Little Slide Rooter

It wasn't long ago that I was ready to toss Villanueva aside, but he's really picked things up the past week or 2. This early in the season 1 hot or cold week can have a drastic effect on the stat line. It's hard not to worry anout Baez' K rates, but the only other one that really worries me is Paniaqua and his visa issues. Another one in the limited to no action category is Lake. I actually have him above Vitters and Jackson. There's also several mid tier guys that have struggled such as Amaya, Hermandez, and Zych to name a few but we really don't have too much riding on those guys.

Daury Torrez with 2 K and 0BB in 2 innings; he came in in relief. I'm not sure how these things work but when a guy doesn't start in an early season game like this, does it necessarily mean that they're using him as a reliever or are they piggy backing? And refresh my memory, who are the DSL alumni here worth following besides Torrez and Martinez? I believe that Balenguert got a fairly decent bonus last year, and Malave the year before. Was Frandy DeLa Rosa our biggish international signing this past offseason? Sounds like Torrez was probably piggybacking and Rosario was the starter because he's rehabbing. The big Latin American names to keep an eye out for besides Torrez are Frandy de la Rosa (yeah, he was the big 2012 signing), Jeffrey Baez, Carlos Penalver, Marck Malave, Luis Acosta, and pitchers Alexander Santana, Carlos Rodriguez, Eric Leal and Angel Mejias. I fogot about Penalvar and Baez. Remember Leal, but didn't realise he was a big deal. Not familiar with Santana or Mejias. We're they around last year?

Based on what? Baez? Soler's been very good and Almora and Vizcaino have yet to play. Vogelbach and Shoulders have been very impressive. Anything from Vitters or Jackson is gravy as far as I'm concerned, and most of the other relevant prospects havn't done anything eye popping but have been pretty solid.

I'm still for trading one of Villanueva or Feldman. A lot of teams could use a quality starting pitcher, and with the possible exceptions of Norris and Nolasco, i can't imagine there's much available at this time. Norris left his last start with back spasms, and at this point, I'd take Villanueva or Feldman over Nolasco. This could be the time to strike. We still have Baker somewhere out there as insurance.

Now if the Cubs could just find a way to own CarGo, we'd be in big business. :beg:

Daury Torrez with 2 K and 0BB in 2 innings; he came in in relief. I'm not sure how these things work but when a guy doesn't start in an early season game like this, does it necessarily mean that they're using him as a reliever or are they piggy backing? And refresh my memory, who are the DSL alumni here worth following besides Torrez and Martinez? I believe that Balenguert got a fairly decent bonus last year, and Malave the year before. Was Frandy DeLa Rosa our biggish international signing this past offseason?

What you call tripping over myself to make a point, I simply call backing up my point with information. It was 2011, and it wasn't meant to be a direct comparison. Since we were imagining going forward two years, I thought it'd be interesting to go back two years. Getting back to the actual point of our short- and medium-term pitching outlook. Actually under contract for 2015, we have: Jeff Samardzija's age 30 season Edwin Jackson's age 31 season Travis Wood's age 28 season And that's backed by one of the the least inspiring bunch of upper-minors pitching prospects in baseball. We can hold it together with some skill, luck and money in the next two years. But if things go badly and we aren't a very good team by that time, I'd suspect lack of pitching to be the most likely culprit. so you're complaining that we only have 3 starters locked in for a season that is 2 years away. and im pretty sure the pitching in the system will be improved significantly in the next 2 years. I like it that way. Leaves options open. I wouldn't put a big trade past them. And while our upper level pitching prospects project as depth at best aside from Vizcaino and maybe Cabrera, each of whom could end up in the pen, by 2015 Maples, Johnson, Wells, Underwood, Blackburn and our 2013 pick should be approaching big league ready; I sincerely hope that at least 2-3 of those guys pan out as more than depth.

Christian Villanueva up to .250/.319/.387. Certainly doesn't scream mega prospect, but considering his age and his line about a week or so ago, I'll happily take it and hope for more. Meanwhile Matt Szczur's at .302/.373/.388. I'm thinking that he could have Michael Bourn as a ceiling and any number of toolsey speedsters who fell on their face as a floor.

Thats bad and not the Michael Jackson type of bad. More like hope his bat continues to progress to the point where we can trade him for something useful to an NL ballclub type of bad; which most of us suspected from the moment he was drafted.

Hows about Kyling up Vitters and Jackson while they still have a glimmer of hope.

Alberto Cabrera doing a good job of not walking the world so far. Through 5 he's at 0/5 BB/K with 4 hits and 1 run.

The Dodgers, Angels, and Blue Jays could all potentially have top 5-10 picks in next year's draft.

Ian Stewart with a 2B; OPS slowly but surely creeping toward .500. Baby steps.

What level of phenom is Bryant, and is his defense really that bad? Isn't it Theo's philosophy to draft the best available player regardless of position? I'd be all for drafting him, especially if there's any truth to talk of trading for a Ray's pitcher, and then see if we can land another Vizcaino type for Feldman.

Frank DelValle seems to be keeping down his number of walks and keeping up his K's. I know he got a fairly substantial bonus when signed. Could we have something?

Convert half of our blown saves into wins, and the Cubs are just what we expected entering the season; a .500ish team that could be right in the mix for a wild card. All of the sudden, I don't feel like cashing in our trade chips as soon as possible. I'd certainly like to see what Feldman would fetch though when Garza returns.

What's with this XBH assault? And a lot of them are actual crossing home plate. I like it.

The past 10 days, Christian Villanueva has quietly put up a .324/.385/.441 line.

On a side note, does this officially cement Vogelbach as trade bait?

Any interest depending on the cost, assuming they're ready to move him?

I sincerely hope that one of baseball's top analysts is OK with locking up a 23 year old who could very well be one of baseball's premier sluggers for years to come for under 6MM per year. We have our two cornerstones locked up into their 30s for under 13 mil year. Combined. We're currently paying Carlos Marmol nearly 10 mil.

Trade for Stanton and give him a huge extension. While there are several options that would be great to have, Cano's the only one I'd really want to go all in on. Not that there aren't others I wouldn't be happy to have at the right price. Then again, when you lock up your two cornerstones for a combined 13 mil, you can afford to do some splurging here and there.

Just when I was ready to stop acknowledging the existance of our AAA affiliate, Brett Jackson goes 3-5 with a 2B, BB, and 0 K and Vitters 1-3 with 2...yes, 2 BB with 1 K.

No Mojo, more often than not being down 1-0 after 5 is far from insurmountable. But when your up against an ace caliber pither with his best stuff, it makes it a lot easier to accept a probably defeat. My lack of faith in our bullpen, as well as our manager's ability to manage it entered into it too.

My thoughts exactly. After tuning out after the first 6 innings or so, winning this one didn't even cross my mind. I don't even mean that as a knock on the offense. Gio was looking filthy.