jumbo

I'm somewhat sad. I was really looking forward to watching him here next season, but I'm glad Cubs was able to sign him. I didn't think they were able to give him the $$$ he wants. Are you in Lafayette/Purdue? I went there for my schoolin' Yep. Grew up 30 mins northwest from Lafayette (Earl Park if you're wondering). Went to Purdue for CGT then Arkansas for Architecture and now I'm back here. Awesome. My company manufactures architectural cladding systems - we did the Neil Armstrong Engineering building at Purdue and a bunch of others, too.

He does have a relatively big wallet

I'm somewhat sad. I was really looking forward to watching him here next season, but I'm glad Cubs was able to sign him. I didn't think they were able to give him the $$$ he wants. Are you in Lafayette/Purdue? I went there for my schoolin'

I can't believe that this isn't already common practice, but maybe I'm wrong.

My understanding was that we would sign 6 guys from the same agent who would give the top guy $1.25MM and split the rest amongst the scrubbs (like our 8th-10th round picks, for example). So I'm not sure there's any real need to dump cap space unless there aren't enough shady Latin American agents to pull this deal with (not likely). I can see trading the space for something valuable, but I don't think it's getting much value based on the Brewer's trades (not that I know [expletive] about the Brewer's farm, of course)

Someone needs to GIF the oder guy at 1:22 or so in that video...

I never recommend pulling out early. Better early than late. Early is good when you're being filmed

So a mid 2015 lineup could have the dream infield Castillo Rizzo Baez Castro Bryant/Valbuena Lake Alcantara RF/Bryant And by 2016 Schwarber Rizzo Baez Castro Bryant/Valbuena Soler Alcantara RF/Bryant Bah - too many possibilities, but it would really be great to have Schwarber stick at C

There was some chatter in another thread about the potential lineup that would include Schwarber, Rizzo, Bryant, Baez, et al. It made me wonder when everyone expects some of these guys to come up to the majors. Alcantara seems like he'll be up this year, before September, that is. Bryant will likely not be up until post-arb deadline 2015. Expecting Schwarber before 2016 would be unlikely, especially if he's at C instead of OF. Not really considering the rotating pen guys here...Also not really trying to predict September callups, but when a player will be up "for good" 2014 Alcantara Hendricks Wada Lopez Vizcaino 2015 Bryant Baez Johnson Edwards Rivero 2016 Schwarber Soler Bruno Black Pineyro Almora? 2017 Almora

you do understand that they go under-slot at this point so that they can go over-slot later in the draft, right? Yes, I do understand that. And no need to be passive-aggressive. if you want to call me an idiot for not liking this pick, just call me one. You're an idiot for your earlier comment

picked number 5th Glad I'm not the only one who caught that. my wife: picked number fifth! me: we can change it now

I was at a game for a corporate event, and it pretty much is a rooftop bar as is. There are about 35-40 seats/places to stand where you can actually see the game, and the rest of the crowd gets to watch on tv and listen to the crowd in the actual ballpark. I realize all the rooftops are not uniform in seats with views, but my experience is more bar than ball game.

I didn't notice it happening to the Blackhawks because hockey is irrelevant. Here's something you might like more than the Blackhawks then http://i26.tinypic.com/j0cy2b.jpg That got my attention

If that doesn't scream hipster I'm a monkey's uncle. The term Hipster gets thrown around too much -- that picture is an insult to hipsters. That's a straight douche. Show me the hipster douche

You're right on to post it. Following the daily box scores it's easy to see that the guy is consistently taking walks, stealing, hitting for average. Maybe he's had a bit of a hot start, but he has some room to regress if that was the case and still show better overall than Szczur The hype machine lies

Vitters in 2013 and 2014 so far: 17 BB, 32 K in 138 AB (12.3% BB/AB, 23.2% K/AB) Vitters before 2013: 98 BB, 304 K in 1897 AB (5.2% BB/AB, 16.0% K/AB) There's not a ton of PA the last couple seasons, but I could certainly start to believe that this is a hitter who is finally starting to understand the strike zone. Maybe not, but I'm pretty pleased with the last couple minor league campaigns. Obviously it doesn't matter if he can't make it translate into at least a part time role, but his contact tool only label should at least potentially include ability to take a BB. It may not be much of a sign, but it's something

Try Baez http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=sa597757&position=SS

We all would, but it's clear that he was not signing with the Cubs. It sure would be nice, though, to have him and Samardzija at the top of the rotation.

Yep. SSS and all, but I am doing my best not to get giddy about him and to a lesser degree Rizzo. Went to check out his fangraphs page. It looks like he's swinging more freely again (probably good) but he's also swinging and missing more freely (probably bad). His biggest drop in contact % is O-contact %, which maybe means he'll avoid some of the weaker contact that we saw from him last year. Also, SSS, 11 games, etc.

Awesome. I asked before about a few games. if any of the season ticket holders have at least 3 seats together I'd be interested in buying them for a game. Not bleachers, though

Three offseasons, a mid-level payroll. If that's not enough to get Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer past an 80-win cap, then are they really all that good? I think it's an honest question, but I think it's fairly intricate to try and answer. Our payroll would basically lend itself to adding two fairly large contracts. If you picked the exact right two, are we a playoff team? My honest guess is no and I know it WOULD increase the odds, but I still think the odds were against it. Then you weigh the two supposed players that were signed versus whatever age they were when signed, versus now.(impossible obviously) versus whatever 2nd rounder(s) it may have cost us AND the difference of going from Bryant at 2 to wherever a slightly improved win total would have picked and from 4 this year to wherever. I agree with the way they've gone if they didn't have the capability to just spend themselves into contention. And if it were possible, I truly wish there was an alternate universe that we could have watched the opposite way play out and we could compare the exact state of the two different paths. Because I do believe this is the one that would have wound up better for us. I think a lot of people take issue with the "dual fronts" promise and "every season is sacred" comment. Now the team just sucks, so what the hell was all that? My belief is that when the CBA fallout made it impossible to follow the Boston model the dual fronts promise fell apart. Epstein had previously collected potential free agents that would have helped the big league team and then also added draft picks when they let them go as type A/B free agents. It was as much a volume game by Boston to get 5 picks in the first two rounds instead of 2 and thus more of an impact on the system/team.

Any season ticket holders interested in selling 3 or 4 tickets on 4/21, 5/1, 5/6? A friend is looking to go and was considering the rooftops, but I think for just a few people the better option is being in the stadium. Let me know

I thought Parker would be in the pen, but haven't been paying much attention to spring training numbers among the relief candidates

Why is someone who is listed as 6'2" 215 considered too big to catch in pro-ball? My understanding is that the bigger you are, the more difficult it is to get into a crouch 80,000,000 times without it affecting your knees

Anyone else notice that Eloy Jimenez is wearing a helmet that says Gonzalez? Is that really him?