Gilby

You can put one in the bullpen; I doubt both will be in the rotation to start the year. Hopefully they pick the right one.

Well that's not true. Who are you banking on? Arrieta? Edwards? Arrieta (who has been elite and has a ways to drop off and still be good), Hendricks (strikes and groundballs FTW), and as much as I don't love them, I doubt both Wood and Jackson continue to post mid 5 ERAs. Then there's the bullpen - Rondon, Strop, Ramirez, and Rivero all are currently/should be good relief pitchers. There's also a lot of money to be spent and a pretty good group of free agent starting pitchers to spend it on. I guess I'm not THAT worried about the pitching. I'm not talking about the bullpen, though I guess I should since this year's seems to be the exception, so it's not even like that is some kind of sure thing. My concerns with Arrieta are injuries. I think Hendricks' lack of speed is ultimately going to catch up to him. Wood and Jackson not bouncing back shouldn't be surprising to anyone. The team development is HUGELY lopsided right now. You should factor in the bullpen if you're going to say we have no pitching, but w/e. Again, not a big fan of either, but neither Wood nor Jackson have been this bad before, and considering their ages, I think it would be surprising if neither bounces back to become an acceptable BOR pitcher. Arrieta hasn't had any reported problems since the spring (or before that I know of), so I don't know that you should be much more worried about him than any other hard-throwing pitcher. I also think you're too quick to give up on Hendricks based on velocity. The changeup appears to be a true swing-and-miss pitch and he's shown the ability to throw strikes and get a lot GB's throughout his pro career; those things should mitigate some of the damage done when he does give up homers on a mistake 88 mph fastball.

Well that's not true. Who are you banking on? Arrieta? Edwards? Arrieta (who has been elite and has a ways to drop off and still be good), Hendricks (strikes and groundballs FTW), and as much as I don't love them, I doubt both Wood and Jackson continue to post mid 5 ERAs. Then there's the bullpen - Rondon, Strop, Ramirez, and Rivero all are currently/should be good relief pitchers. There's also a lot of money to be spent and a pretty good group of free agent starting pitchers to spend it on. I guess I'm not THAT worried about the pitching.

Well that's not true.

At least Alcantara, Rizzo, and Starlin all reached base at least twice tonight.

Alcantara misses Des Moines

See ya next week, Javy.

Coghlan played a lot of 1B in the spring as well.

I'm not saying it's definitely happening. It's just a small dot in a picture that was already starting to come into focus. The big dot was the position switch. I think it's also mildly interesting that Alcantara is playing CF with Bonifacio at 2B tonight. Though maybe they'll swap each game or something.

I only read the first chapter, but I didn't like how Schowalter realized it was time to get rid of him only after he disrespected old Yankee players instead of, you know, [expletive] teenagers.

Not that I am sad or anything, but I would have DFA'd or sent down like 3 or 4 guys before Barney. I'm not sure if this particular move has much to do with Baez, but him switching positions is pretty telling. They didn't have Alcantara play any outfield in the beginning of the season. They've been quick to promote him when he's started to figure things out in the past, and Kyle made a good point about getting the most out of this free year by bringing him up soon. Wouldn't surprise me if he's up the day after Bonifacio gets traded.

Damnit, Soler was removed from the game in the 7th.

I think Martinez will still be really good, but yeah Miller might be broken. On another note, how long of a leash will Lunhow be given? Already screwed up the last two drafts and has a bad reputation among players/agents. I'd consider [expletive] canning him now.

I remember Brenly laughing hysterically when Len was talking about how Collmenter learned his extreme over-the-top delivery by throwing tomahawks at trees. Go Cubs.

I had to go back and look what was said, my goodness how is the vogelbach reputation what it is with people? Just because he has to be a offensive beast to be worth anything does not mean he is an offensive beast. Well said. Vogelbach has 3 more homers than Almora and 24 less than Bryant. Vogelbach is better at making contact, sure, but he doesn't have a chance to match Bryant's power. Like, not even close. It was fun to dream on him after his showing in Boise in 2012, but he's just not that type of hitter that he badly needs to be.

Vogelbach isn't close to the hitter Bryant is. That's an especially weird post given the username.

He's not THIS bad, but Wood shouldn't be guaranteed a spot next season. He's just not that good.

Yeah, moving positions at this point caught me off guard. I do kinda think we'll see him in September or even sooner now. I doubt the service time is as important as it is with Bryant since Javy's not the virtual lock to be somewhere between an above average hitter to MVP caliber and is more likely to talk extension I would think. Also, he'll need to go through a period of striking out 40% of the time, so it would be nice to get that over with.

I feel like if Castro moves, it would be to 2nd base. Not really sure why I think that (maybe it's the AZ Phil reports of Castro's best position being 2B when he was in the AZL). I think we see Russell brought up late in 2015 and have him play 3rd for at least a few seasons, as it's easier to have the minor leaguer learn a new position. Whatever, it's awesome either way.

At the very least I think he has put on a good amount of muscle Yeah maybe he's just so [expletive] huge his line drive swing is now resulting in homers. I get confused with minor league playoff scenarios, but I see Tennessee is under .500 and Iowa is above. Would be sweet if Russell and Soler get called up to AAA for the PCL playoffs and the top 4 dudes are all in the same lineup. Tennessee is at .500 in the 2nd half, which is a 3-way tie for 1st in that division, while Iowa is a half game out of first in their division, so the playoff probabilities are probably about the same. Ah, thanks. I wasn't sure if that 1st half and 2nd half stuff applied to double-A.

At the very least I think he has put on a good amount of muscle Yeah maybe he's just so [expletive] huge his line drive swing is now resulting in homers. I get confused with minor league playoff scenarios, but I see Tennessee is under .500 and Iowa is above. Would be sweet if Russell and Soler get called up to AAA for the PCL playoffs and the top 4 dudes are all in the same lineup.

Has Soler made an adjustment to his swing? Despite his massive size, he's never shown this much game power. Theo even mentioned once that his swing was very level and more geared towards line drives and grounders. I wonder if he changed something because this is really impressive.

Which would seem to me to indicate there is plenty of time before we can expect him to be in the majors. That's all I'm trying to say. I think he's going to take a little more time at this level than Baez. How old was Castro when he started in AA? You may be right, but if you're basing this off 8 games, then at least factor in the 13 he played at AA with the Athletics and put up a .939 OPS with as many walks as strikeouts. He has a very good approach which is why people think he'll be a fast mover.

I don't really understand how Russell's ETA is 2015. He will only be 21 all next year, and given the likelihood of them calling up more than 1 of the older batch, and starting their clocks in 2015, I would think they might want to spread that out and wait until 2016 after he gives them no choice but to call him up. This will also give them a chance to figure out what they want to do with Castro longterm. That's exactly what I expect. But if he turns it on the rest of this year and starts to dominate AAA next year, it's going to be tough to keep him down there. He's hitting under .200 for a guy who is suppose to have such an incredible hit tool he certainly hasn't shown it so far. I realize he got a late start because of the hamstring tear but he needs to start hitting at some point. He's certainly not knocking at majors door. He has quite a bit of work to do. He really has yet to dominate at the AA level yet for an extended period of time. He was hitting really well for the A's double-A affiliate, so I think it's fair to cut him some slack being the centerpiece of a blockbuster trade and the pressure that comes with that. I also don't know that his hit tool is supposed to be "incredible"; it's just he's good at everything and does so playing SS.

Schwarber struck out swinging his first AB And no Soler tonight. Lame.