Outshined_One

The Matt Morris trade is one of the most inexplicable trades in recent history. If Littlefield doesn't get fired in the offseason for that trade alone, he might very well be GM for life out there.

it worked for them last time With the Reds jumping back to 6 back, I'm sure the Astros would be happy to join the party.

You clearly are not familiar with the Cubs' offense and its wonderful tendency to get shredded by a middling LHP. :D

I'm inclined to agree with this. It seems like the hitters have more polish and production while the pitchers have higher ceilings but are more unpolished. I think there's plenty of hitters in the system with big ceilings that lack the polish, too, though. There are plenty of polished and productive pitchers in this system, too. :P

I'm inclined to agree with this. It seems like the hitters have more polish and production while the pitchers have higher ceilings but are more unpolished.

See, my biggest problem with hangovers is nausea. I might give homage to the porcelain gods before going to bed, but it's no guarantee I'll wake up the next day feeling any better. My stomach is a finicky thing. :(

BB:K ratio is meaningless, as far as I'm concerned. I've debated throwing out Ks altogether as a useful indicator of future success/failure, but I haven't quite gotten to that point yet. Considering I don't pay much (if any) attention to Ks in the majors, it makes sense. The biggest problem I have with Colvin is the fact that, in just under 470 PAs this season, Colvin has walked 14 times. Roughly speaking, for every 33-34 PAs Colvin has, he takes a single walk. I have trouble wrapping my head around that number. Seriously, that's lunacy. People point out names like Jeff Francoeur and Vlad Guerrero as examples of guys to whom Colvin might compare favorably. However, in his minor league career, Francoeur drew a walk once roughly every 16 plate appearances. Guerrero, on the other hand, drew a walk once roughly every 11 plate appearances while in the minor leagues. Those comparisons don't work. Cripes, even IsoD/OBP whipping boys like Jacque Jones and Juan Pierre have notably better walk rates than Colvin. I'm worried about Colvin. Maybe he'll make it to the majors, but if his pitch recognition skills are truly this bad, he might get eaten alive.

Top 10, with a prospect profile that includes bashing Jim Hendry, numerous exclamation points and question marks, and maybe even a few f-bombs sprinkled around for emphasis?

Yep. My two big concerns are: 1) How good is his pitch recognition? 2) Can he stick at 3B? I'll point out that there's a large gap between the two. I'm hoping he either posts a reasonable IsoD or doesn't strike out so much as to cause some of the people who frequent this board to have a conniption, but that remains to be seen. I'll add that I'm not overly thrilled with this year's crop of prospects compared to previous seasons. Colvin will probably get my nod as #1 overall, but I really don't have a good feeling about him.

If I remember my stages of hangover correctly... 11 AM - "Oh God...make the world stop. Please make it stop. I swear, God, if you get me through this, I'll never have another drink again." 1 PM - *Hugs toilet* "Uggggggggh, that burrito tasted just as bad coming up as it did going down. It's going to be a long time before I have another drink." 3 PM - *Lies on futon like it's a deathbed, watching bad TV* "Maybe I'll be able to keep my soup and crackers down this time. I'm not going to drink for another month." 5 PM - *Goes out for a walk and some sunshine* "I'm okay...I'm okay...I'm okay...just remember not to have another drink for a week or two." 7 PM - *Receives phone call from friends who were also out last night* "Yeah, I don't know if I'll go out tonight, I got hammered pretty badly. Maybe we'll do it tomorrow, sound good?" 9 PM - *Calls friends back* "I'm bored. Are you still going out tonight?" And thus the cycle continues...

It is (in terms of neutral factors), but he's facing much better hitters in AA than A+. I have no idea where I'll end up ranking Samardzija at season's end. He'll probably fight it out with Colvin for my #1 spot, but throughout the season, he was bouncing around my personal rankings like a freaking ping-pong ball.

That was quick.

I'm fine with them when the pitcher has ace stuff and it seems like no team in baseball could get a runner in scoring position off of him. However, when the pitcher is responsible for a lion's share of the other team's offense, I tend to be a bit more cynical.

Tornado Watch/Warning has more to do with the type of weather pattern than actually spotting a tornado. If a system has the right elements for a tornado, then the watch/warning will go out, regardless of whether or not a tornado has actually been spotted.

Just do the straight steal if you want to stay out of the DP. The hit & run forces Derrek to swing at a (likely) bad pitch while Theriot has to look back to make sure he doesn't get hung out to dry. Too many things can go wrong in that situation for my liking.

Fred Taylor, RB

Warrick Dunn, RB, ATL

Alessandro Maestri among them. I'd really like to see the Cubs begin expanding operations in Europe. That is a seriously untapped market for baseball.

It's simple. The MLB Draft, unlike the NBA and NFL Drafts, is not about need. If a team has two potential All Star 3Bs in its system and the best player on the board when they pick is a 3B, they should still take the guy. The reasoning is fairly sound... 1) Depth is a team's greatest asset. You never know when a player will slump horribly, regress, or get injured. A good example of this paying off for a team is what happened with the Phillies when Ryan Howard was starting to break through despite Jim Thome blocking him. Thome had a down year and Howard picked up the slack in impressive fashion. Moreover, thanks to Howard doing so well, the Phillies were able to trade Thome for a decent package. 2) On a similar note, this kind of depth adds flexibility in terms of trade value. A good example of this is what happened with the Braves this year. Brian McCann was blocking Jarrod Saltalamacchia despite both having very good ceilings. So, Atlanta went with the more polished Catcher and ended up trading for Mark Teixeira, one of the best young hitters in baseball, using Salty as the major chip. 3) Finally, if a player really is good enough to play in the majors on a regular basis, a team will find a way to play him regularly. If Vitters turns into the hitter everyone hopes he'll become, he'll have a bat that'll be good enough to be used at pretty much any position. Now, you can argue until you're blue in the face over whether Vitters was the right pick talent-wise compared to someone like Wieters, but those three things I outlined above pretty much apply to any potential draftee. Drafting out of need is just a mistake in baseball.

Rain delay time!

What happened? I don't have audio or video today :cry: Question mark shaped routes, namely.

Uggggggggggggggggggggh.

Is Mike Wuertz still among the living?

Tommy LaSorda, Tony LaRussa, and Lou Piniella don't age, do they?

I think Willow works better.