Gmoney08

The only thing I've took out of this coaching change is that my childhood baseball hero Ryne Sandberg looks older than a 69 year old (really 150) Charlie Manuel. I know Ryne hasnt aged well even towards the end of his playing career but wow he looks in some pictures like he played ball Musial, Williams, and Mays. Also this makes me feel real old.

I found it here.. someone should make a gif of it.. http://www.danpatrick.com/2011/08/18/manny-unnecessary-cut-off-of-damon-throw/

Any chance anyone has a gif of Manny Ramirez damn near 10 years ago cutting off the CF's throw to the SS (the real cutoff man) by making an airborn leaping diving snag that effectively intercepted the throw to the real cutoff man for no real reason at all except for allowing the runners to take an extra base because he had to get up and throw the ball plus from a much farther distance than the SS would have had to throw the ball?

Those skills competitions sound great to read about, or maybe a highlight of the best. I would like to know whose the fastest from Home to 2nd in the majors or who can throw the ball the farthest. But, no chance in hell I'd want to watch a bunch of people run from home plate to 2nd base.

They sign 2014 contracts actually. Unless they're older, like Mejia. They may get a taste of EXST over the offseason and its possible if they're advanced enough, they could start out in Arizona. Highly doubtful though. More than one year in the Dominican League for those 2 would be a big disappointment. FWIW, Jimenez and Torres will both show up on BA's top 30. Likely in the late teens to mid 20 range. Parks said he'll consider both for his Cubs top 15. Generally a couple of the top 16-year olds start off in the complex leagues the year after they sign (for example, Baretto is in the GCL this year), but I feel like the Cubs under Theo seem are willing to go slower. Off the top of my head, Larry Suarez, Carlos Zambrano and Felix Pie are the only 16-year olds who signed and jumped to the AZL in their first year in the Cubs system. ETA: Forgot Felix Pie. Has there ever been a team that threw an extremely talented 16 or 17 year old in Single or Double A? Is there any rare talents like that who had great success in the minors at 16, 17..?

I remember I think it was 06 his rookie year and he came in in the crosstown classic against the Sox and his stuff was just electric. I think he might have started a couple games in 05 but this was his first year fully in the bullpen and I was just in awe. I think he even got the save against the Sox even though he wasnt a closer yet. I told my dad this guy is going to be dominant. Wish someone would post how historically great his stats were a few of those years. He was really amazing for a good stretch.

This has nothing to do with anything but this reminded me of Cubs reliever Courtney Duncan for the first time in about a century. I liked that guy.

Mauer backhanded the rebound without looking. Very Cool. I thought it was just the fans ducking in fear, and I didnt get the significance because that happens every game on foul balls despite the net.

What did happen?

Love the end of the letter. Cubs management is excited to get started, possibly more so than ever because they have a chance to win a 4th consecutive pennant which had in their own words had never been done in the 33 year history of the organization.

Does anyone know if these are the same rules for HS now across the nation. I went to go see my old school Lockport play in the playoffs recently and someone had said they don't use composite bats anymore. Was composite the bats with the rubber in the middle that stopped the sting? They said homeruns are way down since the bat change a year or two ago. I noticed the bat sounds way different when the ball is hit, sounds more like a wood bat than aluminum.

Not happy. But, one thing I know with the draft is that the pro's do it much better than I do and even they don't know how its all going to play out. Hope we got the best player in the draft. The positive is that I'm not as scared about injury.

Give me Gray... Hopefully look back on this in 10 years fondly.

Damn, really wanted to have a choice of Appel/Gray somehow.

I'm a betting man I would put my money still on it being either Gray/Appel. Question for the crew. Most the board seems to be Appel or Gray as their pick. But, if you were going to take Bryant over either who would you be tempted the most to NOT pick and replace with Bryant.. Appel or Gray?

I'm 51% Gray, 49% Appel, 0% anyone else with the 2 pick unless Bryant agrees to sign for 100k. Hoping for a good night tonight, Cubs picking their future Ace setting up a dominant rotation for the future and the Blackhawks jumping out to an early 3-0 lead on LA tonight to win 4-1 putting themselves in a great position to seal the deal heading back to the Cup by winning at the UC for game 5.

After looking at those 20-21 year old statistics in A and AA ball it really makes you appreciate what Starlin has done these past few years at such a young age even more. Granted he's not a superduper star but the kid is good! Hopefully he takes the next step.

Couple thoughts... Cant believe that pitch Miguel Cabrera hit out for a 3 run homer in game 7 in the first inning. Extremely low and in fastball that Cabrera just whacks for a about 450 feet. If he doesnt hit that ridiculous homer that changes that whole damn game (even though we did come back I think that really put alot of negativity in the air and messed up Wood). The other thought was if we would have pulled out game 1 (epic game) its very likely we would have swept the Marlins. Just disgusting to think about.

Someone should ask him if he had no TWTW because he never won a ring? Do the Sox have no TWTW this year since they arent willing, I mean it just takes the will to win to win than why arent the sox winning? I figured there was so much TWTW in the announcers booth between Hawk and Stoney they should be on their way to 100 wins without even factoring in the Sox roster!

Fair enough...although I'd argue that the player facility upgrades are a necessity and long overdue (and embarrassing in their current state). Could still be a better long term use of their money, though. If all of this [expletive] ultimately (and in a relatively timely matter) takes us from what would otherwise be the Yankees of just the NL Central (but well behind other teams in MLB who have pulled way ahead or already were ahead) to Yankees/Dodgers of MLB status, I'm OK with it. Let's get one WS championship before we start comparing us to the Yankees. We were already the Yankees of the 1800's. Hell [expletive] the Yanks, they were the Cubs of the 1900's ;) Mod edit: Just let the word filter do its thing and don't misspell words to try and get around it.

I want to get back to bitchin about the jumbotron! Rabble Rabble Rabble

Nope, I was thinking of a position player, I remember he was supposed to be super fast. I'm getting worried I have been thinking of Hak Ju Lee this whole time, which kinda pisses me off and makes me feel old.

I want to see replays of good plays. I don't really care about replays of controversial plays because showing them on the big screen wouldn't alter the outcome at all...it'd just incite stupid behavior. It doesn't offset the negative that I think comes with the jumbotron - the pumping music and crap every half inning like you're at a minor league park. That's a lot of fun a couple times a year with kids at the minor league parks. But I like watching ML baseball without all that crap. Maybe I'm in the minority but I loved that about Wrigley. Outside of Sweet Caroline it may have been the only thing I liked about Fenway. Edit: didn't word that well. Sweet Caroline is the only time the atmosphere at Fenway reminded me of a minor league park. Other than those few minutes I liked the atmosphere. I'm just surprised the music and the entertainment actually bother people. I could see people not giving a [expletive] about it (I'm in this camp) and being totally indifferent to it. It seems so insignificant to bother me. In between innings I watch the players warm up, its always fun to see the outfielders and how strong MLB arms really are, when they are just long tossing throwing lazers to each other. None of the fan excitement races, noises, etc have ever gotten in the way of me watching the game or even the players between innings. I don't see why the stadium being dead silent and not having music or anything going on is so amazing. Again I wouldnt care either way but just surprised the music actually bothers people. More importantly that the jumbotron and the music would bother people to the point they would rather the stadium not have the jumbotron plus its added revenues. If it brings enough money in for the team Idc if they force it to put headphones on listening to hawk harrelson the whole damn game (ok well that might be going to far).

Its possible that I'm thinking of Hak Juk Lee even though that was 5 years ago and he's been traded since then. I felt it was more recently but the years have been running together lately with my Cubs baseball depression in full effect since 09.

I thought they signed a SS from the Pacific Rim with a huge signing bonus, plus a couple other decent prospects. I can't remember who this guy was and google wasn't finding me much. If so who was he and is he in the farm system right now? I'm not thinking of Hak Juk Lee who was back in 08, I thought there was someone around 2010 or 2011 they will paid a ton for and he was pretty highly touted.