Outshined_One

Welcome aboard! His injury history would make Kerry Wood jealous. Nice player when he's healthy, but with the number of injuries he's had this season, I'd be against it.

Great photos DJAXX! :lol:

The downside to this will be seeing Notre Dame ranked in the Top 10. Yuck. And Temple reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeally sucks.

Oh joy, the Don Baylor "tip your cap" attitude has returned to the Cubs. Excuse me while I beat myself over the head with a tire iron...

Fixed for simplification purposes. :D

Howdy Len! Welcome to NSBB!! So what was it like when you broadcasted your first game of the season for the Cubs? Were you really nervous, or did you just try to relax and let things come naturally? Also, it seemed as if the Cubs had some interesting characters on the team this year, most notably Ryan Dempster. My question is, what appropriate and work safe stories could you share with the NSBB members here about some of the antics guys in the clubhouse got up to? Thanks a bunch for taking our questions! As it has been mentioned, the announcers for the West Tenn Diamond Jaxx and the Peoria Chiefs (Ron Potesta and Nathan Baliva) frequent the minor league forum if you're looking for some more in-depth insight on what's going on with the Cubs' minor leaguers and some fun conversation.

Attempting to use rationality to explain Dusty's line of thinking will only result in insanity. You just can't logically explain almost everything that man does.

Isn't there a better than average chance that he'll get fired? I thought I read that in the Lou Piniella threads that both he and LaMar were gone at the end of the season. Might be wishful thinking. Given that the D-Rays plan on keeping Upton and Young down in AAA to start next season as not to start their option clocks, I wouldn't be surprised if their management decides to keep LaMar. They're a penny-pinching organization and everyone knows it. I wouldn't be surprised if LaMar's demands for Huff & Baez were applauded by the front office... And heck, replacing him could be dangerous for other teams in baseball looking to acquire various players from the D-Rays. They could end up with some one even worse than LaMar, who could ask for Prior AND Zambrano in exchange for Huff and Baez. Or, worse, they might actually find some one competent and shrewd enough to rip other teams off without them knowing it until a few years down the line.

Giles in CF...that'd be an adventure. Damon would be a better alternative if you want to straight up get a CF from a production standpoint, although the contract he'll likely get will not be pretty. He's not a bad option from a production standpoint, but Baker and his crew have shown they have absolutely no interest in policing the players. Bradley is not the kind of guy who will back down from a sheriff-type of player (see: Jeff Kent), which is the kind of player the Cubs could use next season. I'd be against it because I could just see him going psycho and making 2004's clubhouse seem like the Pax Romana. As much as I'd love to get one of the above guys (especially Dunn or Gomes), it will really cost the Cubs. We all know TB GM Chuck LaMar's MO by now; the Cubs would likely have to severely overpay for Gomes or Huff. As for the Reds, my gut tells me they're more likely to trade Griffey or Pena than Kearns or Dunn. I could be wrong, I grant you. If that were the case, I don't think the Reds would be big fans of trading one of their best offensive bats in-division to a team that needs one. Kearns can play a decent CF, which is a bonus if you want to trade CPatt. Freel's foot injury has me really worried since the word, "degenerative" has been tossed around in describing it, so no thanks. If the Cubs can get a passable enough price on any of Gomes, Huff, Dunn, or Kearns, they should jump on it. However, I don't see that as being a realistic scenario. He'll turn 35 next season and is being shifted to platoon duty, getting almost all of his ABs against RHP. Do we really want to give Dusty Baker a guy like this? Not a fan of the salary the Cubs would have to take on with either player, but neither is a bad option. Floyd's streakiness and injuries bug me, but if the Cubs could get a decent price for him, I'd be for it as long as the Cubs were willing to have some one ready to go to take his place in the OF. If the Cubs get Giles and get rid of Patterson, Cameron would be a good replacement. His wrist is healing and he's putting up decent numbers. Not a guy I'd make a hard run for, but he'd be an upgrade over Burnitz. Actually, they do. Their other OFs are Casey Blake, Jason Dubois, Jeff Liefer, and Juan Gonzalez. As much as I like Dubois, I don't think anyone from that group will cause the Indians to want to trade a fan favorite or one of their two most highly touted young players. That's my analysis. Take it for what you will.

Apples and oranges. Sosa was on a serious decline, had major injury issues, had a headache of a contract, and was causing all sorts of clubhouse problems. Most people here were keeping their singers crossed for a deal to the Mets involving Cliff Floyd and Kaz Matsui because their GM might have been dumb enough to pull off that trade. Sadly, he was not. If Sosa had stayed in Chicago, it would have been a media circus and would have made the season even more gut-wrenching. I seriously don't even want to think about what would have happened if Sosa stayed on board with this team, especially with Dusty feeling the need to rearrange the deck chairs whenever possible. At least with Corey we know that Dusty wouldn't have much of an issue throwing him on the bench or batting him behind Henry Blanco if he stunk up the joint.

:roll: :roll: Geez, give it up already. "They better get some top-notch players for him..." hehehe, that's a good one. Everyone in baseball is lined up for Patterson's services, you know it. Face it, if GMs in baseball all have anti-CPatt sentiments, what the heck is the point in trading him? If no one in baseball wants him, we'll only get a bag of magic beans for him straight up and his value in a package would be negligible, meaning we'd have to give up some top-notch guys along with Patterson. Trading him is boneheaded and foolish unless you can actually get something of actual value to this team or even to the farm system. Considering plenty of you think that no one in baseball would want him for that kind of price, that won't be happening. As for his replacement? Well... In the farm system, Pie isn't ready, Bacon & Greenberg are utility men at best, and Calvin Murray could potentially surpass Jose Macias in offensive futility. And if you want to acquire a guy like Damon, great! Sign him to a 6 year contract and keep paying him big dollars when he's past his prime and on the decline. I'm sure everyone will be loving that deal in the future. I know lots of people have it out for Corey and have him as a scapegoat for why the Cubs faltered this season. I'm not one of them. I don't want to trade Patterson for the sake of trading him since it would open up a Catch 22 at CF. He's relatively cheap, above average defensively, and even at his current level could still be stuck in the 7 or 8 spot without causing much trouble. I could live with that until Pie is ready, be it some time in 2006 or 2007.

If the Phillies are dumb enough to trade Ryan Howard, I'd pray the Cubs get in on it and then move him to LF. I don't care how bad he'd be there; we put up with Moises and his atrocious defense there for three seasons (not all of them full). We could put up with crummy defense with the numbers he could put up.

Box Score West Tenn walloped Carolina 11-2 to sweep the SL Northern Division Playoff Series Box Score All numbers are numbers in the playoffs. SS R. Theriot 2/5, 2 R, RBI, 3B (2) 2B A. Sisk 1/3, R, 3B (1), 2 K PH/2B E. Patterson 1/2, R, RBI, 2B (3), K 3B C. McGehee 0/2, BB, R, RBI RF/1B B. Sing 3/4, 3 R, 5 RBI, 2 HR (2), K 1B M. Craig 1/3 RF A. Greenberg 0/0, RBI CF B. Coats 2/4, R, RBI, 2 2B (2) LF L. Montanez 1/4, R, 2B (1) C J. Reyes 0/4, RBI, 2 K SP C. Marmol 6.2 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 5/1 RP D. Aardsma 1.1 perfect, 3/0 RP R. Wells 1 perfect, 1/0

Box Score West Tenn won Game 2 of the SL Northern Divisional series 2-1 in the 9th Box Score Note: All numbers are playoff numbers; the regular season is not taken into account. 2B E. Patterson 1/4, 2B (2), 2 K SS R. Theriot 1/4, R, 3B (1) 3B C. McGehee 1/3, BB, R, 2B (2) 1B M. Craig 1/3 PH A. Sisk 0/0, BB LF/1B B. Sing 0/4, RBI, 2 K CF B. Coats 1/4, RBI RF A. Greenberg 1/3, K C J. Reyes 0/3, K PH/LF L. Montanez 0/1, K SP R. Nolasco 8 scoreless, 6 H, 11/2 RP A. Shipman 1 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 0/0

Eh, it'd be his last outing of the season and he's already had the combination of the workload in high school and in Mesa. I don't think skipping his turn in the final game of the season is going to hurt him.

ATL Brave Yes, but he was with the Pirates until he was traded in 2001 because the front office wasn't going to be willing to re-up him. Also, they had a chance to draft BJ Upton, but thought he was going to cost too much money...so they instead drafted Bryan Bullington. I'm impressed that they've turned out some of the guys they have based on that organization's penny-pinching. Yeesh.

If the Cubs trade him, they better get some top-notch players for him and not some magic beans. With Corey, I get the feeling that if he gets away from Dusty and his stooges and onto a team with a real hitting coach who's willing to actually coach Corey, he'll become the player he's been hyped to be.

With their final pick, Masturbatory Autism takes the New York Jets defense.

The start of the Southern League Playoffs! :o And the end of Boise's season. :(

Box Scores West Tenn won Game 1 of the SL Northern Divison Playoffs 3-0 Box Score Note: All numbers do not include the regular season in this box score. 2B E. Patterson 3/5, 2B (1), K SS R. Theriot 1/5, R RF A. Greenberg 0/4, 2 K 3B C. McGehee 2/4, R, RBI, 2B (1) 1B B. Sing 2/4, RBI, 2B (1), K CF B. Coats 1/2, 2 BB, R, 2 SB (2) LF L. Montanez 1/4, 2 K C J. Reyes 2/4, RBI, 2B (1) PH D. Bacon 0/1 SP R. Pinto 7 scoreless, 3 H, 6/1 RP A. Shipman 1 scoreless, 1 H, 1/1 Boise lost 8-2 Box Score CF D. Gregg 1/4 1B C. Gaskin 2/4, R, SB (4), K RF J. Defendis 2/3, BB, R, RBI, 2B (8) SS K. Reynolds 0/3, BB, 2 K LF C. Quinones 1/4, RBI, K 3B E. Puello 0/4, E (14, fielding) C P. Farina 3/4, 2B (1), K SP D. Veal 5 scoreless, 1 H, 10/2 RP A. Santana 1.2 IP, 7 H, 7 R, 4 ER, 1/1, HR OVERALL: 1-1

Cub fans every where would hate the day that the Pirates actually became a major league team. That would mean less talented Cub teams and no more robbing your AAA Pirates of their talented players. I just hope that the Pirates get more for Zack Duke than they did for ARam. :oops: Their farm system has produced plenty of guys who went on to have good careers in the pros. If they actually were willing to spend money to keep guys like Schmidt, Benson, and A-Ram around, we might well be talking about the Pirates as a legit wild card contender right now. Thankfully, their ownership has decided otherwise.

I'll raise a glass to this list.

Did anyone else see the A's/Mariners game? Felix Hernandez was wiping the floor with the Athletics. Later in the game, A's Manager Ken Macha was seen kicking a door, seemingly in frustration. However, he finally kicks the door open...and out walks Joe Blanton. Turns out he got stuck in the bathroom. :lol:

Box Score Boise lost 3-1 Box Score CF D. Gregg 0/4, R, SB (36), K SS J. Mota 1/4, K 1B C. Gaskin 0/3, K RF J. Defendis 0/3, K LF J. Valdez 0/3 DH K. Reynolds 0/3, 2 K C J. Muyco 0/3, K SP S. Taylor 5 scoreless, 2 H, 5/0

Baker's had no problem lying to fans and the media in the past, I don't see why he'd change that now.