Quakers

No surprises here. From what I saw of the Hawks, Reed was the only real prospect. 20th on the list seems about right. I didn't get a chance to see Veal pitch though.

I bet Juan wishes he was still in the hunt. Holliday and Hafner are going to town.

thanks

My computer is acting up again. I can't change my line-up anymore, so my roster is illegal. Could you activate Wilson from the DL for me and make him my utility guy.

How much money did the Cubs save by trading away Lawton?

After Juan told me tthat my team still had an outside chance of making the play-offs, my team has responded with a dismal effort. I'm not sure whether they are choking or whether they all want to end the season early and party. Apparently the extra money they could earn from the play-offs really doesn't appeal to them :(

Would I miss the Mesa Cubs? No. As a fan of short season ball, I would regret the shorter season. Currently the season fits in perfectly with most public school system's summer break. As a teacher, that has meant being able to see the opening of a season right after having finished a strenuous school year. A nice reward. It will also hit the owners of the short season teams in their pocket books. Many towns have built stadiums for teams based on the revenue projections of a longer short seaon:). I am not certain, but it looks like the changes would get rid of draft and follow picks.

Another article on the subject from BA http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/news/050812lingo.html

I haven't seen this posted anywhere, so... According to BA, MLB is talking about closing down the Arizona and Golf Coast Leagues, moving the date of the draft, and making changes to short season ball. Read the article and post comments. http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/news/050812devchanges.html

Boise Report It is getting depressing. I would like to write up a report on a win, but Boise looks like they will be swept in the 5 game series with SK. The Good - Not much to report here. SK's pitcher (Romo), dominated Boise. 1) Mark Reed - 2-4 (both singles) Mark has to be the best bunter I have ever seen in the NWL. He seems to be able to lay down a perfect bunt at will. Today's died on the third base line just inches from the foul line. His other single was sharply hit up the middle. 2) Mitch Atkins - Pitched 5 decent innings. He got himself into trouble in the 3rd. Two walks, a hit batter, a wild pitch allowed two runs to score on just one hit. Considering that SK's team is batting over .300 and their ninth place hitter is hitting around .410 for the season, not a terrible performance. 3) Chris Gaskin - 1-4(single). What impressed me tonight was his hustle and defense. Almost killed himself chasing a foul ball and running into the dugout. Started a very nice double play. The bad - 1) Davy Gregg finally slapped the ball on the ground and managed to beat out an infield single. He keeps trying to bunt, but he hasn't mastered the skill. His defense is not near Walker's. He doesn't get a real good jump on the ball and tonight he went back on a ball, caught up to it, but then just plain dropped it allowing two runs to score. He has a decent arm for a center fielder. 2) Elvin Puello is not exactly a vacuum cleaner at third. The ugly - 1) Boise's Pen - Boise has a couple of decent starters (Avery and Atkins), but after that... Santana has some speed on his fastball, but little else and got roughed up for two innings. Baez was awful. Wild up in the zone. He lasted only 1/3 of an inning. Thompson finished the game and looked pretty good, but he is old for the league. To be fair SK's line up goes .302, .339, just signed, .393, .343, .340, .303, .293, .412. Fortunately they haven't hit for much power. Interesting note - Reynolds was at short last night. He looked good. I think he will be better suited for second in the long run though. My only question was whether he had a strong enough arm.

Boise Report The box scores have already been posted, so I will just give my impressions. The Good- 1) Johnny Defendis - 3-5 (all singles). He has a good eye at the plate and all three hits were hit well. I would like to see him pull the ball though. But I notice that he has only played in 14 games (late signing?) so maybe he is just working on his timing. 2) Chris Gaskin 2-4 (single, double). Last night he was hitting everything down the right field line, but it was slicing foul. Tonight he was pulling the ball down the left field line with greater success. A big man who plays a decent, if not spectacular, firstbase. 3) Kyle Reynolds - 1-3 (single). A mark of success for a hitter is when the opposing team pitches around you. That is what SK was doing (2 walks). Kyle continued to impress me with his defense at second. Quick reflexes, a strong accurate arm, intelligent. I think that he would be at Peoria, but for the fact that someone is blocking his way. On a side note Kyle's wife was at the game and sat right behind me. She seemed like a nice young lady. 4) Jesus Valdez - 3-5(all singles). In my mind not the prospect that Gregg and Defendis are, but he had a nice night. Three solid singles and showed a decent arm for a left fielder. 5) Mark Reed - 2-5 (singles). A very good bunter. Both singles were excellently placed. Good speed for a catcher. And while he is not in Muyco's league, he showed enough defensive skills to convince me that he can make it as a catcher. Gunned down a basestealer with a strong accurate throw. The Bad - 1) Davy Gregg. Last night all he did was bunt. Tonight all he did was hit lazy fly balls. The Cubs must have him working on differnet approaches to hitting. 2) Boise baserunning - Several were caught stealing. Though the SK catcher had a good arm. The Ugly - 1) Boise pitching. The starter, Micheal Hyle, had control issues. when he fell behind he was forced to lay one in there and paid the price. Koerber looked good in long relief and allowed the Hawks to get back in the game, but the rest... BTW Maybe a minor league guru can answer this. Ryan Chambers...Does he throw a knuckle ball?? Whatever he was throwing had the SK hitters looking like idiots on one pitch, but then they would spank it on the next. He was also very wild. On a side note - Grady Little will be at Friday's game to sign autographs and, I assume, to do some scouting too.

Boise report Sorry, but I missed the first game of the series due to jet lag. Since the box score has already been posted, I will just run through my impressions of the game. The good; 1) Matthew Avery - Pitched 6 very solid innings. Only had two balls that were hit solidly against him. - a single and a sac fly. He doesn't blow hitters away, but they just didn't make good contact. Good control, changes speeds and locations. He only allowed one walk and did not go deep into many counts. He had three strikeouts. The first two he seemed to use an off-speed pitch (slow curve?) to get the final strike. Those of you who follow Peoria should enjoy watching Avery next year. 2) John Defendis - Two solid singles. But while I noticed his .304 average entering the game I also noticed just 1 double and no homeruns. A corner outfielder has to be able to hit with power. 3) Kyle Reynolds - A single and a homerun. The homerun was not a cheap shot either. A screaming liner to right that was still rising as it left the park. My initial impression is that he is the first geniune prospect I have seen playing at second for Boise. Decent glove too, with a strong, quick-release, throw to first. I didn't get to see his range being tested. 4) Jake Muyco - He didn't have much of a night at the plate, but he did look good behind it. It is hard to judge from one night, but he appears to be very good defensively. He made a couple of very nice catches of pop-outs, demonstrated a very strong and accurate arm, and I liked the way he handled the pitchers. The bad; 1) Davy Gregg - With a .306 average and 28 stolen bases, Davy was one player that I really wanted to see. But Davy was working on his small ball skills last night. Three attempted bunts last night and none of them successful. He needs to deaden the ball. All were hit directly at a fielder. But I should be careful with my criticism. The Cubs had Bacon and Walker doing the same thing at Boise. Both of them had a real hard time keeping their average above .200. They both went on to do well at the upper levels of the minors (though it is doubtful that they will make it to Chicago). So in comparison Davy is doing well. The Ugly; 1) Boise's relievers. Namely Hunton and Holden. Hunton has a nice fastball, but seemed to get into trouble when he went away from it. Holden didn't show much.

I am not getting any sort of error message. I can access the site , but the screen is weird and I can't log on. Edit: By weird I mean that the cues on the left that tell you that there are new posts are missing. But the biggest problem is that I can´t pos. Maybe it is because of the fact that I use the Yhoo.DE search engine. When I use the Yahoo.USA everything is OK. I had imilar issues last year when I was in Freiberg too.

This is probably of no great concern to you Tim, but when I am in Germany I cannot get direct access to NSBB. What I do is go to Yahoo, then go to Yahoo USA, and then I can access NSBB.

I am outwest43 on the ESPN site. I still post there on occasion, but the other posters are correct. There are about 6-12 posters on that site who seem determined to ruin it for everyone.