Outshined_One

Lou's feet need to be held to the fire for this one. There was no reason for Marmol to be in this game whatsoever.

That's the problem. He wasn't thinking.

I can't believe Lou only used Gaudin for 2/3s of an inning. What a horrible, horrible inning. Marmol needs to go on the DL and Lou needs to stop abusing the hell out of him. This is pure insanity.

It's tied. Thank Theriot for that one.

That was Notgardo.

And Marmol is still out there. WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU, LOU?!

:-s Holy hell.

Marshall is ready. Pull Marmol for heaven's sake.

Golly gee, you mean if you try making someone into an everyday reliever, he might get injured? The very notion of it is foreign to me!

PULL HIM.

This has been a really, really, really bad year for Stretch singers.

Nice start. I think I saw his changeup once in that inning.

92 and 93 on the fastballs to start the game.

Invite plz.

Rich Harden is one handsome man. P-51? Sweet!

With a name like that, I don't think this is any big deal. It's just practicing for the inevitable Girls Gone Wild scenes she'll do when she grows up.

And yet, Fuld and Pierre have similar skillset. Fuld is a MUCH better defender, and Pierre is faster. Neither have power, nor should be starting. And yet, the Cubs traded three pitchers for Pierre, and refused to do anything with Fuld. Dusty needed his horses, dude. The Cubs talked about bringing Fuld up to the bigs out of spring training this season. While it was unclear how serious this discussion was, Fuld was given a fair shot to show what he can do. Unfortunately for Fuld, he ran into issues early this season (I want to say he was injured) and simply looked like garbage at AAA. He's starting to pick himself back up since his demotion to AA, but he needs to get back to AAA and produce if he wants the Cubs to call him up as anything other than a defensive replacement in September. What I was outlining above is basically this. Fuld is on the prospect radar, but he had nowhere near the same level of hype as a number of guys coming into this season. I'm willing to argue Josh Donaldson, Jeff Samardzija, Tyler Colvin, Chris Huseby, Kyler Burke, Drew Rundle, and a handful of others have been more disappointing than Sam Fuld at the halfway point. I have a difficult time understanding why BA chose Fuld over a number of other more qualified candidates.

Box Scores: Iowa won 10-6, Box Score: LF A. Torres 3/5, 2 R, 2B (19), 2 RBI, BB, K CF F. Pie 3/6, 3B (3), 3 RBI 1B M. Hoffpauir 3/6, 2B (19), 2 RBI, K, E (2, fielding) RF J. Kroeger 2/4, R, BB, K SS B. Scales 3/4, 2 R, 2B (13), BB SP M. Burns 6 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 1 HR, 10 GO-4 FO RP J. Ascanio 2 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, 1 HR, 3 GO-2 FO Tennessee lost 10-2, Box Score: CF T. Colvin 0/3, R, BB, 2 K, OF assist at home LF J. Fox 2/4, R, 2B (18), RBI, 2 K RF D. Deeds 2/4 C B. Lalli 1/4 SP D. Veal 3 IP, 4 H, 5 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, HBP, WP, 2 GO-2 FO RP J. Ceda 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, WP, 0 GO-3 FO Daytona won 5-1, Box Score: CF J. Adduci 3/4, R, RBI, BB, SB (17) 1B S. Clevenger 2/4, R, RBI, BB 3B M. Smith 2/5, R, 2B (1), 3B (1), 2 RBI SS D. Barney 1/4, R, 2B (17), K DH R. Canzler 2/4, RBI 2B T. Thomas 1/3, 2 K, SB (15) SP M. Carrillo 7 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 K, 1 HR, 6 GO-13 FO RP J. Papelbon 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K, 4 GO-2 FO Peoria won 2-0, Box Score: SS N. Samson 2/4, R, 2 2B (12), BB, SB (4) LF B. Guyer 0/4, R, K, HBP 3B J. Rosa 1/5, 2B (28), RBI, 2 K DH L. Bautista 1/4, RBI, K 1B R. Ridling 1/4, 2B (3), K C L. Flores 1/3, HBP SP J. Castillo 5 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 3 K, 9 GO-2 FO RP S. Vento 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, 4 GO-0 FO Boise lost 10-6, Box Score: 2B J. Harrison 3/5, R, 2 RBI, CS (4) CF K. Calvert 2/3, R, BB 3B J. Vitters 1/5, R, 2 K 1B R. Keedy 2/4, 3B (1), 4 RBI, BB, K, E (1, fielding) SS R. Flaherty 0/4, E (3, fielding) SP M. Perconte 3.2 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, HR, HBP, 1 GO-4 FO RP J. Leverton 2.1 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 1 K, 3 GO-2 FO AZL Cubs won 6-5, Box Score: 2B S. Castro 2/4, R, BB, E (4, fielding) DH M. Cerda 2/4, 3 R, BB, K LF J. Jones 3/4, R, RBI, K 3B J. Contreras 1/2, 2B (5), 2 RBI, BB, K RF N. Perez 1/3, R, HR (4), RBI, BB - first walk of the year, IsoD is finally positive SP R. Hill 5 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K, 8 GO-0 FO RP R. Acosta 1.1 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 0 BB, 0 K, HR, 1 GO-3 FO DSL Cubs 1 lost 3-1, Box Score: SP E. Infante 5 IP, 7 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 0 K, WP, 9 GO-5 FO RP C. Galvez 1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 0 K, 1 GO-1 FO - 18 years old DSL Cubs 2 scored 3 in the bottom of the 9th to win 3-2, Box Score: DH J. Morelli 2/4, R, 3B (3), K SP R. Garcia 6 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K, 7 GO-7 FO - 22.1 IP, 26 K/5 BB, 6.04 ERA - 16 years old Overall: 5-3 MLB Baseball Australian Academy Program: Kangaroos lost 6-4, Box Score: CF S. Williams 3/4, R, RBI, K

It doesn't negate the possibility that a player can put up a good OBP in the majors, but it causes a number of problems. First, defenses get better as the levels get higher. The quality of defenders improve, especially around the infield. It becomes much harder to get hits, particularly singles, as guys move up. If you hit for power and hit a lot of line drives, you have a bit less to worry about as you advance. Second, look at the value of potential replacement players around the diamond and compare them to Fuld. You will find a decent number of corner OFs who put up good OBPs and power numbers. You will also do so for CFs, although not quite as many. In order for Fuld to be a worthwhile starting OF, he has to be able to put up an OBP high enough to offset that power loss. I'm not so sure Fuld is able to do that. Third, in response to the point about Juan Pierre, Pierre is overrated and a piece of garbage. He only had one good year offensively. That's about it.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

Man, he freaking crushed that.

Micah Owings is intrigued with this idea.

Year after year Sam Fuld was considered the most disciplined hitter in the Cubs Minor League system. For a team like Chicago, who until this season tended to be very aggressive at the plate, Fuld seemed to fill an obvious need. Combine that with quality defense at a position that demands it and I'd say that was enough to get excited about him. He's a 4th OF at best. He's pretty much been that way for a number of years now. The guy never had any power to speak of.

The Cubs feel the same way about him. He's been a nice pitcher for them. We'll see him in Mesa next spring, for sure. Sweet, maybe I should go into the business side of baseball!

...seriously? I mean...really? I can think of like 10 guys who can easily top Fuld for that designation.