Outshined_One

I think he was shaking off the rust down in Winter League since he hadn't played any baseball since his leg injury. Should be interesting to see if he can continue to put up good numbers.

Was Dopirak's homer a cheapy or did he crush it?

Pretty sure it's Scott Moore, one of the prospects we picked up when we shipped Farnsworth to the Tigers. I think he was a former first-round pick whose value was pretty low at the time of the deal because he had yet to have any success at the professional level. He had a pretty good year in the Cubs system in 2005, however, so he's worth keeping an eye on. Yep. He's a 3B with a pretty good bat and supposedly has the tools to make an above average defensive 3B. He needs to work on that part of the game, though, since he piled up the errors last year in Daytona.

I wouldn't put much, if any, stock into spring training lineups, especially this early. Indeed, especially considering the WBC. :D

Haven't the Cubs handed Lidge more blown saves than any other team?

I think Dopirak is still ahead of Sing in terms of prospect status (ceiling & age), but Sing is about a thousand times more likely to make the team out of Spring Training. He would make a nice utility guy to have come in off the bench to give Lee a rest and to take some reps in the OF, wouldn't he?

Danny Haren must really hate the Cubs.

So which guys do you see returning to West Tenn this year who finished up with them last year?

Howdy Ron! There have been some coaching changes made this season with the DJaxx, most notably with the promotion of Von Joshua. What can fans of the Diamond Jaxx expect in terms of the changes with the new coaching staff? Do the new guys bring in any different philosophies or techniques from those who have moved on? Also, what are your thoughts on Brian Dopirak? Do you think he can bounce back this coming season?

He still hasn't put together a full healthy season. I'm skeptical until he shows otherwise.

Alright, time to go over these guys... I'll skip over a few of the lower round guys who didn't end up doing much. 2nd Round RHP Grant Johnson Thoughts: It took him awhile to sign, but he's had a few injury troubles trip him up before he was able to make his debut this past season. According to sources, he was bothered all season with a quad injury, affecting his performance. The potential is definitely there for him to make an impact in the majors (I'm guessing as a reliever because of his slider), but this is a wait and see case. There's a lot to like, though. 3rd Round C Mark Reed Thoughts: Highly touted as an offensive prospect, but he hasn't quite shown that yet. I know a broken hand ended his season prematurely last year, but his numbers this past season were quite underwhelming. Although, word is he is doing a fair job behind the plate and could stick there given time. 4th Roundp LHP Chris Shaver Thoughts: 6'7 hulking lefty from College of William & Mary. I don't quite know if his stuff ever improved from the 88-90 mph readings from prior to him getting drafted or what, but his numbers don't blow me out of the water. 5th Round OF Adrian Ortiz Thoughts: This is probably the guy I was most disappointed in the Cubs missing out on. Tremendous speed demon with excellent potential. I hear he stumbled at Pepperdine last season, but I still think he might be a good one. 6th Round LHP Tim Layden Thoughts: Reliever down in Peoria this past season. Some decent numbers, but we'll see how he progresses. 7th Round RHP Mitch Atkins Thoughts: He's been floundering down in Boise and gives up a lot of home runs. However, he's still young and could make something of himself. 8th Round 2B Eric Patterson Thoughts: Probably the best player out of this class. People are legitimately excited about his potential as the second baseman of the future. He still has some kinks to work out in his patience and gets a bit too homer-happy, but it seems like the Cubs are being much more careful with him than his brother. Could see some major league action at the end of the '06 season if he does well in West Tenn/Iowa. 9th Round 1B Ryan Norwood Thoughts: Followed in the footsteps of Brian Dopirak and Ryan Harvey as the Boise power hitter du jour in 2004. Suffered a nasty injury at the start of this season that kept him out for the year. Great power potential, but he has all of the problems that came along with it. 10th Round OF Sam Fuld Thoughts: Put up some pretty good numbers last season, although was rather old for Peoria. Most people see him as a potential utility OF, kinda like Adam Greenberg. 11th Round RHP Jonathan Hunton Thoughts: A 6'9 righty who hasn't racked up much in the way of strikeouts and kept hits down during his time in Peoria and Boise. 12th Round RHP Sean Gallagher Thoughts: Numbers-wise, quite possibly the best pitcher the Cubs had in the minors last season. Excelled in Peoria despite double jumping from Mesa. Has an excellent breaking ball, but his fastball and change give one pause when contemplating his future. Still, given how advanced he is, he could move quickly through the system from here on out now that he has a full healthy season under his belt. After this point, there are a lot of unsigned and unspectacular guys, although a few stand out. This is true of most drafts, needless to say. I'll go over the notables. 14th Round OF Eli Iorg Thoughts: Unsigned...freakin' Hochevar. Iorg is currently with Houston and seems to be on their fast track thanks to his success. 15th Round OF Alfred Joseph Thoughts: Down in Mesa making the conversion to pitcher. No idea how he'll do in that role. 16th Round LHP J.R. Mathes Thoughts: Unspectacular stuff, old for his league, but got results down in Daytona. Journeyman LOOGY is a distinct possibility. 17th Round RHP Jerry Blevins Thoughts: Reliever with decent stuff. I may be confusing him for some one else, but I believe this guy skyrocketed up to Iowa from Peoria this season. Can't find his numbers, though. 19th Round RHP/OF Micah Owings Thoughts: Another one that got away. *Sighs* Currently in Arizona's system as a pitcher. 20th Round LHP Trey Taylor Thoughts: Re-drafted and signed in 2005. 30th Round 3B Russ Canzler Thoughts: Very, very, very intriguing player. Spent the past two seasons down in the AZ League and put up some impressive numbers as a hitter. I think his major problem is a lack of a position, but I could be mistaken. Has good sleeper potential this season. 31st Round RHP Jesse Estrada Thoughts: Another hulking (6'8) pitcher who seems to have unspectacular stuff. His numbers weren't all that great last season. 33rd Round OF Randy Brown Thoughts: Spent last season down in Mesa and put up unspectacular numbers...except for 5 3Bs and 8 SBs (with 7 CS). If he's as speedy as those numbers indicate, he could develop into something. 48th Round C Olin Wick Thoughts: The biggest Olin Wick fan on the planet! Overall: It's too early to tell at this point which of these guys have All Star potential and which will wile away in the minors. Gallagher and Patterson both had tremendous seasons this past year and seem to be on the fast track to the majors. How well they will succeed if they reach the Cubs is anyone's guess. The number of unsigned top guys also hurt. It would be really nice to have Iorg, Owings, and Ortiz in the system right now, especially considering that their signings would have likely made this a very good draft for the Cubs. Without them, this group doesn't make me feel particularly excited. I think it's a solid group of guys, but none of them strike me as guys who could jump to the top of the prospect charts. Could I be wrong in that judgment? Of course! A lot of these guys are still trying to reach their ceilings and could end up being pleasant surprises for the Cubs in the next year or two.

Everything was all happy and then someone has to spoil the party by mentioning Haggerty. It's like going to a house party in high school when the cops bust the place. BAIL!!!!! BAIL!!!!! BAIL!!!!!

The best bleachers story is one that will live on in infamy and urban legend, imo. A few years ago, Lance Berkman was on the hot seat on Sportscenter before a big series against the Cubs. For one, he talked about how much he loved eating junk food, especially twinkies. He also talked about how much he hated Wrigley since the grass was knee-high, the brick wall was unforgiving, etc. Naturally, when the Astros came to Wrigley next Berkman got reamed for it from the bleachers. People were making weight jokes and ripping into him, but he took it all in stride. During a pitching change, Berkman was lolling about in the outfield near the bleachers when the fans began heckling him again. A conversation resembling the following occurred: Fan: Hey Lance, ya hungry? Berkman: *laughs* Yeah, a little bit. Fan: Bet you could go for a twinkie right now! Berkman: Heck yes I could! So, suprisingly, the fan threw a wrapped twinkie down to Berkman. Berkman opened up the twinkie wrapper and snarfed it down, much to the delight to the fans. However, Berkman came to bat the next inning...and hit a monster back-breaking HR. The fan who gave Berkman the twinkie got torn apart by the rest of the bleacher bums, needless to say.

Bit of a fluff piece, but a good read. Thanks for posting it!

It might be a little more realistic to make the judgement on the 2004 draft. 2005 was too recent to get a solid understanding of the winners and losers. I like this idea. I've been meaning to find something to use as an excuse to procrastinate, so I'll try whipping something up tonight.

I'm guessing Nomar doesn't count?

When it comes to pitching, the Cubs have shown a good ability to scout, handle, and develop guys. I don't know why they've done as good of a job as they have with it, but I tend not to question their decisions. Yeah, sometimes they blow it with some guys. But other times, it works out quite well. Take Sean Gallagher last year, for example, who jumped straight from Mesa to Peoria and had a spectacular season. With some guys, it's better to give them a challenge than play it safe. If the Cubs think that Veal would respond better by starting at Daytona than starting at Peoria, then I'll trust their judgment on it.

I'm not the only one who sees this as posturing done by a NY-area rag to increase circulation and attention, am I? You just know that Mets and Yankees fans are drooling over the idea of picking up Miggy. Then again, fans of pretty much every team would love to have him. I'm not buying the idea. Since the Marlins are trying to move, they'd be smart to hang onto their young talent while it's cheap in order to puff up the perceived value of the franchise along with creating fan interest. Granted, they could probably have their pick of the best prospects and overall players in baseball if they were to trade him (knowing the Marlins, it'd be prospects). However, prospects don't mean much when you're trying to get a fanbase excited about your team.

I tend to favor starting pitching in Roto Leagues. Relievers tend to be a bit more shaky in terms of health and consistency, although saves should not be neglected. Your numbers suggest to me that power hitters are heavily favored in the league (although triples made things interesting). Since OBP is favored over average, you can get away with snagging guys like Dunn, Gomes, Swisher, and Wilkerson. Finally, since triples are a factor, be sure to snag some one like Furcal or Crawford to help out with that. Those are hard to come by as it is, so having some one who can get you double digits in triples will help your cause quite a bit.

RBIs, runs, HRs, stolen bases, etc...

Most guys can get by if they have one good pitch in the FSL, though. Juan Mateo's only plus pitch was his slider and he seemed to do pretty well down there last season, despite his alarming G/FB ratio. Veal's fastball is already pretty good with a decent (if inconsistent) curveball and a developing change...if I remember correctly. If he's advanced enough to start in Daytona, why not?

I think it's fair to question how good Justin Upton will be at the moment. Granted, scouts are drooling over how good of a player he could be if he reaches his ceiling (and justifiably so!), but sometimes all of the potential in the world doesn't mean anything if the guy can't produce at a high level. He's good enough top dominate high school baseball, but can he translate that success to pro ball? In that respect, I agree with the criticism of putting Upton at #2. However, one of the key things in this whole process will be his likelihood of translating that potential into success. Some guys might have tremendous ceilings but need to make some major adjustments in order to make that ceiling a reality. Most scouts seem convinced that he has the makeup and available talent to do that. If that is indeed the case, putting him at #2 makes sense. We'll see where he is a year from now. I'm skeptical of that ranking, but I think he has what it takes to prove the skeptics wrong.

I go to UW-Madison...so yeah, it's pretty much a given I know what a FIB is. It's more fun to gang up on the Minnesota people, though. What do a University of Minnesota student and UW-Madison student have in common? Both got into the University of Minnesota. Mwahahahahaha!

Three things about that particular article: 1) It talks about base stealing, not speed. I don't think this article helps people who have been advocating the argument that speed is what causes the greatest threats on the basepaths. It's intelligence, such as knowing when to break for second, reading a pitcher's motion, and knowing how good of an arm the catcher is. 2) I'd be curious to see a more individual breakdown of other players than Murphy/Henderson. While Murphy's numbers increased when Rickey was on base, his numbers were even better with some one else on base. I'd like to see how #2 hitters do in a similar situation. 2a) On a similar note, I'd like to see how #2 hitters performed with the successful basestealers (75%+) and the not so successful basestealers who managed to rack up 40+ SBs. My original point remains:

Upton's future is in the OF, probably Center. not if the rays are smart so yes, it's in the of Since when did the D-Rays have Justin Upton? :P