karenmac

I would love to see Jody, Jody Davis get the 3rd base job. He was great in Peoria this past year, but I don't see him putting up with the minors for too much longer... Also, this little tidbit on Sweet Lou...I was reading Management by Baseball by Jeff Angus, and on page 31, he talks about Piniella's turnaround skills: BP=Before Piniella WP=With Piniella B/W[tab]Team[tab][tab]Year[tab]Wins[tab]Losses[tab]Gain BP[tab]Cincinatti[tab] 1989[tab]74[tab]88[tab] WP[tab]Cincinatti[tab] 1990[tab]91[tab]71[tab]+17 BP[tab]Seattle[tab]1992[tab]64[tab]98 WP[tab]Seattle[tab]1993[tab]82[tab]80[tab]+18 BP[tab]Tampa Bay[tab]2002[tab]55[tab]106 WP[tab]Tampa Bay[tab]2003[tab]63[tab]99[tab]+7.5 Apologies if anyone else had posted this, but it does give me at least *some* hope for next year :)

I knew Jerry Blevins was playing down in Colombia until around Christmas, but when I went looking for team info, etc...I found several other Cubs down there too: Jon Mueller, Jesus Valdez, Jerry Blevins, Jon Hunton, Alberto Garcia Valerio Heredia, Jose Pina, Alfredo Francisco This blog looks like a great place to get info, but you also need to be able to read a bit of Spanish. The league is the Copa Costena de Beisbol Profesional and it looks like things get underway next Friday.

Nope, all the games are being played on Oahu...

Sunday is great for us :)

Hi Craig! As someone who was watching Jesse over the last couple of seasons, I can give you a bit of insight into him, although I am definitely not the person to ask when evaluating "stuff"...Nate would probably be a better person to break that down for you. Jesse is every bit the 6'8" he's listed at, and 260 doesn't look at all bad on him. He has huge legs and shoulders, and doesn't carry much of it in the waist as far as I can tell. Don't know if he struggles keeping weight off, but he seems in very good shape. He struggled as a starter in 2005, especially in the 2nd half of the season, if I remember right. Even so, I was surprised to see him back. After converting him into a long reliever, though, I could understand. At the beginning of this season, he seemed to struggle with coming out of the bullpen...he didn't always seem warm but would settle down and do well. The last month or so of the season, though, he was *very* effective as a long reliever and occasional starter. His last couple of starts were as good as I've ever seen him. If I remember right, he's going to instructs, so hopefully he'll get there and impress some folks. Sorry I can't comment on velocity, etc. We sit in the same vicinity as the guys charting, but I never really pay attention. My buddy Bob sits in the first row out by the bullpen, and has his photos up (please buy them if you like - he's a professional, but gives the guys shots all the time)...they aren't really labeled, but there's a 3 picture series on p.2, starting with this one that is a sequence of Jesse (at least I'm 99% sure) Hope that helps :)

I'm PenaltiesKill and my husband is KMacK's Canucks The draft time is OK with us, but we're happy to reschedule...I'll be out of town from Tues-Fri. I'll have internet access, but think that there will be business dinners I'll need to be going to. And when I don't have a business dinner to go to, I'm going to try and sneak over to watch the Nationals and Phillies play. Would Sunday be better for folks?

it was definitely not hard for me to choose to drop freaking Jake Plummer and pick up rexy!

That's interesting, as many of the folks I've heard talk about Reed say that he'll have to get converted to the outfield at some point because he's too small to be a catcher. So, the Cubs have got a 3 bears scenario going on...this one's too tall, this one's too small...who will be just right?!?

I thought he was solid at catcher defensively? He certainly doesn't have the bat for 1B even if he couldn't handle catcher defensively. Any speculation or explanation on this move? Rick was solid defensively as catcher, but Jake Muyco, for instance, was much better than solid defensively, so there may not be room for him in the system any longer as a catcher. However, with Craig and Norwood at first, that move seems equally questionable, so not exactly sure what's up with this.

I think a B- is low for Mitch Atkins. As such a quiet guy, he's not getting the notice that he should. He was considerably more consistent than Donnie was in Peoria and while not as overpowering as Sean was last year, seemed to confound opposition regularly.

I'm pretty sure it's Koerber and Lansford going to Hawaii. Scout.com probably just has an older list? Interesting to see Alan Rick's potential conversion to 1st. Did he play much there when he was in Daytona? I also wonder if Jesse Estrada is going to get converted back to a starter or whether he'll continue getting developed for the pen. Thanks for the heads-up Raisin :)

I'm in...my husband would probably play too...I'll check with him to confirm.

according to the rumor mill, next year, Boise will be the Bombers. We'll hear and see for sure pretty soon. I'm looking forward to seeing a number of those guys in Peoria next year - I've got some serious baseball withdrawal going on right now.

Yep, the gang was definitely all there last night. Donnie was in town to pick up his car...the call-up was quick enough that his car had just been sitting at his old apartment complex for the last 2 months. He was shocked that it was as it was when he left. :)

After seeing Marco here in Peoria, I can tell you that MWL guys were hitting at will against him, pretty well. He may just need some experience, but it didn't look good.

When the Sox were playing Tampa, did Thome cancel out Zobrist being from the Peoria area as far as rooting for TB? After all, Thome is from the same area. :) Actually, it's funny, because I grew up in Washington, IL and Thome went to conference foe Limestone (Bartonville) and Zobrist went to conference foe Metamora...so I suppose they do cancel each other out. Since Thome's been around a while and Zobrist just got the call, though, I guess I'm rooting for Zobrist as the underdog in that battle :wink:

I think my husband and I have given in and are going to make the round-trip to Beloit and back today. After seeing the games Fri-Sun, I think the Chiefs have a good chance of winning this in 2 - we should have won Saturday, and looked convincing on Friday and Sunday. The Monday win for Beloit I don't count for anything, as we should have never played the game in the first place...and the run they got to "win" was just a fluke brought on by the sloppy conditions. Go Chiefs!

Darn Skippy! Go middle-of-the-pack!!! :wink:

I agree with this one, not because they're playing the sox, but because their new SS, Ben Zobrist, is from Metamora, IL, right outside Peoria. It was exciting to see the triple play the other day :)

We've been here all weekend, but have to get back to Peoria for work and school so will miss being here for the game Wednesday. Since they'll be in Peoria on Thursday, we'll look forward to Nate on the radio instead. Not sure what the plans are for the off-day in Beloit...probably an exotic excursion to Rockford or Janesville :wink:

We were there until it got called officially (and we're from Peoria). I went to the car, while my husband hung out in the bleachers. Not sure it looks much better for today. There did seem to be quite a few fans rooting for the Chiefs last night (more than on Fri or Sat)...game Monday has *free* admission, but I suppose that's not much of a deal if it's raining.

nope. September 2008. 4 year deal. well, that explains things! In general, there are teams that sign 2 year deals though, right? thanks nate :)

if I remember right, the contracts between minor clubs and MLB teams can be signed for either 2 or 4 years...I believe the Chiefs contract is technically up at the end of the year, but they must have some belief that they'll be staying with the Cubs. The final year as a Cardinals affiliate, our souvenir shop had pretty much everything go on sale the last month of the season, and that hasn't happened this year! At least in the Midwest League, it seems that all the contracts are due in the same year, so there's a lot of swapping that seems to take place...so when we signed with the cubs, the Lansing franchise signed with Toronto and Quad Cities got the Cardinals.

wow, there's definitely no way he's 6'1". Wisconsin's not that great a team, but Carillo didn't fool them at all. They were hitting at will...I'm glad they didn't keep him in there for long.

Jesse Estrada looked better than I've ever seen him (in 2 seasons)for the Chiefs...hopefully he'll be able to carry it into the playoffs! The most amazing thing to me anyway was his pitch count...he only threw about 72 or 73 pitches through 7 innings - it was awesome to see. Woo hoo! :)