KingCubsFan

Managers leaving a struggling pitcher in to get the win is much less of an issue than the stupidity that is involved with the save stat. But they're both issues that can affect an outcome of a game. Rewarding a player for coming into the last inning of a game and pitching well is a bit more logical than rewarding a pitcher for something over which he has basically no control over.

He'd basically have to be a top 4 first baseman the whole year, which isn't going to happen. It's hard for first basemen in general to put up gaudy WAR stats like Patterson did because the defensive ratings won't be as high.

Worst stat in all of sports. That or the Save statistic. Even more than W/L, I feel like the Save has actually dictated and affected the development of the on-field product. Because of the Save, every team needs a "Closer" and said "Closer" is only allowed to pitch in "Save situations." You see managers leave pitchers in to get to 5 innings even when they're struggling so they can get the win. Sveum almost blew that Cardinals game when it was clear Samardzija was out of gas in the 5th. I think the save statistic should probably be tweaked, but it's not totally worthless. I know people like to think the 9th inning is the same as every other inning, but LaTroy Hawkins showed us that's not always the case.

I think Szczur's start has been very encouraging.

Hak-Ju Lee: .233/.294/.319. Someone tell Keith Law.

Because he wasn't good last year? I'm not one of those down on Theo/Jed, but I thought Marmol was entering a downward spiral last year, but that his 2011 wasn't so bad he would be immovable over the offseason. He is now. I'm not "down" on them at all; Marmol is expensive, has always had horrible mechanics and was bad last year. Moving him wasn't something I was expecting to see happen unless he rebounded. Plus wasn't the trade market for closers horrible this year? I thought I remembered reading that teams were having a hard time moving closers for value. All the White Sox could get for Santos was Nestor Molina.

in what way is he the best option He reminds me of Carlos Marmol without a strikeout pitch. He's kind of like 2008 Samardzija

Sometimes he's better at locating his slider instead of his fastball. Of course, in this instance, he can't locate either one.

Yeah he looked a lot better than last year. Still not sure what the Cubs see in Lendys Castillo. They can't send Castillo down right now. Maine was arguably the best reliever on the team during his time up, though. I know they can't. I just don't see why they feel the need to stash him in the majors all year, as his stuff hasn't been very impressive.

Probably the best thing to happen to ND football this offseason.

Yeah he looked a lot better than last year. Still not sure what the Cubs see in Lendys Castillo.

Agree on Schlect. It will be interesting to see if he shows some more power this year.

Why wouldn't you want one of our best players healthy for next season? Given the current landscape of the Eastern Conference, we could still have a chance at the #2 seed even with Deng out until December and Rose coming back at some point.

Right. It would make more sense to target a guy with a profile similar to Garza at the time he was traded (high upside, mediocre career to date).

I think you guys are thinking of the wrong promotion. JCF is probably thinking of the Daytona->Tennessee promotion. Can't get the game logs from that time period, but looking back at the minor league thread from that day, you get this exchange (some things never change:

If he could put up a .770 OPS in the Southern League at his age, I feel pretty confident he could have put up an .830 or so a level down. I guess that depends on your definition of 'crushing,' but that's about what it took for people to excited about Junior Lake, who is roughly the same age as Vitters. So your best-case scenario for Vitters is being comparable to a guy that half of the minor league universe thinks should be turned into a pitcher? That wasn't my best-case scenario for Vitters. That was just a conservative translation of what he did last season into an age-appropriate level. I never said that Vitters was a top-tier prospect. Just that I think he's being underrated by Cubs fans because of the disappointment that he's not living up to his draft slot and the fact that his numbers aren't shiny enough because of his aggressive promotion schedule. I think he tends to overrated, particularly on this board. Other than the fact that he was a top pick, he hasn't done much professionally to warrant much attention. Besides the walk rate, the fact that his projected power hasn't really translated to game situations consistently is also concerning. The age argument only goes so far, particularly when his teammate who is three weeks older is destroying the PCL for the second straight year and Mike Moustakas is doing well in the majors. With that said, it's clear he's trying to make adjustments (probably mandated by the front office), so I'm not totally giving up on him. But I think expecting him to be a major league contributor at this point is ambitious until he shows more.

If he could put up a .770 OPS in the Southern League at his age, I feel pretty confident he could have put up an .830 or so a level down. I guess that depends on your definition of 'crushing,' but that's about what it took for people to excited about Junior Lake, who is roughly the same age as Vitters. So your best-case scenario for Vitters is being comparable to a guy that half of the minor league universe thinks should be turned into a pitcher?

I agree. With the way our front office values defense, I don't think Vitters is in the long-term plans.

He hit 3 against the Reds that the wind blew back into the park

Did we take Wieters in the first round in that alternate universe?

That isn't even close to true. It's ridiculous to even suggest that is the case. Agreed. That's not true. Perhaps "Do things the right way, be patient and get sustained success" is new, though. Pretty sure that was MacPhail's plan when he started. He was just bad at it.

I thought it was 4-6 months for some reason. So he probably won't miss half the season. But assuming he has surgery in August, he's probably not back until December.

??? Thought the sarcasm was obvious enough.

Another thing to look forward to is not having Deng for the first half of next season either. If Rose and Deng come back close to their former selves, we may be the best 5 seed the NBA has ever seen.

Walk numbers tend to be inflated in the DSL since pitchers have no idea where the pitch is going. Candelerio has good discipline by all accounts, but you can't expect him to repeat DSL walk numbers.