Quakers

And I was just getting used to winning... Notes: 1) I think Samardzija is going to be good, but he was a bit wild tonight. He coasted through the first two batters before giving a wind aided homerun to right. After that he seemed to lose it a bit and hit three batters over the next inning and a third. The scoreboard radar had him at 89, but as noted last night I think this radar is slow. I would love to see him pitch after he has a few games under his belt. 2) Alfred Joseph is definately a sleeper prospect. Tonight he makes a tremedous diving catch in right. Then he guns a runner out at third. His drive scored Lewis for Boise's lone run. It was ruled an error, but could have easily been ruled a double. 3) During the ninth number 20 was the catcher for the Hawks. Number 20 is Bernard! Has he given up on pitching already?? 4) Cowart was the star of the day. He has a wierd delivery. Croutched with a wide stance, he makes almost no stride what-so-ever. Little velocity (scoreboard had him in the 70's. But the Hawks just could not hit him. They seemed to be swinging above the pitch (a sinker, forkball??), whatever it was he only gave up 1 hit through 6.

Mauer is on fire again. 4-5 yesterday with 5 rbis and 5-5 today . Ho..Hum...400 here we come. Tell me again how the Twins were a bunch of losers for not drafting Prior.

How much harder do you think Petrick was throwing? And Papelbon? I would have thought you could add a couple of mph on. Petrick topping out in the low 90's, Papelbon in the low 80's. BTW-Does anyone know what Papelbon throws? He really had SK off balance. They never really got a good AB against him. If Petrick is back throwing in the low 90s, that's fantastic (given his labrum surgeries, etc.). How good was his slider? (Sorry for so many Petrick questions, he's one of my faves.) I am no expert, but everything was working for him. He looked so good that I would not be schocked if the Cubs bumped him up to Daytona.

Canzler maybe, but with Puello I would disagree. He should stay in Boise until he starts hitting with some authority.

How much harder do you think Petrick was throwing? And Papelbon? I would have thought you could add a couple of mph on. Petrick topping out in the low 90's, Papelbon in the low 80's. BTW-Does anyone know what Papelbon throws? He really had SK off balance. They never really got a good AB against him.

I tend to sympathize with this position. Why do we pay top dollar for mediocre talent.

True, one reason Beltran is having a good year is that the Mets now have Delgado to back him up.

No that we all have the benefit of hindsight, I want to know the boards opinion. A few years ago we had a chance for Beltran, but the Mutts paid dearly for him. At the time the board consensus was that he was paid too much and Hendry was smart to let him go. But now the Mutts are the star team in the NL and the Cubs well...., doesn't the thought of Beltran roaming center seem nice. Especially when you think that that would mean no Pierre and we would still have Nolasco and Pinto. Well what do you think?

This is the third week in a row I've been matched against another 2-win team. Hopefully the third time will be the charm. If so, I'll have my third win this year one week earlier in the season than my first win last year. This has been my first really good season. I missed the first draft for Roadkill. The autodraft picked decent players, but they were all nearing the end of their career (no allowance was made for a keeper league). It took awhile for my prospects to develop and then last year I decided to trade a couple of veteran stars for prospects and draft picks. That combined with a little luck (I had no idea that Glavine would be this good and Josh Johnson has been much better than anticipated) has really turned my fortunes around. Hopefully I can have a good run of teams for the next few seasons.

Castillo was not overmatched, but was not a hitting machine either. A couple of ground outs (one sharply hit) and a sac bunt. He looked akward on the sac bunt. If (and this is a big if) I were to project the future with my initial impression I would say this. He will stick with Boise (unless they want him to get more playing time), he will continue to back up Canepa (who looks pretty good by the way), Castillo will probably repeat for Boise next year (ala Joseph and Puello) and be the starter next season. Behind the plate he looked good. Of course with Petrick's control he never had to save a pitch and nobody was on base so I never saw his arm. In short he is like Mota (sp? the young infielder) was last year. More than adequate on defense, a bit overmatched at the plate , but at his age (19) this is good.

I am not an expert on drafts, but it seems to me that the cubs are signing a very high percentage of their pickings and signing them quickly. Am I right?

Lansford din't walk again tonight. He did manage a single and was hit by a pitch. Now I wouldn't say that Josh used the time honored technique of turning into the pitch, but ... SK is obviously pitching him differently now. They must have had an erroneous scouting report on him earlier that said he would fall for a certain pitch sequence and he didn't.

Finally, some good news to report on Boise. First of all let me say that I think that the scoreboard radar for SK is a little on the slow side. Second, SK's starter (Odom), is coming back from major shoulder problems. Boise scored off him with ease, but were shut down for the most part by SK's relievers. 1) Petrick was great! What a difference since the last time I saw him. Two years ago he was timid, relying on his fastball, and without a second pitch he was in trouble a soon as he went through the order for the second time. This time he was a man among boys. When Boise's defense let Petrick down, he just bore down and got a strike out. The radar had him pitching in the upper 80's and topping out at 89. I think he was faster. I also think he is not long for Boise, the Cub's may give him one more rehab start just to be sure, but he needs to be pitching against better competition. One of the best starts I have seen for Boise since Marshall, or prehaps Guzman. 2) Papelbon finished the game. He continued where Petrick left off. a lone single to Thompson (SK's best hitter, who is on a rehab assignment and should be at a higher level), was the only time SK came close to mounting a threat. The radar had Jeremy pitching in the upper 70's and topping off at 81. But while he did not have as much heat as Petrick, I think those readings were off. 3) Canzler has power. It will be interesting to see if he will continue to hit homers against better pitching. I don't think he will hit for a high average, but I have really only seen him for a couple of days. Along with the homerun are several towering warning track flys to left. I haven't seen any power yet to the opposite field. 4) Joseph had a good night. He was on base all four times with a double, single, walk, and by a SK error. He stole a base too. The only problem was that he was gunned down by an excellent throw from the center fielder while trying to tag up from second to third. Joseph is repeating at Boise, but he is still young (20). 5) Interesting note - Puello (who is also repeating at Boise) is catching the pitchers in the pen and the one on the mound while the regular catcher dons his gear. Puello was at third last season and so far this year at third and first. Is he preparing to catch in the future? Does anyone know if he caught in the past? 6) Castillo caught Petrick tonight. Castillo is the youngest member of Boise, but he looked OK.

Outside of Shields, I couldn't ask for a better Monday's worth of scoring. But Budiga is good. I will probably need everyone of those points.

Lol..I had the same thought. More likely is that SK decided that Lansford was never going to fall for their strategy and they have adjusted the way they pitch to him.

This week in baseball... BB (4-8) vs NSBB (9-3) SOS (6-6) vs Lynx (7-5) NC (2-10) vs DB (2-10) Fuzz (3-9) vs Raw (6-6) Alamo (4-8) vs GHS (9-3) Quakers (9-3) vs Buddiga (10-2) Bees (4-8) vs HBC (9-3) Toots (6-6) vs Trots (6-6) Games of the week 1) Quakers vs Buddiga The Quakers are coming off a rough week against GHS. While Buddiga was the points leader last week. But the Quakers have a 9-6 advantage in starts. A Quakers win would really tighten the race in the east. 2) NC vs DB Whoever wants the cellar is going to have to fight for last this week. At the end of the week only one team will be able to claim the title of the worst team in Roadkill. Good Luck - or bad depending on your perspective. A final note: I will be heading to Vienna at the end of the week. I have found that internet cafes have been easy to locate during my other trips so, outside of learning how to deal with the time difference, I should be able to continue to manage my team.

Just got back from Salem. There used to be a day when I would come back from a Boise game and have nothing but positive points. Just wait until you see Guzman, etc... Marshall is much better than his record would indicate... 1) Downs was not very effective tonight. While they nickeled and dimed Pawelek to death they hit Downs fairly hard. According to the scoreboard Downs was maxing out around 83-84. SK was running on Downs. I am not sure if it was the length of his delivery or since so much of his stuff is slow. Downs did pick a runner off, but he also threw a pick off attempt away allowing a runner to advance all the way to third. 2) Muldowney was fairly effective, topping off at 87. He did give up the first homerun of the series though. Roquet pitched the last inning. He topped off at 89, but appeared more hittable. 3) Canzler had a nice double, but I was not impressed with his defense at first. Has bat will travel?? 4) Episcipo made a nice running catch in left. 5) Baez made an error at short. But on the whole I think he is a decent fielder. So after two games my impressions are that the starters for Boise are works in progress, the relief I have seen is better than most years, the offense is OK, but it really needs a couple of big bats to get it going. Colvin could make a big difference.

Do they have the DH? If not and he was batting in the 8 slot, that would make sense. If not, I have no idea why they'd ptich around him. I have no idea why they would pitch around him too, but it sure looked like it. Tonight they were in the zone and Lansford was 1-5. A single and 4 ground outs.

I gave him Tim and NC's e-mail addresses. He said that he doesn't really have access to the internet right now, but as soon as the Hawks are back in Boise... I would like to challenge those of you who see Daytona or Iowa to see if you can establish a contact with those organizations too.

:shrug: That is what you get when you post late at night.

A few other observations. They have a new scoreboard at SK stadium that posts the speed of the pitch. Unfortunately it is in right field which is the sun field, so I was unable to see it until the 5th. I did see Francisco. He struggled in his first inning of work, but settled down in the next two. I don't know how accurate the scoreboard radar is, but his fastball topped out around 86. Blevins looked fairly good as the closer. More confidence on the mound than Pawelek and Francisco. Is this why he has returned to Boise, to work on becoming a closer?

From what I can tell seeing one video of his start last time out, he still needs work on control and his mechanics seem to need more work. Is there anything besides that that concerned you? They must have changed the ruling on Baez's error. It was a tough play in the sense that it was a wicked line drive. A basehit by NWL standards, but an error by MLB standards. 1) Whatever Mark was throwing it induced mainly ground balls. Most of the hits against him were seeing eye grounders or weakly hit fly balls. 2) The first hit of the game was a comeback liner that Mark knocked down mainly in self defense. I was worried for an instant that he would be hurt.

Jeez, 4 walks in one game? Have the Cubs released him yet? His stat line so far this young season: .176/.481/.176/.657 That IsoD is Dunnesque. Now if he can just get that slugging up. If he's anything like pops he won't be hitting for much power. I wasn't sure why they were not pitching to Lansford. It could be that he has learned from his father the importance of OBP. He was batting second and that is what his role is, to get on base by whatever means possible so the guys behind him can drive him in. But my impression was more along the lines of that SK was not pitching to him.

I didn't see Lewis do it, but I did see Alfred Joseph do it. I was wondering why?? Maybe it is a way of remembering someone?? I know Puello ws with Boise last season, but wasn't Joseph too? Also, I hope my report on Lewis doesn't unfairly tag him as a head case. It could have been just one game. It seemed like several of the Hawks were still getting into the swing of things as professionals.

It looks like it is all over for me. My team just wasn't on track this week and Tex decided to get hot all of a sudden. Hopefully NSBB will be defeated by RAW. Go Raw!!!