Outshined_One

That was an interesting pitch to swing at.

The moment Len compared Mabry to Mark Grace, the baseball gods decided to have a chuckle.

everyone rags on hill for having a below average fb, but i don't think i've seen marshall top 90 yet. i don't understand why marshall's stock has risen so high above guzman's and hill's. He works 90-92, but touches 94/95 when he needs to reach back. Wow, Mabry is tall.

Just double checking, are those batting helmets a permanent thing or are they just for ST?

Wait...I just realized Mabry is batting 3rd. What the heck?

That strike three pitch to Chavez good enough? :D Gotta hand it to Marshall, he's facing major league-quality players and handling them reasonably enough.

Marshall got away with a hanging curve there. Yikes.

Bradley draws the walk on a full count. Marshall gave him some good pitches, but he battled pretty well.

Blanco is dropping a decent number of pitches.

Hendry's the one wearing the pinkish colored shirt, right? Selig said that MacPhail gave Selig a tweak job! :shock:

Bud Selig in the booth with Len & Bob.

Didnt they just say Jerome Williams? Williams is pitching in Surprise. Guzman will be taking over in relief in the WGN game in Mesa.

Guzman is pitching today in Mesa.

Beis bol! Rub it in about the weather, Len. :evil:

I'll just give my sleeper list since everyone will give obvious answers. ;) RHP Justin Berg - Terrific sinker, acquired in the Matt Lawton trade, should start at Daytona but move fast from there. 1B/3B/OF Russ Canzler - Been an offensive monster down in the AZ League, but hasn't settled in to a position yet. Might start at Peoria next season. C/1B/3B/OF Yusuf Carter - If he sticks at catcher, he could be pretty darn good since his bat has good potential. Likely starting at Boise next season. 3B Elvin Puello - Latin import with soft hands and feet, needs some consistency with the bat. Probably starting in Peoria. C Jake Muyco - Defensively ready for the majors, but his bat needs to improve. Probably starting in Daytona. C Mario Mercedes - I've been hearing whispers about him, but nothing substantial enough to get a read on him beyond his youth. Likely starting in Boise. IF Dylan Johnston - Defensive wizard, needs work on his bat. Boise. IF Sammy Baez - BA liked him a lot defensively, but apparently he is scrawny and needs to fill out his frame. Boise or AZ. RHP William Paganetti - Was once considered one of the top young starting pitchers in the nation, but injuries decimated him. As a reliever, he apparently has been making a comeback. Peoria maybe? RHP Jose Pina - I liked his numbers in limited action down in Arizona. Don't know much about his stuff. Boise. RHP Scott Taylor - Big body, intimidating presence on the mound, and some pretty good pitches. Excellent potential endurance-wise. Boise or Peoria? RHP Michael Phelps - Was electric in a relief role with Peoria last season. Will he return to starting? Daytona. OF Matt Ciaramella - Kinda reminds me of Murton, although he likely will be a bit old for his league in Daytona.

I'll go point-by-point... -We'll see when it comes to Nic. If he can stay healthy, he might have a chance to finally make something of himself...but lately, that's been one heck of an if. -Downs is a surprise. He started out in Peoria last season and got shellacked, then came back with Boise and didn't exactly look all that stellar given that he was repeating. Are the Cubs trying to make something of him or has he finally added those mythical inches to kick his velocity up? -Wow is that Peoria rotation left-handed. -Good to see Pawelek is ahead of schedule and skipping Boise ala Gallagher last season. -Taylor in Peoria is mildly surprising, given that he was drafted last year out of high school and spent most of his time down in Arizona with a stint in Boise. Then again, his stuff was already advanced for his age, so it should be fun to see what he can do. -Norwood was a guy I was pulling for last season. Ugly injury he had to end last season. Yech. -Mercedes is one of the Latin guys I've been curious about. Seeing him get some regular time behind the dish at Boise would be nice. Also, considering most of the Arizona/Boise guys are draftees, I'm kinda unsurprised they haven't announced the rosters yet...

Now all they need are the bales of hay and the smell of urine. ;)

I repeat:

Hopefully he'll get himself back in shape and cut down on that hideous GB/FB ratio this coming season.

I don't necessarily think it's the offense that Cubs fans should fault Jim Hendry for. He's taken chances on a number of guys who ended up being quite productive with this team. I think the Pierre trade was a desperation move while the Jock Jones acquisition was boneheaded, given Jock's history. Hendry's biggest flaw with this offense has been building the bench. I'm convinced that he doesn't go out and get the best guys for the bench, but instead relies on his manager when it comes to making those acquisitions. Moreover, he's putting these bench guys in a position for his manager to use and abuse them. He should know by now that any talented young player worth a lick will rot on the bench while the terrible veteran gets playing time over him. Let's face it, we all took a sharp breath when Marquis Grissom was brought in this year. Names like Eric Karros, Lenny Harris, Jose Macias, Damian Jackson, Neifi Perez, Troy O'Leary, and a number of others send chills down the spine of hardened Cubs fans. The bullpen has also been spotty, but I think you can put some of the blame on a manager who didn't know what he was doing. Mike Remlinger should have never, ever, ever been used as a LOOGY. Everyone and their mother knew that LaTroy Hawkins couldn't close games except for Dusty. Instead of doing the relatively smart thing and put Dempster in at closer with Hawkins setting up, he did the dumb thing by wasting both guys in roles that did not suit their relative talents. We can fault Hendry for giving Baker these tools to fail with and not Dusty-proofing the team, yes. But, I think the failures of this team have to fall on the manager.

Joy, another injury-prone shoulda-woulda-coulda SP. I'm sure Kerry Wood, Mark Prior, and Wade Miller are looking for a fourth guy to play Mario Kart Double Dash with during downtime on the DL since Angel Guzman only plays Halo. They'll all become best buds.

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Pie for Wilkerson and Sledge would give me pause. There are plenty of five tool flameouts that happen in baseball and Pie could well be one of them. However, when one of those five tool guys manages to put it all together...well, yeah. I can probably count the number of guys I'd trade Zambrano straight up for without hesitation on one hand. With hesitation, two hands.

He was awful because the Cubs decided to double jump him from Lansing since he was making mincemeat out of the competition in Low A (see: 51/4 K/BB). I think that there's a reasonable chance he could have settled in if he hadn't had that bizarre finger injury end his season. He had only racked up 13 starts in 2004, so I think the Cubs would have stuck with him there to see if he could have worked his problems out.

4 starts? Where are you getting that number from? He's had 10 starts at West Tenn over the past two seasons with 54 IP between those starts.