Little Slide Rooter

He has to be the starting CF next year, right? If Jackson is in Iowa next year and the right side of our OF is some combination of Campana, Colvin, and Byrd, I'll probably be forced to punch something every game until he's called up.

He's actually up to .283/.323/.442 after last night.

I'd love to have Gillick. The thing us, considering his age and where he is in his career, he'd most certainly want to put together a win now team to do it in the next few years before returning to the golf course once and for all. That's all fine and dandy by me, I just hope he wouldn't sacrifice too much of the farm to do so. I know how important the farm is to Ricketts, but if Gillick were the guy, and I doubt he would be, I'd have to assume that it would be under the condition that he has free reign of the organization.

An advantage to this kind of season is that I don't have to stay up all night for these west coast trips.

McNutt with his best start in a while, 6.0 IP 6 H 1 ER 3/5 BB/K, although it technically wasn't a start as Cashner pitched the 1st inning and struck out the side. I'd much prefer Cashner do that the rest of the season than be called up to the big league bullpen. Beliveau also pitched a perfect inning and Vitters went 2-4 with a HR.

Yeah, but like with most drafts, there are a bunch of guys I've never heard of drafted before and after our guy.

Why? because we have nothing else to do around here other than discuss when it's OK to be racist or administrative assistants. ALE Yankees overcome Red Sox. ALC Tigers hold on ALW Rangers hold on ALWC Red Sox NLE Phillies NLC Brewers NLW I'm torn. I guess I'll say Giants. no D Backs. No Giants. NLWC Braves ALDCS Yankees v. Rangers: Yankees have their revenge 3-2 Red Sox v. Tigers: Justin Verlander is enough to secure a huge upset against the pre season favorites and the Tigers win 3-1 NLDCS Phillies v. Giants. I mean D Backs. I mean who the hell cares, Phils make short work 3-0 Brewers v. Braves Brewers have some very flashy players, and are very hot and cold, but the overall consistancy of the Braves prevails 3-2 in the most exciting and well matched series of the post season. ALCS Yankees v. Tigers 1 ace may be enough to take down a superpower in a 5 game series, but 7, not so much. Yanks win 4-1 NLCS Phillies v. Braves: Braves give the Phils a run for their money, but the Phils ultimately win 4-2 World Series Phils v. Yankees: The Phillies star studded rotation tames the Yankees offense, and win the World Series 4-2.

I don't think Bob googled her for Calves' sake. Amateurs at being creepy. I've got her address (and, by extension, UMFan's). Yeah well you don't know what apartment number! I can help with that. :club: Has thread become some kind of group stalk?

Good game for the Hawks. PC Chen 2-3 2B, BB DeVoss(PH for Chen. Why?) 1-2 2B Darvill 2-4 2B, BB Golden 1-4 HR

It's starting to become a joke. He openly harshly criticizes Szczur, then he attacks people who ask questions about him. Quite frankly, Law is starting to become a real dick in my book. Complete lack of professionalism. Seems like instead of engaging in a hopeless stats-vs-scouting debate with Law, somebody ought to ask the guy why his comp for Szczur is Pierre, and not, say, Ichiro. There are a lot of guys in between Juan Pierre and Ichiro that would be a much more realistic comp than either.

The same reason the tortoise beat the hare?

Not a good day at all on the farm, at least the three upper levels. A+ has not been kind to Szczur.

I mega-loathe this kind of talk. The Cubs are not the A's or the Twins, they are a major market and can afford to develop the farm system and imrpove the major league team at the same time. It's really mind-boggling that there are people who call themselves "Cubs fans" who think the Cubs have to do one or the other. Not true, the Cubs can do both and they should do both. The people I talk to who believe this crap don't think we shouldn't spend at all, they think we should wait until the prospects are all up and producing them somehow go on one huge off season spending spree that fills all our holes in just that one off season. There's clearly a bit of delusion going on there. It should really be the opposite. Sign your guys like Fielder, Wilson, and Kemp in the next few years and then you fill your holes from within or else some bargain bin FAs or reclamation projects.

One thing that's really starting to drive me nuts is that every-time I turn on the radio and they're talking Cubs, they seem to talk as though developing the farm system and acquiring veterans through trades and FA is an either or proposition. The Yankees, Red Sox, and Phillies will gladly tell you that you can produce top players from the farm and trade for or sign star players too. As for those who talk about teams who produce the stars racking up top draft picks, when was the last time the Yankees or Red Sox had a top 10 pick, yet they manage to produce stars without a problem, plus they each seem to have at least 1 big acquisition every off season. To go further, these same people seem to talk as though if we were to sign Pujols or Fielder, and we don't win the 2012 World Series, it's a failure and a waste of money. Really? because I assumed that either one of those guy would demand at least 6 years, and in the next 2-3 offseason, we have a LOT of money coming off the books, and a lot of elite talent potentially hitting the market. If we make some big signings, a trade here and there, and produce some quality players from the farm, even if they're not stars, we can actually look like a big market team again. A lot of people are just too gun shy after Soriano, Bradley, and Zambrano, and seem to assume that any player we give more than a 3/20 contract to will turn into a pumpkin within 2 years. This is why I'd love to see Cashman or Epstein come to town, as unlikely as it is. They won't sit around and wait until 2015 to win.

Yeah. He's also been the Tigers' best pitcher since his rookie year. Verlander has been must see pitching for a long time now. The fastball and curveball combo has always been off the charts as an MLB pitcher, and he'd be a must watch even if he sucked. This is just him doing what he does as he's also entering his prime. I said a couple years ago that I expect him to get HOF talk when it's all said and done, and I think he'll make good on my bs. One of the most electric power SP arms we'll all ever see. Verlander + Upton in 2015! The 2015 team will be pretty awesome with those 2, Wilson, Fielder, Kemp, and 2 time MVP Starlin Castro.

Does this game need to even be played?

Is it Blake DeWitt? The former 2 WAR at 22 year old who was being productive for the Dodgers last year, but hasn't found it at 25 with the Cubs sounds like a perfect candidate. I'm a DeWitt fan actually, and think he can pretty much be at least a Jeff Baker type in the coming years. So basically I said that to say that I liked Blake DeWitt before he was cool when the time comes. My guess is that by the time DeWitt figures out, if he does he'll be playing elsewhere and replaced with Ryan Flaherty. Oh, and Darwin Barney would be the answer to the original question. Why? Because The Man prefers Starlin Castro.

This could be taking it a bit OT, but is it just me or should there be separate lists pitchers and position players?

true, but this season, he's entered a whole new level. I remember that he and Jeremy Bonderman were supposed to form a pretty amazing 1-2. Bonderman my or may not be still playing professional baseball.

Logan Watkins 2-3 with a 2B, HR, and 2 BB. Why isn't this guy even in the conversation for the top 20 again? He had a rough season last year, and started rough this year, but he's been on cruise control since, and was fairly highly touted before last year, right up their with Hak Ju Lee.

I knew this guy was good, but I didn't realize that this year, he'd made his way into the baseball elite. he's 20-5 with a 2.38 ERA 0.90 WHIP and 48/218 BB/K. He could easily win 23, although 25s a bit of a stretch with roughly a month left in the regular season. They say he might be the 3rd guy to win MVP and Cy Young in the same year, along with Bob Gibson and Dennis Eckersley. I know Curtis Granderson and Adrian Gonzalez are the to 2 in MVP talks, but going by the true meaning of MVP, take Granderson and A Gon off their respective teams, and they're still likely playoff bound, but take Verlander off the Tigers, and they're probably a .500 team at best. With a guy like him on the mund for 2 games, they could be able to upset the Yankees or Red Sox in a 5 game series. 7 game series, not so much. Oh, and he's a free agent in 2015 8-) ETA: i meant for this to be in general baseball discussions.

Agreed. If it came down to it, I'd much rather part with Maine over Beliveau or Gaub. However, my fear is that they won't bother rostering Beliveau because we already have Marshall, Russell, Gaub, and Maine.

especially when you're making them to bite the curb.

While you're here, is their any indication that anyone will be moved by the waiver deadline? In addition to Pena and Johnson, Grabow and DeWitt are both quite expendable. Will anyone want them? That's another question. There does not appear to be any deals imminent. That's too bad. We could use some extra roster spots so we csn see some guys like Jackson and Flaherty who actually have a future with the team as opposed to guys like LaHair, Montanez, and Berg.

Joe Johnson Despite his bad year for the Hawks, it would been awesome if we had gotten Joe Johnson for boozer money. Johnson is exactly what the bulls need. Colleti is straight garbage, Colleti is Tracy McGrady. He's broken down and really of no use, but if he were interested in taking on a lesser role for cheap, you might be interested, but even then you may as well take a pass.