Outshined_One

OH DEAR LORD, HE THINKS THEY MIGHT STILL GO ON A RUN. Thereby justifying not trading guys.

"Not excuses, but circumstances" *Groan*

Wow, Mike actually asks a question about Hendry's waffling on the Dusty issue.

Jim talking up Tom Kelly. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

Jim gave a heck of a non-answer about that.

Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere we go, phone calls. Duncan wants to know about Rammy's lack of hustle, joy.

GLENDON RUSCH IS NOT SERVICEABLE.

If you're playing the drinking game, you're already wasted.

He and Scott Olsen got into an argument after Cabrera loafed it on a play and Olsen called him out for it on the field.

From Rotoworld.

Really? Most of the posts I've read are in the camp of, "I do not like this deal, but we're going to have to wait and see." Neither Bray nor Majewski is spectacular, but they should improve the Reds bullpen, which has been their downfall this season. However, the Reds lost a lot offensively. Lopez and Wagner have been struggling, but Kearns has terrific value. Denorfia sounds like a decent young player, but he's not as good as Kearns. The Reds overpaid for decent relievers. The Nationals made out really well in this deal. Should be fun to see what they get for Soriano and/or Guillen.

It matters in the first two rounds, which is where all of the best talent is always concentrated. You still have to scout guys, but the odds of finding a future All Star are the greatest in those two rounds. The higher you are, the larger the pool you have to pick from. After that, matters become much more reliant on the scouting department.

I'm hoping some one asks him why the heck Hill hasn't been called up for an extended look. The man is shredding the highest level of the minors and has nothing left to prove.

Caller: "I have in my possession a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts which have been sliced in half. Burger patties, bacon, scrambled eggs, ketchup, lettuce, pickle, fried onions, and a slice of cheese have been placed between them. Furthermore, I coated each in a flour/sugar/lard batter and submerged each in a deep frier. You can have them if you fire Dusty." Jimbo: "...what kind of cheese?" Caller: "Cheez-Whiz." Jimbo: "SOLD!"

Pantsless Mascots take RB Cedric Benson.

I'm going to predict 95 losses with Dusty getting fired in August after guys like Pierre and Maddux are traded off. If this team is gutted at the deadline, the front office is finally admitting defeat. There'd be no reason to keep Baker and company around at that point.

Same here, actually! That was a crazy ending. Before that fateful game, Sammy sneezed his back out.

Eric won't be ready to take over the starting 2B job until midseason 2007 at the earliest, with the way things have been going. His defense is apparently better than people originally expected, but he still has a number of things to work on before being ready to come up. Still, he's a good prospect and could end up becoming a solid major leaguer.

I was really tempted to take Jackson due to his consistency, but his comparative lack of power numbers, age, and fact that he was repeating both Daytona (for the third time) and West Tenn held him back.

Best Hitter of the First Half In order to assemble this list, I required a player to have a minimum of 100 ABs this season. Please note that I am unable to combine stats because I unfortunately lack HBP numbers for this season. Finally, in the case of Miguel Negron, I am only counting his numbers in the Cubs' system. Stats from today's game have not been factored in. My list, my rules. :P Candidates IF Mike Fontenot AAA: 82 G, 256 ABs, .305/.390/.453/.843, 78 H, 16 2B, 2 3B, 6 HR, 35 R, 20 RBI, 47/35 K/BB, 5 SB, 3 CS 1B/OF Micah Hoffpauir AA: 40 G, 138 ABs, .268/.362/.594/.956, 37 H, 11 2B, 2 3B, 10 HR, 28 R, 31 RBI, 29/20 K/BB. AAA: 46 G, 155 ABs, .239/.328/.458/.786, 37 H, 5 2B, 1 3B, 9 HR, 19 R, 27 RBI, 40/22 K/BB, 1 CS OF Luis Montanez AA: 38 G, 141 ABs, .369/.438/.489/.927, 52 H, 11 2B, 2 HR, 24 R, 25 RBI, 26/15 K/BB, 5 SB, 3 CS AAA: 41 G, 127 ABs, .220/.286/.346/.632, 28 H, 7 2B, 3 HR, 11 R, 11 RBI, 22/10 K/BB, 1 CS 3B Scott Moore AA: 85 G, 299 ABs, .278/.342/.488/.830, 83 H, 21 2B, 14 HR, 33 R, 50 RBI, 86/25 K/BB, 11 SB, 6 CS 2B Eric Patterson AA: 88 G, 323 ABs, .279/.338/.418/.756, 90 H, 18 2B, 6 3B, 5 HR, 51 R, 34 RBI, 65/30 K/BB, 28 SB, 7 CS OF Chris Walker AA: 87 G, 341 AB, .311/.366/.411/.777, 106 H, 14 2B, 7 3B, 2 HR, 50 R, 29 RBI, 57/25 K/BB, 35 SB, 12 CS OF Miguel Negron AA: 39 G, 123 AB, .366/.407/.553/.960, 45 H, 14 2B, 3 3B, 1 HR, 16 R, 19 RBI, 19/10 K/BB, 4 SB, 1 CS OF Nic Jackson High A: 18 G, 69 AB, .275/.375/.493/.868, 19 H, 3 2B, 3 3B, 2 HR, 12 R, 7 RBI, 15/8 K/BB, 6 SB, 2 CS AA: 64 G, 221 AB, .312/.384/.475/.859, 69 H, 17 2B, 5 3B, 3 HR, 32 R, 35 RBI, 44/25 K/BB, 15 SB, 5 CS C Jake Fox High A: 66 G, 249 ABs, .313/.383/.574/.957, 78 H, 15 2B, 1 3B, 16 HR, 45 R, 61 RBI, 49/27 K/BB, 4 SB, 1 CS AA: 14 G, 48 ABs, .208/.255/.354/.609, 10 H, 4 2B, 1 HR, 4 R, 4 RBI, 11/3 K/BB 1B Matt Craig High A: 81 G, 287 ABs, .286/.380/.474/.854, 82 H, 21 2B, 3 3B, 9 HR, 43 R, 52 RBI, 77/42 K/BB, 4 SB, 1 CS OF Sam Fuld High A: 70 G, 283 ABs, .325/.404/.445/.845, 92 H, 15 2B, 5 3B, 3 HR, 51 R, 33 RBI, 45/34 K/BB, 20 SB, 3 CS 1B Ryan Norwood Low A: 85 G, 327 ABs, .318/.351/.468/.819, 104 H, 19 2B, 10 HR, 39 R, 45 RBI, 69/10 K/BB, 2 SB C Mark Reed Low A: 68 G, 238 ABs, .290/.340/.353/.693, 69 H, 9 2B, 2 HR, 39 R, 23 RBI, 54/14 K/BB, 14 SB, 6 CS Analysis Hoo boy. The Cubs have had a lot of trouble developing and producing everyday starting position players in recent history; we all know that for a fact. Names like David Kelton, Hee Seop Choi, Corey Patterson, and so on bring back some happy memories, don't they? The way matters have unfolded for all of them was just a myriad of factors, be it injuries, questionable coaching, or just troubles adjusting as they rose through the minors. I hold nothing personal against them and frankly feel worse about what could have been than anything else. These guys had the tools to make it big...but so far, that just has not been the case. Unfortunately, this season has not been kind to the position players in the farm system. Guys are working their tails off, but the results just haven't shown through. In some cases, injuries and ailments have hampered some of the more promising hitters (Dopirak, Sing, Johnston), setting back their development. In others, guys performed well at one level, but then received a promotion and struggled. A lot of the players on this list either were old for their respective leagues or were repeating a level (if not both) due to injuries or a logjam at their positions. It was hard to pick a guy to win this award. I took a bunch of factors into account and still had a handful of guys to pick from. Guys who tore apart one league floundered after a promotion. Guys with good speed and AVG didn't have much power. Some guys were jacks of all trades, but masters of none. I went with the guy who had the hottest hand for most of the first half: C Jake Fox Yep, Tim's favorite. He was old for Daytona and struggled in his callup to West Tenn, but he has a number of things going for him this season. For one, even though he accumulated 48 ABs at West Tenn after his promotion, he still is second in the Florida State League in HRs with 16. He also still leads the FSL in OPS (.957) and SLG (.574). Putting those numbers up in a pitcher-friendly league is quite hard to do. Moreover, he has accumulated 17 total HRs (second to Micah in the system!) and actually shows good patience at the plate compared to some of the other guys on this list. He's all doing it at a position where offense is a bonus, to boot. Congratulations to Jake! :D

They start playing night games later in the summer, when it starts getting blisteringly hot in AZ with random rain storms popping up infrequently.

Box Scores Iowa won 6-2 Box Score SS R. Theriot 0/2, HBP CF F. Pie 3/5, R, RBI, SB (8) 2B M. Fontenot 2/3, BB, 2 RBI, 2B (17) LF M. Restovich 0/5, K 1B M. Hoffpauir 1/5, R, K 3B C. McGehee 1/4, R RF B. Coats 3/4, 2 R, 2 RBI, 2B (13), SB (11) SP A. Guzman 6 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 6/2 K/BB, HR, 7-5 GO-FO RP C. Rapada 1 scorless, 1 H, 0/1 K/BB, 2-0 GO-FO (Pickoff) RP D. Aardsma 1 perfect, 2/0 K/BB, 0-1 GO-FO RP M. Wuertz 1 perfect, 1/0 K/BB, 0-2 GO-FO West Tenn lost 3-1 Box Score RF C. Walker 0/2, BB, RBI, K, CS (13) RF B. Sing 1/1, 2B (5) 2B E. Patterson 0/4, K LF N. Jackson 0/4, 2 K 1B B. Dopirak 0/4, K CF M. Negron 0/2, BB, K 3B S. Moore 0/3 RF R. Lewis 0/1 SP S. Gallagher 5 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 5/6 K/BB, 7-2 GO-FO RP R. Cherry 1 perfect, 2/0 K/BB, 1-0 GO-FO Daytona won 5-4 Box Score CF S. Fuld 2/4, RBI, 2B (16) 2B J. Simokaitis 1/3, BB, K, CS (5) 1B M. Craig 0/4, K RF R. Harvey 2/4, 2 R, 2 RBI, 2 HR (10), K C J. Muyco 0/3, BB, R, K SS J. Mota 1/3, R SP J. Berg 5.2 IP, 6 H, 4 ER, 1/1 K/BB, 12-4 GO-FO Peoria lost 6-4 Box Score 2B R. Chirinos 0/4, BB, 2 R, 2K 3B R. Malone 2/4, BB LF J. Valdez 5/5, 2 RBI, 2B (16), E (6, throw) 1B R. Norwood 1/5, RBI, K C M. Reed 0/4, BB, 2 K RF Y. Carter 0/4, 2 K, 2 assists (2B x2) DH A. Garcia 2/4, 2 K, SB (1) SS K. Reynolds 1/4, 2 R, K CF D. Gregg 0/4, K SP J. Yepez 6 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 3/3 K/BB, HR, WP, 9-4 GO-FO Boise won 7-5 Box Score CF M. Camp 2/3, R, 2 RBI, 2B (1), CS (4), Assist (1B) SS S. Baez 1/2, CS (4), E (8, missed catch, throw) LF T. Colvin 2/4, 2 R, 3 RBI, 2B (2), HR (2) 3B J. Lansford 1/4, RBI, 3B (1), E (3, fielding) RF A. Joseph 0/4 1B E. Puello 0/4 DH DJ Lewis 2/3, R, 2B (6) SP B. Petrick 5 IP, 7 H, 1 ER, 7/2 K/BB, 1-5 GO-FO RP A. Maestri 1 scoreless, 1 H, 0/1 K/BB, 2-1 GO-FO Mesa lost 8-7 Box Score 2B P. Lopez 0/3, 2 BB, SB (2), E (2, fielding) 3B M. Gonzalez 1/5, R, RBI, K C C. Perez 1/5, RBI, K, E (3, throw) CF C. Andersen 1/4, R, 2 K DH W. Inoa 2/4, R, RBI, SB (2) SS C. Valentin 1/4, R, 2 K, SB (1), 2 E (5, throw x2) SP J. Renshaw 2 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 0/1 K/BB, 1-5 GO-FO RP D. Walters 3 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 2/1 K/BB, 1-4 GO-FO RP A. Albuquerque 2 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 3/1 K/BB, 2-1 GO-FO RP A. Astorga 1 IP, 1 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 0-3 GO-FO OVERALL: 3-3

I understand Nate's argument, though. At the time of Veal's promotion, he and Atkins were similarly rated. Veal and Atkins both had their upsides at the time...but Atkins is a year younger. Things are different since then, but at the time, Nate's got a good argument. Regarding my choice, I was evaluating performance more than anything else, though.

I think Veal is talked about moreso for a few reasons. For one, he's lefthanded...that tends to go farther with pitchers. Two, his scoreless streak at Daytona vaulted him into the spotlight. Three, he was a much higher draft pick than Atkins, which lends itself to more hype and more in-depth scouting reports. Finally, Atkins didn't establish his prospect status until this season. Veal's prospect status was well above Atkins last season due to where he was drafted and some of the numbers he put up at Boise.

Could it be a typo? Andy Santana has pitched at a higher level than the DSL, but is nowhere to be found this season.