Outshined_One

That explanation for the balk made no sense. They call the balk, yet it could have been a live ball if the batter put it into play? Huh?

This ump is really putting the squeeze on Oswalt. Wow.

Did anyone else just see that bizarre sequence of events? Oswalt is called on a questionable balk call with Andruw on 1st on a 3-1 count with Adam LaRoche at bat. Oswalt got the pitch off and for some reason LaRoche was awarded 1st base. Francoeur was then at bat and hot a hard grounder to 3rd. Ensberg steps on the bag for one out, then launches one to Lamb at 1st base, pulling Lamb off the bag. Instead of sliding like a sane person would do, Francoeur tries taking out Lamb by colliding with him. Lamb stands his ground and Francoeur basically ends up on his rear end. Also, Brian McCann is surprisingly good.

Let it be known that at 2:28 PM I said the following when Wisconsin was starting to rally on another board:

Wisconsin's defense actually does something and holds Northwestern to a three and out. 1:28 left. Wisconsin has to start from about the 3. Ew.

51-48, Jonathon Orr with his 4th TD today. :shock:

The weird thing is, I remember people being excited last offseason for Dopirak going to Daytona since apparently one of the best hitting coaches in the system was there. I'm not demeaning Von Joshua, not by ANY stretch. Hopefully he can help out Dopirak offensively. What I think everyone has to understand regarding Dope's struggles this year is that the FSL was a pitcher's haven for the most part this year. League batting average was at .261 and the average number of HRs per team was below 100. Also, as I believe Nate Baliva (and if it was Bo Fulginiti, my bad!) talked about how the jump from the MWL to the FSL is one of the hardest in baseball because of the numerous adjustments hitters have to make. Heck, Scott Moore sucked wind his first go-round in the FSL. I think Dopirak will have a good bounceback year, but that's just me.

Is he a cancer because he's one of those guys who really wants to win and would turn into a productive and chipper guy if traded to a contender, or because he's a jerk?

Molina's are strong breeding stock! :wink: Personally, I think they're clones.

This game is taking an excrutiating amount of time. It feels like it's been going on for the past 10 hours.

Gotta love the Molinas. Knock one down and another one springs right up to take his place.

Ya gotta feel for the players. The weather absolutely sucks out there right now with the wind and rain. If this weren't a playoff game, it would have been called hours ago.

There's something to be said for a well-executed squeeze play.

We only saw one replay of it from one angle. That was it. And from what I saw, Cano's foot looked to be off the bag. But that's me.

Nice botch, guys. Bases loaded, no outs, and the Angels up 8-6.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaand one of the Molinas gets plunked. He's down and in pain. Yeowch.

He's still in my Top 10, although now towards the bottom of it. If he repeats Daytona next season, he'd still be age appropriate and would be fast-tracked if he shows any sign of improvements. Some top prospects struggle; it's a fact of life. Hopefully he can get himself together next season and post good numbers in Daytona and/or West Tenn.

Sheffield gives a ball a slide kick that would be impressive in soccer. However, thanks to one of the Flying Molinas hitting a HR, it's now 5-0 Angels.

Gotta love pools of standing water on the warning track. Messy game, imo.

The Twinkies declined his 2006 option. Anyone have any interest in him as a fallback?

And here come the boo birds.

And now the Red Sox will completely and utterly fall apart. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!

Ballgame.

I don't really know what it is about our farm system that's caused so many problems in attempting to develop positional prospects into decent everyday players. Maybe it's a product of focusing heavily on pitching in the draft, maybe it's something else. Taking a look back at Tim's Top 30 Prospects in 2003... 1) 1B Hee Seop Choi - Big hole in his swing, but still has potential and room to grow. Might become a decent everyday guy down the line. 2) OF Nic Jackson - Injuries derailed his career. 3) IF Brendan Harris - Traded to an organization that's pretty much set at 2B, where he would have been most useful. Couple that with him not having the range at SS or the power for 3B and you have some issues... 6) CF Felix Pie - Should see the majors next year; the jury's still out on him, though. 11) OF David Kelton - Seems destined for a utility role. Can crush fastballs, but breaking balls give him fits. 20) OF Jason Dubois - On a team that's set at DH (Hafner) and has a bunch of supremely talented OFs. Still could be an everyday guy, but not in Cleveland. 22) 1B/OF Kevin Collins - He only has one good tool and that's his power. Other than that, there's not much else. Should be in AA next season. 26) OF Ray Sadler - Currently hanging out in Pittsburgh and hasn't exactly done much there. 28) 3B Alfredo Francisco - Moved to a relief role, still in the Cubs' system. 29) 2B Ryan Theriot - Seems destined for a utility role, but had a nice season at AA and could be a decent bench guy next season. 30) OF Adam Greenberg - Scrappy 5th utility fielder. Probably won't be a full-time starter. Nice guy to have in the clubhouse, though. 31) OF/1B Brandon Sing - Mono set his career back, but he put up really good numbers at AA. I like his patience and power. He may yet amount to something, but that remains to be seen. Yeah, I can't exactly say I'm thrilled at what's happened to those guys.

Yes, because clearly Ryan Jorgensen and Jose Cueto blossomed into perrenial all stars and the Marlins completely and utterly fleeced the Cubs. Look, I did not make the claim that these guys were flawless; they've made their share of screwups and I'm more than happy to hold them accountable for it. Bringing Jose Macias back and giving him a raise, for example. But, in that particular instance, I think the the vast majority of people out there did not think that Willis would become a Cy Young contender. At the time, he was a throw-in. He had horrible control issues and excessive wildness. Most people saw him as becoming a 4/5 starter or a LOOGY when all was said and done. His delivery didn't exactly inspire confidence about his long term health, either. Clement gave the Cubs three good years and helped propel them into the playoffs in 2003. Has Willis stayed with the Cubs, I'm almost positive he would not have seen the majors that year. Remember, at the time he was called up, the Marlins were seen as being out of it and ended up calling up anyone with any degree of promise. Had he stayed with the Cubs, I don't know if any of us could quite say what his career would look like right now, whether he'd be in the pen or the rotation or injured or whatever. Plus, if anything, Willis gives those guys their share of credit. The Cubs actually did draft him and help him develop, ya know? You don't think other teams out there are looking at the Cubs' farm system right now wondering if there's another Dontrelle Willis in there? It definitely makes the Cubs farm system look a lot better. The Cubs didn't end up becoming the winners of that deal, I'll grant you that. But there were enough positive results out of it that I wouldn't call it an utter disaster like some people on this board would.