Clem Fandango

I realize that Castro makes sense for the Mets and their young pitching prospects make sense for the Cubs, but what you guys probably aren't reading (because you're out of market) are the sound bites from our front office that say things like how much they value Castro, how excited they are with his progression, how he doesn't have to worry about anyone moving him off the position, how he, Russell, and Baez can all fit into the infield, etc. Not to mention they've made it known they plan to explore the FA pitcher market. They've also given off vibes that they feel young pitching prospects are too volatile to sink too much investment into (injuries, poor performance, etc), and that buying experienced pitching is the smarter way of acquiring it. Instead of investing in pitching prospects they invest in position prospects, and they use those to acquire major league talent, if they trade them, because the landscape of baseball is that offense is a very scarce commodity these days. By all accounts from what our front office has said, it sounds like they are content going into 2015 keeping all of our shortstops. A lot of the confusion people have is that the Cubs can't possible have three shortstops on the roster (four if you count Alcantara). Well reality is Baez probably makes more sense as a third baseman (cannon arm), Russell makes more sense as a SS (best defensive profile of the three), and Castro makes more sense as a 2B (great range, not so great arm), and Alcantara is being groomed for center field. Basically the Cubs don't need to move any of them, because they are all athletic enough to change positions and succeed. Now, that said it's very possible they use their strength to address a weakness but all signs point to them keeping Castro. We've been speculating (me a lot more than others, admittedly) that one of Russell or Baez could be moved for a major piece, but it's not pitching, it's Giancarlo Stanton (not as crazy as it sounds if you really look into the situation [also that sounds a lot like the Digiorno tagline]). Soooooo unless you got something better than Stanton chances are you won't be getting any of our shortstops.

They might be closer to equals than we think, but I've always assumed, based on Bogaerts' age and numbers in the minors, that he was bound to be a 30-40 homer type player some day. Looking at Russell's numbers I got the impression he'd be more of a 20-30 type guy, but if the scouts and analysts are saying he's "Barry Larkin with power" then I suppose that would put him up with Bogaerts

They should make him wear the Defending Your Life robe

Isn't he on vacation in Chicago this week with his family? Over/under on how many ballots he makes his family fill out at the game?

He's gonna be our Kuroda I hope They're really not similar, stuff-wise. Wasn't really making a hard effort to compare outside of the fact that he'll be making his debut at 33 like Kuroda did. Also, it was partially hyperbolic in that I don't necessarily think he'll be that good, but I do genuinely hope he is (and who doesn't, really?).

Someone split our farm system into two Top 10's in the MiLB forums, it was just copy and pasted Hey that was me! And I didn't want to spend 30 seconds looking up who did it, lol. Kudos.

I think you mean double-plus hands I thought this would turn out better in my head http://i.imgur.com/OqHmIuk.jpg

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Someone split our farm system into two Top 10's in the MiLB forums, it was just copy and pasted

He's gonna be our Kuroda I hope

Ladies and Gentlemen, your starting American League Shortstop... http://i.imgur.com/urnBFg6.jpg

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71 or 72. was it crash davis If only. Joe Bauman. To go along with his 224 RBI's.

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Rizzo will apparently be on the final vote ballot

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Do something, Castro

That's nice but GOD DAMNIT COGHLAN

Do something, Rizzo

Bingo

I figured out what was wrong with my Chrome and not playing MLB.tv properly, in case anyone else has similar issues. Type chrome://plugins/ in the URL bar and go down to flash, there is probably two plugins that are enabled. Disable one of them and retry. If it doesn't work, alternate them and try again. It worked for me. No longer have to load Firefox to watch games. Which is nice because I have two monitors and Firefox is stupid and won't leave the video player maximized on the other screen if I'm actively using the other.

I've seen a lot of people quoting a scouting report that called him "Barry Larkin with power". I also just looked up Larkin's numbers and on the surface they look good and then you start looking closer and realize oh yeah Larkin was [expletive] amazing. He averaged 5.2 rWAR (5.0 fWAR) over the course of 12 seasons. Supposedly we have that... but he hits for more power.

Quite a few posters got pretty excited when the Cubs started playing better and winning some games. Even a blind squirrel finds a nut every once in a while An almost 2 month long nut, eh? I was antagonizing a bit. Fact is, the Cubs lost two guys who play once every 5 days. 3 of their last 4 wins were achieved with starters who weren't them. There's no reason they can't keep winning ball games. It's the offense that is developing and getting better that's helping them win more lately. I honestly think between Wada, Hendricks, Beeler, etc. to replace Shark and Hammel that the Cubs can still do just fine the way they've been doing the last couple of months. I think a lot of people who are upset at the Cubs "blowing up the team" don't realize that the Cubs can still continue to perform at the same level they've been performing at.

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