jumbo

Right, my point was that whenever their record is good enough that they don't have a pick in, say, the top half of the draft, they're both ready to sign some premier FA to round out the team AND ending up with a low draft budget. To me the first year that's the case is the year to start. I'm not sure that the draft would have to be particularly deep, because they could pick unsignable players at virtually any point in the draft and could still pick the second-tenth rounders they wanted. If I understood right, the IFA penalites were strictly budget related and might be harder to work around. But the draft penalties are simply money and first round picks. (There may be a second rounder lost too but I'm not looking it up.) Overall, I'm just glad to see the first response wasn't that I'm a total idiot.

I'm kind of wondering about something and it might be perceived as massively stupid, but I'll post it anyway. After the 2013 season, I would think that the Cubs would be ready to venture into Free Agency and start signing some top players to complement what should be a pretty decent young core. The 2014 draft should have us picking out of the top 15 picks or so, and if we sign an impact FA maybe we don't have a first rounder and will have a very small draft budget. So, how crazy would it be to just ignore the spending limits and forfeit the first rounders and maintain a high draft budget? After the first year there will certainly be a few players who recognize it and set ridiculous demands knowing that some team would have to blow their budget to sign them. And if the Cubs have, by that time, signed a new TV deal that brings in more money, maybe they're able to get the stadium renovations completed by that time and if the product on the field has become exciting then they'll certainly be raking in plenty on ticket sales and so on, allowing them to pay the financial penalties. It seems like the revenue streams will be picking up, especially the cable deal, and if the farm is producing some low cost talent they'll need a place to put their money outside of FA.

I was there to see that one. I would guess the wall to be taller than that, but no doubt the dude crushed it. I don't know if I've mentioned before, but Baez take's mostly HR swings. It might have been Saturday's game, after he HR'd in his first AB he almost fell in the batter's box he swung so hard.

Alright!

We both said "OMG" at the same time. Same here. Impressive

I had a similar thought about this earlier. This appears to be an unintended consequence of the new CBA. A FA like Dempster, if he doesn't get traded, is going to get a 1 year qualifying offer from the Cubs as long as he can pitch well instead of getting one last 3 year deal on the FA market. So it's almost like being an arbitration eligible player, going year to year with the same team as long as the performance is there, eventually being non-tendered - restricting movement of middle tier free agents.

Went to the Peoria game again today. A few notes: Peralta: First couple innings his four seam fastball sat at 93-94 and hit 95. The next few innings he sat 90-92 and hit 93 a few more times and 94 one more time. Looked like a fairly hard slider at 81-84, also curveball around 75, and I'm guessing a two seamer at 85-86 (just a couple of those in later innings). I'd guess his pitch distribution was 50% four seam, 35% slider, 13% curve, 2% splitter/two seamer. Pitch count was I think close to 90. He may have been able to go all 8 innings, but he had errors in the 1st, 4th, 5th, 6th, of which only the error in the 6th didn't really cause extra pitches. 5 FO/10 GO (this may not be very accurate) McDonald: Pitched 7th and 8th. He sets up on the first base side of the rubber, bends almost 90* at the waist and hangs his pitching arm down toward the dirt. His arm slot is higher than side arm, but maybe below a low 3/4 delivery. He seems to try to catch the front outside corner against lefties, and managed to get a called third strike on a 88 MPH fastball that way. If my scorecard is right, he had 3K's in two innings, 1 looking and 2 swinging. Fastball was 85-88 easily. Because of his arm slot I couldn't figure out what his breaking pitch was, but he threw it 75-79. 3 FO/0 GO. DeVoss: As a hitter, yes, he's patient, but he doesn't seem to hit the ball hard - to the point that if he got a hit I would want to watch it again to see why it happened. He takes a lot of pitches and got on with a BB, and the promptly stole second. In the field he's a butcher at second. In the fourth, a ball went up the middle to the first base side of second base. Baez ranged over to it and got there the same time as DeVoss. DeVoss didn't give way to Baez and they ran into each other and no play was attempted. I ruled this a generous single on my scorecard, but Baez had the only possible chance to get an out and DeVoss didn't recognize it. Maybe not his fault. Then, with the runner on first, a ball got hit right up the middle. DeVoss got to the spot with a foot planted on second as the ball came to him with plans to field the ball and immediately throw to first for a 4-3 DP. But he didn't field the ball cleanly and both runners were safe. PC Chen: Good, patient approach. Takes a lot of pitches. Got on by an error and then stole second easily. Made some nice plays in the field. In the first he ran down a hard hit line drive that was over his head and near the wall. Made other plays but none looked like they took much effort. Baez: Looked foolish on some breaking pitches. Definitely looks for first pitch fastballs. I forgot to mention in yesterday's game, he swwung so hard he almost fell down, then raked his foot across the box as though the loose soil in the box was the reason. He swung like that a few times today without the theatrics. In the field his range and fielding seemed perfectly fine. Him getting to the DeVoss play above was impressive since DeVoss barely got there and it was the first base side of second. His throwing though was poor. In the first he had a throwing error on a ball he practically 'flipped' across to Hoilman, pulling him off the bag toward home plate. He did this again in the fifth, throwing the ball in the dirt, but Hoilman dug it out. I had read before that he likes to show off his cannon arm, but I saw nothing like that today. Hoilman: 0-4 with 4 K's, all swinging. I concluded that he will never get above Daytona. Geiger: Drilled a HR to left center in the 4th. Hit a ball just as far in the 6th, but more towards CF for an out. In the field he got to a hard hit ball down the line, but couldn't make a clean throw to first, pulling Hoilman off the bag. Fielded everything that came his way cleanly. Started a potential 5-4-3 triple play, but the relay to first was at most a half step late. Got the ball out of his glove quick. Krist: Looks like a catcher. Took a lot of pitches, drawings a walk in the 9th with the Chiefs down. Would have taken a walk in the first, but he took off for first before the ump could call ball four (and he was vocalizing even the balls) and the ump rang him ump for strike three. Also singled and didn't draw any attention to himself behind the plate. Rademacher: Took a maybe 7 pitch walk in the third. Lined out in the 5th, and tried a two out bunt attempt in the 6th against an infield playing back, but was unsuccessful. Took a check swing strike three in the 9th. In the field he made all the plays he should have. In the fifth the Hawks lead off man hit a single past Hoilman and aggressively rounded first. Rademacher fielded it and threw behind the runner to pick him off for the third out. Zapata: Patient approach. Took the ball the other way for a double down the third base line. Burruel: DH'd today, but not sure why. Had a couple singles, but doesn't look like much of a hitter. Was fine behind the plate yesterday.

Congrats Others here will be able to give you a better gauge on the return for Demp/Garza that I ever could

Responding to this a little late - Rademacher: Very athletic and strong, some of these guys look lanky, but he is filled out. Hits the ball hard, ran well and had good defense. Didn't get a chance to see him throw much, but he generally looks like he should be up a level to me. Geiger: DH'd tonight, so I didn't get to see him in the field. At the plate, I didn't see anything out of his at bats. I wouldn't have said he looked lost, but that may be a decent way to put it. He just didn't do anything. Maybe it's just a 'blah' game for him. Hopefully I'll see him be more active the next couple days

It's OK to reach for the stars as long as you grab and asteroid or two on the way down when you miss. For the last time, we are not dumping Reed Johnson on a team that calls to inquire about Castro. As someone who has added him to my ignore list, I encourage you to do so. If everyone ignores him, then nobody will be annoyed by him. He will be the tree falling in the woods with no one around to hear it.

I went tonight with my family and had to leave after the 5th, so I managed to see Baez homer, single, and triple. Zapata was in left and had a good at bat with an RBI opposite field single. I'll probably go tomorrow and Monday, too. A few notes: Baez: First inning, first pitch HR to dead center out of the park. The fence is (guessing) 12' tall and the batters eye is probably 20' tall above the fence. 405' to center field and it cleared it easily. Second at bat he took a few pitches and eventually went back up the middle for a single. He made a delayed steal of second, the catcher's throw was to the 3rd base side of the bag, but had it been accurate would have made it a close play. The throw went into CF and Baez moved over to 3rd. Third at bat he went with the pitch and hit the wall on the fly (maybe 5' shy of another homer) in right center. He was looking triple all the way and slid into third head first, though he could have went in standing up. He was eventually stranded at third, but he put continuous pressure on the catcher by starting for home on every ball in the dirt. I'm not sure if there was a ball hit to him while I was watching, but in the 4th he chased a blooper/pop-up into left center and caught it on the run over his shoulder. Both outfielders were running at him and he never quit running to get to it. Very impressive play. It was obvious that he was by far the best player on the field tonight. The opposing pitcher was nothing special, throwing 89-90 mostly. Cates: He looked to have a very deliberate delivery/motion, even in warmups. That said, he didn't look like he was max-effort guy. The first inning really screwed him with two errors (a throwing error by Darvill at third and a fielding error by DeVoss with the bases loaded). He threw a lot of pitches that inning. He was 90-92 throughout. Also threw a 73 mph curve and I believe a 81 mph change up. Shafer: 2 K's in his first inning of work. Looked very fluid/loose compared to Cates. DeVoss and Zapata both showed a good plate approach, taking a lot of pitches and eventually making solid contact. Darvill hit the hardest non-Baez ball of the night. He continues to intrigue me, but his odds seem slim of getting to MLB level. If any questions or request for what to look for tomorrow/Monday, let me know.

"Oooh, Mini-Trucker Magazine!"

Awesome

It's really nice to have the ignore feature. I recently set it up and it's made it easier to skip the ignored user's comments. What would be truly amazing, though, would be to have the replies to the ignored user's comments also ignored.

I realize that others have already commented on this, but I have been reading the BP book "Everything you know about baseball is wrong," and they addressed the notion of protection. This is from memory, but I believe the discussion hinged around the expected runs given any situation and the resulting change in expected runs as a result of an intentional/work around walk. The conclusion was that protection is a myth. The hitter being protected would have to be Babe Ruth or Steroid Era Barry Bonds to make it worth walking him. The writing is all from a statistical standpoint. There are clearly game situations in which a guy has been struggling or has match-up splits call for the walk. Early this year I would have walked anybody and everybody to get to Soriano if the Cubs had two outs, but not now.

Replying to myself, but I would appreciate a hand if anyone could spare a few seconds Click that user's name -> Add Foe -> Yes Correction - that user's PROFILE. Unless you mods can do fancy stuff we can't. This was right - thanks to you and TT

Replying to myself, but I would appreciate a hand if anyone could spare a few seconds

Indeed. I can't believe it was brought back to life and hung on this long again

Could someone help me find the ignore feature? I did a little looking but didn't find it quickly. Thanks

I read a comment on another site about McNutt's outing. Said the ump had tiny strike zone and both pitchers would have had more K's.

Correct. I think that's pretty plausible at this point. Does the contract offer to Dempster have to be multiyear or could they offer him 1/13 and still get compensation? If a 1 yr offer would do get compensation it seems like a no-lose situation for Cubs

What is the compensation to the cubs if they offer Demp a qualifying contract in the offseason (was$12M last year)? Supplemental first?

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/minor-league-leaderboard-context/ This link shows the age of the most elite prospects in baseball at each level. Vitters is on that track. Not really disputing anything said, but age relative to competition is one of the bigger factors for prospects and Vitters has been among the youngest in his league throughout his career.

A few questions on pitchers: Chris Rusin: Is his upside a #4 starter? He's been locked in lately and I've been impressed, but not sure how he'll translate. Alberto Cabrera: Potential closer? Set up? He's got 13k/11.2IP. Anyone know fastball velo in pen duty? Brian Schlitter: When does he get back up to AAA or another chance in MLB? I assume this is just a short stop at A+ on his rehab tour. Yao-Lin Wang/Austin Reed: Both guys are working relief almost exclusively. I had thought both were starting candidates before and hope this is just a numbers/roster crunch having them work out of the pen. Will these guys return to starting?

where's the emoticon for "pot calling kettle black" Are you disagreeing with him? Honest question.