davell

That's the thing: No one has stepped up and taken the fifth spot. Cashner could get it by default, by not being as bad as Silva. Here's the stats for the guys being considered, although this doesn't include Cashner's bad outing today...... Cashner 11.1 IP 11H 5R 5ER 7W 6K Looper 10.2 IP 17H 13R 13ER 2W 8K Silva 11.1 IP 29H :lol: 26R 20ER 2W 3K Is Wellemeyer hurt? I honestly don't remember, but he seemed to be in the hunt earlier this spring, but he only has 6 innings pitched, so I'm guessing he's out or something. At any rate, he gave up 8 hits, 4 runs(3 earned, 2 walks and 6K's. I'm actually kind of wondering if for right now Casey Coleman isn't our best option to open the season with personally. And he's not even under consideration, nor has he had a good spring either. But, he's a guy that can give you innings and early on, in the cold weather, his pitching to contact may be a good thing as well. Don't get me wrong, I want it to be Cashner, but part of me thinks Coleman would be the smart choice early on.

I understand and agree with EVERYTHING Mojo has said here. With the small amount of games that are probably available for a true "backup" catcher, go ahead and use Hill. And yes, I also know HOW BAD he is. He's beyond awful. But, the pitchers seem to swear by him, so why not give them that? The games he starts will be few and far between anyway. But, if there's an injury to Soto, you bring up Castillo and let him have a crack as a starter, still using Hill as a backup. It really appears as if the Cubs are treating Castillo as a potential starter, not a future Koyie Hill. So, why not give him another full season of at bats and calling games as well? To me, there's little reason to ruin a season of him getting valuable experience, just so he can sit for 130 games at the major league level, especially in a year where if things don't go close to perfectly, we're probably not even a playoff team as it is. As for Cashner......I'm disappointed as hell. A good outing today and he probably could have claimed the 5th starter spot. But, he hasn't had a really solid outing yet this spring, to be honest. It's possible he wins the job by default, but I'm not going to be pissed at this point if he doesn't get it. Because he hasn't proven he can go deep enough into a game and when all the candidates have been bad or worse(no, I'm not thinking or wanting Silva to even have a shot), if Quade goes with someone who's at least proven he can go 6 innings at the major league level, I'm not going to hold it against him. He's got to try to win now, at least to some extent anyway. I'd still say Cashner is probably 50/50 on whether or not he makes the rotation, but it's totally because everyone has sucked and not because of anything positive he's really done. And I hate writing this entire paragraph. I guess I hope that if he doesn't get it, we send him to AAA and let him work on things there, but I think they'd probably put him in the pen, in all likelihood and maybe give him another shot at starting next spring possibly, before totally relegating him to the back end of the pen for his career.

Castillo's weakness evidently is in calling a game. He has a strong arm, albeit not necessarily accurate all the time. But, in both cases, repetition can be something that helps out here. Using Koyie Hill is certainly not ideal, but the pitchers seem to swear by him and if it keeps them happy, I'm all for it, especially with the idea being floated around that Soto is going to catch a TON of games, if he's healthy. The Cubs appear to look at Castillo as a potential longterm starter and not as a backup, so getting him fulltime PT makes a hell of alot of sense. If he can translate himself into a .260-.270ish hitter with 15-20 homer pop AND plays decent defense with calling a good game as well, then maybe that even allows us the luxury of trading Geo for some other need, while his value is presumably at his highest. Not to mention, saving more money to allow us a Pujols, Fielder, etc type guy and maybe more........

His velo is up a bit this year, but I think what everyone will be waiting on is seeing if it stays that way towards the end of the year. If it does, I think it's at least 50/50 and probably higher odds than that, that he's off the board before we pick.

Looks like Castillo is about to become a Phil.

Maybe I'm the only one, but I truly think that Hill will be our backup catcher, but IF Soto misses time, Castillo will get called up and handle the starting role until Soto gets back. I actually think Quade is going to be smart enough to know the black hole offensively that is Koyie Hill.

How rich is that guy going to be when he takes a higher profile gig?

The two areas I want addressed are finding an elite pitcher and adding some true power bats to the farm. I think the best way to do this will be to take a pitcher at 9 and then spend a few picks in a row addressing hitting. Only way I'd deviate from this is if a signability guy(regardless of position) falls and is available in a later round. Assuming Rendon doesn't fall to us though, I think the only other position player I'd be apt to consider at this point is Starling. I think I'd rather have Cole, Purke, Gray, Jungmann, Hultzen, Jed Bradley, and Barnes than any other position player out there.(and I'd take most of those guys before Starling as well most likely, due to lesser demands and ability to spend more on overslots later too)

Going with 12 pitchers, we'll have Hill, Baker, one of Barney or Ojeda, one of Fukudome or Colvin, and one of Reed Johnson or Perez as our 5 bench guys. Only way we could acquire Davis is if we decided that a true 5th OFer isn't needed. My honest guess is they WANT Perez to win the job, because he has some speed and could be valuable in late and close situations as a pinch runner possibly. I'd like Davis, if he came cheap, just don't see where he'd fit on our roster though. As for Ramirez, he's out of options and I'd bet when we put him on waivers, we're going to lose him.

Deron Williams went 1-12 tonight. MVP's play defense when they have an off night shooting. :D

I think he'll be the long man out of the pen before he gets cut personally. Cubs will try to get SOMETHING out of the 8 mill we still have to pay him. If they can get a couple of mill to be paid by another team though, I think he'll get dealt and Coleman will take that role for us.

No clue, but this one doesn't need to slip away from us.

Support Z and RAWDOD 4eva.

Any Clemson fan cringes at the name of Tate George. I can't believe that was over 20 years ago at this point. As far as going from Purnell to Brownlee, I do think it's going to be an upgrade for Clemson. I think he may struggle a bit in recruiting at first for them, but I do agree that he's just a great teacher of basketball. On a side note, I've heard quite a few rumors over the last 2 days about Rick Barnes taking the NC State job.

As long as he doesn't airmail all 45 throws, I think he's still the leader in the clubhouse.

I'll even go a step further and give us Matt Purke in the draft and put him at 85 on this list. :D

What little I've read on Starling and Archie Bradley is that both will use football as leverage, but both will probably wind up signing for a huge bonus.

Burgess probably has the best raw power in the system, and that includes Aramis Ramirez, Tyler Colvin and Carlos Pena. It's going to be the development of his patience that decides whether or not he sticks. He was 21 last year and split between High A and Double A, so he would have been at league to a little younger than league age last year when he managed a .822 OPS. He may not be an Eric Hosmer type prospect as a 1B, but there's certainly potential there. I don't think anyone would be surprised if he developed into legitimate MLB power bat. He's still very young, a little under a year younger than Vitters and certainly more production at the same levels, not to mention both guys have rather high ceilings. Actually, Burgess is about a year older than Vitters. I know he's got tons of raw power, but I figure he's a better longterm bet to stick in the OF than at 1B, at least for a major market team like us. I know he's got bigtime power, but one of his biggest questions is whether or not he's going to make contact enough the further along he gets. I was very pleased when we traded for him, so I'm definitely thinking he's got some untapped potential. I'd just rather see him in RF, especially with his plus/plus arm.

http://baseballbeginnings.com/2011/03/15/trevor-bauer-report#more-13152 Here is a scout's profile on Bauer. Kind of hard to be pissed if we took him at 9 if this guy is right anyway.

Callis had some insight as to how the draft is looking right now in his chat. (Tim, was that you with the Bauer at 9 question?) Cole and Rendon are neck and neck to go 1 overall. Expects the other to go 2nd. Purke has probably slid a bit so far, because of early season injuries. Gray and Jungmann could be ahead of him right now. Hultzen and Bauer get a comp from a guy to Minor and McGuire, Callis doesn't disagree, but says that's not a bad thing either. Springer is off to a slow start and a guy asked if the Nats have their pick between Starling, Gray, and Jackie Bradley Jr, who should they take? Callis went with Starling, just based on potential. Francisco Lindor, a HS SS, has started rising up the list. Callis has him in the 8-15 range now.(I've seen in other places he could go as high as 3 to Arizona). At any rate, with the up the middle love we have, if he's there at 9, I could see him as a definite possibility for us. Great glove, extremely fast, solid bat with 10-15 homer pop supposedly.

Yeah, didn't think about that. You guys are dead on.

All scoring plays to be reviewed? No thanks. Reviews take long enough as it is. Keep it the same as it is right now.

If Soto doesn't start at least 120 games, it'll be pretty bad. Hill is a black hole, and having him get 250 PA again would be a bad thing for the offense. And it's not annoying Hill will win the job, it's ridiculous. I heard yesterday that the Cubs are hoping for 140 from Geo. If that's the case, then I hate to say it, but I hope Koyie Hill DOES win the job. Castillo would be better served in AAA actually playing. The issue would be if Soto had to miss some time though: Does Castillo come up and get the bulk of PT then? If so, I'm kind of for this whole idea actually.

I'm just not all that worried about his 3's right now, because he's going to HAVE to be hitting them in the playoffs for us to go very far. I figure he's lost a little lift at this point in the season and hopefully Thibs will find a way to get him a little more rest somehow. I definitely agree with the D comment too, by the way. But, I still think we're going to need another go-to guy to truly take the championship step. Hope I'm wrong.

http://www.csnchicago.com/03/15/11/Michael-Young-is-not-the-answer-for-Cubs/spring_training_news_cubs.html?blockID=441510&feedID=661 It's Quade's comments in this article that make me think Cashner is going to get a real chance. Plus, the rumors about teams scouting Silva and even a couple of people thinking Silva could get released, makes me think Cashner is still in line for the 5th spot.