CubColtPacer

How does that work? Is there a certain number of days or can Floyd come back at any time? Floyd can come back whenever he's ready to. Prayers are with Floyd and his family.

Lineups Cubs A. Soriano lf F. Pie cf D. Lee 1b C. Floyd rf M. DeRosa 3b M. Barrett c R. Theriot 2b C. Izturis ss S. Marshall p Atlanta K. Johnson 2b Y. Escobar 3b E. Renteria ss A. Jones cf J. Francoeur rf M. Diaz lf J. Saltalamacchia c S. Thorman 1b L. Cormier p

The question is simply this-who do you want, Jones on the Cubs and Pagan in Triple A, or Pagan on the Cubs and Jones released? Here are the pros for both: Pagan pros better defense at all 3 positions better start to the season Jones bigger chance at good production better backup plan for the organization (if Jones is released, and then an outfielder goes down, who is the OF that comes up to replace them? If Pagan goes down, then he can come up when one of the OF's is hurt). It's a close call, but I'd rather have Jones in the majors and Pagan at Triple A. If Jones can get traded and next year's salary goes away, then certainly do that. As far as a release though, I'd rather see Fontenot up, Pagan down.

From a guy who watches them several times a year, their problems are the QB's and coaching staff. The WR's aren't special, but they are about average. The line and backs are good, and so is the defense. With their heavy emphasis on the running game though, Jacksonville doesn't have all that many possessions, and the QB's are simply not efficient enough to win consistently. Also, their coaching causes problems because Del Rio lets his players run wild. I don't know how many times I've seen the Jaguars lose games because of 15 yard penalties at the worst time because they can't control their emotions. He also doesn't have the team ready to play every week, which is how the Jaguars can beat Dallas, Pittsburgh, Philadelpia, Giants and Indianapolis and yet lose to Washington, Houston twice, and Buffalo.

I think it's still a bit premature for that. There's nobody who is going to replace him now who is going to be significantly better, whether that ends up being Pagan (I know, he's up right now, but Ward will probably replace him when he comes back), Cedeno, or Fontenot. Jones isn't necessarily completely washed up yet-trade him for absolutely anything you can get, but just releasing him doesn't really help the Cubs right now without a great option to replace him on the roster. Right now, he can be a pinch hitter and backup CF.

Day is a somewhat interesting one: .315/.401/.465, 11 2B, 5 3B, 3 HR, 10/11 SB, 48K/29BB. He played both catcher and outfield for Michigan State this year, but more catcher. He's only a sophomore, and he is a switch hitter.

04-05. They overruled him on Townsend. But I believe he nabbed guys like Niemann, Brignac, Davis and McGee in 04 (damn, what a haul that was). not to mention Sonnanstine, in the 13th round. His 05 draft was pretty uninspiring, as stupid as it is to judge a draft after two years. Two of his higher picks from that draft are in our organization doing next to nothing(Reinhard and Lopez). It seems in TB his drafts were a lot more high school oriented. What years did he play a major role in Toronto? I think something like 89 to 00 was when he had the most impact (could be off by a couple years)-here's a list of people that Wilken had a major impact on: http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/news/press_releases/press_release.jsp?ymd=20061204&content_id=1749967&vkey=pr_chc&fext=.jsp&c_id=chc

I would not be surprised if DeRosa is complaining some. He's probably sat more than he would like and supposedly Hendry told him he'd be the starter. I'd be a little shocked by that. DeRosa has been in and out of the lineup most of his career, and he's also been hurt 6 or 7 games this year-he really hasn't sat all that much. I'd be especially shocked if any complaints were registered lately, as he's been playing just about everyday (as he should right now).

Here's a little blurb on him

James Russell-lefthander, Texas: 3.86 ERA, 109.2 IP, 108 H, 91 K/28 BB, .256 BAA, 14 HR allowed That must be a pretty good changeup to strike that many hitters out with his other stuff.

Jonathan Wyatt .323 AVG, 6 HR, 37 RBI, .415 OBP, 47 R, 72 H, 35 BB, 35 K, 16/19 SB, no errors in CF .323/.415/.457 line overall http://www.georgiadogs.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=8800&ATCLID=375806

Righthander Ryan Acosta's father Oscar, who was a Yankees minor league manager, was killed with another Yankees official in a car accident in the Dominican Republic last year. Ryan was lauded for remaining with his high school team after the accident, and could draw interest from teams that like his potential as a pitcher. He played mostly at shortstop as an underclassman and is a good athlete with plus arm strength. His secondary pitches and command are unrefined. from the Florida scouting report: http://prospectsplus.baseballamerica.com/content/263990.html

http://www.benmaller.com/mlb_rumors_notes#144630 if we could get Miller for Z id be as giddy as a schoolboy. probably not worth posting but i need some good news in a bad day for the cubs I must have missed something...why was yesterday a bad day for the Cubs? Meph wasn't a big fan of the players drafted by the Cubs yesterday-hence the use of the bad day.

Here's an article on Wright-some fluff in there, but some info as well. Seems he's a converted outfielder who struggled defensively in the infield but has been really good in the outfield: http://newsok.com/article/3060567

I'm not sure why. He practically was begging the Cubs for a job in Februrary, and he wasn't signed by them then-if they weren't going to sign him then, it would be very unlikely for them to do it now with Pie supposed to stay up with the major league club for good. Link? http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/rumors/post/Finley-considering-options;_ylt=AhKSKY81mLb30I_3.hC_74gV0bYF?urn=mlb,24645 That's not the best link, but it's the first one I could find. Finley made it no secret that he was looking for the Cubs to give him a call, and he waited a long time before signing with Colorado (I believe somewhere at the end of February or so). The Cubs didn't call in all that time-I doubt they will have changed their minds now that Pie has made it to the majors maybe even slightly faster than projected.

Yeah-the offense was better than the stats looked tonight. The Braves defense was excellent, and took several hits away from the Cubs hitters. Today was a really big win, and tomorrow is one too. If the Cubs can get the one tomorrow, they'll be up 2-0 in the series before having to face Hudson and Smoltz over the weekend.

oh god no He's been doing pretty well lately. Yeah-suddenly his velocity is up and he hasn't allowed any runs in his last 4 1/3 innings (5 outings).

Pie shouldn't be batting 2nd against a left-hander. I'm fine with him being in the lineup over somebody like Pagan against a left-hander, because Pie brings some other things to the table. Right now though, batting Pie 2nd against LHP is like batting Jones 2nd against LHP (or maybe even a little worse from his numbers in the minors the last year and a half)-if Jones was penciled into that 2 spot right now, people would be calling Lou an idiot. I would have moved Theriot to 2 and Pie down to 7.

What makes you think we would take him if he did? It's a shame Samardzija didn't like football more, maybe we could have put the money he got into this draft. That wouldn't have happened. The money would have been a problem this year with the impending sale whether the team went above slot with several guys last year or not.

It's actually Sports South now. They dropped Turner after Uncle Ted sold his share of the Braves. Fox Sports South then bought Turner South and re-named it Sports South. Oh, so that's what the crazy logo on my TV is. It took me forever to find that channel to make sure that the game was on it, and that's because I didn't realize the logo had changed.

Has MLB instructed teams to try to take as much of their 5 minutes as possible during this thing? If not, I could see this going much quicker than that, especially for the early picks.

Even if Soriano does stay in the leadoff spot, Theriot will be in the 2 spot against a left-hander, not Pie. Pie will drop to either 7 or 8.

I think they did-Derwood posted the official bracket in the social thread, so my guess is that it is locked now.

For those currently in the Southeast, I also believe you can see tonight's game on Turner South.

good point... have the Cubs spent many high draft picks on college hitters though? I think a lot more have been on high school bats. More real high picks have been high schoolers, but college position players have been drafted high as well Top 10 round position players since 96 1996 2nd round-Quincy Carter-HS 5th round-Chad Myers-college 6th round-Doug Hall-college 9th round-Nate Manning-college 97 5th round-Jaisen Randolph-HS 6th-Matt Mauck-HS 8th-Ron Walker-college 9th-Gary Johnson-college 10th-Mike Amrhien-college 98 1st-Corey Patterson-HS 2nd-Dave Kelton-HS 2nd-Jeff Goldbach-HS 3rd-Robert Bass-HS 6th-Tony Shrager-college 10th-Nate Frese-college 99 2nd round-Mike Mallory-HS 3rd-Ryan Gripp-college 7th-Mike Dzurilla-college 9th-Chris Curry-college 10th-Jim Deschaine-college 00 1st-Luis Montanez-HS 2nd-Bobby Hill-HS 3rd-Nic Jackson-college 5th-Gary Banks-HS 7th-Ryan Jorgenson-college 10th-Blake Blesi-college 2001 3rd-Ryan Theriot-college 5th-Brendan Harris-college 8th-Warren Hanna-college 10th-Corey Slavick-college 2002 2nd-Brian Dopirak-HS 3rd-Matt Craig-college 4th-Alan Rick-HS 6th-Chris Walker-college 7th-Joey Mohahan-college 8th-Jason Fransz-college 9th-Adam Greenberg-college 10th-Keith Butler-college 03 1st-Ryan Harvey-HS 3rd-Jake Fox-college 4th-Tony Richie-college 7th-Kyle Boyer-college 9th-Drew Larson-college 10th-Casey McGehee-college The Cubs have been terrible at developing any type of hitter-both HS and college. There have been more HS hitters taken in the first 5 rounds, and more college hitters taken overall in the top 10 rounds. They simply haven't done a good job of either.