Clem Fandango

Edwin Jackson. After being released. And being unable to latch on to another team. And winning a fly fishing tournament.

And I just responded with way too many words I'm sure!

You should still let me redesign it. A good looking page that highlights the forum will keep people clicking. Also having a better UI for contributors (Wordpress) could make it more enticing for them to write more pieces. Also a kick ass design with fresh content would make their stuff more readable. I mean 12,000 visitors in a month is pretty damn impressive. I'm sure if the people who contributed knew their stuff was being seen by 12,000 people a month they'd have more of an incentive to contribute (and others might want to as well), and if visitors see it in a well presented layout, all the more reason to keep coming back and contributing on the forums at the same time. So seriously you should let me redesign it. Won't even charge ya.

Eh maybe, I don't really care about what is on the front page of a site if I'm looking for the forum on that particular topic. Perhaps just have the front page center exclusively on leading people to the forum and forget all the other stuff. The front page has actually had ~12,000 page views in the past 30 days. Most of those bounced after a single page view and never came back. The front page having content would be a huge boost to the site. You should let me redesign it. I'll make it as sexy as our prospects.

All those threads feel faceitious though. I like TT's compromise. Random Cubs Musings makes sense, it just morphed into the thread where everything was posted. We don't need to create a new thread called "Check out this picture of Kris Bryant and Jorge Soler". Any sort of news or information should get its own thread, but a funny tweet, picture, or one off comment or thought shouldn't get one. Its not that the mega threads are bad, its that they are used improperly.

Somebody call the Wahhhmbulance http://i.imgur.com/36wQ0Hk.png Maybe next time don't agree to a system with rules you don't like that can hurt the financial outcome of the players you represent

261/315/312 in aaa last year. no thanks. he homered off Greg Holland, your argument is invalid Lake homered off Wade Davis yesterday. Our laughable youngsters are owning the Royals' shut down relievers.

Something like... 203 IP 2.78 ERA 127 K 34 BB 1.09 WHIP 3.54 FIP 147 ERA+ Precision pitching + good defense + good pitch framing = sleeper Cy Young Candidate

The Rizzo/Baez comparison is fun to make, but really all it represents is a cautionary tale of not writing off prospects after an initial poor showing at a young age (like you said). Despite the similarities, Rizzo's issue was never contact and K's, whereas Baez's is exactly that. Rizzo just wasn't ready. Baez is just bad at connecting with the ball and needs to fix that. No one is questioning Baez's defensive ability or his ability to hit for power. But he can't hit for power if he can't hit the ball to begin with. Rizzo never really had that problem, he was just overmatched... not to mention debuting in maybe the worst hitters park in baseball. EDIT: I really wouldn't be shocked if Baez is just one of those highly touted prospects who doesn't tap into his potential until his prime years like Alex Gordon or Matt Wieters and just kinda struggles to adapt for the first 2-3 years before he starts making strides... but I'm not sure how patient our management or fans would be with a player like that, given Baez's polarity

1) Sign James Russell 2) Hope he puts up half a year of decent production 3) Trade him to Atlanta for Arodys Vizcaino

http://i.imgur.com/UBPdj5f.jpg

Ran this again with more wiggle room for performance: 20+ HR, >= 10% BB, <= 18% K Andrew McCutchen Jose Bautista Victor Martinez Matt Holliday Edwin Encarnacion David Ortiz LaHair and Hoffpaur were pretty good in the minors too Yeah, at 27

Junior Lake home run

If you had to choose between 3 catchers and Edwin Jackson, what do you choose?

Mariner's prospect Victor Sanchez, who was hit in the head with a boat propeller while swimming in Venezuela in February, died from his injuries this evening. Tragic.

But he spent the whole season there while many better prospects won't. There's also no rush to move him through the system since he and every other 1B in the system is blocked at 1B by Rizzo and Vogelbach needs work on his defense. The Cubs would actually benefit from not moving someone like Vogelbach through the system quickly so they can let him adjust to each level so he can put up better numbers which would increase his trade value and prepare him more for the next level he following year (or if you're a dreamer it'll delay his arrival until MLB adopts the DH in the NL). I bet even if Vogelbach hits .300+ with 20+ homers in AA they won't move him to AAA until 2016. They don't gain anything by rushing someone like Vogelbach through the system. And no one is saying Vogelbach is going to be a good 1B. He's a DH in waiting. But we're discussing the merits of his bat being good vs. not being good enough, and the figures I presented were there to indicate that yes, Vogelbach's bat IS good enough to justify his selection here (and in previous rounds, AFAIC). Those numbers were there to show that there were very few hitters at Vogelbach's level who could match his power, patience, and contact output. His bat is great. Everything else? Yeah, it kinda sucks, but a weak offensive environment makes his bat valuable. Also there were not a whole lot of flashy names that came through the FSL this past season. Maybe 6 at the most. Nimmo, Bell, Pompey, Herrera, Jorge Polanco... that's about it as far as I can see. http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/leader.cgi?type=bat&id=f30f4291 Plus how other teams handle their prospects bears zero significance on how the Cubs handle theirs. Other teams have different priorities and evaluate their players differently. Dilson Herrera got called up to AA after 67 FSL games when he hit .307/.355/.410/.765 with 3 HR and an 18:44 BB:K ratio. He's a 20 year old 2B that the Mets actually called up to the majors later in the year. He's cut from another cloth, and you can't compare Vogelbach to someone like him, or the reasons he was called up so soon. The Mets need a 2B, they rushed him through the minors and skipped him over AAA. The Cubs don't need a 1B, and Vogelbach needs to work to his defense. There was no logical reason to move him to AA. That doesn't diminish what Vogelbach is or what he can be to a team in the future.

As far as I gathered, the only thing MiLB only adjusted for qualified leaders was OPS, everything else was for both qualified and unqualified leaders alike. So really him being 6th in OPS and the Eric Jagielo note were the only things affected by "qualified" status

For funsies... Vogelbach's .787 OPS was 6th best in the FSL last season among qualified leaders. And every player with a higher OPS than him had fewer home runs than his 16. In fact the HR totals for the qualified #1-5 OPS leaders was: 1) 12 2) 10 3) 13 4) 10 5) 13 Offense is scarce, and Vogelbach's bat needs to be taken into that context. Here's some more context: FSL Home Run leaders and their corresponding OPS: 1) Adam Brett Walker - 25 HR (.743 OPS) 2) Art Charles - 19 HR (.733 OPS) 3) Victor Roache - 18 HR (.697 OPS) 4) James Robbins - 17 HR (.669 OPS) T-5) Eric Jagielo - 16 HR (.813 OPS) T-5) Dan Vogelbach - 16 HR (.787 OPS) Jagielo did not qualify for the OPS leaderboards because he only played in 85 games. Point is... offense is a rare commodity. Just because our cup runneth over with it doesn't make Vogelbach's an afterthought. Also Vogelbach's 66 walks were 2nd best in the FSL. Actually here's all of Vogelbach's FSL rankings: R - 7th H - T-9th 2B - T-9th HR - T-5th RBI - T-3rd TB - 4th BB - 2nd OBP - T-11th SLG - 11th OPS - 6th (MiLB.com only listed qualified leaders) Also for more funsies, the K/BB% of all the players who hit as many, or more home runs than Vogelbach (16% / 12%). I'll BOLD the ones that are better than Vogelbach's rates and BOLD ITALICIZE those that are equal... Eric Jagielo (16 HR) - 26% / 11% James Robbins (17 HR) - 31% / 4% Victor Roache (18 HR) - 29% / 8% Art Charles (19 HR) - 31% / 9% Adam Brett Walker (25 HR) - 28% / 8% Well, while we're at it, let's do K/BB% for every player in the FSL who hit 10 or more HR, because I'm bored and this is fun... Austin Green (15 HR) - 17% / 4% Brian Pointer (15 HR) - 27% / 10% David Washington (15 HR) - 29% / 9% Connor Harrell (14 HR) - 25% / 7% Patrick Leonard (13 HR) - 21% / 10% Viosergy Rosa (13 HR) - 20% / 8% Bruce Caldwell (12 HR) - 26% / 7% Rock Shoulders (12 HR) - 31% / 15% Dwight Smith, Jr. (12 HR) - 13% / 11% (one of a few players who were legitimately better than Vogelbach offensively) Dalton Hicks (11 HR) - 19% / 12% (24 years old) Jeff McVaney (11 HR) - 16% / 8% (24 years old) Kevin Patterson (11 HR) - 27% / 11% Anthony Garcia (10 HR) - 16% / 10% (.227/.320/.385 slash line) Peter O'Brien (10 HR) - 24% / 3% Justin O'Conner (10 HR) - 23% / 4% Jose Osuna (10 HR) - 18% / 7% Jairo Perez (10 HR) - 12% / 3% (26 years old) Bijan Rademacher (10 HR) - 20% / 10% Kyle Schwarber (10 HR) - 20% / 14% So those who had a better or equal K% than Vogelbach with 10 or more homer runs out of 24 players... Jairo Perez (26 years old) Anthony Garcia (crap slash line) Jeff McVaney (24 years old) Dwight Smith, Jr. (legitimately better) And those with a better walk rate: Kyle Schwarber (a beautiful manly man with manly hitting prowess) Dalton Hicks (24 years old) Rock Shoulders (31% K rate) That's it. When it comes to not striking out, hitting home runs, and drawing walks, those are the players who are better than Vogelbach. Only Schwarber and Smith are legitimately better than Vogelbach on that list at hitting, and all other are pretty much worse. There was really only one other player in the FSL that was omitted because he got called up to AA early (only 363 PA's in the FSL) and that was Josh Bell (12% / 7% with a slash line of .335/.384/.502/.886) TL;DR - Offense is hard to come by, and Vogelbach's offense is really good for his level.

eh when he offers zero positionally and less than zero baserunning wise i think the age/level qualifiers are more than offset. That's fine to offer and indisputable at this point in his minor league career, but your initial point was he was not that good of a hitter, and that's not true.

Buhhhhhner. Buhhhhhner.

Prospect spoils. Our absurd hitting prospects are the exception, not the rule. Vogelbach is a probably Top 10 prospect in half of MLB's farm systems today. Just because we have hitters that will destroy the planet with their dong power, doesn't mean Vogelbach is a bad hitter. He's an exceptional hitter for his age and level. He does nearly everything right at the plate that you want in a hitting prospect. He has power, patience, and contact skills. Just because they don't match Bryant, Soler, Russell, or Schwarber's skill set does not make him a bad hitter. He's a very good hitter. If you want to dock him points for his defensive/positional deficiencies, that's fair and you most certainly can, but he's not a bad hitter and to think so is narrow minded.

Bye Felixia

Vogelbach is not a bad hitter. He's not Bryant or Schwarber or others in our ridiculous stable of hitting prospects, but he's a top bat in a crap load of other farm systems, which is a testament to the Cubs depth.

he did the worst thing you can do and doesn't deserve a second chance ever. if you want to put him in the hall of fame because you care that he hung around forever and hit a bunch of crappy singles when he was 45, go for it, but he does not deserve a job with an mlb team ever again. Still don't care. Worst case scenario he winds up hurting the Reds, whooptie doo

As a new poster I commend you for contributing to the forum and trying to start up conversations, but you can probably confine all these new topics to many of the other ongoing topics where we sort of bunch these things together (i.e. Random Cubs Musings or the Kris Bryant Anticipation Thread [which I can only assume will transform into the Kris Bryant Appreciation Thread]), cause you've started three separate topics that are Kris Bryant related in the last few days. They can all probably be ideas you can throw into one of the catch all threads instead. As for your question: no, it will not affect him. He's shown every ability to be professional and overcome any sort of hype or media attention he's gotten so far to go out there and play the game to the best of his ability and not let the white noise distract him from his performance. He's a champ.