weis21

Maybe it was an "off night" but Higgins was terrible on defense in every facet. Horrible at blocking balls, horrible at throwing out runners, just horrible at...everything. I'm not saying Rucker had a great move, but it was average (again, IMO) and he did his due diligence at keeping runners honest. To be somewhat fair to Higgins he looked much, much better in the games I saw him earlier this year but he was really bad tonight to my uneducated eye. A smarter than your average eastern NC breakdown of the game (not saying much): It was quite hot. Very high humidity. An occasional breeze but generally shitty weather. The type of weather that make people like me wonder why we stay in eastern NC. Also, there were a ton of rednecks again and other than ordering two beers I didn't speak a word to anyone other than some random scout. It was "fireworks night" so there were easily 1,000 kids running around. Rucker: He's short and stocky. Even composure. Was being squeezed in the early stages, perhaps a call or two later in the game went his way. I spoke with a scout (only one I saw around) that was actually a Diamondbacks scout but was scouting for the Rangers (Wood Ducks are TEX affiliate) - is that a thing? It seemed weird but I asked him twice to make sure and he confirmed. Anyway, this scout wasn't (obviously) scouting Rucker because when I introduced myself and asked what Rucker was sitting and/or topping out at and he said "97". I laughed. He assumed I was asking about Jonathan Hernandez of DE but I wasn't and he said "Do you need me to track this guy's speed?". I said "No, but it would be cool if you did and I'd appreciate it". Rucker was 88-92 and sat 90-91 per said scout when I spoke to him a couple innings later. He pitched into some bad luck and I think he got thrown off by the errors. Not a scout's take or anything but he quickly settled down. His offspeed stuff looked solid. He finished quite strong. He certainly did not fade towards the end of his (hot temperature) night - he finished strong and started strong. I was impressed, honestly. He gave up a few hard hit balls, but I was impressed. Again, small sample size alert, I thought he looked much better than Hatch. But a one game sample size amounts to pretty much nothing. Eloy: Dude is a physical specimen. I thought he'd be more Soler (i.e., huge dude that can hit the ball a ton - not so much athlete). He's not obviously a speedster or anything but he was much more athletic than I thought. He laced a double down the line on the (tough) Wood Ducks pitcher in his first at bat. He struck out twice after that and then flied out to pretty much the warning track after that. If anyone can give me easy directions for how to upload a video I have two (one of his double). I asked the ARZ scout about Eloy and he said "we will wait and see" - to which I replied "yeah, but he's pretty impressive" to which he replied "yes, but let's what and see". I suppose on some level we are both right but I hoped he could give me a little more info. But maybe they are just jealous. Other than that the only thing of note was Mitch was kind of good? He got bailed out by two good plays. One by Hodges and one by the SS Monastero (sp?). Monastero is not a good hitter (at least tonight) but I was glad he got that sweet play - it was "javy-ish". He seemed really down on himself when striking out in a big-ish spot.

i think PRT posting pretty much exclusively in this thread and only in seinfeld gifs is one of my favorite things about this board

i'll probably shamefully go to a buffalo wild wings or some shitty place and drink beer that tastes like they haven't cleaned the lines in a couple weeks (there's some kind of sexual self deprecating joke in there somewhere but I'll pass this morning - too early). I'll probably watch it with some other guys from the university that i only slightly enjoy their company and eventually leave feeling terrible about myself. in short, i'm looking forward to it!

Well I hope to see both (Rucker is going tonight but I'll probably see Mekkes tomorrow since he pitched two innings last night) - i'll try to post something of note this weekend (probably from scouts). Also, how do you pronounce Mekkes? Meaks? Mecks?

lol lackey still yelling at winters after giving up a bomb. what a true ass

if anyone ever wants to witness the rise and fall of optimism just peek at that three post string i had there. each post was truly heartfelt (not really because i'd still hate lackey after he quit pitching today)

nope. i wasn't. i truly hate this horsefeathers

lol JUST kidding

i hate lackey a whole lot

typical NC cell phone coverage from austin beck, i see

MLB network just told me lewis is a real baseball player

that felt good

ok them playing "summertime" by sublime during the cubs game is just weird

yay

that baez defensive play is the beginning of awesome things for the cubs this game. cubs win 7-4

not sure but he played yesterday, too. i was doing laundry and come up and the cubs are up 4-0. i swear they may not score another run again this year if i'm watching them.

whoa whoa whoa wait a second. but seriously thanks guys. i'll do a little more researching and if you all have any questions you'd like me to offer up just let me know. i'm fairly sure i saw a female scout for the cubs at the last game which i thought was awesome. i'll probably talk to her first if she's back ;)

touché

Well, I've got some good news for you. yeah he teed that bad boy up awfully easy

as a rule of thumb, just assume that booing in general is dumb. unless it's a rival team (even then it's mostly uncalled for) or there is some horrible thing off the field (domestic violence, for example). but it's never ok to boo your own team - they're trying their best to win. it sucks when they aren't successful but it's not like booing is going to be the "kick in the ass" they deserve and sparks them to start trying. it's an archaic and meatbally mentality and dumb.

question: is it ok to randomly start talking to scouts at a game? the reason i ask is because the Kinston stadium doesn't show MPH on their old scoreboard and I'm nowhere near being able to guess. like in one way i think i would be flattered and happy if someone showed interest in my craft and asked me a couple questions (i'll probably stop short of asking if they were an animal what would it be. no promises though). On the other hand i'd be a little annoyed if someone popped into my office and randomly started talking to me while i was trying to work (lol jk i would probably prefer it because i enjoy not working as much as possible while at work - but i assume most people are better than me as a general rule of thumb) the last game i attended had several cubs scouts in attendance and i'm thinking it'll probably be the case next weekend, too.

yeah, that's fair. plus this if far more entertaining than actually watching the cubs. infield fly hitting the ground is pretty much never executed (or happens if it's by accident) so I can understand players kind of relying on extincts on that particular rule. I'm just mad bc the cubs will be under .500 again and was being somewhat cruel. It's an interesting thought, sometimes you see arguments about international players having a lower baseball IQ, and I've never really thought about it as specifically as the idea that they never/rarely played organized baseball in a low talent environment. Tapia has probably never seen an infield fly rule drop(intentional or otherwise) while he's the lead runner, while many of us nobodies have because we played with similarly untalented 8 and 12 year olds growing up. exactly. i've long said (to no one in particular) if there are two people on and a bunt is popped up then let it fall. At least get the first runner and you have a good shot of getting the second (and perhaps the third because many times the pitcher/bunter isn't running out of the gate if it's popped up). that's not a direct example of what we are talking about but it's another instance where I would almost guarantee you can get two outs if you let it drop and at worst you have the same outcome (plus the (usually) pitcher running the bases if you only garner one out).

GREAT. after the heyward K this pitcher doesn't even have a 6.66 devilish ERA and Len can no longer use his joke. sigh

question: will joe ever allow pedro to pitch again?

I dunno, in the last couple weeks at softball I've had an infield fly come up twice while on the bases and my instinct was immediately to find an umpire to determine if it was being called. Tapia's an international signing with less than 700 pro games to his credit, maybe he just hasn't found himself in that situation very often or the instinct to use his speed was stronger. yeah, that's fair. plus this if far more entertaining than actually watching the cubs. infield fly hitting the ground is pretty much never executed (or happens if it's by accident) so I can understand players kind of relying on extincts on that particular rule. I'm just mad bc the cubs will be under .500 again and was being somewhat cruel.