap controllable SP. Either way, I'd be disappointed if Ozuna was in our everyday plans next year.

We have no place to put him. Pass.

If you have over 130 at bats, you're not a rookie after that point.

That's an either/or, not both. Javy is not a rookie.

No, Javy is not. Soler is.

Shark has no choice but to bet on himself next year.

Hell of an outing, Jon.

Geez, he's REALLY good at 3B.....I think it'd be ideal if he winds up at 2B, but damn....

I get that most are interchangeable anyway, but I wouldn't trade Joe for any other manager.

I think the general opinion is he can "stick at C". Which is fine, but nothing noteworthy obviously from a defensive standpoint. He's athletic enough to move off, but unless the bat comes on more, he's probably not a factor for us in the majors as we've got others that'll bypass him.

Mojo, really? Haren over Schlitter? I can't go THAT far. Over anyone else is easy. But holy [expletive], Schlitter is in a class of suck extremely few players can/have/ever will enter.

I hate turning this thread into the merits of a guy that admittedly likely winds up in our pen. But I like him. The K rate supposedly dropped due to him using a cutter that induced weak contact. Excuse? Could be. But guys do truly work on things in the minors and I've never been a guy that's just going to look at stat lines in the minors. He's got a plus curve and his FB is plus most of the time. The cutter appears to be an average 3rd pitch and he's still throwing a change too(not well). The topic was started over not having anything exciting in the upper levels-Personally, I think 2 plus pitches qualifies. Some may not. If I'm wrong, it's certainly not going to be the first time. But I get the impression that we like him a lot and have been extremely cautious with him moreso than him necessarily needing to miss the entire amounts of time he has. The older pitching staff stuff doesn't bother me at all. If you can't count on pitching anyway, why does age even matter? Especially when you're always basically going to be looking for pitching anyway. I suspect we'll add a frontline FA and probably trade for a younger guy that's ready or awfully close. Plus add the depth that vanishes over the course of the season. If that fails to take us to the trade deadline, I'll be shocked. At that point, if pitching is needed, address it again then. I get that pitching is worrisome, but there's plenty of time and plenty of options to address it at as well.

I'm sure I like them a lot less than davell does. Good try. Neither will be inside my top 15.

Expecting the health of our rotation next year to be on a par with this year is probably not intelligent. But I suspect we'll build depth again in the offseason. Probably to the point that one of Hammel or Hendricks is going to not be in the rotation, if we are healthy. If that IS done, I'm not sure what else can even be hoped for. Other than more 6/7/8 types that'll disintegrate over the course of the season as they usually do. If we're in need at the deadline, it can be addressed again then.

I'll admit, rightly or wrongly, I'm not worried about our young hitting whatsoever. I think that from here on out we'll switch gears and take upside pitching that falls due to injury or whatever in the 1st round of the draft. No one has a fool proof way to address pitching, but I feel comfortable a strength in numbers approach will keep us from imploding too.

Nothing's going over my head whatsoever. Your flat out failure to acknowledge we've got left over pieces to acquire pitching suggests in fact, it's way over yours.

He's been in the system for 3 years, so I don't consider the age to be of any big concern. The stuff is still considered mid rotation level. The walks came down a bunch. The K rate dropped, but that's about the only negative I see with his season. It's pretty obvious they've been super careful with him, even saying as much. I'll gladly go on record saying I think he gets 10 starts next year. Either way, that's missing the bigger point. It's stupid bitching about upper level pitching prospects when you want hitting taken in the 1st and even moreso when you basically say anything outside of the first is damn near useless. We've got ammo to go get it and I can't imagine us not doing just that.