the splendid splinter

Yeah quit saying he was 19, oops he was 18.

Questionable defense? I dont think so, ask Thomas doubleplay partner Darwin Barney. If anything last year Thomas might have overdone it with his fielding helped by Bobby Dickerson and Ryne Sandberg in the fall of 07. The results were great, Thomas in his 1st full season made a total of 6 errors. He got off to a good start at the plate and then really struggled. In the FSL playoffs in over 40 at bats Thomas hit well over 400 and close to 500 and was the FSL MVP of the playoffs. Personally I'm writing off Hawaii because it was a long 1st season. I'll bet Thomas and Barney will play well in Tenn this season.

(Craig) Good job on Ty Wright, he's really slipped under the radar. 1st full year @Daytona and played the last two months with a sports hernia which was operated on after the season and FSL championship.

Imagine this, of these players, you have a total of one month of major league baseball. Christensen, Brownlie, Montanez, Pawelek, Harvey and Doparik. All 1st rounders or close to.

Law said 27, it was mostly due to the drafts which included 2005 which he stated "the cubs may not have a big leauger from the 05 draft. So like alot of people have been saying that the 2003 to 2005 drafts were very thin and to couple that with lost picks of 2,3,4 in 2006 and 2 in 2007 it makes for a thin system, its lucky what we have when you consider there's not one pick except for Mitch Atkins that makes anyones top 10 lists from the 2003 to 2005.

Breakout players. Guyer, Leverton, and Marwin Gonzalez. Nagel was in last years draft 2008. 6'5 230 Rp out of Independence CC in Missouri. 17th round, had Tommy John before he was signed. Suppose to have big stuff, like 92-95 with a decent breaking ball and would have possibly went 2nd to 4th round.

I'm going with David Rosario's statement of an overpowering slider. Ill let the rest of baseball prognosticators have Manuel, Cooper, Sickles and Callis.

I've read reports that his fb is 90-95 with avg around 92-93 and his fb can be straight but has good control to it. I've read he's got a very good slider and that his cb and change are avg pitches. Havent read about his lack of downward plane but have read that he's very upright in his delivery and with the combination of being somewhat straight and upright in his delivery it would depict some high non moving fastballs which could spell trouble with thee exception of his power slider can equalize some hitters sitting on a high fastball.

1st of all Dopirak was an older 19 yr old in his 2nd yr at Boise. and Harvey was 20 yrs old in his 2nd yr which was at Boise. Vitters played most of his 2nd yr at 18. Ab K's Avg xbh Vitters 259 45 328 32 Dopirak 192 58 240 17 Harvey 231 78 264 22

Didnt know that 6'1 is short?

Plus Donaldson made his improvements at a higher and more competitive level. Which makes me wonder sometimes. He never really struggled anywhere before that and maybe he got in a rut and this was like a new lease on life for him.

Just look at the lack of production in the 2003-2005 drafts and couple that with losing picks 2,3,4 in 2006 and the 2nd round in 2007 and its a wonder that we've got anything in the system. Thank heavens we drafted Donaldson with our sandwich pick in 2007 or we wouldnt have had the chip to get Harden, because without him we cant make that deal, according to articles quoting Oakland team sources.

New rumor with Dunn has him going to Toronto, after making up with his new buddy JP Ricciardi.

True and we have zero media darlings! Check down the road, they'll be alot of misses in that group and its like MLB.com and Baseball America are grudgingly giving some attention, because of the past yrs skepticism of Samardzija and dont want to admit their mistakes.

Strikeouts arent even close to Branyan and Branyan was toolshed without the contact. Barbarian player.