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CubColtPacer

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  1. I thought that I'd give an update here-Lunardi was just on TV-his last 4 teams in are Purdue, Stanford, Drexel, and Kansas State. His last 4 teams out are Old Dominion, Illinois, Florida State, and Air Force. He said that the problem for Illinois is that it had a record of 2-10 against teams that are locked into the field. He gets about 63 or 64 out of 65 right each year, so 1 or 2 of those teams that are just out will likely be in over 1 or 2 of those teams that are just in-it will be interesting to shake out which ones those are.
  2. They will still be safely in, but I do believe that all of the seed improvement that USC has been doing with their two previous wins in the tournament has been washed away with this performance-this is the sort of thing that could cost them a couple seed lines tomorrow night. What do you see for Tennessee after we crapped out in the first round Thursday? I figure probably a 6 seed. That seems about right, maybe a 5 since many of the other teams who were in that region also went out early in their conference tournaments and not many teams are making a huge run through the conference tournaments which would push them up into that range.
  3. They will still be safely in, but I do believe that all of the seed improvement that USC has been doing with their two previous wins in the tournament has been washed away with this performance-this is the sort of thing that could cost them a couple seed lines tomorrow night.
  4. Teams like Purdue, Illinois, and K-State should be safe if there aren't upsets tomorrow. If Arkansas wins the SEC and NC State wins the ACC-things are going to get a bit dicey.
  5. I believe it was 6 walks for the Padres game yesterday, and 3 walks today. Those 3 walks are still more than last years average though.
  6. Now that's something I'd be fine with at this point-a second utility guy which allows Theriot to be used off the bench early without fear of somebody getting hurt later.
  7. Buck Coats can play SS. Not well. But he has had quite a few games there in the minors. Right. Thats what i was trying to say :lol: Coats tore the ball up in ST last year as well-over a 1.100 OPS-that didn't help him much during the season.
  8. There's guys in the NBA who have been around forever for no apparent reason. I would agree-the NBA has just as much of that as the MLB does.
  9. They only have Prior scheduled for two today.
  10. From what all of you are saying-it's that Prior is improving and may be ready in a while, but probably won't improve fast enough to be ready for the team out of ST? That's what I'm hearing-it just seems like it might take him a while to be ready and get that command back.
  11. Rocky Cherry seems to be giving him a run for his money at the moment... Certainly; it'd be nice if Wuertz got healthy too - he has a better track record than Cotts and would, imo, be better than Cotts this season. Who is the long reliever in that scenario? Guzman? I honestly think long relievers are a bit overrated, especially if it means an inferior pitcher makes the team. I think that's why Cotts has a spot no matter what. Oh, I would probably agree, but you're right that Lou has stated explicitly that one of the relievers would have to be a long reliever. I like the long reliever only because there would be a couple pitchers on this team who might be prone to missing a start without going on the DL-that's where the long reliever can come in handy and make a spot start without having to bring somebody up. In general though, I do agree that an inferior pitcher should not get the job just to be the long reliever.
  12. I think you should do that to a point. Blanco is going to get his 30-40 starts-to use the pitching matchups to determine when those starts are going to come is a good idea IMO. To give him more starts than Barrett needs off to rest because of the pitching matchups? That's not such a good idea. Lou would be looking at a pretty useless sample, though. Are you talking about with the Cubs pitchers or them hitting against opposing pitchers?
  13. I think you should do that to a point. Blanco is going to get his 30-40 starts-to use the pitching matchups to determine when those starts are going to come is a good idea IMO. To give him more starts than Barrett needs off to rest because of the pitching matchups? That's not such a good idea.
  14. In a couple years, Cedeno could become that-DeRosa is probably not likely that he'll be that high, but I could see as very reasonable that he'll be over 750.
  15. I believe I read at the time of his signing that it was a straight minor league deal, without an NRI to Spring Training. He may be reporting directly to the minor league camp. Interesting. I'd give Bobby Hill a shot at the 25th roster spot before I'd give Tomas Perez a shot, but oh well. I hope and pray Perez doesn't make the team. I think that's one thing that I haven't seen anybody disagree with yet :D
  16. I believe I read at the time of his signing that it was a straight minor league deal, without an NRI to Spring Training. He may be reporting directly to the minor league camp. Interesting. I'd give Bobby Hill a shot at the 25th roster spot before I'd give Tomas Perez a shot, but oh well. I think it's possible they brought in Perez primarily for ST anyway. The Cubs aren't exactly swimming in 3B/SS/2B prospects that they were going to bring to camp, and Perez might have been a guy who they were going to use for flexibility during ST and to eat up some innings, and if he impressed enough they might take a look at him.
  17. I hope you're right. But, I'm not convinced. Small sample sizes don't get me all that giddy. You are right that Izturis went on to have one of the most horrific months of all time. His batting average dropped from .349 to .275. 9 hits in the month of June. 24 straight games without a multi-hit game. Ugh. Oh, it's definitely not a sure thing. Even if you are fully convinced that Izturis was developing into a capable ballplayer at the plate (which I think I am at this point) even people like me are scared that he won't be able to hold up health-wise at this point. I don't think it's sure at all at this point-I just also don't think it's nearly a sure thing that he's going to be awful either. That seems to be the feeling, and I think there is a pretty decent chance that people will be very surprised, and that Izturis's OBP plus his defense will make him not a detriment to the team. If the team wanted to make an upgrade at SS, I won't be upset whatsoever-but I think Izturis's chances of succeeding and putting up between a .330-.350 OBP is much higher than people think. The development in his numbers, both average wise and patience, and the current coaching staff has me thinking it's reasonable to expect that out of him, while at the same time realizing it's a risk.
  18. Izturis in the first half of 2005: .275 .322 .338 That is not better than his 2004 season. He got hurt at the beginning of June and tried to play through it, which led to one of the most horrific months of all time. Here are his numbers from the first two months combined before the injury: .342/.387/.425 That is much better than his 2004 season-I obviously wouldn't expect him to put up those numbers for an entire season, but if he hadn't gotten hurt he probably wouldn't have fallen any lower than .350 or so for the year (and he would have had to fall off a pretty good amount to do that).
  19. BTW, as soon as I said that DeRosa hasn't batted 2nd all spring, Lou bats him 2nd today.
  20. I don't. Izturis was leading off the year he had his best OBP. It was a long time ago and he won't be expected to show the patience he did as a lead off hitter. I'll be pleasantly surprised if he gets back to the numbers he put up in 2004. But, I'm not counting on it at all. Well, his best numbers were really in 2005-throw out the numbers he did after he got hurt. I think he'll be somewhere in between 2004 and 2005, but probably closer to 2004 than 2005 (2005 would still have been his career year if hadn't gotten hurt, I don't think he can sustain that level). His patience has gotten better every year and he's got good coaching that encourages patience-I think his patience will just continue to get better, and his taking pitches in ST would seem to give a slight indicator of that as well.
  21. You laugh, but Cedeno IS Izturis when Izturis was breaking into the bigs. Izturis at 22: .232 .253 .303 Izturis at 23: .251 .282 .315 Cedeno at 23: .245 .271 .339 That is true-the only reason I'd want Izturis over Cedeno is that he is further along in his development-I can see Cedeno's bat developing in the same way, but it probably won't develop enough this year to be worthwhile in the majors.
  22. What's wrong with Izturis? He was promoted through the minors b/c of his defense and his bat is still catching up. His hitting has improved, especially his plate discipline. Izturis has speed and plays ridiculously well at SS. He's not Tejada at the plate, no question, but he can be very useful. What's our other option? Ronny Cedeno? lol He's got a career .295 OBP. Not really setting the world on fire. Career numbers don't mean much, especially when he was brought to the majors 2 1/2 years before his bat was ready for the majors because of his defense. If you look, you'll see that his bat improved every year from age 17 until age 25 when he got hurt (look closely at the splits on age 25, he got hurt at the beginning of June and continued to play hurt, which changed his total year numbers completely), and his OBP had improved into something managable (.330-.350) by then. If he's healthy again, wouldn't you expect his bat to be closer to how he was hitting when he was healthy last than what it was when he was a young kid?
  23. The interesting thing is that DeRosa hasn't batted 2nd all spring-it will be interesting to see if when Floyd gets back Piniella goes through with his idea of putting Jones in the 2 slot when Jones and Floyd are playing-if he does, then it could be that Murton and Jones share the 2 spot.
  24. Rocky Cherry seems to be giving him a run for his money at the moment... Certainly; it'd be nice if Wuertz got healthy too - he has a better track record than Cotts and would, imo, be better than Cotts this season. Who is the long reliever in that scenario? Guzman?
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