Little Slide Rooter

Is he really broken so much as a rough start to the season? He's always been pretty solid. We really have nowhere to put him with Wada likely having an opt out clause if not called up sooner than later. A somewhat surprising decision nonetheless. Astros should probably reclaim him. They're probably paying him more than their entire roster.

Are the Smokies recruiting starting pitchers via Craigslist?

I don't care how inept he is. I want him called up pronto for no other reason than to see Manny Ramirez in a Cubs uniform.

Kyle Hendricks hasn't pitched since 5/15. Any reason?

The baseball Gods demanded sacrifice in exchange for Almora and Baez' hot streaks.

As far as sexiness of stuff from a young Cubs reliever, Rondon ranks behind only Marmol, Shark, and Farnsworth when they first came up. First time I ever saw Farns, I questioned whether it was humanly possible to hit him. The answer was yes.

You don't look at Rondon, Ramirez, and Grimm as anything more than streaky? Grimm hasn't even been that good, but the stuff is certainly there. Strop is streaky, but he's hurt anyway. Wright looks good. Schlitter or Parker should hold down a middle relief role decently. Rosscup looked capable. Rivero and Vizcaino are coming soon. Only the 3 vets look like they need to go.(Russell, Villanueva, Veras) It doesn't surprise me you're nitpicking early WAR numbers, which isn't a good way to judge a pen as it is. But we have some serious arms in play and more to come. It's not hard at all to see this as a serious strength in the very near future. Maybe even now with a 7-8-9 of Grimm, Ramirez, and Rondon. Russell's been pretty good as of late. 3 ER 2/6 BB/K in his last 10. Still loving the thought of Grimm, Wright Ramirez, Rivero, Strop, Rondon, Vizcaino making up the pen at some point between now and 2015.

Had to check just to be certain, but Russell's been pretty good as of late. Not striking a lot of guys out, but he hasn't walked a guy in his past 8 games. Only given up 3 runs in his past 10. Trade value will never be what it was last year, but no reason to dump him just to dump him. Not yet.

http://insider.espn.go.com/blog/buster-olney/post?id=6248 Is this true? I thought he was after this season.

Andreoli has always intrigued me. He gets on base. He hits for avg. he has speed. However, he's a career .376 SLG, but his 6'1 215lb frame suggests that there should be more power to him.

Neftali probably threw him the gas he's looking for as he flails at every curve in the dirt.

These are just the guys who are killing him. These junk-balling journeyman make a living fooling cocky young prospects who are unfamiliar with their style. Meanwhile, the Chris Valaikas and Donnie Murphys make their living teeing off them. It's the circle of bad.

Potential for rain delays today. Which shows you how Tseng and Blackburn are regarded in the system. And he done tossed him a beaut. 6 IP, 1/8 BB/K 1ER 2H

Armando Rivero has 35/8 through 22. Not sure why he isn't at AAA yet. With all the teams hurting for starting pitching, I'm not sure why they don't shop Villanueva and call one of these guys up.

Might even want to try dangling Hammel, Villanueva, or even Jackson in front of them right about now.

To open up a discussion from a few days back, the more I think about it, the more I think Javy's being junk balled to death. At 21, he's taken the express lane to AAA. In each level that he's been at, he's likely been up against a lot of live arms trying to prove that they belong or make it to the next level. Then he gets to AAA, and the bulk of the pitchers have either been there for a few years, many of whom have had some level of big league experience. These aren't guys who got there with stuff, they got there by fooling other guys by soft tossing. The ones who have big league experience, more than a cup of coffee made a living by fooling big league hitters. Once the big league bats figured them out, it was back to the minors. With this in mind, regardless of how talented the 21 year old, they probably haven't been up against anything like it. At first, Rodrigo Lopez may as well be Greg Maddux. They're used to guys trying to out pitch them, and now they're up against guys trying to outsmart them. But once they figure out these guys, it becomes tee off time. So it makes sense that after a few years at AAA, guys like Bryan LaHair and Jake Fox rack up Ruthian slash line, whereas these cocky 21-22 year olds end up looking silly. In the end, it comes down to mental makeup; do they let these guys competely throw them off, or do they learn from it?

[expletive]. Samardzija, Castro, Cashner, Baez, Castillo, Vogelbach and many others who still account for a substantial portion of this supposedly deep farm system were here before. Outside of drafting Bryant, which they needed to tank a season in order to accomplish, and trading Cashner, which they needed the value of Cashner to pull off, they have brought in no young talent that is more impactful than what was already here. The pre-Theo "financially crippled and empty system" story is a [expletive] grossly exaggerated myth propagated by the apologists. If you want to think only in terms of the amateur draft, then it all remains to be seen. But beyond that, Epstein has brought in not only prospects but young, big league talent via trades and reclamations that Hendry never would have. Wood, Maholm->Vizcaino, Feldman->Arietta, Strop, are some examples that come to mind. He''s done a great job rebuilding with the few blocks he was left with. As of now, we have young, cost effective talent all throughout the system. We have holes, but we have the money to fill them and the minds to do it right. The payroll is $93MM, $14 of which is paid to a guy on the Yankees. Schierholtz and Villanueva account for another $10MM. That alone is $24MM off the books after this year. They should be able to re-up Shark, offer arbitration where it's due, and still have enough to make some impactful, big league additions. If they're still playing the poor little rich team card in the winter, then I'll worry and/or call Shennanigans.

His teams were highly flawed because he had no interest in finding players that could get on base. That seemingly hasn't changed. Yes, that's the point; the teams he put together weren't the financially crippled, catastrophic messes that some need to make them out as to seemingly justify what's been going on under the current regime when it comes to the big league team. It's a tired excuse. But you're the only one using the term "financially crippling." What was crippling was the lack of young talent left behind. 2015 has been the goal all along; and that's to be competitive, and go from there. At this moment in time, does it feel like we're less than a year away from that? Not on the surface. But we do have 1B, SS, C covered. I'm not ready to crown Olt just yet, but as of now, it looks like we may have 3B. The OF is iffy. If nothing else, we have maybe a pair of platoon guys in Lake and Kalish. Bryant is sure looking like he could be in the heart of our lineup by opening day. Soler's possible, but. I wouldn't bet on it. Between Valbuena, Barney and Watkins, we have if not 2B, then a pair of UT. n Wood, Jackson, Hammel, Arrietta, Hendricks, and maybe Wada, we easily have 3 mid-back end options. Extending Shark would give us a front end guy, and I hope we do. Vizcaino, Rondon, Ramirez, Rivero, Wright, Grimm, and Rosscup, I like our pen. So if our opening day roster looked something like: 1B Bryant 2B ?, Barney/Watkins, Valbuena SS Castro, Barney/Watkins 3B Olt, Valbuena LF Bryant, Lake CF ?, Lake, RF Soler/?, Kalish C Castillo, does it matter? SP: Shark (if resigned), ??, 3 of Arietta, Wood, Jackson, Hammel, some type of Wada/Feldman/Maholm reclamation-win BP: Vizcaino (CL,) Rondon, Ramirez, Rosscup,Grimm, Wright. Shark would be very expensive, but IMHO, worth it. As for filling the holes, for SP, if we want to aim for the stars, there's Lester or Scherzer. Not sure what's beyond that. Even is Ervin Santana continues his dominance, he's a scary investment. Similar could be said for Liriano. Melky Cabrera seems like he could make back a big chunk of the change that he cost himself in 2012, and Colby Rasmus seems to have blossomed into the best we could have hoped for from Brett Jackson before the engine dropped out. So really, Epstein's plan seems to be right on course. Step 1: Clear out the attic: check. Step 2: rebuild on a foundation of good, young players: check Step 3: dust off the checkbook, fill the holes.

When they go to Daytona, they don't play. When they go to Iowa, they die. The only answer is to keep all relevant prospects at Tennessee. But in all serious, I have to wonder how much of it has to do with Iowa's coaching. Baez, Alcantara, Villanueva, Szczur, Vitters, and Jackson, we have 6 relevant prospects who are struggling far to much for it to be a coincidence.

hate to say it, but it is often a precursor to an injury announcement. I was thinking more in terms of being thrown off by the piggyback.

I wouldn't use the term "crippling," but he did leave a mess behind. A lot of what he did wasn't so much harmful as wasteful. Aaron Miles and John Grabow are some examples of spending money for no other reason then because it was there. And those NTCs hurt toward the end. The farm system was in complete disarray when he left. I'm still not quite sure why he allowed Hayden Simpson to happen on his watch.

Including today, Baez has 20 strikeouts in his past 11 games. According to baseballs top statistical analysts, holy [expletive], that's a lot of strikeouts.

It's the Koolaide. http://www.lardlad.com/assets/quotes/season4/9F10.shtml In all seriousness, I am still on board with what the Epstein plan represents. This being said, professional sports is above all else a form of entertainment. I don't know how many TV shows would survive if they told their audience "hey, I know we're unwatchable now, but we're developing some new writers and have our eye on some young, up and coming actors; but for now, please enjoy Tone Loc and Dustin Diamond." I also have to wonder what's next if when the Epstein Era comes to an end, leaving behind a strong farm but a well below .500 big league club and progressively dwindling ticket sales. Does ownership hit the panic switch and hire a guy to bandage together a Hendry-esque monster? Do they sell to the highest bidder?

Maybe we'll get to draft Verlander as a result. We broke ours.