fromthestretch

I know it sounds ridiculous, but, hasn't Hill been Zambrano's personal catcher since Zambrano has gotten really hot. That alone may be reason enough for Hendry to want to keep Hill on the big league club (not saying that I agree with it). I'm guessing that unless Bowen or Hill get hurt, Soto is not going to see any action until the rosters are expanded. If Blanco, gets healthy, Soto's chances of seeing any big league action are reduced considerably. I'm afraid that if they do bring up Soto, they'll platoon him. That would suck, considering he's hitting righties better than lefties this year. The key thing here is that Soto and Cedeno don't have to continue hitting .350+ to be an improvement over what the Cubs currently have at their respective positions. They are both very likely to improve the offense at those positions. Admittedly, I don't know a whole lot about Soto (other than seeing him play in a few games in Iowa), so I can't really comment on whether or not he would be an improvement. However, Ceneno has shown absolutely nothing at the major league level, during his stints with the Cubs. I remember last year thinking "Any one could do better than Neifi" only to see Cedeno prove me wrong. I don't care how well he hits the baseball in Iowa against AAA, I'm in no hurry to see him play for the Cubs again. It is possible that Cedeno has seen the light and will be a productive big leaguer and but count me as a skeptic until he proves he can hit in the majors. That bolded part isn't entirely accurate. Cedeno showed promise in 2005. A lot of people forget that he's only 24, so he still has room for improvement. He's most likely not going to be an elite offensive player, but he could end up being a better than average shortstop. The thing is, he's doing two things at AAA that a lot of people probably didn't expect: he's taking walks and he's hitting for power. The Cubs aren't getting much of anything from the SS position offensively, so giving Cedeno a chance isn't going to make things any worse. Edited for grammar.

I know it sounds ridiculous, but, hasn't Hill been Zambrano's personal catcher since Zambrano has gotten really hot. That alone may be reason enough for Hendry to want to keep Hill on the big league club (not saying that I agree with it). I'm guessing that unless Bowen or Hill get hurt, Soto is not going to see any action until the rosters are expanded. If Blanco, gets healthy, Soto's chances of seeing any big league action are reduced considerably. I'm afraid that if they do bring up Soto, they'll platoon him. That would suck, considering he's hitting righties better than lefties this year. The key thing here is that Soto and Cedeno don't have to continue hitting .350+ to be an improvement over what the Cubs currently have at their respective positions. They are both very likely to improve the offense at those positions.

If the Cubs are going to give Soto a shot - which he definitely deserves - then get rid of Hill. Bowen becomes the back-up. Cedeno should be given a chance to start. If the Cubs can somehow get rid of Izturis, then Derosa can split time between 2B and RF, with Floyd getting some time in RF and Fontenot getting some time at 2B. Cedeno could get a majority of the starts at SS, with Theriot getting a couple starts per week. Izturis isn't the future of this ballclub, and he hasn't done anything to justify keeping him around. If the Cubs are looking for a shortstop of the future, start internally with the 24-year old with an 1.114 OPS at AAA.

Me. Talk about overrated. I would rather keep Murton who would out produce Dunn. HR is an overrated stat. You can score without a HR. You can't score that often when you have a Run Producer setting the all time record for season strikeouts. Don't tell Ryan Howard.

If we had two Matt Murtons and two Sean Marshalls, I would trade all four for Saltalamacchia. That would be ridiculous, Murton is patient at the plate and hits alot of doubles which will turn into homers, he also is a smart baserunner, not fast but smart. Marchall's curve is very good and he can hit a dime 60 feat away, his control is astounding. I won't address the other points (although I would take minor issue with some of them) but Murton is not a particularly smart baserunner. For example, he stopped at 3rd base when he could have scored easily for no real reason at all, and then got stranded there 4-5 times this year (including the game where he stopped at 3rd on a single that should have scored him, then a wild pitch should have scored him, but he just stood there and watched it). he has to listen Mike quade, something that is very hard to do, Quade sucks, he holds everyone You must have been sitting behind me last Monday night against the Rockies. Fontenot doubled and Lee followed up with a single. Fontenot was held at 3rd. The guy behind me went ballistic. It would have been a close play, but I'd much rather have Ramirez up with 2 men in scoring position. Quade has done fine this year. I would never want to be a 3rd base coach, every move is second guessed. If you hold a runner, some are upset you didn't send him. If you send him and the runner is thrown out, people are mad you sent them. It is truly a lose-lose situation. i didn't see the play but fontenot can run so more often than not i'd send him,, how about the sac fly that was a really hard play and fontenot made it, he can flat out run. Two things that factor into whether or not to send a runner on a potentially close play are the number of outs and who's up next. If Soriano's on first with no outs and Theriot doubles, you probably don't send Soriano unless you're positive he makes it. With Lee and Ramirez following, he has a very good chance of scoring that inning. You don't want to run yourself out of a potentially big inning.

The ball came right at his back and was coming at about 62 mph tops. There's no reason he should move. yeah, besides the fact the rules say you have to. Don't blame that on the hitter. It's the ump's fault for not enforcing the rule.

Nothing beats the guy that tried to attack Randy Myers several years ago when he gave up a late-inning homer. I honestly thought Myers was going to snap the guy's neck.

I believe it's pretty much the same level of play that the Heartland League was. I doubt too many people are familiar with the now-defunct Heartland League, but judging by your Purdue avatar, you might remember it. It was based out of Lafayette, and the Lafayette Leopards played in that league. It was a short season league, with a lot of players that were in their mid-20s or older. There were also quite a few players just out of college that didn't get drafted.

I think that might hurt ratings....a lot. I dunno - he was saying that a bunch of gals stopped him near the clubhouse and would not let him leave before he took a pic with them. Perhaps Lou has The Cavorka. He used a Gilroy.

I think this thread needs a bump after yesterday's broadcasting fiasco after the Pagan/Uribe collision at second base. It absolutely boggles my mind how someone like Hawk has a job doing play-by-play for a major league team.

I forgot how close that got at the end. If I was as jaded as I am now back then I would've been expecting us to lose, back then I knew they were going to win throughout the whole inning. He had absolutely nothing in the tank during that outing either. I think that pitch he got Carter to pop out on was like 64 mph. I'm not sure he broke 80 that inning.

Against Florida, right? I was at that game too Yep. Oh Henry hit one that game, too. Dempster got shelled.

Probably ten minutes of silence.

:lol:

Orioles do that, too.

Sorry if this has already been posted. According to XM, the Tigers have dealt Maroth to the Cardinals. Not sure who they got back.

When he was getting on base, there was the potential for steals. That and you can use him at a few different positions. Not much fantasy value, but the steals could be handy in a deeper league. However, he really has no value at all the way he's playing now.

I don't know if you can really label Theriot as a guy that tore up AAA pitching. Cedeno, on the other hand, has a career OPS over .930 in 365 at-bats at AAA. As for Cedeno's patience, he hasn't drawn a walk in awhile (at least 10 games), but he continues to hit the ball. At this point, they might as well get rid of Izturis and give Cedeno a shot. Plus, he's still only 24.

My two favorite Sammy moments from games I've been to: 1. June 1, 1998: Sammy hits his first two homers of his 20-homer month. Three of us are in the first row of the left field bleachers for BP. I'm there no more than 10 minutes when Sosa hits one right at me. I caught it and still have the ball to this day. Oddly enough, his first home run that game came off Dempster. 2. August 2, 2000: Cubs and Rockies are tied 2-2 in the bottom of the eighth. Sosa leads off the inning with a solo shot, and the place went nuts. Cubs hold on to win 3-2. I had a stretch of five games attended where Sosa hit a total of six home runs. Mind you, those five games were spread out over the course of a few years, but the man always came through when I was in attendance.

Yeah, I feel that these things can be kind of arbitrary. Is this really arbitrary? Only 5 players have hit 600 or more HR's. Only 5 players had hit more than 599 before last night. I get that we like to keep track of things by tens but it really had no signifigance to me. If he passes Mays at 660, I think that's signifigant. Gotcha. Baseball is full of "records" like this. Throughout the world we look at things by then tens as being more impressive. I still think it's pretty cool. Who knows, 660 could be in reach. Sammy hasn't been great this year, but he's a lot better than some of the scrubs you see other teams marching out there. He could probably play a couple more years, if he wants to. Very true. The DH is a godsend for him now. If he sticks to that, he has a really good shot at getting 660. If Sammy's willing to be more of a platoon player, he may be able to stick around for a few more years. He struggles against right-handers, but he can still hit lefties very well.

I'll try. You're posting at the rate of 300 posts/week in your 6+ weeks of membership, I'd say you're succeeding. At what, I don't know. why do you care? He has post envy.

Thank you. I'm glad I'm not the only one that feels this way.

Health is probably the reason. He's developed quite nicely as a hitter and a defensive catcher.

A lot of those were probably well before the ninth inning. Most likely, he was not in those games to finish them. I don't like the fact that a reliever can get a blown save in a "hold" situation.

If the new Cubs catcher - whoever that may be - hits .220, the Cubs probably aren't winning anything....unless that .220 comes with a lot of walks and good power.