Outshined_One

*Groans* Thanks umps.

Summary for those of us without TV?

Have you seen Pierre's numbers this season? They're simply amazing: .271/.299/.318/.617 That's an IsoD of .028 and an IsoP of .047...that costs $7.5 million. Now that's gritty!

Carlos Gomez or Fernando Martinez don't appeal to you? :D Yeah, I know, that's unrealistic. I'm hoping the Cubs could get this guy, this guy, or this guy in a deal. A B-level pitching prospect would be fine by me.

He still has plenty of growing up to do, but the early results are most definitely promising. No question about it, there's plenty about his game that needs refinement (patience, baserunning, etc). However, as it is, he's already a marked improvement from Juan Pierre. I'll gladly take that.

Don't forget, Gallagher also got HBP in his first major AB last night. This might be a fun night at the ballpark.

One thing that's going to be worth keeping an eye on over the coming years is going to be how the Cubs approach Europe and other areas traditionally not baseball-oriented. The Cubs signed Maestri as a result of the newly opened baseball academy over there, which last season had about 5-6 guys signed from it. They also signed 17 year old Ryan Searle as a result of the Australian baseball academy. Maestri has had a fine season in relief and has a decent shot at making the majors in that role. Searle I know next to nothing about, but AZ Phil had some good things to say about him. As Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Korea, and Japan attract more and more teams willing to spend a lot of money for premium talent, it would behoove some teams to start looking for talent in areas that don't receive much scouting attention. All parts of the world produce excellent athletes, so why not expose them to baseball and see what happens? The market would be significantly cheaper with less competition. Maybe it won't pay immediate dividends, but it might not hurt to explore and see what results come about.

Baez has been in the system for awhile, though. He's 22 and was sent to EXST to work on changing from a SS to a CF, which, to my understanding, has worked out quite well for him. Otherwise, he probably would be in Peoria now. The Suarez signing was a big deal, considering the Cubs shelled out $850k for him. Look, I'm not making the argument that the Cubs are an international powerhouse that should not be meddled with. Plenty of other teams do a better job of international scouting than the Cubs, especially in recent years. The absolute lack of international talent from Daytona to Iowa is rather jarring, no question about it. However, it's rather clear that the best international scouting comes from finding the unheralded guys and developing them into monsters. Guys like Villalona, Truinfel, and so on were well-hyped and highly regarded from the get-go. However, the teams that seem to do the best job are the ones who scout thoroughly, especially considering that the third-tier guys get signed for absolute pennies compared to the top guys. If you can produce solid young international cheaply, but still get terrific results, then that's a heck of a lot more cost-efficient than shelling out millions to a single guy. Finally, the visa regulations haven't slowed down teams from signing guys, but they have slowed teams down when it comes to bringing them over to the United States in order to get them acclimated to living in a new country and get them better coaching than what they'd receive back home. A lot of the guys in EXST are on three month visas simply because there are not enough to bring them over on the low level professional athlete visa in order to keep them there. After the visa expires, those guys go back to the DSL, VSL, or one of their academies rather than stick around in EXST or go play short season ball. That makes a big difference.

There are a few reasons for this... 1) Leon Lee, the Cubs' former top Pacific Rim scout, left a few years ago. As memory serves me, he was the guy who dug up JK Ryu and Hee Seop Choi, both of whom turned out to be very good prospects in this system early in their professional careers. After he left, there was a huge void and the Cubs didn't really fill it. However, this past offseason, the Cubs spent a decent amount of time scouting players such as Daisuke Matsuzaka, Kei Igawa, and Akinori Iwamura (along with a few others) who were posted and bid on. The Cubs didn't win any of these biddings, but they made a legitimate effort to get these guys, from all accounts. 2) Following September 11th, the US government clamped down on work visas. This made it a heck of a lot more difficult to bring over players from other countries on visas, since these baseball players fell into a particular category that had strict limits for each team. So, in other words, the Cubs could only bring over a few players from the DR and Venezuela every year compared to pre-2001 levels, when it was much easier to obtain these visas for players. My understanding is that there is pending legislation to help major league teams in bringing over foreign players much more easily on work visas, but I don't think it has been passed through yet. I could be mistaken. 3) The Cubs actually have been active recently when it came to bidding on young international players. The biggest name they picked up was Larry Suarez, whom many considered to be the best pitcher out of this year's class. He's currently down at Extended Spring Training. He'll need plenty of time to develop, but he has a very promising future as a 17 year old. There are a number of other guys worth watching who come from beyond US borders whom the Cubs scouted and signed... Iowa C Geovanny Soto (PR) Daytona SS/2B Robinson Chirinos (Venezuela) OF Jesus Valdez (DR) Peoria RP Oscar Bernard (DR) SP/RP Marco Carrillo (Mexico) RP Miguel Cuevas Novas (DR) SP Rafael Dolis (DR, on the DL and was really promising at the start the year) SP Robert Hernandez (Venezuela) SP/RP Jose Pina (DR) RP Alessandro Maestri (Italy) C Wellington Castillo (DR) IF Jonathan Mota (Venezuela) Names to Follow down at EXST P Larry Suarez P Alberto Cabrera P Harol Tolentino P Ryan Searle P Simon Lee P Julio Castillo OF Sammy Baez OF Nelson Perez OF Andres Quezada OF Jesus Reyes IF Marwin Gonzalez IF Gian Guzman IF Elvis Lara

If Lilly doesn't throw at Andruw Jones in his first AB, I'll be annoyed.

Welp, time for me to hit the ol' dusty trail. Go Cubs and good night folks.

it was behind him Oh dear Lord. Here comes Murton for his daily dose of abuse!

I take it Ball 1 was as close to the batter as it seems on Gameday?

Something tells me this is going to be one of those games people aren't going to forget around these parts for the next few weeks.

I don't think anyone over 5'9 is able to "scamper", as it were.

Will Jeff Francoeur break any major league records by ending every single Braves inning at the rate things are going?

Crud. Here comes the pain.

"Fifty bucks says the Smails kid picks his nose!"

Yeah, either eject Hudson right there, or give the Cubs some leeway to retaliate. That or tell Lilly to plunk Andruw Jones tomorrow for good measure.

7 pitch inning for Hudson. Hooray.

Was a warning issued after Hudson threw at Soriano? If not, I hope Marquis responds in kind to Hudson.

Haven't been following him other than in our games, but yea with us it's 5 bad ABs and then a 2 run HR. His OBP is actually around .330 at this point. His BABIP is at .262 by my numbers, so he's been due to get his average back up.

Someone send Larry out for a chat before Marquis completely loses it.

That .225 average has been really deceiving.

Show of hands, who didn't see that one coming?