Outshined_One

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.

Digger. And he actually held a tune. Digger Phelps? *Ahem* BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

That sucked.

That should have been done before this season, imo.

Let's convert Mark Reed or Jake Muyco to pitcher. That should do it.

Part of the advantage of being a former catcher is that Marmol knows how to block the plate. He did a really nice job on that play at the plate.

It's like the old days with Kerry Wood. Poor Fernando Vina. Considering he was David Eckstein before David Eckstein was David Eckstein, I have no sympathy for him.

Duncan was only hit because he swung into it, to boot.

Wild pitch way wide of the plate, Kendall played it off the bricks perfectly and threw to Marmol who tagged Pujols out at the plate. Okay so Pujols was safe and Marmol tagged him late on the rear end but.......I'll take it. Pujols never got home plate, from the angle I saw. The ump was right on top of the play and made the right call, imo.

It's like the old days with Kerry Wood.

This is quite possibly the most bizarre inning I can remember seeing.