Sammy Sofa

Like what?

That's still a loooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnng shot. 8 away. You should of all people should be rooting for his playing to time to remain relatively limited and largely in his favor.

You're being way too melodramatic over the idea of him going back to the minors. If he ends getting the bulk of the RF starts the rest of the season and goes into a tailspin it would hardly be "preposterous" to have him in the minors at the start of next season where he can start full time and ideally work on the issues in his offensive approach. It's hardly the only option or something that would have to happen, but it's not "preposterous." And it's still not a sure thing that he should be getting the bulk of the starts in RF for the rest of the year. What's actually more important for the Cubs right now is to move Fukudome where ideally they don't have too pay too much of his salary, whether it's before the deadline or in the off season. It's very unlikely the Cubs can accomplish that if they effectively bench him for Colvin. That has to be considered.

Plus I defy anyone to find what's actually "downright pessimistic" about Colvin in this thread. There's a huge difference between pessimism and attempting to be realistic.

Exactly. There's no "WE SHOULD HATE TYLER COLVIN BECAUSE HE IS HOPELESS AT BASEBALL"-type tangent. It's an effort to look at his numbers so far more realistically.

So people hate NSBB because it's not more like Cubs.com?

That's my thinking. I'm not saying the guy is a bust or is useless. I just think we need to see some key parts of his game improve before he's made a starting OF full time for the Cubs. This year is a great opportunity to see what he can do, especially if Fukudome is moved, but I think it's a mistake to rely on him to be a corner OF or even the Cubs' 1B as others have suggested. 2011 doesn't have to be written off already. If he shows significant improvement over the rest of this season (would he play any winter ball?) and is still going strong at the end to justify giving him the starting job next year, OK, but how likely is that? Again, yes, the HR are great, but he needs to show he can do something, anything, else, because he can't possibly sustain what he's doing right now.

Hilarious, Castro has been mediocre (710 OPS and 3rd most errors in the NL) and if anything is the guy on the cubs who needs to go back to minors and work on things. His fielding needs work and his bat has been frankly bad since his kosuke-like debut. But let's send down the guy who currently has the highest OPS on the team. Brilliant I'd rather he'd have stayed in the minors, too. And again, I haven't advocated sending Colvin back to the minors this year; I'm talking about having him down there starting full time working on the flaws in his offense next season. Castro, quite frankly, is more talented than Colvin and is much more likely to be able to develop at the ML level.

Those numbers were off baseball-reference. What he did today may have bumped them up significantly without b-r counting them yet. Yeah, BR hasn't updated their stats to include today yet.

Wait, what? Is 25 some magical cut off year that a player must either perform in the majors or bust? Of course not. I don't how you can't see the logic in sending him back to the minors next season so he can start full time if he continues to show that his offensive approach is so dramatically flawed. Yeah, it would be one thing if Fukudome is traded and Colvin basically becomes the starter and he rebounds and looks fantastic the rest of the year...but that's very unlikely. Sure, I could be wrong, and it would be great if I was and Colvin turned out to be a good starting OF, but that simply isn't very realistic at this point. Again, all he's really done is hit home runs at a preposterously disproportionate level in contrast to the very bad offensive numbers he's been racking up since his torrid start. I'd love to be proven wrong..but I highly doubt I will be. It would be very unusual if, based on what we've seen him demonstrate so far, he turned out to be a player that a "sink or swim" approached played out successfully for.

And Benny.

It's kind of amusing to think of how often we've seen people here (rightly) railing on the Cubs over the years for many of their failings when it comes to developing players...and now this.

It would be cool if he could even prove that he can consistently be a starting corner OF in the minors first. Let's put it this way: there's absolutely no reason to rush Colvin or make definitive assumptions about his ability in the majors right now. It's cool that he's knocked out so many HR in such relatively limited playing time, but holy God, the rest of his offense is in this same stretch is mostly appalling and wildly all over the place. They have already called him up to the majors and he is far from struggling. At this point, barring some horrible stretch of him struggling, it would be ignorant to send him back to the minors. Let him work out his problems where he is at. The majors typically aren't the place for a player with this many flaws and who clearly needs a lot of work to be this early. He needs to be starting, and it doesn't behoove the Cubs to pencil him as a starting OF next season. I don't how you can look at his numbers and think he's doing fine. Yes, the home runs are fun, but he's hitting at a clearly unrealistic rate, and they've become almost the only thing that he is able to hit, and that's likely largely due to him not being exposed because of his limited playing time since he added muscle to drive the ball better with. I'm not saying send him back the minors now, because I have the feeling Fukudome will be moved and he'll then be able to get plenty of starts, but if the Cubs hope to see him take the steps necessary to being a full time starting OF then it's the smart choice to have him starting in the minors next season. He still has a ton of work before they can or should just hand him a starting job after this season.

Yeah, screw that Castro guy. Tree's post was right on. He spelled out exactly why Colvin's year so far needs to be viewed much more realistically than as we're often seeing on this board. Yes, the HR are a nice surprise, but they're basically all he's hitting. He's hitting them at a fantastically unrealistic rate, his OBP is hideous and his k to walk ratio is terrible; he's not demonstrating anything except an ability to hit a clearly unsustainable amount of home runs in limited playing time. I'm not saying the guy is hopeless because he's still young and his professional career has been so short, but it's clear he has a ton of work to do and it's tremendously unlikely that a guy whose offensive game is so wildly unbalanced right now is going to develop as needed jumping right into as much playing time as possible in the majors. Sure, this year is all but a bust for the Cubs, so if Fukudome is moved it's not the end of the world if he gets a lot of starts between now and the and of the year, but odds are the best thing for him next season would be for him to head back to the minors and start there to see if he can develop the other critical aspects of his offensive approach that are so lacking right now (and improving the defense wouldn't hurt, too). It's definitely fun to watch when he knocks one out, but he's got a long way to go before the Cubs can even think about making him a starting OF.

Apparently Willken is buddies with Hendry so he probably won't stay if Hendry is shown the door. Small price to pay to be rid of Hendry, Hughes and Fleita. Wilken sucks how could you forget the terrible draft pick of Tyler Colvin. That dude absolutely blows. Harveyesque bust. Awwwww, so cute.

It would be cool if he could even prove that he can consistently be a starting corner OF in the minors first. Let's put it this way: there's absolutely no reason to rush Colvin or make definitive assumptions about his ability in the majors right now. It's cool that he's knocked out so many HR in such relatively limited playing time, but holy God, the rest of his offense is in this same stretch is mostly appalling and wildly all over the place.

Or they attempt to get another OF on a short term deal after Kosuke is ideally traded and let Colvin go back to the minors. My prediction on our OF situation for 2011: Fukudome traded away in offseason, Soriano in LF, Byrd in CF, and Colvin in RF to start the year. By June, our starting OF will be Soriano in LF, Brett Jackson in CF and Marlon Byrd in RF with Colvin settled in as a solid 4th OFer, where he will likely remain for his career as a Cub. I like the cut of that fanciful jib.

Or they attempt to get another OF on a short term deal after Kosuke is ideally traded and let Colvin go back to the minors.

Man, people are in for a rude surprise when Colvin regresses in the second half of this season or in 2011. No kidding. It'd be great if Colvin panned out to be a useful full time player, but man, some people are so easily swayed by home runs. Hopefully his power is indicative he can do more, because right now he can basically only hit home runs sometimes and that's it. Very nice day today, yeah, but going into it today over his last 5 starts (23 PA) he posted this amazing line: .130 .130 .130 .261 Over the last 2 weeks (with 10 starts and 45 PA)? .178 .178 .311 .489 And that was with 2 home runs. The last month (16 starts and 75 PA)? .247 .267 .438 .705 And that's largely due to 4 home runs and a couple of doubles. And striking out 19 times (21 including today) compared to 2 walks. Yes, sample size, but his success falls under the same skewed perspective. He has a TON to prove, and that so many people seem ready to hand him the keys to be a starting OF for the Cubs already is really odd. As it stands right now, unless he keeps hitting home runs at an insanely ridiculous rate when compared to his obvious flaws elsewhere, this is a kid who has a lot of work to do.

A bunch of assholes.

Lotsa LULZ at the "absolutely everyone must be fired" sentiments.

What? No.

Yes, which is why it would be better to see if he can have another July surge since it would potentially mean the Cubs would have to send less money along with him or could even get a better return. Fukudome does have value and it's hardly a remote possibility that the Cubs could deal him. Colvin getting extra starts between now and the deadline isn't anywhere near as important.

I wouldn't be adverse to moving Marmol in the right deal, but I don't know much about Heisey.

It's still a pointlessly shortsighted decision. Fukudome did indeed look like total crap in limited playing time over June, but Colvin's June numbers also look pretty bad (though granted, yes, not as bad). This team is a bust; yes, Colvin getting more time isn't a bad thing, but ideally they need to move Fukudome by the deadline. He's been working with his old hitting catch for a while now, and that certainly had a huge positive effect last summer. Fukudome needs to be starting against every RH pitcher between now and the deadline in the hope that he has another July surge like he did last year to make him more appealing to teams shopping. If Fukudome is moved Colvin will be able to get plenty of starts. Shopping Fukudome now is actually better for the Cubs' long term plans than starting Colvin over him.