Little Slide Rooter

With the retirement of Kerry Wood, there are now 2 players remaining from the 1st round of the 2005 Amateur Draft Class. They're both pretty good. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1995_Major_League_Baseball_Draft

Phone Blake Lalli: hello? Voice: Congratulations Blake, you've been called up to the Cubs to fill in for Geovany Soto Blake Lallli: Is that you, Tolbert? This isn't very funny, you know. I'm hung over! My knees are killin' me and if you're going to pull this [expletive] at least you could've said you were from the Yankees. One of your best posts. What does that say? Pure genius?

There's 3rd where he's played a handfull of games, though he still plays the bulk of his games at SS. They did have him playing a lot of 2B, but he hasn't played there since 2009. At 6'2 215lbs, seems like a big guy for the middle infield. I'm surprised they've never put him in the OF.

Phone Blake Lalli: hello? Voice: Congratulations Blake, you've been called up to the Cubs to fill in for Geovany Soto Blake Lallli: Is that you, Tolbert? This isn't very funny, you know. I'm hung over! My knees are killin' me and if you're going to pull this [expletive] at least you could've said you were from the Yankees.

but this opinion of orlando hudson: Because Mike Gonzalez was recovering from knee surgery. We have our share of intriguing RP candidates, but not 2nd baseman, at least as far as big league ready guys go. This being said, as awful as our relief pitching has been in late innings,I'd happily take Gonzalez right about now.

But 2010 seems like more recent.

There will be a few moves. When K. Wood makes it official, even once Volstad goes to the pen they'll call up someone. Also, Soto is likely DL bound, so a catcher will be called up, nothing exciting. Likely Blake Lalli or some guy named Juan Apodaca. T. Wood's start won't come until Tuesday, at which point they'd likely send back whoever is called up for K. Wood.

Hoopefully we have a hefty lead for his symbolic last hurrah.

Somebody up there wants us to have no tradeable assets.

they shouldn't trade him at all if they aren't getting a really good prospect or three Exactly. We have no reason to salary dump, so it should be all about the prospects. If TF was referring to my post, I meant eat all of Soriano's contract as well.

Beat me to it. Looks like there's our big announcement. As awful as he's been this year, I do have mixed emotions. I'll be willing to bet that he takes a little vacay and then resurfaces with a front office position.

According to search results from the last year, WSRs flier team would look like this: Orlando Hudson Michael Bowden John Lannan James Loney Brandon Wood Scott Kazmir Scott Feldman Daisuke Matsuzaka -Feldman's been decent with the Rangers between the rotation and pen. -Daisuke is still on the DL. Still hanging on to the flier -Kazmir I fear is toast. But for a minor league deal, no harm. -Loney has been awful, but if the Dodgers wanted to dump him I'd have taken him at the time. Remember at the time people were vommiting uncontrollably at the thought of Bryan Lahair starting. -Hudson, I didn't realise how good Darwin Barney has been. Still as an insurance policy and replacement for Jeff Baker, why not. I don't see them giving Cardenas 2nd as bad as his defensive reputation is. -The Lannan and Wood fliers can go in the shredder.

He might not know the information, but he could have gotten wind that something is going down and he's playing it up to gain interest. There have been Tweets all morning about Volstad losing his rotation spot, so again, that's my guess. The question is what will they do with him.

I like Shark vs. Humber On the fence on Dempster vs. Danks I don't like Maholm vs.Peavy

The media seems to do this every year around now, so here goes: The 2012 Chicago Super Team, 1. David DeJesus RF .279/.368/.397 1 HR 2. Alejandro DeAza CF .286/.369/.435 3 HR 3. Paul Konerko 1B .362/.447/.580 7 HR 4. Bryan LaHair DH .330/.422/.670 10 HR 5. Starlin Castro SS .323/.335/.439 (didn't realise how low his OBP was) 6. Adam Dunn LF .246/.375/.572 13 HR (yeah, I know, he should probably be hitting 4, but until LaHair's numbers come down to earth) 7. A.J. Pierzynski C .299/.338/.465 5 HR 8. Ian Stewart 3B .203/.282/.352 4 HR (their guy is .177/.225/.195) 9. Darwin Barney 2B .271/.324/.388 wow. (again, their guy: .197/.272/.303) SP Ryan Dempster 1.74 11/41 0.97 SP Jake Peavy 2.65 9/48 0.92 (better peripherals than Dempster, but I'll still give Demp the 1 spot. Besides, Peavy will get in jured eventually and Gavin Floyd would take his spot and by 5 in this rotation) SP Matt Garza 2.58 16/41 1.04 SP Jeff Samardzjia 2.89 14/45 1.17 SP Chris Sale 2.91 12/40 1.13 CL Austin Reed 4.76 7/16 1.32 (take away 1 game in which he was rocked and he looks much better) BP Nathan Jones 1.45 8/18 1.13 BP Jeff Russell 1.15 8/14 1.40 BP Jesse Crain 2.00 3/12 1.00 BP Sean Camp 3.43 5/17 1.24 BP Rafael Dolis 3.52 10/8 1.13 Bench Steve Clevenger .500/.522/.727 Bench Tony Campana .315/.359/.370 Bench Alex Rios .273/.331/.374 Bench Alfonso Soriano .262/.296/.365 Bench Joe Mather .244/.340/.439 Actually a lot better than I thought it would look. Great starting pitching. Solid bullpen. I like the lineup.

My guess is an announcement of Volstad being taken out of the rotation, perhaps traded and some stupid BP Cup PR garbage.

The last two games he has caught he was a lot better receiving the ball. I don't know what was going on with him in that Milwaukee game. The end of Soto will come A. When someone offers something of value for him Or B. if his arbitration figure is high enough that it's not worth what they feel they could get in return for him. He needs to be given until at least the trade deadline to get his trade value up. I like Castillo and Clevenger as he tandem of the future, but at this time it's not like they're going to be the kind of difference makers that would force Soto out of town for nothing. We don't have a lot of trade chips. Assuming we plan to keep Garza, we have Dempster, who's been great but he's 35 and a rental and DeJesus if they decide to move him, but the way he's been playing and the lack of big league ready bats we have unless someone is foolish enough to blow us away with an offer, he's more valuable to keep. This leaves Soto as one of our few worthwhile trade chips.

Oh well, it was fun. Hopefully next time we put up a 7 spot it corresponds with a better pitching performance.

Calm down Papelbon, you got a 1 out save by getting Reed Johnson out which is like getting my dog to eat bacon.

Best. Fake. Rally. Ever.

Is Jose Altuve really 5'5? That has to be the shortest pro athlete since Mugsy Bogues.

Because the other 1000 innings of Wood's career show that he's a lot better, and his peripherals are better this year too. He's also 4 months younger than Rusin and has better stuff. Fine. But the one thing they have in common is that they're not Chris Volstad, and that's all I ask for.

T. Wood was decent enough, but when the time comes, other than the fact that he's already on the 40 man I see know reason why Rusin shouldn't get the next call up.

I know I'm late to the party, but can we finally just experiment with Volstad in the pen before releasing him into the wild? We can bring up Wood or give Rusin a chance.

He's been all around bad this year, but had solid road numbers last. I guess he'd be worth a flier. If nothing else he could make himself into trade bait.