badnews

You're being duped! All this is is the traditional raising of the hopes and starting to belief before the crushing of said hopes. It's what the organization excels at!

That was unnecessarily rude. You don't have to agree but I don't see the point in showing people up on a message board. I'm just saying I've seen these mid-round selections come out looking awesome the year they were drafted in the past and then fade away.

A ways to go, but I think if Soto can hang in there his All-Star game start and playing for a contending team will give him an edge like Willis had over Webb in 2003.

I didn't think anyone liked the pick considering it left Travis Snider and Hank Conger (my two faves at that spot) on the board. I knew Colvin was trouble when he was like #65 on Baseball America's big board and of all of Baseball America's collegiate All-Stars he had by far the crappiest BB/K ratio of them all and not even the power to remotely justify it. I think my preferences ran #1- Travis Snider #2- Hank Conger #3- Chris Marrero #4- Chris Parmelee #5- Kyle Drabek I still consider it a mystery why on the earth the Astros would draft Max Sapp over Conger.

Let's keep cool about Mr. Jackson, he could be the Cub version of Tom Mendoza or the Cub pitcher version of Mitch Einertson, two guys who looked like world beaters in the year they were drafted and promptly crapped out.

Please don't mention Colvin's name again, I had that procedure from Eternal Sunshine for the Spotless Mind where I had all memory of him and Tim Wilken saying he was like Alex Rios erased.

I wouldn't be surprised if Carlos Gomez turned out to be Nook Logan. He's ridiculously toolsy but he's also just plain awful. Funny the Twins just cut the amazing Livan.

But to be fair, the Red Sox are thinking "Nomar part 2" with this deal. They got rid of a franchise icon, Nomar, and replace him with serviceable players like Mientkiewicz (at the time) and Orlando Cabrera, and in a separate deals Dave Roberts and Mike Myers and they went with the "team" concept the rest of the way. Now I understand that Manny was on that team, but I remember Nomar becoming a distraction that yr, because A: He turned down a contract extension and B: He pulled himself out of an Red Sox/Yankee game in which we saw that DJ "overrated catch" into the stands. They got rid of a distraction and it proved dividends. They're hoping history repeats itself with Jason Bay. But I do think this trade will definately hurt the Sox chances of getting into the playoffs. You don't get rid of a talent like Manny and only settle for Jason Bay. I like Bay, and I am glad he is no longer in Pittsburgh, but I could see him struggle under the burden of replacing Manny in LF. Can you really replicate those kinds of counterintuitive trades though? Isn't that sort of like pulling off a Carlos Lee for Scott Podsednik like swap and saying it'll work out with a World Series victory like it did in 2005? I don't know. Bay strikes out a little more than Manny (I think, I'm eyeballing the numbers) but hits a much lower line drive percentage for a lower BABIP. He seems like a .280-.285 ish hitter which will keep the OBP and SLG lower.

Ha, the Mariners play chicken with teams on Ibanez and lose, badly. How delightful.

The Pirates are the winners in this deal, clearly. That's more than they could've hoped for. Man, are Red Sox fans trying to talk up Bay on their message boards. They're going to be disappointed. He's a good hitter, no question, but even in Fenway I think he's way closer to an .880 OPS producer than a .950 or 1.000 OPS guy like Manny was. His clutch hitting numbers don't match up with Manny's the past few years either. Maybe I sound like I'm coming down too hard on Bay. He's a good hitter, but he's not elite, and there's no use in pretending he's elite. He's also one of those guys people seem to think is younger than he actually is.

I think an Angels-Yankees ALCS looks quite likely. That's what I'd bet on, at least.

Was Saltalamacchia the most overrated prospect since Andy Marte? The Cubs ought to hire the guy responsible for hyping up Braves' prospects.

Does anyone think Casey Kotchman is overrated? Whenever I watch Angels games, the announcers say "He's the toughest man in baseball to strike out, what a bad dude! Don't mess with the Kotch!" But come on. Does anyone forsee a Sean Casey-like career for this guy? Sean Casey was one of the tougher guys to strike out too. The Angels won't get anywhere in the playoffs until Vladimir Guerrero stops making a bid for being the worst postseason performer of all time for a player of his calibur.

I don't understand why people assume things *have* to turn around. Don't you think Indians fans said "Don't worry, Travis Hafner and Victor Martinez and everyone will start hitting like their career numbers soon!" Who knows. Aramis has to do better but honestly I don't know that Fukudome isn't a .750 OPS guy, Lee and Soriano aren't .830-.850 OPS guys, so forth.

dude the guy is 19 years old and playing in AA. coming into this season he had a minor league OBP of .375, and last year he hit .307 with a .371 OBP in the hitter-friendly FSL - while he was 18/19 years old. i don't know if he's gonna be great, but carlos beltran had a .674 OPS at age 20 in the carolina league. tabata has good strike zone discipline, and his power is yet to develop, but again - 19 years old. and trenton is a graveyard for hitters, too. so throwing in the towel on him is pretty foolish. I didn't say throw in the towel on him. But these types of prospects are among my least favorite, personally, these guys who get all the props in the world just because they're really young for a level and not totally sucking. It seems like most of the time they don't live up to the hype, like Joaquin Arias, Luis Rivas, Asdrubal Cabrera, Ian Desmond, etc. Isn't that the Alcides Escobar gimmick as well? Nate Spears was a 20 year old in High A with a .778 OPS when the Cubs traded for him. This Tabata hype storm looks similar to the Melky Cabrera one in a lot of ways. I would not buy into it, personally.

I guess I don't (and won't) understand how his minor league K/9s could be so bad then. Even the football explanation doesn't make sense to me, it would barely even make sense if the guy had never stepped on a baseball diamond before. If you throw hard in the minors, you will miss more bats than that. You don't even have to know anything about pitching, look at guys like Jason Neighborgall or Matt Lindstrom. Heck, you don't even have to throw hard, even if you have a goofy trick pitch like Steve Andrade or Josh Sharpless that gets pounded by major leaguers, minor leaguers will swing and miss at it. I don't think a woman's softball pitcher would have a 3.77 K/9 in Daytona, let alone a guy that throws 98.

He had a 3.77 K/9 in Daytona, even if he had zero command I don't see how it could be that low, that's like Kirk Reuter and his 76 mph fastball.

How can you even consider Darin a bust, there were little expectations for him and he always struggled? Honestly, the only reason I posted this thread here instead of just mentioning it in today's minor league game thread was the growth plates reference. Didn't you read the scouting reports when Darin Downs was drafted? Man, they were GLOWING. One scout said he could start in AA out of high school and not miss a beat. He was one of those draft picks everybody loved, one of those high school arms with big upside in the 5th round, he was like the Jake McGee of his day! Uh, but it didn't work out. Maybe he was more like the Tommy Mendoza of his day, early success and a lot of nothing after that.

They highlighted 98 against Jorge Cantu amd I'm thinking to myself "Even if you throw 98 straight as an arrow in High A you don't have a 4 or 5 K/9."

They way they showed it and hyped it and highlighted the radar gun readings it was like what they used to do with Joel Zumaya. I'm thinking to myself "Whoa, when did this happen?"

No, the Yankees got the better of this deal. Tabata is another one of these overhyped Yankee prospects, and another one of these outfielders whose best skill seems to be being young for their level and holding their own but showing little else. Who was the last prospect to have such a high ranking for so long and actually shown so little? This is like Melky Cabrera all over again. "He's young so that means he's guaranteed to hit for more power and improve his plate discipline someday." Well, no it doesn't mean that. Welcome to Marcos Vechionacci V.2. And even if Tabata does become the nice corner outfielder (haven't seen him projected as an ML CF) where does it get them? I'm surprised they couldn't get a real pitcher in this deal.

George Sherrill has proven he's an elite closer with that 1.42 WHIP of his.

I heard the Chiefs have signed Nancy Lieberman to a 7 day contract.

The Orioles wanted like the Cubs best four prospects for Brian Roberts, what could the White Sox have to offer?

Sherrill is overrated, I don't know how he got into the conversation with other elite relievers like he has in other places lately. The DBacks got a good deal. Rauch isn't great but he's a nice bullpen arm.