CubsWin

Face value, they're a hundred. I paid $20 over. Do you have a connection? Just an internet connection. :wink:

Face value, they're a hundred. I paid $20 over.

Last night at Dodger Stadium, I had the opportunity to watch the game in a box immediately to the right of the Cubs dugout. It was great. It ruined me. I might not be able to enjoy watching a game from anywhere else ever again. Some highlights: David Aardsma exited the dugout having been made to wear a bright red, little kids, "first-day-at-school" backpack. I immediately recognized him and started razing him. "Welcome to the bigs, rook. Nice luggage, Aardsma! Yeah, we know who you are..." All the other relievers were laughing as he tried not to break a smile. Later, Kerry Wood popped his head up out of the dugout and looked back in the stands. I asked him, "How you feelin' Kerry?" He made eye contact with me and nodded as if to stay "just fine". He then smiled. He looks like he has added about 15 pounds, and not in a good way. I guess rehabbing will do that to you. If you are ever in a game at Dodger Stadium, I highly recommend the field boxes in Section 26. Only four seats to a box. They're padded seats with a countertop to set your food or beverage on and a shelf underneath for any personal belongings (camera bags, jackets). It keeps that stuff off the ground so it doesn't get covered in peanut shells and spilled beer. Nice. I'm sitting in the same seats for tonight's game. Here's hoping the Cubs can hit Penny better than they hit Lowe.

The subject of why he was on the tradeblock has been widely discussed in these forums for the last few months. The Cubs wanted to improve defensively up the middle and with Walker's production and his very attractive contract, Hendry thought he would be a valuable trading chip. Hendry wasn't going to let Walker go for nothing though, I am glad he held onto him, and I was wrong when I said I thought he would be traded before opening day. One of the rumors had him going to Baltimore for Matos who is hitting about .180. As the old cliche goes: "Sometimes the best trades are the ones you don't make." Exactly that, it was just a rumor. I don't think Hendry could have seriously even considered makiing that trade. And why would Baltimore even want Walker? Where would he have played? According to what I was reading, not only was Hendry considering the deal, it would've happened had Baltimore not insisted that Hendry pay the difference between Walker's and Matos's contracts (I believe just under 1 million). In short, Baltimore's complete stupidity in not realizing what they were getting saved the Cubs. What were you reading?

the pitcher was scared of pierre in the dugout so he let todd walker hit a home run? Pierre led to the first run, but not the 2 run HR from Walker. Well, I guess if Pierre had made an out instead of singling and then successfully stealing 2B, Walker wouldn't have come up to bat in the 2nd (much less Ramirez, who drove in Pierre and scored a run on Walker's blast). I guess Pierre contributed to the first three runs by 1) scoring one of them, 2) bothering the pitcher while on base, 3) scoring a run, and 4) not making an out so Walker could come up to the plate. Well put, Meat. Good analysis of Pierre's contribution to the Cubs scoring in the first inning. I guess he didn't have to scare the pitcher from the dugout in order to make a difference in Walker's at bat. Walker likely wouldn't have had an at bat if it weren't for Pierre and the rest of the guys. Got to love first inning runs, especially on the road. hehe, except i repeated the same point twice. :oops: :lol: That's okay. It was a first inning run on the road. They are twice as important!

the pitcher was scared of pierre in the dugout so he let todd walker hit a home run? Pierre led to the first run, but not the 2 run HR from Walker. Well, I guess if Pierre had made an out instead of singling and then successfully stealing 2B, Walker wouldn't have come up to bat in the 2nd (much less Ramirez, who drove in Pierre and scored a run on Walker's blast). I guess Pierre contributed to the first three runs by 1) scoring one of them, 2) bothering the pitcher while on base, 3) scoring a run, and 4) not making an out so Walker could come up to the plate. Well put, Meat. Good analysis of Pierre's contribution to the Cubs scoring in the first inning. I guess he didn't have to scare the pitcher from the dugout in order to make a difference in Walker's at bat. Walker likely wouldn't have had an at bat if it weren't for Pierre and the rest of the guys. Got to love first inning runs, especially on the road.

Pagan is a switch hitter and batting him in front of Murton broke up a string of right-handed hitters (against righty pitchers). That's all it was.

Its possible he could be promoted by mid-season if he keeps putting up numbers like those. I think, normally, the Cubs wouldn't rush him, they seem to have become much more patient lately, but there are several factors at play. One, the Cubs need to answer the question who will bat lead-off in '07. They need to know whether to extend Pierre's contract or not. In that sense, how Pie performs this season could have something to say about EPatt's schedule of promotion. If Pie is showing that he can effectively lead-off, then EPatt may stay at AA all season and be allowed to battle for a spot on the 25-man roster next spring. If Pie shows that he is better suited for the middle of the order, then he may be moved out of the lead-off spot in Iowa and EPatt may get promoted given he continues to perform as he has in the first 10 games of this season. Also, the performances of Pierre and Jones may have an impact on whether EPatt is aggressively promoted. If Pierre doesn't get on base more than 35% of the time, and Pie isn't either, EPatt becomes the lead-off hitter of the future and the Cubs may want to see how he does against AAA pitching this season. If Pierre is getting on base, but Jones isn't doing well and Pie is hitting more like a RFer than a lead-off guy, then the Cubs may not be able to let Pierre walk and their need to rush EPatt to be ready for '07 becomes less urgent. If Walker can live with the way playing time is handed out this season, he will likely want to return to the Cubs in '07 which would buy time for the Cubs to develop EPatt at the normal pace. But, finally, Eric's promotion is up to him. If he is blowing away AA pitching, I think he will get up to AAA sometime before the end of the season. But that means blowing it away. He would have to have an OBP over .400 with good power numbers a lot like he put up in Peoria last season. Also, if his defense is sound and his range is good, that will have a lot to say about his chances to reach the majors by '07. Its still real early and this is all just speculation, so lets hope that Pierre, Walker and Jones have very good years, and Pie gets a full season at AAA and learns how to draw a walk and hit his pitch a little better. That way the chips can fall where they may with EPatt. After all, he is a Patterson. Rushing him might not be the best way to go. :wink:

And only on 91 pitches. Rusch can't afford another bad outing tomorrow. I agree. I hope Hendry does as well. Isn't it great to have the depth in an organization such that the pitchers in AAA are actively competing with the one in the majors for playing time?

Why not Aardsma?

He's not sitting out for any reason. and he is also not the full-time catcher. Muyco has started every game against a Lefty so far with Reed starting most the games vs righties though Morgan started one. We have 3 catchers so there is more of a rotation than having full-time catcher. Thanks. It must have just been a series of lefties in a row or something. I'm really interested to see if he can hit this year. His pedigree says he should, but so far, he hasn't produced at any of the lower levels. Any word on whether Pawelek is expected to join Peoria at some point or will he be going to short season?

PECOTA actually projected him as a more valuable second baseman this year than either Todd Walker or Jerry Hairston. PECOTA's credibility is falling if that is the case.

So lets have this thread include all of the recent Cubs prospects who were traded away that haven't had success yet. Hee Seop Choi, Bobby Hill, Matt Bruback, Gary Johnson, David Noyce, Mark Freed, Brendan Harris and Francis Beltran have all had little to no success at the major league level to date. They netted the Cubs Derrek Lee, Aramis Ramirez, Matt Murton and Damian Miller who got Michael Barrett. Not bad.

It looks like Wood could be making his first rehab start on April 25th, not May, if all continues to go well. According to his current schedule, Wood will throw a simulated game to live hitters on Saturday the 15th with one more likely to happen on Thursday the 20th before being sent out for a rehab start. Iowa will be at home against Round Rock on the 25th, the likely day of his first rehab start, so he may go someplace warmer. Daytona will be at home on that day. West Tenn will be at Chattanooga. Those are the two most likely possibilities if the Cubs want Wood to pitch in relatively warm weather. As far as Prior is concerned, it is still too early to tell. He pitched 40 pitches off a mound in Mesa on Friday and is scheduled to pitch another 45-50 pitches on Monday if his shoulder responds well on the off days. At this point, Prior and Miller are on similar timelines which are about 3-4 weeks behind Wood. However, their bodies will determine whether they stay that far behind him or not. My guess is that you might see Prior or Miller, but that Wood will be back with Cubs by May 22-25.

Here's hoping the D-Jaxx continue their winning ways on Cub-draftee-that-got-away Micah Owings. I'm looking forward to seeing what Hill and Mateo can do. I'd like to see Grant Johnson atone for his poor showing in his first start, too. Pie and EPatt are off to good starts. Harvey is still striking out a lot without walking, but at least he is hitting okay. Montanez continues to hit well. Can't wait for Dopirak to return to see how he fares. And I'm anxious for Mark Reed to return full time to the line-up as a catcher. Well, those are the storylines for me.

Continuing to dream... If Patterson can continue to get on base at a high percentage, he would easily replace Juan Pierre as the Cubs lead-off hitter which would allow Pie to play CF and maximize his hitting ability. All that would be left for Hendry to acquire would be that elusive power-hitting RFer. Cedeno and Murton can still fail, but so far so good. Barrett seems to be coming into his own. Lee and Ramirez are mainstays. If Patterson can lead off and Pie can mash at the major league level like he has in the minors, the Cubs may have something. Ah, the ruminations of mid-April on a Cubs message board. :wink:

Considering Pie's bat is better suited for the middle of the order, this is true. And he could well get called up in 2007. It still very early, but EPatt is doing everything he can to show that his '05 performance at the Low-A level was no fluke. Through 9 games, he is hitting .333 and has walked 4 times in roughly 40 plate appearances while already collecting a double, 3 triples and a home run to go with 5 stolen bases. The Cubs are a long way from this reality, but if EPatt can lead off or hit second effectively at the major league level and Pie continues to profile as a middle of the order type guy, 3 of the Cubs 8 everyday starters could have come from their minor league organization by 2007. Murton was acquired via trade but did spend a full season in the Cubs system before coming up so if you include him that would make it exactly half of the Cubs positional starters. In any case, the Cubs got him by trading away products of their farm system. Factor in that Pierre, Lee and Ramirez were acquired in exchange for Cubs prospects and that Damian Miller, who was traded for Barrett, was acquired for Cubs minor leaguers as well and who can say that the Cubs farm system hasn't provided the Cubs with some talented everyday starters and hitters? Of course, that hasn't happened...yet. 8)

So, 103 pitches and no walks for Guzman. Not too bad, despite the 4 ER. This could be a case of a good pitcher just getting hit a little bit or it could be a case of being wild in the zone. I remember Guzman had trouble at AA a while back with this kind of thing. He had a lot of strikeouts and very few, if any, walks, but his ERA was around 4. His stuff was good enough to make hitters miss, but he wasn't able to control his pitches on the edges of the plate and was leaving balls up in the hitting zone. That won't cut it in the bigs.

Bravo. I still Gallagher is severely underrated. If the reports of Gallagher's velocity in another thread are accurate (low 90s, reaching 94-95 at times), then yes, he is absolutely underrated. With his curveball and the fact that they are letting him use his slider this season, he could do exactly what Oneri Fleita said he would do...rise quickly through the organization. It looks promising with him. I'm not sure I believe the velocity report yet. I'm still a wait and see with Sean, but I'm optimistic.

Aardsma is on fire. If he can maintain the velocity and control he has got going now, he is major league ready. Its quite possible that if the Cubs traded someone like Williamson, whoever they got back would be like icing on the cake 'cause Aardsma looks like the real deal right now.

I found Gleeman's article entertaining, sardonic and unfortunately unbalanced. Aaron didn't say it in his article, but what the stat RCAA really shows is how good of a defensive player Neifi must have been over his 11 seasons to continue to get ABs despite being the poor hitter that he is. It also shows how hard it must be to find a SS that can both field and hit well in a league of 30 teams. His article attempted to ridicule Neifi has the worst hitter in all of baseball, but he used the wrong stat and it missed the mark. There are plenty of other stats that I think would make a much stronger case for Neifi being a bad hitter. His use of EqA in the worst doctor in the world article, I felt, was far more persuasive. In fact, since we are already aware that Neifi isn't a good hitter, using the RCAA stat doesn't really put Neifi in a negative light, if you think about it. Its actually flattering (of a player's defensive abilities and longevity) to head his -300 list. Weak-hitting middle infielders have been a reality of major league baseball for a very long time. Usually they are bench players, as in the case of Neifi as a Cub. But occasionally, a team will find themselves in a bad way and will have to sacrifice offense for a good defensive SS. It is somewhat of an honor to have been the SS with the good enough glove to be the guy team's turn to when they miss out on a good offensive shortstop. Its either that or every GM who has ever employed Neifi Perez is an idiot, which, unfortunately for Aaron Gleeman's reputation, is what he chose to imply in his article.

It was a pretty thin year in free agent OF talent which likely drove up Jones's value. I know the Royals were looking hard at Jacque, and I remember him being mentioned talking to a couple other teams as well. Once Giles returned to San Diego and the Cubs didn't like the price for people like Brad Wilkerson and Cliff Floyd, believe it or not, Jones was probably the best guy available, and I think other GMs knew it as well. Thus, a 3-year contract. The good thing is that his salary is fairly commensurate with his value so he should be pretty tradeable. So there really isn't any reason to feel as if the Cubs are "stuck" with Jones for all 3 years. If they need him, they've got him. If they don't, he should be fairly easy to move.

I had a flash today when Maddux was walking off the mound one inning of the Cubs winning a world series with him pitching for us. And I wasn't using any drugs either.

I think those guys can do the job. Hairston needs PT anyway. I agree. At the moment, Jones is listed as day-to-day pending the results of an MRI. We should know more in a couple of days about if there will be any stay on the DL and if so for how long. I wouldn't bring up Pie unless absolutely necessary until at least late-June. And he would have to have shown improved plate discipline in order to warrant the call. Hopefully the Cubs won't need him and he can get a full season at AAA with a September call-up.

It doesn't appear to be serious. He is listed as day to day, but should definitely miss at least one start. Though there seems to be some dispute as to when he left the game and on who's HR he was injured. :lol: