WeberJazz

Maybe this is his covert attempt to get a date with NPH?

This just in: Rich Harden is good.

Wow...get rid of this guy.

Wow...I thought for sure the Cubs were going to give up more than this to get Harden. I have my concerns about his health, but for as little as they gave up, he's certainly worth the risk.

I don't get to see many games, but the kid has really been dominating. The one time I did get to see him throw, he didn't look too sharp, but you could definitely see signs of great stuff. What's everyone's opinion on him? Future closer? Back to the rotation at some point? He's been lights out this year... Thanks in advance!

I just noticed that Hill is now #2 on the staff with 6 wins. Wow, that is brutal.

When I read the article about Jada over at mlb.com, my heart just sank. DLee is one of the genuine good guys in baseball and it was tough to see him go through the injury, but this is even tougher to watch. I wish him and his family well in this ordeal.

High praise for Hill from Cincinnati: "He's like a left-handed Ben Sheets, where he uses his curveball a lot," Reds catcher David Ross said. "You definitely can't look for the curveball because he throws 94 [mph]. He threw real well. One of the best pitchers we faced this year, I thought."

My bad, I was just excited about Hill's start. The kid is looking really good and his recent performances have me feeling much better about our potential rotation next year. If we could land a top of the rotation FA pitcher, I think the staff could be quite good. Z FA -- Zito, Schmidt, The kid from Japan Prior Hill Miller However, I'm not sure any of those acquisitions is realistic. Schmidt is probably headed to Seattle, Zito is going to cost a ton, and the kid from Japan has other more likely suitors. It may be worth it to pay for Zito and I would be in favor of keeping Miller at the back of the rotation to make it work since he would probably come cheap.

I just got back from golfing and checked the Cubs boxscore....HOLY COW!!! What a game from Hill. Over his last five starts he's given up 4 er's in 37 innings. Nice. (Edited by moderator for language)

From the boxscore it looks like he had a solid outing today. For those who got to watch, what was his velocity and stuff like? I have a bad feeling that Hendry is going to count on this guy to be our #5 next year and just add one FA pitcher on the offseason. Z Prior Hill Miller ?

This is kind of late on the Hill/Duke discussion, but relevant to Duke's performance this year is the fact that he has been in the process of revamping his mechanics. I just got off the phone with my old man (who is a huge Pirates fan) and he mentioned that the Pirates pitching coach (I think he said it was a new pitching coach) felt like Duke's mechanics were going to cause him arm troubles somewhere down the road so they've been working on his mechanics. My dad said that he is just now getting used to his new delivery and his last 7 or 8 starts have been much better.

Thanks, that info. should be considered when evaluating Guzman's performance. He has seemed to struggle since being called up, but he had that nice start against Philly toward the end of Aug. where he gave up one run in six innings while striking out eight. I was hoping at that point that he could turn the corner and finish out the season strong with some solid outings. However, that hasn't seemed to have happened. I guess we'll get a better gauge on him next year as he continues to regain his health and confidence. I was encouraged to see that his FB is back in the mid 90's.

That's what I was thinking earlier today but when I checked O'Neill's statistics, I decided that was probably a bit optimistic. The guy posted some pretty nice seasons. Though if Murton attains that kind of production, I will be thoroughly pleased.

Funny you should talk about Murton because I was just looking at his stats and thinking about his production. Entering tonight he has played 178 games and has 534 AB's -- roughly the equivalent amount of AB's of a full major league season. His line over that period looks like this: .305 avg./.370 obp/.461 slg/.831 ops. He has 18 HR and 71 rbi over that period. I guess what I'm trying to say is, I agree w/ Dusty, Izturis should be hitting number 2 next year :roll: Murton in left isn't the problem, it's Pierre and Jones in center and right. But as it currently stands, I think we are better off trying to add some power at second as opposed to left.