Outshined_One

Main highlights: -Harvey has a lot to work on before he can put up .280/35/100 numbers -Pie will be ranked in the 20-41 range in the Top 100. -Soto and Mark Reed are the closest things to "catchers of the future". -Pawelek has a tremendous ceiling. -Cedeno should make a solid regular. -Veal's stuff was down a little and he was farther away than most of the other pitchers, but could jump into the Top 10 next season. -Marmol is just outside the top ten. -Pinto needs to work on his pitch location. -Murton, if ranked, would be at 2 or 3, ahead of or behind Pawly. -Dope is expected to head to AA next season. -Sing was ranked below Dope due to age considerations and ceiling. -Guys to look out for next season: Yusuf Carter, Dylan Johnston, Johnny Defendis, Michael Phelps, and Mike Billek -Gallagher was outside the Top 10 due to his average stuff. -Petrick is a wait and see case since his surgery is troubling. -Fuld is comparable to Greenberg. -Brownlie does not = Sisco in terms of rostering. -JVB could become a good 6th/7th inning guy. -Cubs minor league system is above average, but should slip out of the Top 10. -Moore needs time before he can be considered ready. -Gooze was ranked so high because of his tremendous ceiling. -Cubs draft BPA, which typically results in them getting high schoolers more often than not. -Pie needs time in the minors to mature. -Montanez needs to hit in AA or AAA in order to prove this past season was not a fluke. -E-Patt is legit, although he needs to work on his D. -Aardsma needs to straighten himself out since his stuff has fallen off the table. -Grant Johnson played with a pulled quad that slowed him down this past season, so he's a wait and see guy. -Berg and Blackford are both "interesting" pitchers. -JK Ryu has the ceiling of a #3. -Rohlicek could be a decent LOOGY. -Hill could start for the Cubs next season out of ST, but that's not a given. -Lewis and Fontenot should round out the Top 30. There ya go. Shorter chat than I expected.

I got both of my questions answered. :D But I sent both in late last night. Go figure.

There's a tendency in the minors to allow for a player to have more room to make adjustments than in the majors. In the minors, no one cares if a guy goes on an extended slump because he's working on a new swing or because he's getting used to throwing a curveball from a new arm slot. If those things result in positive results for that player and they make a habit out of it, then yes, it will improve that aspect of a player. However, in the majors, especially for young players, there is very little room for that kind of thing. You do try to hone your game at a major league level, but the margin for error is much smaller. You're playing in front of larger crowds in more meaningful games. That ain't the best time to try out a new batting stance, ya know? Pie can work on developing good habits in the minors. While it's likely he'll never be an OBP machine, he could at least develop better strike zone recognition if given more time in the minors, imo.

Things just get weirder: New Resident in Old Busch Stadium

Gotcha. 8)

Derrida and the latest generation of continental philosophers pretty much threw that concept out the window. They've never been able to conclusively disprove that concept either, though. :D

Any particular reason you have Veal behind those other guys?

BA's predictable. :D When they're evaluating prospects, they take the following into account, in order: 1) Ceiling 2) Rarity of player type (C, SS, CF, LHP) 3) Floor 4) Injuries/Setbacks 5) Statistical success 3 and 4 kind of go together. A guy who has an injury or developmental setback (Marshall, Guzman, Dopirak) will thereby lower his floor. The highest ceilings in the system are arguably Pie, Pawelek, Guzman, Harvey, and Dopirak in that order. Even though three of them slumped or were injured, they were still ranked due to their ceilings. What had me curious was Veal's lack of a ranking. He was given the #2 overall prospect status in the NWL Top 20 and has quite a nice ceiling, from my understanding. It could be that his velocity is still in question, though. Wouldn't surprise me if he was ranked somewhere in the 11-15 range, though.

Here's the rest of what I rated: 11. Marmol 12. Nolasco 13. Gallagher As I said to the others, there's a pretty significant dropoff after these guys. However, I could put any of those three being in the top 10 and defend it pretty well. Not a fan of Veal or Moore?

I believe mine is 161.

He's not that projectable, despite putting up good stats in Peoria and Daytona. His fastball (88-90) and change both project to be average at best and his curve could get pounded at higher levels. He could hone these pitches, but, physically, he's already fully grown according to most reports. Should be interesting to see how he handles better hitters, though.

Those of you who had Sean Gallagher in your Top 10s, explain yourselves. :D

They've checked the ISPs and everything. It's him.

They can have him for Joel Guzman. ;)

You can tell how desperate we are for something. :lol:

Sorry, OO. I just included the writers for the site and UK, who I keep trying to convince to be a writer. And people have been trying to convince me, too. Thanks to my laziness, that has yet to unfold...although I could whip up some articles if you want. ;)

You left me out Tim. :cry:

I think there is no denying that Jagger is hideous. But it's a well know fact that musicians have a knack for getting the babes. I should've learned to play the guitar. #-o Two words that exemplify this more than anything else: Tom Petty

Arm strength is only one component of defense. LF is one of the positions that can most tolerate that deficiency. Murton's range is pretty good and his instinct are solid. After watching Dubois, he looks like a gold glover, lol. Actually, I thought they were pretty similar. Obviously, it's the bat. Dubois also had one of the best OF arms in the Cubs system. That said, if the Cubs were willing to put up with Moises Alou out in LF, they can tolerate anyone in LF.

I've always liked those hats. :(

I'll concede that this does indeed happen with a lot of guys, especially power hitters. Sometimes, you have to make certain sacrifices in order to gain the benefits of that kind of player (see: Adam Dunn, BBs, Ks, and HRs). However, in other cases, sometimes the light goes on for guys. Pie is still quite young for AA as it is, so this isn't like we're dealing with a guy who has little to no room for growth. There still is plenty of time for the Cubs to at least wait for him to develop better pitch recognition so that he can walk more often than he does. We'll see on this front. For now, I'd just like to see him get back to 100% at the plate and on the field.

Link Any interest?

Okay, I haven't seen these posted anywhere, but I figure they'd be of interest. Ask BA was updated on 11/17 and 11/24 with some nifty tidbits. Among them: Also... I bolded guys whom the Cubs either could offer arby to, who were already signed by the Cubs, or who are of interest to people on this forum. And why Jeromy Burnitz is a Type A FA while Nomar is Type B is anyone's guess.

:( Pretty disappointing. I wouldn't have even minded the batting averag, but I wanted to see that OBP go up. I would have taken that BA is he put up a .310ish OBP to go along with it. Currently the difference there between BA and OBP is about the same it has been. I don't know if theres a stat that looks at something like that with more detail, but looking at it very simply it appears that his OBP is still highly dependant on his AVG. I'm willing to discount these numbers for the time being due to the fact that Pie took a good amount of time off from baseball thanks to the Cubs holding him out while he recovered from his bone bruise. If he struggles in AA or AAA next season, then I'll be worried.

Yep. BA has a thing for ceilings when it comes to prospects. When you have a guy who gets compared to Vida Blue and puts up good numbers in his short season debut, it's likely he'll get ranked in the Top 10.