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Does he have to average 35/10/10 a night to impress you? He's 5th in the league in points while shooting a very good percentage for somebody who scores that much, tied for 50th in rebounds, tied for 17th in assists, and tied for 14th in steals. You're not going to find many other players in the league who are that well balanced, and he's only 22. He is a star in the league, and is the main reason why is team is where it is today. I'm not even a LeBron fan (hard to be when he's in the same division) but he is an amazing player-the best player in the Central Division.

He stopped being a ground ball pitcher last year-if he doesn't get ground balls, he's too hittable to be effective. So far in ST, the same thing has happened-when he's gotten ground balls, he's been great. The outing or two where he hasn't gotten ground balls, he's been bad to awful. If he can minimize those awful outings, he'll be just fine for the team-we'll just have to wait and see if he does.

Here is his quote from yesterday-so the Rams would take Okoye-Andy and Carolina are next.

That might be true. But on the other hand Walker can make the case that all the other rosters were set, and once that happens its hard to just pick up with a team. Why is it so hard to understand that once rosters are set at the end of ST, teams are reluctant to make changes? That's certainly true. But Walker has to prove that he is no ordinary person being released. He has to prove that he is better than that, that if not for the contract he would have been a clear upgrade over the Padres other options. If so, he should be a clear upgrade for some other teams as well. Rosters are not completely set in stone anyway- teams do make moves to acquire players in this time period to fill out their bench. Freddie Bynum and Brandon Phillips are just two examples off the top of my head last year of players acquired for the major league roster either just before the start of the season or just after. Both those players were traded for very little, but the fact that Walker was a free agent should have made it easier than those two players to make his way onto a roster this late than ST, not harder.

Actually, someone has been creating them using a bookmarked link with updated date and team info. Hopefully, when the season starts, MLB will make it easier to find on its front page and or the front page of the individual team sites. The links are on the front page now, and also on the scoreboard page. They just don't become available until a few hours before gametime. It's up now, if you go to the scoreboard page. Lineups are there too - and The Riot is batting 2nd. Thanks for the update that the lineup is up. The lineup makes sense-everybody who played the full game last night (Jones, DeRosa, Izturis, Barrett) are all sitting today, while everybody who got replaced during the game is back in the lineup.

Not necessarily true at all. Even if Prior does feel like he's been mistreated that could easily be water under the bridge when he becomes a free agent. Dusty is gone; Hendry could well be gone by then too. Whether Prior decides to remain with the Cubs will be based on his feelings about the Cubs' organization in the present and future, not past. That's true-he's still 2 years away. In baseball terms, that's still a long, long time for an organization-even if Prior is very upset at the organization right now, he still has time to change his mind, and money has a way of changing minds as well.

For about the 1 millionth time Confidence is result NEVER a cause. I think it's better for the ameture psychologists to keep their diagnosis to themselves. The diagnoses are completely full of nonsense, as is most of this thread. Ok, if you say that a player's level of confidence does not affect performance at all, then that's fine. I don't think it has as much effect as cliche would seem to indicate (the whole if you believe you can, you can-if you don't believe, you can't-that's way, way overstating it). I think that a person can only perform to the level that their talent and training allows them to, but I also believe that a lack of confidence can cause a person to think too much and not let their natural abilities take over. That is supported by both the stunning dropoff in some players at times (mental blocks in the inability to do certain things-the Chuck Knoublauch example from a few years about is a great example of what a few physical mistakes that resulted in a lack of confidence, and the lack of confidence caused him to make the same simple physical mistake over and over again). Also look at a case like Mark Wohlers, which is somewhat common for closers-never had too much of a problem with walking people at an exceptional rate for years, and then without injury just simply lost it-how do you explain that? There are also plenty of athletes who said they have broken through when they simply trusted their abilities and stopped thinking all the time and doubting themselves all the time-are they mistaken? I don't think that is nearly all that is wrong with Prior, and neither do I agree with in the slightest those who are calling him soft or that his mental issues are the only reason he's not dominant. The mental part of the game has to play a part though-a person's mindset does affect in some way how they perform.

Well-this is going to be an NL game, so I doubt that even if the Cubs went with their regular lineup that Jacque would be at #2 (since Floyd shouldn't be in the game). It will be interesting to see how the Cubs structure the lineup though if they do face a left-hander while using the DH during the regular season. That should maybe only happen once or twice the whole season though-and I can't really see too many other scenarios during the season where Jones and Floyd will be playing at the same time against a left-hander.

I don't think anyone is criticizing the Cubs for sending down Prior. I think people are trying to introduce a little sanity into the discussion. Prior is a wuss and Prior lost his confidence are pretty weak arguments. Prior lost mph on his fast ball and Prior hasn't located his pitches are much better arguments IMO. I'm glad the Cubs didn't give Prior a spot if he's not ready. I think here's the quote that Soul is referring to That definitely is criticism for sending down Prior. Also-yes, Prior lost mph on his fast ball and an inability to locate his pitches are the direct reasons why he hasn't pitched well. The thing is-what are the causes of those two things? Is it just because of the loss of arm strength due to the injuries? Is it the time off? Is it due to a lack of confidence that is causing him not to air his arm all the way out for fear of getting hurt again? I think it's a combination of all 3, and I understand why that is-I have a knee injury, and the hardest thing in coming back from it is trusting that my knee was healthy and allowing myself to go at full speed without risk of injury. With all the setbacks that Prior has had over the last year, it is likely that a similar thing is happening to him, and that is at least part of the cause for his lack of speed and command is this mental fear (the other part being that he is still rehabbing from his injuries physically as well and building arm strength).

The advertising money is based on ratings (which gets to my original point about WGN making a profit on Sox games). Overall, the Sox had higher ratings in 2006 thus, the network will have the luxury of charging more per ad during Sox games in 2007 (than they can charge for Cubs games). That said, I fully expect the Cubs to regain the television and radio lead this season and for the foreseeable future. Actually, that's not quite true-advertising dollars aren't done precisely on past ratings. The Cubs with their push over the offseason probably have convinced advertisers to pay more for their games again-there are going to be a great deal of Cubs fans that check in to this team to see how they are doing, and advertisers will project that the Cubs will likely be ahead in ratings again this year and spend their dollars accordingly.

Well, lets pretend, like you are, that 200 innings isn't the benchmark for "highest level", that's still only two years out of four, which doesn't exactly support your argument. But, in real life, 200 innings is the benchmark for a "highest level" pitcher, and he didn't get there. I'm sorry, I'd love to think that Prior is all that you want him to be, but in the end, all we have is the numbers. And the numbers say that all elite pitchers pitch at least 200 innings per season. You can walk out any stats you want, but in the end, he didn't meet that benchmark. Sorry. I want Mark Prior to kick a**. I want him to dominate the league. I want him to be better than Zambrano. Would I bet my house on it? I'll let you answer that question first. Mark Prior is nothing but the stats he has produced. Period. this side argument isn't even my point (though I stand by what I've said). My point is that Prior believes the Cubs have mishandled, mistreated or otherwise set his career back. He's gone at the earliest possible juncture, the Cubs know it, and would love to delay that possibility. Why you can't acknowledge that Prior has been great in the past, is beyond me. If he hasn't put up the innings you'd like to see, that doesn't change the fact that when he has pitched, he's been dominant. I've stated that Prior isn't 100%. But all things being equal I'd bet he'd out produce Miller. He's being given the raw end of the deal by his "employers" again. You only put up with crap as an employee until you can find a better gig. That's all I'm saying. The raw end of the deal? Prior hasn't reached anywhere near the number of pitches he needs to be able to throw in the majors yet. I'm pretty sure the highest number of pitches he threw all spring was 60-so even if he was pretty effective with his pitches, that number of pitches is just not enough for the majors yet-let him go down to the minors and build up so that he can throw 80-100 pitches (hopefully effectively). Prior isn't being treated badly at all right now-if he can't reach the number of pitches needed and needs 5 days of rest between every start, then he's not ready to start yet in the majors. He's making progress but it will take a little more time, and right now Miller won't wear out the bullpen as much as Prior would.

Wasn't Zambrano the only pitcher who had more than 100 walks period? It kind of hurts your point. Statistically speaking there's a very high correlation with BB rate and K rates. This is expected and is not a secret. Z was 1 of 3 who had over 100 walks last year-Doug Davis and Daniel Cabrera also did, but I definitely agree there is a high correlation between high K and high BB rates.

BTW, Gameday records that pitcher as Baez, who makes sense since he's the pitcher they've used the last couple days: And now they say it on TV as I'm typing this:)

I count 17 wins in that scenario. I think we have a good chance to significantly improve on that this year. I do as well, but I certainly hope we don't get 88 chances like we did last year.

I count 17 wins in that scenario.

Trade the bum. We should trade him for Choi, and get Kerry to knock the sense back into him that he lost in the first collision. Where the heck is Choi now anyway? Tampa Bay, I think. Yup-he got sent down to the minors from Tampa Bay a few days ago.

I don't for this key reason. During the off-season, the organization had to trade Jones and find a new CF until Soriano agreed to play CF, and then the lineup was set. What would be the ideal lineup? One with Jones in CF and Soriano in RF-so that when Jones is finally traded, Soriano doesn't have to learn a new position again. However, that was never seriously considered by the organization. Why? It says that the organization has absolutely no faith in Jones to play CF everyday, and they are willing to risk Soriano playing there over Jones. So no, I don't see any way that Jones plays any more in CF than occasional duty there.

He's had 3 official errors so far this spring, and has had several misplays besides that. I do think he will get better as the season goes along though. Obviously, Soriano won't be a Gold Glove CF, but misplays in the Arizona sun are pretty common for the best OFs. I would think the Cubs would try Pie in RF so Soriano doesn't have to learn a new position. The Arizona sky is quite famous for making baseballs "disappear" in the air. I'm cutting him a lot of slack for learning another new position this Spring. I actually am too-Soriano has done nothing in ST to convince me that he can play CF, but because of Arizona conditions he hasn't done anything to convince me he can't either-this will just have to be a situation that we'll have to continue to monitor.

He's had 3 official errors so far this spring, and has had several misplays besides that. I do think he will get better as the season goes along though.

Yup-4-0 with 15 or more runs scored 3 out of the 4 games.

Wow-the Reds must have committed quite a few errors-that's 29 outs hit into by the Cubs, and that doesn't even count the pitcher's spot :D

It's the latter (3 division winners and best 2nd place team seeded by record). They are seeded 5th right now, but they would have homecourt advantage over the 4 seed-and if they and the 3 seed somehow reached the conference finals together, they would have homecourt advantage over them as well. So, is it re-seeded at all? If 1-2-3 and the Bulls at 5 all win, and the Bulls have a better record than the 3, who plays the Pistons? It's not re-seeded at all-the Bulls would play the Pistons in that scenario.

It's the latter (3 division winners and best 2nd place team seeded by record). They are seeded 5th right now, but they would have homecourt advantage over the 4 seed-and if they and the 3 seed somehow reached the conference finals together, they would have homecourt advantage over them as well.

The funny thing is also-after this pick, he doesn't even have to make another pick for the rest of the 3 round mock draft-I think with just one pick he's milking this for some face time :D

Surgery is not always the best option for shoulder problems-it's not like surgery would automatically fix everything. Prior and his doctors have chosen the treatment they thought would work best each time-I don't think you can say that just because he hasn't had surgery means that he doesn't have shoulder problems-plenty of people have shoulder problems and choose a non-surgical option for treatment.