davell

Lee didn't play today. I think you may have just looked at the leadoff spot and figured it was him, but it was Valdez instead. McNutt is starting to look like he won't be in Peoria very long.

By the way, the Padres are 8-6 at the moment and their starting pitching has been excellent, 1-5 actually. So getting them to concede this early would almost DEFINITELY mean we'd be overpaying bigtime for Heath Bell, if we're interested in him. No way whatsoever you get him for spare parts, as was mentioned by someone in this thread. Gorzelanny was had by us last year WITH Grabow for the phenomenal package of Hart and Ascanio. Colvin may have some potential, but he's definitely not the main piece involved in getting what the Pads perceive as an elite closer. If the Pads were to deal him, I feel pretty confident that they'd want quality and not quantity. Unfortunately for us, Vitters for Bell IS probably more along the lines of what they would be looking for. I just hope we're not stupid enough to do it.

There's probably going to be extremely few teams who are already willing to concede their season at this point. At least not without severe overpaying by someone. And I really don't see the Ricketts willing to let Hendry overpay for something, with the off chance it saves his job. I kind of figure we'll sign Looper and by the time that other teams are willing to deal, we'll be far enough out of it to where buying will make zero sense at all.

Do GM's get fired during the season very often? Just curious. If we're struggling like this by the end of May, I'm not so sure an axing of Lou AND Hendry couldn't happen. Let Trammell finish the season out as an audition for next year and let Bush have the GM reigns for the same time period, with the intention of selling, not buying.

I just posted this in the best available relievers thread, but since the word "best" and the name Braden Looper don't have any correlation whatsoever, it's probably best to have it's own thread. Honestly, I kind of hope we sign him. It could stop Hendry from panicking and trading away good prospects for a bullpen arm that simply won't turn this train wreck of a team around anyway.

There's a blurb on MLBTRADERUMORS that the D-Backs are close to a deal with Wagner Mateo for around 500K......Man, that's a bigtime drop from the 3.1 mill he had with the Cards. He supposedly looked good too, from the auditions he had during ST. If he signs for this amount, I'll be kind of disappointed the Cubs didn't take a shot with him. If I remember, I think he played a ST game with us and looked damn good......

Braden Looper threw for us today and is said to be flexible as to what role he'll fill. While I think Looper sucks, hopefully it's a bandaid type move if we sign him. And if it doesn't work out, hopefully we'll be far enough out of it by then to worry with trying to add a "name" guy that costs us good prospects in a year where we don't need to be giving them up to begin with.

Milb.com - Scoreboard - Pick the league - Click Box under the game you're after Thanks. I was clicking on the scoreboard in the middle of the page and only getting boxscores for AAA and AA. On a different note, where do we put Matt Spencer on our prospect lists at this point? I'd assume he's a top 30 guy anyway for us......AZPhil said he's only in Daytona until we have a spot open up in Tennessee, as we would have expected. But, considering he's with his 3rd organization already, since being drafted, I have got to wonder if he's got some major flaw that I just don't know about? I think I've read he's very weak in the field, but not sure. Is he another Jake Fox type, decent bat-no position guy?

Where are you guys getting box scores of games that aren't finished yet?

but until now, hendry's job hasn't really been on the line also, he hasn't had a lot of good prospects to trade in the past. I actually wonder if Hendry will be around by the time other teams are willing to start making trades.......If the Ricketts are smart, they could easily put a kabosh on ADDING players at the expense of the farm system, which they say is very important to them, especially in a year where the amount of help this team needs is fairly astronomical.

Heres the thing though, do you really think the Cubs would bench Theriot? Because moving him to 2nd base right now makes zero sense as that platoon has been pretty damn good. I think the only way the Cubs bring up Castro is if the 2nd base platoon starts sucking, because Theriot is still a media darling, and Id be shocked if the Cubs would actually bench him, and moving him to 2nd right now can't be justified. I'm not sure honestly.......I think it depends on how much longer this slide continues. If we look up and are 12-18 or something like that, I definitely CAN see it happening. I guess I'd envision a Castro/Cashner same day callup, to try to re-energize the team. Like they tried to do with the Murton/Greenberg callup (that was supposed to be Murton/Pie)...... In a perfect world, a team's SS goes down with an injury and we can pawn off Theriot to them. If not, I'm guessing that Lou would try to be creative and find some PT for Theriot somewhere. Although I agree completely that he'd be downgrading 2B at the moment, if he tried to insert him there...... I gotta wonder though, if he's STILL the Cubs "teacher pet" personally. After ruining Hendry's arbitration record, it's conceivable to me that he's lost his "scrappy, big hearted, gets the most out of his talent" luster that the Cubs used to love so much.

With Theriot struggling, my guess is the Cubs are already debating as to when to bring Castro up. The deadline was yesterday as for when the extra year of team control was. So while he would still be a super 2, if he were to be brought up really soon, we'd at least have the extra year of control anyway, albeit with 4 years of arbitration instead of 3. Same goes for Cashner obviously, who'd I'd say is the same boat right now, with our bullpen woes.....

I see no reason why Vitters should be considered anything close to untouchable. Maybe not, but he should be in the case of shoring up our bullpen.......

Lee stole 4 bases tonight for Peoria. Vitters had ANOTHER walk and a double in the 2nd game for Daytona. I guess the biggest disappointments for me RIGHT NOW would have to be Rhee and Burke. Hopefully they can get it going soon, although it could take Rhee some time, being his first year back from TJS...... As far as Hendry going out and making stupid trades to try and save his job.......I could see him making a move or two obviously, but mortgaging the farm for immediate return in this situation would come back to haunt him, once he's looking for another job. My guess is the type moves we'll see are basically the equivalent of Hart and Ascanio for Gorz and Grabow. Hendry has his faults for sure, but overpaying in trades isn't one of them, for the most part. Everyone gets burned on occasion obviously, but he certainly hasn't made a habit out of it.

Cool. I didn't look at the play by play of the game.

Vitters wound up going 3-4 with 2 doubles and a walk. Has his average up to .273 anyway. Raley wound up only going 4.2, allowing 2 hits, K'ing 7 and walking 2. I'm hoping he ran into his pitch count and isn't hurt. Su Min Jung gave up 5 unearned runs in the 3rd inning, but pitched 5, getting the win without ever giving up an earned run. Maybe Nate can give us some insight on him possibly?

Some tidbots from AZPhil tonight that are noteworthy for sure. Carpenter threw today in a game down in EXST. Nice to see him on the mound at least. David Patton has been assigned to Daytona(in case it wasn't mentioned anywhere else, but he pitched last night). Matt Spencer seems about ready to join Tennessee from EXST, which is good news too. On a down note though, Huseby has been sent DOWN to EXST.......Control issues, I presume.

I seriously think that Coleman will have a long major league career as a starter. I don't think it will be with us, because I doubt he's looked at as anything more than a 4-5 guy by us(or anyone else for that matter) but I figure with what else we have available to choose from, he'll eventually get cast off and be a lucky get for someone. Almost definitely a small market type team. I could see Darwin Barney having the same fortune as well. On a side note, McNutt throwing 6 innings tonight is the longest he's ever gone for us, right? That's a very pleasing development anyway.

I nominate today as the best day we've had from our system, to date...... :D Gotta wonder what, if anything, Cashner is doing differently, to miss all the bats so far. I know he's always had the power stuff, but he hadn't ever put together 2 straight outings like this before, at least not to my recollection....... Really glad to see Brett Jackson doing well in Daytona. I'd love to see him earn an early promotion. Hopefully, Vitters gets it going soon. But, I'm just going to focus on the positive tonight. Jay Jackson had a nice outing too. I really see him and Cashner on the major league club by midseason. Castro too, for that matter.

Lilly is starting for Iowa tonight, not Jay Jackson, for what it's worth.

It's almost too early to be talking about this really. You're talking mid season 2011 most likely here. In all likelihood, Castro(who I don't see the Cubs dealing anyway) will be our starting SS by that point. Hell, he may have a full year under his belt by then actually. Prospects statuses change pretty dramatically over that period of time too. Will Vitters be tearing the cover off of AA pitching? Or will he be looking like a guy that struggles to post a .300 OBP in the majors by that time? Will Brett Jackson be K'ing every other at bat in AA or will he be looking like a future Jim Edmonds at that time? How have Jay Jackson and Andrew Cashner looked in the majors by that time, assuming they've gotten there? Has Hak-ju Lee vaulted into the top 50 of most prospect lists over the 2010 season? Bottom line for me is this: It's going to take an extremely good package to get Gonzalez. My guess is a top 25 guy, maybe 2 top 100ish guys, and possibly a low ceiling guy who almost definitely reaches the majors(like a Barney). Will our system have that to offer when the time comes? My guess is yes, it will. Our system is moving up rapidly right now and should continue to do so, since the majority of our top guys are still in the lower levels for now. The real question though is whether or not we'll match San Diego's needs when the time comes. Sometimes, there just aren't good fits between clubs. But, either way, I'm sure he's on our radar already. I guess we'll find out for sure though, when we decide what to do with D-Lee.......

Castro went 0-5 with a K today. :( 7 K's in 3 innings is awfully nice for McNutt though. Glad to see some of the other bats wake up, like Jackson, Vitters, and Lee.....

Well, they took away an RBI from the updated box score and gave it to Ty Wright. That said, Castro now has a SB to go along with a triple. He's now 3-3, with a triple, a run scored, an RBI, and a SB.

Castro is now 2-2 with 2 RBI singles.

Not sure if it's just my computer or not, but......Truffle, where are you getting in-game boxscores for Daytona and Peoria? Milb.com is showing me Iowa and Tennessee's, but not Daytona and Peoria's for some reason...... Castro has an RBI single in the first, by the way.