Mephistopheles

his walks are down quite a bit. his fip is 3.87 but his hr rate should be a bit higher (even with the more gbs). the big deal is a reduction in walks and homers. i dunno how sustainable it is.

the article continues through ten 6. Nationals. Rick Porcello, rhp, HS/New Jersey 7. Brewers Madison Bumgarner, lhp, HS/North Carolina 8. Rockies. Jason Heyward, of, HS/Georgia 9. Diamondbacks. Blake Beavan, rhp, HS/Texas 10. Giants. Beau Mills, 3b/1b, Lewis-Clark State (Idaho)

With Murton's skillset and the A's lack of outfielders I would think Murton would be in any package the Cubs would send to Oakland.

im laughing so much. god this is stupid

They weren't at the time. I nabbed them up right after the draft (february). I didn't make that trade until April

And like 7 home runs. I don't think this would be a very good exchange. Let's start hitting it over the fence instead of off it. He has a .359 EqA, 13 points higher than 2005's. Obviously he's not going to continue hitting .400

I wonder if you read it...

Not really. Marcus Giles is hitting the cover off the ball. Rocco's a good OF too. It's not a terrible trade from his standpoint.

It was an autodraft on Yahoo in the middle of February. 1. (9) Miguel Cabrera 3B 2. (16) Manny Ramírez OF 3. (33) Aramis Ramírez 3B 4. (40) Michael Young SS 5. (57) Félix Hernández SP 6. (64) Ben Sheets SP 7. (81) Rocco Baldelli OF 8. (88) Cole Hamels SP 9. (105) Rich Hill SP 10. (112) Jason Giambi 1B 11. (129) Jonathan Papelbon RP 12. (136) Tadahito Iguchi 2B 13. (153) Mark Prior SP 14. (160) Coco Crisp OF 15. (177) Mike González RP 16. (184) Bengie Molina C 17. (201) Marcus Giles 2B 18. (208) Curtis Granderson OF 19. (225) John Patterson SP 20. (232) Brandon Inge 3B 21. (249) Craig Monroe OF I redid the rankings to get guys I wanted late. After Coco my rankings were gone. I traded Jason Giambi (NYY - 1B) Michael Young (Tex - SS) Jonathan Papelbon (Bos - RP) for Hanley Ramírez (Fla - SS) Derrek Lee (ChC - 1B) Bobby Jenks (CWS - RP) This was right after Papelbon was announced to be back in the closer's role. I thought it was a fair deal, though Young's bottomed out since. A team had no 2B but like Craig Biggio. He agreed to this in the first week of the season: Rocco Baldelli (TB - OF) Marcus Giles (SD - 2B) for Grady Sizemore (Cle - OF) I added Upton, Kinsler and Kendrick off waivers for Monroe, Inge and Granderson. I tried to dump Iguchi to someone, but could find no takers. I ended up dropping him while assembling my relievers. I thought one of Upton, Kinsler and Kendrick would develop into a great fantasy 2B, at the worst. All three of them have, though Kendrick got hurt. I dropped Molina for Russ Martin. The first few weeks of the season my last OF spot was Coco Crisp. I got tired of him, so picked up Teahen, who was dropped when he was hitting around 200.

That would be true except for the first high school player that Wilken drafted last year was in the 9th round. the next polished college hitter that I see the cubs draft in the first 2 rounds will be the first one in Lord knows how long Bobby Hill's my first guess.

What's funny is that you base most of your analysis of players on statistics, but here's a guy who statistically looks very good, and because the scouts don't like him, you're saying he's not that good a ballplayer. What's even funnier, is that as a person who is well acquainted with statistics, I also know that the correlation from college to the minors is more or less non-existent. There's almost no data to suggest that he's capable of repeating his success in Low A - much less the majors. I do love how you completely dropped the power argument. That's nice. Hit and run. That's not a fair shake. If you would have read moneyball you'd realize that athleticism is paramount for most players, Baker aside. This is the type of player that JP Ricciardi would take. Ricciardi's system has been as good as the Cubs with respect to developing position players. Adam Lind's a stud, but he had power as a standout tool when he was drafted.

As trashy as my closers look I'm third in the league in saves, one save behind the leaders. The two leaders are currently 11th and 12th in the league.

A long time ago he was a top ten college prospect. Obviously not anymore. He's got good power, always has. He's never really broke out, but the raw power is there. He's a huge guy, like 6'6 250 or something. I guess a good comparison for him is John Mayberry. I dunno if I want the Cubs to get him. He's dripping with power, but it hasn't materialized yet. Ive never seen him play, so I have no idea about his swing, pitch recog etc and havent seen too much stuff on him this spring, other than how bad he looked in February. My guess is he's a second or third rounder. He may sneak into the supplemental if someone falls for his potential power production.

guzman should have never been in this position. i blame cubs management.

Kyle could improve a lot of things. There still are questions about his power with the wood. He sucked on the Cape last year, albeit as a Freshman. If he returns and has anything resembling a solid CCL he could be a top 10 pick next year.

One of my teams is absolutely loaded. It's a public Yahoo league. Right now I'm sitting at 32-7-1 and my overall stats are comparable to most of the top 50 leader board. Overall my team is ranked 728, and should move up as the team I am playing is the fantasy equivalent of Indiana football. Anyways as of right now by standard roster is: C. Russell Martin 1B. Derrek Lee 2B. Ian Kinsler 3B. Miguel Cabrera SS. Hanley Ramirez OF. Manny Ramirez OF. Grady Sizemore OF. Mark Teahen UT. Aramis Ramirez BN. BJ Upton BN. Howie Kendrick (DL) SP. Cole Hamels SP. Ben Sheets SP. Rich Hill SP. Felix Hernandez (DL) RP. Salomon Torres RP. Ryan Dempster RP. Bobby Jenks RP. Jason Frasor RP. Mike Gonzalez and 2 swing spots that I use to pick up starters on good matchups, ie Marquis vs Pittsburgh and Oliver Perez overall tomorrow. Anyways, as you can see I have a logjam at 2B and 3B. I have three guys when Kendrick gets back who can play 2B and four guys who can play 3B right now. Obviously the weakest link on my team is my third outfielder, Mark Teahen who has been great the last two weeks. Right now Im trying to deal BJ Upton or Ian Kinsler for an outfielder. Most of the team is dumb, so even though the two are being awesome, I may not get good value. So, I looked at who had holes at 2B and 3B, and I found one team who has been active and who has holes there. Now there's the issue. It's the second place team in the league. Do I want to help him? His only 3B on the roster is, hold your breath, Mark DeRosa. I kid you not. His starting 2B is Kelly Johnson. It's a match made in heaven. Obviously Kinsler or Upton would be a huge upgrade at both though Kelly Johnson is hot. Upton would be a great move for his team. I have offered him two trades Upton and Teahen for Jason Bay Kinsler and Teahen for Jason Bay If the trades don't go through I might have to dangle Aramis Ramirez for an OF straight up and stick Upton in UTIL, though Id rather keep Rammy.

And Hughes is now out 4-6 weeks per Rotoworld. Ironically enough I picked him up off waivers in the seventh inning before he got hurt in one league. Unfortunately my team is loaded with DL mates: Thome, Kendrick, Harden, Hernandez and BJ Ryan. I am now in a tough spot. To drop him or not...

I believe that Mephistopheles also said that because of signability, Russell would drop quite a bit since he is only a draft-eligible Sophomore. Bingo. He'll be there. He's similar to Micah Owings a few years back. Owings was an elite prospect that year, but he was a sophomore who demanded first round money so he fell to the 15th round. The same thing also happened for Tim Lincecum two years ago. He was a sophomore who demanded seven figs and the Tribe wouldnt budge.

Im glad he got hurt. He's the next Mark Prior and Yankee fans deserve to wear the curse Cubs fans have.

I have Hughes in the NSBB/GRB league. thanks screw you cc sabathia

I think the Latos stuff I read was in an Ask BA. Scherzer's probably going to re-enter. Max's first exhibition start is within a week, I think. I don't remeber the exact date. I want to say the 4th or the 6th.

I read somewhere that it's likely they do. I'd imagine they would. Without him they have a BOAT LOAD of picks this year. They may have to go cheap on some of those picks. They usually don't spend a lot of money on picks. They have 1. 23 1S. 40 1S. 46 1S. 57 1S. 63 1S. 64 2. 82 2. 88 They have their third and fourth round picks as well as a second fourth round pick. Latos is probably going to ask for a seven figure bonus, or $900,000. If he goes into the draft and is picked somewhere as expected (say 35th or so), slot money the last two years was $975,000. The Padres are reportedly willing to give him a million.

http://image.weather.com/web/radar/us_pit_closeradar_plus_usen.jpg Hmm they could fit it in around 11 tonight. Play until 1 in the morning. Then get up in the morning and play again.

Keith Law's a dumbass, but here goes nothing: I love Phillippe Aumont as much as anyone, but putting him ahead of Madison Bumgarner and Matt Harvey is going against the grain quite a bit. Jarrod Parker's a bit high, though he supposedly touched 98 this year. Madison Bumgarner's way too low. He's going in the top ten, easy. Brian Friday's a kid I played with a few years back. He's got good speed, but his marginal power shouldn't make him an early second round pick. Justin Jackson would be a steal with our second pick if he's there. He's not the kind of player I'm used to liking, but this time last year he was arguably a top five pick. Kyle Lotzkar is a helium kid. He's real young, tall and has a power developing fastball. In the CC circuit, I don't see how Latos isn't better than Walden. Walden's still a big fastball with nothing else to offer. Latos' offspeed stuff has come around much more. With a bit more than a month to go, it's probably time to start matching up players to teams. Rays - Price Royals - Detwiler Cubs - Vitters That's the word around baseball, if I am not mistaken.

Alex Gordon's starting to put it together. He's going to have a monster May.