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KingCubsFan

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  1. KingCubsFan
    I'm not even sure I'd do that. What Castro is doing and has done is absurdly rare. Yeah I wouldn't do it either. Castro had much better numbers than Machado in AA. As for Bundy, he's only thrown a handful of professional innings, and the track record for high school pitchers that throw as hard as he does isn't great.
  2. KingCubsFan
    What's the point? Choi when he was traded is nothing like Rizzo now, or when he was traded. You seemed to take issue with the fact that I alluded to the fact that they both were highly regarded prospects who struggled in the majors and that Choi just had more service time (104 games vs. 49 - either way, not nearly enough to write off a top 25 prospect). I then provided evidence that Choi was even more highly regarded than Rizzo. He didn't "just have more service time". There is a bigger difference than that. Choi wasn't a prospect at all when he was traded. It's not the same damn thing. Choi had completed his age 24 season when he was traded. Rizzo started destroying AAA ball at 21. There was a 1.5 year age difference when they saw their first major league service time. Rizzo is a younger more productive hitter than Choi was when he was poised to hit the big leagues. Their rankings relative to any given year's class a decade apart do not compare them as individuals. They were (are) both highly regarded. Couldn't you argue that Rizzo had lost some his "shine" as well coming into this season? He had struggled in the majors, and the Padres essentially chose Yonder Alonso over him.
  3. KingCubsFan
    Yep. A lot like Ryan Theriot in that respect.
  4. KingCubsFan
    Junior Lake has 1 BB and 10K's in his last 10 games.
  5. KingCubsFan
    Yeah, I think it was a mistake sending him down. Hopefully he tears up Boise.
  6. KingCubsFan
    I wonder how much of it is real improvement and how much is simply the boost from positioning. Clearly it's some combination of both...just not sure how much. Does it matter? (Outside of errant throws, which Sveum can only do so much about)
  7. KingCubsFan
    Have you seen Bradley's stats this year? I doubt they'd put him in a Garza package.
  8. KingCubsFan
    Wasn't he the Junior Lake to Felix Pie's Starlin Castro? I think he briefly tried pitching after they figured out he couldn't hit a breaking ball.
  9. KingCubsFan
    Isn't Sheffield already closed off from like 2 hours before the game to an hour after the game or something like that? I think at Fenway the street is closed off to the general public and only ticketholders can get in. Sheffield is just closed for cars.
  10. KingCubsFan
    You are making completely unsubstantiated assumptions here. Since when does a guy making it through a college season as a starter make it obvious he can do it in a major league season? There was nothing obvious about his ability to handle the workload. In 2009 he made 24 starts, but he only averaged less than 4 and a third in those starts, so he was hardly anywhere close to actually handling a full starters workload. You can rack up 100 innings before the all star break in the majors. There were questions both about his ability to be effective in 6+ inning stints, and whether he could actually last for 6 innings every 5 days for 6 months. There were questions about his effectiveness, but there weren't questions in the Cubs' minds about his ability to throw 200 innings. Seriously, why would the Cubs waste 2 years of their first round pick's career trying to build up his inning count if they didn't think he could someday throw 200 innings? If you want to say they were overly cautious, that's fine, but you still haven't shown why they were "reckless" by methodically building up his innings.
  11. KingCubsFan
    He was a college reliever who needed to be stretched out cautiously if they had hope of turning him into a major league starter, and 30-something starts into that process (when they were typically 3.5-5 inning starts) they abandoned it for a bunch of 1-inning relief innings. Then tried to make him a major league starter right after that. It was reckless. So you consider Theo/Hoyer's plan for Samardzija reckless too? Because they've done the exact same thing (except Samardzija threw a lot less innings last year). Finish year in bullpen--->Train in the offseason as a starter----> Transition to starting rotation the following year. This isn't a full defense of Hendry, but Cashner was one of the few things they didn't screw up.
  12. KingCubsFan
    I would like to think that the Hendry regime (and the Cubs organization) learned to manage pitch counts on a young starter after Wood AND Prior. Unfortunately after the Prior/Z wave they really only pushed out guys like Rich Hill and Randy Wells so we never really got to see if anything changed. They were very cautious with Andrew Cashner. I thought they were very risky with both of them, how they yanked them back and forth from starter to reliever and back. They handled Samardzija pretty poorly, but they didn't really yank Cashner back and forth. He was a starter in the minors, came up in the bullpen in the majors (so he only increased his innings by about 11 from the previous year), and then 2011 happened. They definitely should have kept him as a starter longer in 2010 though. Although I don't think this was really a reflection of changed thinking on Hendry's part due to the past. If you read his comments on Wood retiring, it's pretty clear he still doesn't think highly of Prior.
  13. KingCubsFan
    I would like to think that the Hendry regime (and the Cubs organization) learned to manage pitch counts on a young starter after Wood AND Prior. Unfortunately after the Prior/Z wave they really only pushed out guys like Rich Hill and Randy Wells so we never really got to see if anything changed. They were very cautious with Andrew Cashner.
  14. KingCubsFan
    He's done worse with RISP. What's important is that the patience is nonexistent in both situations. The lack of patience is really the only concern, because that's the only thing he needs to work on as a hitter. I don't doubt he's a .300 hitter no matter where he hits. Well, the power potential needs to be fulfilled if he's going to be the hitter we hope he will be. I'd argue that will come with increased patience. Look at him in August and September of last year. His walk rate increased and he hit 7 of his 10 homers over the last two months. If he's not swinging early in the count, he'll get better pitches to drive.
  15. KingCubsFan
    He's done worse with RISP. What's important is that the patience is nonexistent in both situations. The lack of patience is really the only concern, because that's the only thing he needs to work on as a hitter. I don't doubt he's a .300 hitter no matter where he hits.
  16. KingCubsFan
    Looks like the Cubs' losing streak, coupled with Hamilton's ridiculous hot streak, means the Cubs should overpay for Hamilton.
  17. KingCubsFan
    I'm guessing Starlin is younger than a large percentage of the current top 100. Glancing at BA's top 100 quickly, the only team with two "prospects" that might make it worth it is the Rangers (Darvish and Profar)
  18. KingCubsFan
    Hopefully they'll give him another day off tomorrow as well. Why do you think that? El Duderino already mentioned it... He sat out a couple days because of back injury recently and IMO it's bothering him more than he's letting on and his game suffers as a result. Just give him a couple days to rest up and get his mind off of the Ks/slump/etc... Didn't his stats suffer last year when tried to play with an injury? I feel like he started off strong, slumped due to injury, and eventually finished strong in AAA.
  19. KingCubsFan
    Szczur vs. lefties: .217/.273/.367 Szczur vs. righties: .295/.407/.400 Seems strange he's hitting so poorly against lefties. If that was more normal, his overall stats would look a lot better. I think he's the one top prospect who has made some real progress and taken a step forward this year.
  20. KingCubsFan
    There's really nothing left for him to work on at Iowa. I think he's shown that. And what if he comes up for a few weeks and excels? Can you really tell him with a straight face he needs to go down and work on a few things? The Cubs have already waited this long to bring him up. It makes absolutely no sense to bring him up until it's assured we get the extra year. And once he's up, he should be up for good. I doubt he can't handle being told be needs to work on some things for a few weeks at Iowa. He may be disappointed, but you manage those expectations from the start. I don't doubt he could handle it. By all accounts, he has a great attitude. But, realistically, there doesn't appear to be anything he can really "work on" in AAA anymore. He needs to be challenged in the majors. What can they possibly tell him? To pretend he's facing Roy Halladay when Mike Parisi is throwing?
  21. KingCubsFan
    There's really nothing left for him to work on at Iowa. I think he's shown that. And what if he comes up for a few weeks and excels? Can you really tell him with a straight face he needs to go down and work on a few things? The Cubs have already waited this long to bring him up. It makes absolutely no sense to bring him up until it's assured we get the extra year. And once he's up, he should be up for good.
  22. KingCubsFan
    If you call him up in 2 weeks he and LaHair takes turns at 1B/DH during the IL games and then Rizzo can go back down when IL is done, still getting all the benefits of staying in the minors while "there is no room" on the major league roster. But then he has to wait two more weeks to come up to the majors for good. I'd rather he play in AAA until the Cubs are certain they've gotten that extra year of service time. Once he's gotten the extra year, Soriano can have surgery, and LaHair can move to left to see how he does the rest of the year. Hopefully LaHair doesn't embarrass himself defensively and continues to hit.
  23. KingCubsFan
    I think the perfect time for surgery should around late June/early July.
  24. KingCubsFan
    You would think a 22 year old who has put up Rizzo's numbers in AAA would be getting a lot more hype. His struggles in the majors last year really damaged him in a lot of evaluators' eyes.
  25. KingCubsFan
    If we're lucky, we'll get the equivalent of Blake Lalli and not have to pay all of Soriano's salary. Soriano has to be one of the least valuable players in the majors in terms of trade value, and it's only gotten worse considering he admitted his legs hurt and it's tough to play in the outfield.
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