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Ideally they would have better hitters right now who could fit the bill in the middle of the order and allow him to hit somewhere else. Down the line, I see no reason why he couldn't be the type of hitter to rely on everyday in that spot for years and years. If the 2, 3, 4 in 2015 was Jackson, Castro, Rizzo, that could be pretty cool Personally, I'd want to see Jackson and Castro slid up one spot each and #3 filled with awesome player to be named later, or Rizzo slid up and #4 filled by awesome player to be named later. That would also be nice, but Castro could very easily be a 900 OPS type hitter in his prime and awesome enough in his own right. Do you see Castro as a 30+ home run hitter with a decent amount of walks without significantly raising his strikeouts? That is probably what it would take to get to .900, and while I think it's possible for Castro to get there, I don't see it as being very likely. The power will almost certainly improve as he gets into his prime and hopefully some walks will follow, but that's a large jump for him to take.

To be fair, Castro is 22, and Miguel Cabrera got traded before his 25th birthday after making 4 All-Star games. I don't see what the state of the team has to do with trading Castro though. Either the risk/reward of multiple prospects are more valuable than Castro or they aren't. The fact that the team has a lot of holes to fill shouldn't have anything to do with it. Either way, the players who are here will be here at least 4 years (Castro) and probably 10+ years so the Cubs will have plenty of time to build around them in other ways. And I don't see much that should make the Cubs want to trade Castro right now. 2 elite prospects probably wouldn't be worth it IMO.

I'm concerned there might be a fight in game 6 if there is a rough foul. Stephenson is being tested for a concussion and might have a broken collarbone because of the hit Pittman put on him, West said a Heat player tried to take out his knee, and there is some speculation on whether Granger's injury was truly an accident or not (just based on the strange way LeBron moved under him and then stayed there while Danny was in the air). Add that to the two flagrant fouls and things could get really out of hand quickly.

Wow, so Miami should have two reserves suspended for next game. That was ridiculously unnecessary.

Granger was paramount to the Pacers chances in this series. They badly needed his defense on LeBron and his ability to stretch the floor. It was probably the most well played game in the series until he left tonight. If he's hobbled I don't see how the Pacers have much of a shot in game 6. They have nobody else that can really guard LeBron or do much to stretch the floor offensively.

you think his babip indicates he should or could rise. very possible, I think with his historically low ld% it might mean there is a reason his babip is low. possible also. Thanks for reading and considering. I just wanted to address this point. His LD percentage is not that low. It's a little lower than his career, and it's definitely lower than major league average but he's not among the very bottom. For example, among qualified players the median line drive percentage is about 20.5%. Stewart ranks 134th out of 175 qualified players with 17.9%. In BABIP, the median is about .302. Stewart is 166th out of 175 with a .221 BABIP. So the difference between median LD and median BABIP is about .097 (which is a little smaller than normal). Stewart's is .042 which as you can see is less than half the average. That's where the bad luck has come into play. His BABIP should be at least in the .270's based on his LD if not higher (as noted, the fact that his ground ball/fly ball ratio is so high should raise his BABIP a little more since ground balls are more likely to find holes). I don't think anybody is saying he will work out for sure. His strikeout rate could easily rise again and he could turn out to be not that useful of a player. But so far he's played well and gotten unlucky. If he can keep playing just as well, his numbers should improve. I don't know if he will keep up this improved play or not.

As I said in my last post, I apologize for the names that you have been called, but that doesn't excuse you calling other people names. Please stop. And again, I ask you to go back to my post on page 3 and address it (or even my post on BABIP on page 4). I'm willing to address your points but you continue to ignore mine. BTW, I don't think anybody is saying that Stewart has hit into bad luck his whole career. What is different from his time in Colorado is his strikeout rate. It's significantly less this year. And his line drive rate is close to the same, so his average should have shot up. It hasn't, and that's because of a really low BABIP that major league history has shown is unsustainable over a large sample size. He has been unlucky so far in 2012, and that should start to even out over the course of the season.

Yes, ground balls and fly balls get caught more often than line drives do. The rule of thumb is to add .12 to the line drive percentage to get BABIP. If you hit mostly ground balls instead of fly balls, you probably add a little more (more ground balls go for hits than fly balls) while with fly balls you should add a little less. In Stewart's case, he's a career 18.8% LD percentage with a .289 career BABIP. So a little less than .12 but that's understandable since he's been a heavy fly ball hitter in his career. This year, he's at 17.9% LD percentage and a .221 BABIP. That isn't anywhere close to either the rule of thumb or his career. And he's hitting a lot more ground balls this year, so his BABIP should actually be higher than his career difference would indicate. His BABIP based off of a normal hitter and his career should be 60-90 points better than it is. And that's a significant difference.

First off, I apologize for any names that you were called. That is unacceptable behavior. Second, I think you have misread some of the arguments being made. I would love to see what you think of my post on page 3. I think it addresses just about every concern that you have laid out in this post.

Batting order doesn't really matter. The fact that he's playing just about every day kind of negates the notion that he's been "jettisoned" in any way shape or form. this is good to know because all this years we have complained about our leadoff guy, and made fun of managers that wanted to put Soriano there, all along it really never mattered. I know you are just jumping in halfway through, so please understand..I have not said anything about anyone being better. I only wondered why it seems that Barney is getting moved out. Instead of ridicule, a great answer may have been- They see Barney as an 8 hole hitter in the future on hopefully a much better team. OK, that would make sense. My question was why is he sent to 8th, when other players are doing far worse than Barney has done. I also wondered why he has been out of the lineup now 6 times over the last 19 games despite his stat line going up. To me it seems like they are working to replace him. I can certainly think of many other spots that seem to be much more glaring weakness comparatively. He's been out of the lineup 5 times over the last 19 games. He's been out of the lineup 7 times all freaking year, and he's Darwin Barney. are you making things up, guessing or simply can't read? 1)April 15- DNP- did not play 2)April 22 DNS-did not start 3)April 30 DNS 4)May 2 DNS 5)May 8 DNP 6)May 20 DNS 7)May 21 DNP So that is 7 times this season, and 6 times in the last 20 games (not the original 19) April 30 to yesterday. Part of the point is exactly what you state. In the first 21 games he sat once, in last 20 games he sat 6 times. That seems like a change and it strikes me as odd considering his stats over that period are way up, and yes better than stewart's huge hot streak that everyone wants to use as proof that he's actually good. Yes, he's Darwin Barney, who happens to be out performing most of our other starters. Remember also that Barney physically wore down with the grind of the season last year. He put on some weight to try to counteract that over the offseason, but it's almost certain that Cubs management is going to try to get him some rest as well.

I don't think anyone is saying the Pacers have stars. They have a potential star, and some All-Stars, but no true stars right now. We were discussing a potential SA-Boston final though which does have stars on both sides. IMO, it's a problem for the NBA if they can't market that series well.

NL 3B in 2012: .245/.315/.400/.714 MLB 3B in 2012: .249/.312/.402/.714 That .795 OPS Stewart has in May would put him fifth in OPS in MLB out of the 17 qualified 3B in 2012, behind only Wright, Moustakas, Beltre and Cabrera. Guys he would be ahead of include Freese (.787), ARod (.779), Hanley Ramirez (.753), Zimmerman (.697) and Lawrie (.690). It should be noted that, if not for injuries, Stewart would also be behind Longoria and Sandoval. how about you compare his year to their years, or his "hot" to their best 18 games streak? I won't do the leg work but I am guessing that guys who are above .700 for 40+ games have an 18 game stretch of much better than their average. here's an extreme example to attempt to illustrate the fallacy of using stewart's 18 games vs a season. erik aybar has a 7 game split of .455 .455 .682 1.136 which puts him number 1 at shortstop in every single catagory and way above the average for MLB shortstops. Now it clearly doesn't matter that his seasons stat line is .228 .248 .297 .545, your thinking has just annointed erik aybar the number 1 offensive shortstop in the major leagues logic be damned! That wasn't your argument though. You said this: Soccer just showed you if he hits like he has in May, that would be good. Not whether he can keep up what he has done in May over a full season, that's a different argument. That's what posts like the one I made earlier tried to address.

Do you think that's just because it's not fresh, or some problem with how the NBA markets itself? On paper, it looks like a great matchup. The run and gun elite offense of SA vs the grind it out, elite defense of Boston. And all the stars are at the same positions on the court so they would face off quite a bit on the court.

Really? You don't understand how injuries work? You think he was "drummed out" of baseball instead? Yeah, there was a conspiracy to not sign Todd Walker...good call. IIRC, it wasn't injuries. He was poor defensively, there were whispers about him being a problem in the clubhouse (although others said he was a great teammate), and his bat was slipping. After the Padres cut him to save the arbitration award, he got a chance with Oakland. Once Oakland got rid of him, he refused to go the minors, and that was just it. I don't now if anybody ever called him (he said he was open to returning) but even if they did it must not have guaranteed enough for him to want to leave his families.

You are correct that we should be skeptical of guys who rely on their power coming out of Coors Field (although it should be referenced again as somebody brought up that his power has been slightly better on the road than at home for his career, which makes that a lot less worrisome). He's never had a full season of at-bats which is why his counting stats are that low. Is that something to be concerned about? Probably. He has had injury issues. But that's a question of if he can stay healthy, not how good he is when he is on the field. The main reason things like his batting average was so low in Colorado even with decent BABIP's was not because he hit the ball softly. It is because his strikeout rate was so high. In his three seasons with more than 200 AB's he struck out in 30.1% of his PA, 28.1%, and 24.9%. Players who strike out that much are not going to have good averages unless they are prodigious home run hitters, and Stewart is good in that department (very good for the position he plays) but not elite. This year though there's been a huge change. He's at 18.8 percent so far. That's a significant improvement, and one if it continues should make his average go up by quite a bit. His amount of line drives are just below his career average. So he should have a BABIP that is somewhat close to his career average, but it's not. It's much lower. He has also changed many fly balls that he was hitting in previous years into ground balls this year. But that should actually raise his BABIP not lower it (while hurting his power a little). His power is down as expected from not hitting as many fly balls. And home/road splits are very shaky this early in the year, but he's been significantly better on the road. Will his efforts at Wrigley improve when the wind is more in his favor? And as others have stated, 3B average in the majors right now is .250/.312/.403 which is close to what it was last year (.252/.316/.390). As you mentioned, it's not the steroid era anymore, and hitting is down significantly. So the Cubs don't need as good of hitter in order to have a quality player there. And Stewart's defense is seen as above average at third by both scouts and defensive metrics. The main thing though is that Stewart is striking out a lot less than he ever used too. And if you put that many balls in play, some will find holes eventually. Stewart's BABIP right now is .221. Out of the 145 players who had enough at-bats to qualify last year, exactly one hitter had that low of a BABIP last year. So the odds are very much in his favor that it will go up as the year goes on. Can he ever be a great/elite player? Not unless he puts his new strikout rate with the power he had previously, and that isn't very likely. But he can get you to average/above average offense with above average defense, and that's valuable.

Shhhhhhhh. It's mostly a result of his BABIP and HR/FB coming back to earth as had to at some point. If you take this last stretch where he's struggled (12 games) here are his numbers: 44 AB's, 8 H, 2 HR, 8 BB, 13 K's .182/.308/.318, BAPIP of .207, K/PA: 25%, BB/PA: 15.4% The BB/K ratio is just fine and actually better than he has done on the season. He's had a couple series during that stretch where he has struggled with strikeouts, but a couple series where he has not as well. 2 HR's is fine for that stretch. The only really bad thing about his line over the last couple weeks is the lack of doubles.

Not that I can think of. It's pretty much just money, and really not all that much money unless you've got a wave of 4-5 Super Twos. I think it can be a decent amount of money. While the first year salary would be the same (just a year earlier) there is extra time for the raises to build up. And while they still can't be compared to free agents until their final year of arbitration, that still adds up. For example, Ryan Howard just finished what would have been his 4 arbitration years. And he earned 10 million, 15 million, 19 million, and 20 million in those 4 years (Philadelphia chose to give them the last 3 years in an extension that didn't have any free agency on it). So the Phillies probably would have saved 15-20 million dollars if they hadn't made Howard a Super Two in the first place.

And honestly, as many good surprises as there have been, there have been just as many disappointments. Soto, Barney, and Volstad all being much worse than expected, Marmol forgetting what the strike zone looks like, Kerry not being very good, and Soriano not bouncing back as hoped. Far from everything has gone right and I'm really not all that disappointed in how the season has gone thus far. Barney's been on a hot streak. Right now, everything about him this year has been better than last year. Better walk rate, better strikeout rate, more extra base hits, more line drives, less popups, and excellent defense. He'll probably get a little worse as the season goes along, but so far he's been a valuable player.

No, you don't understand. He HAS to go pro. :D That seems foolish, he's a damn good college player. I doubt that's the guy that gets Creaned. Oh, I know, I'm just kidding. The latest rumor I've heard from my IU friends is Abell. That doesn't make sense either, who the hell is going to back up Yogi? My favorite idea is sending Jurkin to prep school because the scholarship situation really clears up after this year, lol. Abell makes some sense from a basketball standpoint. As promising as he was last year, he really has no place on this year's team. He should only get spot minutes without injuries. His junior and senior year he should get a decent amount of minutes as the backup point guard, but I could completely understand if he wants to transfer and go play 3 years somewhere else and get more minutes. I'd have a harder time swallowing Etherington since he helped recruit players to Indiana, even though he'll certainly get more playing time somewhere else. Jurkin and Patterson it would depend more on why they weren't coming. If they suddenly decided to transfer, that would be almost certainly at Crean's pushing. If they didn't qualify, that's a different matter.

It's pretty obvious that either a sophomore or a freshman is going to leave the program altogether, if it is because of a transfer or because one of the freshman didn't become academically ineligible. That will reset the scholarship numbers. Creek also probably won't get a 5th year, and then they might try to sign Anya as an oversign in preparation for Zeller leaving. If all those happened, then IU would be fine in all three years again. If they don't get Anya and Zeller leaves, then they probably give the scholarship to Creek for that year and recruit somebody else in the 2014 class.

Upton and Granderson's K rate per plate appearance are not nearly that high. Upton is a career 24.8% with a high of 28.1%, and Granderson is a career 22.2% with a high of 25.6. Jackson was 29.8% in AAA last year and 30% even so far this year. That's a big difference If he can get between 20 and 25 like that, be would be just fine. But he has a long way to go to project those sorts of strikeout numbers in the majors. Are you doing by PA or AB? By PA. By AB would of course make everybody's numbers higher (for example, Jackson has struck out in close to 35 percent of his AB's, while only close to 30% of his PA).

Agreed, but 25% would still be worrisome because of how far it may go up when he hits the major leagues, and he's got to be really good at avoiding strikeouts to get back there anytime soon. I'm not sure if he'll stay at 30, but it's hard to imagine him getting much past 25 this season if he even gets there.

It's not terrible though. The contact rate is pretty bad, but the .105 ISOD and .175 ISOP are respectable. If he was hitting .260, that's an .800 OPS. The problem is with that many strikeouts, hitting .260 becomes almost impossible. He has a .325 BABIP as it is. To have a .260 average, his BABIP would have to be .384. I'm starting to get very concerned about him at this point. He's had 375 AAA plate appearances, and has struck out almost 30 percent of the time. That would already be the 5th highest in MLB without even accounting for the increase in pitcher quality he'll face when he hits the majors. He has enough secondary skills and plays a premium enough position to carry a high strikeout rate, but close to 30 percent in the majors would be majorly pushing it. Close to 30 percent in AAA is really bad. I understand that, but he can still be a productive player in the MLB even with that high of a K rate. Guys like BJ Upton (granted with more speed and better defense) and Curtis Granderson (more power than Jackson) have been successful with a 30-ish percent K rate. Obviously, it's not ideal but possible. Upton and Granderson's K rate per plate appearance are not nearly that high. Upton is a career 24.8% with a high of 28.1%, and Granderson is a career 22.2% with a high of 25.6. Jackson was 29.8% in AAA last year and 30% even so far this year. That's a big difference If he can get between 20 and 25 like that, be would be just fine. But he has a long way to go to project those sorts of strikeout numbers in the majors.

It's not terrible though. The contact rate is pretty bad, but the .105 ISOD and .175 ISOP are respectable. If he was hitting .260, that's an .800 OPS. The problem is with that many strikeouts, hitting .260 becomes almost impossible. He has a .325 BABIP as it is. To have a .260 average, his BABIP would have to be .384. I'm starting to get very concerned about him at this point. He's had 375 AAA plate appearances, and has struck out almost 30 percent of the time. That would already be the 5th highest in MLB without even accounting for the increase in pitcher quality he'll face when he hits the majors. He has enough secondary skills and plays a premium enough position to carry a high strikeout rate, but close to 30 percent in the majors would be majorly pushing it. Close to 30 percent in AAA is really bad.

In a non-shocking development, the NBA has decided that the referees had it right on Wade's foul. No flagrant 2, and not even a fine.