davell

Jackson gave up 3 in 5 innings for Iowa tonight. Struck out 4 and walked 1. Castro is/was 1-5 with an RBI(not sure if it's over or not)

No runs in 2 games for Daytona? Not exactly a blistering start. B Jax doesn't have a hit yet. For that matter, neither does Lee in Peoria. Antigua pitched fairly well, it looks like though, although Rusin had to have sucked.......Looking forward to seeing these guys get on track, because it's all we have to look forward to this year.

Happy to see Cashner striking guys out obviously, but I'm really starting to see him as a setup guy by mid-season or so(as Tim said). Wonder why Rhee was piggybacking? I'm hoping that we are just conserving him early in the year. Struck pitched an inning tonight as well in Peoria, so maybe he's NOT even piggybacking, but just starting out in the pen? If so, I'm at least a tad disappointed, given the writeup we just saw on him. In the grand scheme of things, seeing Mitch Atkins came out of the pen tonight doesn't bother me at all, but I was a little surprised anyway.....Hopefully Daytona gets their bats going tomorrow. Castro off to a good start at least for Tennessee. Nothing else really eye-popping on our first day, but damn, it's nice to have this back. I'm more excited about our system right now than I am the major league club.

Phil also said Peoria's last pitcher would be either Raley moving down or Mincone moving up. By the way, Daytona's staff is LOADED. Archer, Searle, Dolis, Shafer, Rhee, Rusin, and Raley right now all on the staff, as far as guys who could be starting. Beliveau and Huseby are there too, but I'd think that they'd definitely be in the pen. No idea who would be moved to the pen, but my guess would be Dolis and Shafer, I guess?

According to AZ Phil's latest roster report, Rusin is with Daytona and so is Raley. Rhee too, for that matter. Kirk is in extended spring training. From what it looks like, the only guy we have skipping a level this year is Flaherty.

I'd like to see the Cubs go after a guy who has ace potential. In fact, I'd probably go as far as to say I'd like to see us take pitching early and often. If not, i guess I'd like to see a power hitting OFer taken early. Our middle infield looks really good throughout the minors and I wouldn't want to see us spend a 1st rounder on a corner guy, with Vitters likely to wind up at either 1st or 3rd longterm for us. Mainly though, I'd really like to see Ricketts give the OK to overslot early and often. Our system is definitely on the right track as it is, but getting some hard to sign guys could be huge for us. Given how Ricketts has said he wants to build through the draft, I'm at least optimistic that this could happen......

I wouldn't go that far personally, but since we have Nady as well, I'd look into trading Fukudome if someone was actually willing to eat his contract. It'd certainly take away our depth though, so I doubt we'd entertain anything until mideason or so as it is. Find out what you have in Colvin and see if you can count on Nady to be healthy. This upcoming offseason will be extremely interesting most likely. Although, if we're out of it at the deadline, it wouldn't shock me to see us attempt to deal away Lee, Aramis, and/or Lilly. Even with the NTC's, if they knew we weren't going to re-sign them, they would probably waive the clause at that point, to get dealt to a contender. It'd be a chance for us to get younger at some key positions and I'd think it's at least on the front office's mind......This being said though, I think we'll be in it, so it's probably a moot point.......

I kind of agree, although if Kirk is the last pitcher added, it'd make the list quite a bit more intriguing. That said, I'll be looking very hard at 6 guys that are here. Lee, Watkins, Cerda, McNutt, Jung, and Antigua. I think that Lee can make a HUGE leap onto people's radars this year personally. Possibly even into the overall top 50 or so next year. Watkins is a guy that I'm not as high as BA is on him anyway, but he's certainly got potential(although with Castro and Lee, I figure he'll eventually wind up in CF or as trade bait) and could be an eventual top of the order type. McNutt was overslotted some and appears to be a steal for us at this point anyway. It wouldn't shock me to see him in Daytona quicker than any of the rest of these guys actually. Antigua is the only one I could see beat him there. If he continues to pitch to the results he's gotten so far, he'll start to make some waves too, I would think. Even if his stuff doesn't necessarily overpower people. Since we gave Jung over 500,000K, hopefully he starts to show why that was the case this year. Cerda doesn't appear to have a spot either, but his pedigree is worth us looking at him hard this year. The other guys I'm curious about anyway are Ronny Morla, since the writeups we saw on him coming from Oakland, made it sound like he's got some nice upside. It'd be great if he had a Chris Archer type year for us. Jesus Morelli was looked upon by some us as very interesting coming off his Dominican season in 2008, maybe he finds some power this year possibly? Nicholas Struck isn't someone I know much about, but it seems like we overslotted him, unless I'm mistaken......If so, he's at least worth keeping an eye on. Jose Valdez is the fastest guy in the organization, so while he doesn't seem to have much going for him other than that, he's at least worth paying attention to I guess. Robert Whitenack gets his first season of full season ball too, so he's going to be the last guy I'm following out of this group......

Pleased with today. But, I wonder if maybe signing either Kampman or VandenBosch AND one of Rolle or Robinson would have been better for us than getting Peppers? If the Bears go out and get either Sharper or Clark though, it makes it a moot question anyway...... I'm a big fan of the Taylor signing, by the way. I think he'll be more than a 3rd down guy for us and hopefully he'll push Forte some as well, making him better than he was last year at least. I'm not worried about his age, due to the lack of mileage on him. There's not a ton out there as far as O-Line help goes, but hopefully something can be done there. If we do that and get Clark or Sharper, I'll be thrilled with it.

Sorry Scrappy. Not really, here's to Castro unseating you very soon.

This is really great, the Pac Rim signings continue. It's like adding a 1st round pick to your minors, in a way, based on his bonus anyway. Gotta wonder with him signing so early, if he plays all summer long for us too, maybe Boise this year? I would think he'll be getting here soon and into minor league camp. Bottom line, I LOVE what we are doing in the Pac Rim. Especially since the early returns on some of these guys(Lee and Rhee before he got injured) have been extremely positive. Really looking forward to seeing what Kim, Jung, Na, Chen, and the Wangs can do this season, along with Yeong, if he gets here in time. Also, this is a great sign that the Ricketts seem to be making good on their promise that they really want to emphasize the minors.

I'm pretty sure it was Goldstein who said that Castro may need to move off SS. But, he's the only one I've seen say anything like that at all. And from everything I've read, most of Castro's errors have been on balls he's bobbles and then made rushed throws on. Daytona has one of, if not, the worst infield in all of the minors. Alot of his errors were of the variety that someone who can play a solid 1B would have dug the ball and saved alot of them from being errors.......

I honestly don't remember what type of prospect Cairo was ever considered to be. And Arias was never really on my radar either. Izturis was considered a solid leadoff type/great glove SS though. I looked the 3 of them up on thebaseballcube and I guess that what's making Castro different from them is what scouts are saying about him(because I don't know what they were saying about them at this point in their careers). But with Castro, most see alot of projection, with his body filling out from the 150-160 pound range he's at now and the fact that the ball jumps off his bat differently than with most kids. He's also shown a pretty decent bat at AA at 19, which they had yet to do at that point. Cairo and Arias are both as tall or taller than Castro, so I don't know if projection is an actual reason for why he's looked at differently than they were or not. But Izturis was/is a little guy and I would think that he was more of a "what you're seeing is what you're going to get" type guy...... That said, one of the reasons Castro jumped SO HIGH this year was his showing in the AFL, which had quite a few bigtime pitching prospects and unless I'm mistaken, is considered to be AA quality, if not slightly better than that......

It won't shock me to see Strasburg make their opening day roster......

Now if we could just get Cashner to miss a few more bats, we'll be in business......But, I'm kind of thinking like someone else said earlier that he COULD surprise and make the team out of spring training in a relief role. Although, I'd much rather still see him in AAA for 2010, working on his stamina to where he can become a starter for us......

The main difference is that at the end of your 4 year time frame Castro will still only be 25. And not yet even in his prime......While it's hard for me to believe without seeing it, 2 comps we've heard this offseason are Derek Jeter and Hanley Ramirez. Which is obviously quite distinguishable from Cairo, Izturis, Arias and Font. In other words, he's a bigtime prospect for us at a very key position......

Also Starlin Castro. Elvis Andrus, who had a lesser bat coming into the majors last year compared to Castro, was pretty respectable last year for a 21 year old light-hitting prospect. If we rush Castro, hopefully Rudy can help keep him afloat those first few months. Here's a question for us to ponder......If we were pretty certain that Castro would put up Andrus' line of .267/.329/.367 in the majors in 2010, would we want him in the majors or not?

Oops, meant to have Castillo back at Tennessee. But, putting him at Iowa wouldn't surprise me either. My thinking was with Clevenger and Robinson both already there, he'd be better served with staying in Tennessee, just to get the most at bats possible for him.

Again, same as hitters in that I'm sure we will have a few castoffs to contend with as well, but here are my guesses......Only starting rotations, as I figure most of the castoffs will wind up in the pen as it is. Iowa Coleman Cashner J Jackson Atkins Diamond (this leaves off JR Mathes) Tennessee Carpenter Leverton Searle(although I'd like to see him back at Daytona, since he's still relatively young for the league) Dolis Bibens-Dirkx Daytona Shafer Archer Bristow Antigua(I think that he will be "challenged") Hernandez Peoria Raley Rusin Rhee Kirk(although it's definitely possible we see start out in Boise) McNutt Morla Whitenack Jung(although I could see him in Boise with Kim, Chen, and the Wangs) Pena Mincone Listed 10 here, since some of these guys will be piggybacking, in all likelihood)

I think I remember seeing a few guys make some predictions, but can't seem to find them, so I figured I'd start a thread dedicated solely to this. Here are mu guesses...... Iowa C Clevenger Robinson 1B ??????Hoffpauir/Millar 2B Thomas Camp SS Barney 3B M Smith LF Wright CF Adduci RF Snyder Tennessee C Chirinos 1B R White 2B Flaherty SS Castro 3B Vitters LF Guyer CF Campana RF Spencer Daytona C Brenly 1B Ridling 2B M Gonzalez SS Lake(only because I see no other option) 3B Lemahieu(which is why I see Vitters in Tenn) LF N Perez CF B Jackson RF Burke Peoria C Jones May 1B Baur 2B Watkins SS Lee 3B Wagner LF B Davis CF Valdez RF Morelli I'm sure we will have some AAAA fodder and other minor league FA's to deal with, but I think this could be at least fairly close to what we see anyway......

The one thing that gives me some hope that Olsen won't be dealt, is that he and Cutler are tight and i don't see Martz pissing off Jay THIS early into their relationship. On another note, if Reggie Bush is cut because of his 8 mill salary for next year and New Orleans doesn't want him back at a reduced rate, PFT threw out the possibility that he's Martz' kind of player......I'd be fine with going after him, but not at nearly the salary I think he'll be wanting.

Honestly, we have 3 spots sewn up, with Marmol, Guzman, and Grabow. Then, you may as well figure that we've got 2 more spots already taken by Shark, Marshall, and Gorzelanny. Whichever two miss out on the 5th starter spot. Which leaves 2 spots up for grabs with Stevens, Gaub, Berg, Caridad, Parker and Gray being the group most likely to wind up with those innings eater spots. And I'm perfectly fine with that. I don't see the pen being a big issue for us in 2010.

I think that if you put Hester on the Vikings, with all of their other weapons, he could have done what Harvin did this past year. If you're asking me which one I'd rather have, I'd say Harvin, because of his age. But, i really don't think Harvin would have made much of a difference for the Bears this year either, if he had been on our team. And I would NOT trade Hester AND either Knox or Aromashadu for him honestly.

I think we'll stick in the division race, eventually winning it, mainly because I don't see anyone getting more than 85-88 wins. I see us making a move before the deadline to help us with whatever hole truly shows itself to be our biggest. Bounceback seasons from Soriano and Soto will help the offense, along with a healthy Ramirez. I have a feeling that Z and Demp have solid years, but Lilly struggles and so does Wells. But, I see Shark, Marshall, or Gorzellanny surprising from the 5th spot. And it won't surprise me to see Castro wind up in the majors for the majority of the year either.

I have a feeling that Olsen gets dealt this offseason. Especially since Martz wants blocking TE's more than pass catching ones.