Outshined_One

Nothing like a disembodied and floating face to break a losing streak!

Weight issues were the other concern with him; although they've been a by-product of the injuries since he can't get into proper shape as long as he has said injuries. I'm hesitant to bring any of his character into question due to the fact that the Reds' front office is utterly incompetent, their management is a joke, and the clubhouse has had some utterly bizarre incidents throughout the year. It could be that he's a jerk, but it could also be that the Reds' organization is giving him a bad rep.

Mateo's quietly having a good season down at Daytona. His stats including today's start: 22 G, 6 GS, 50 IP, 4.14 ERA, 54 H, 29 R, 23 ER, 6 HR, 66/16 K/BB You'd like to see the hits and HRs down a touch, but other than that those numbers aren't too shabby.

Eh, it depends. There will always be people out there who'd be willing to give a young right hander with ace upside a chance. Maybe your crapshoot pays off and you get yourself one of the best young pitchers in baseball.

I'd trade Jose Macias for that!

Nothing on Redszone and they're usually pretty up to date. I'm guessing this rumor is bunk.

Maybe we can pick up Robbie Alomar and trade him for Everett. :D Then, when the deadline comes, trade Everett BACK to the White Sox for some one like Gio Gonzalez or Sean Tracey. It's fool-proof I tells ya!

Their GM, Chuck Lamar, would likely ask for a package centered around Carlos Zambrano and Mark Prior for any deal involving Crawford and Baez. I'm not even kidding.

There aren't many players on that team I'd be interested in aside from Wilkerson. They don't exactly have many (if any) prospects I'd be interested in. Ryan Church might be a nice acquisition, but there's no [expletive] way Dustbag's going to play him every day. They can be interested all they want. If they're not giving up Wilkerson, I can't say I'd be interested.

I'm curious to see how Hairston would do over the long haul getting starts every day. Keep in mind that Baltimore traded him away over Brian Roberts largely because he kept getting injured all the time.

http://people.ucsc.edu/~kihori/SWP/strong%20bad/cheat.JPG Nope, don't see the resemblence. :lol:

Do we consider what Todd Hundley did a success? No? :lol: How about Jerry Hairston?

That deal is garbage. You'd think Dunn would actually acquire useful talent, but either this rumor is completely bunk or Dan O'Brien is going insane. I'm not buying this rumor.

I wouldn't completely spaz out about Dopirak's and Harvey's numbers yet. The thing about Dopirak right now is that his plate discipline has improved somewhat between this season and last. His K numbers are down, as are his BB numbers. Now, given that he hasn't been a major power threat this season, I'd expect the lower BB numbers as a by-product of pitchers giving him less free passes. I don't have the dimensions of Daytona's home field nor do I have Dopirak's BABIP numbers offhand. However, from what I've seen, Dopirak's making plenty of contact this season. I wouldn't be surprised if he's just been the victim of bad luck the first half of the season. Conditions have been favorable for him to go on a hot streak and get his numbers up. We'll see if that happens this season. Of course, the other possibility is that he's been battling injuries. That would help explain why his power numbers have gone down the tubes. His IsoP is sitting at .113. Last season is was at .286. You can speculate all you want as to why. However, I'm reserving judgment until after the season is over and we have a clearer picture of what happened to him. Ryan Harvey, on the other hand, has 10 more ABs this season than he did last season as of July 4th. His lines: 2004 (AZL & NWL): 241 ABs, 43 R, 66 H, 11 2B, 0 3B, 14 HR, 48 RBI, 81 K, 20 BB, 2 SB 2005 (MWL): 251 ABs, 39 R, 66 H, 14 2B, 1 3B, 11 HR, 47 RBI, 16 BB, 66 K, 5 SB So...I'm seeing fairly similar lines here, although 66 Ks is a pretty nice number compared to where they were last year. His slightly lower HR numbers are likely a by-product of seeing better pitching. Add in the fact that his 2Bs and 3Bs are up and his power numbers seem to be as expected. Look, what Dopirak did last season was nothing short of phenomenal and should allow him to get a free pass for a season if he struggles. And to expect Ryan Harvey to basically replicate Dopirak's numbers in the MWL was putting way, way, way too much of a burden on him. Some people around here were doing that (myself included to an extent). The bottom line is that both of these guys are raw power prospects. Brian's 21 and Ryan's 20 right now; meaning both are still pretty young. The Cubs have a surplus of guys ahead of them who can play OF and 1B. The last thing the Cubs want to do with these guys is to rush them through the system. They can afford to be patient with them. If either has to repeat a season, oh well, it's not the end of the world. There's still plenty of baseball left to be played. My advice is not to get antsy about either yet.

Rotoworld has shown that it can be quite sarcastic in the past. Something tells me this is their way of taking a jab as Dusty.

Box Scores Iowa won 2-1 Box Score 2B M. Fontenot 1/3, R, 2B (13), HBP 3B S. McClain 1/3, BB, R, RBI, 2B (17) LF B. Grieve 0/3, BB RF D. Kelton 2/4 1B M. Hoffpauir 2/4, RBI PH R. Lewis 0/1 SP J. Koronka 6 IP, 8 H, 1 ER, 6/2 RP B. Brownlie 1.1 scoreless, 2 H, 2/1 RP R. Rohlicek .2 perfect, 0/0 RP J. Van Buren 1 perfect, 2/0 West Tenn won 10-4 Box Score CF/RF A. Greenberg 1/4, 2 RBI 2B R. Theriot 2/5, 2 R, RBI LF M. Murton 2/5, R, 2 RBI, HR (8) 1B M. Craig 2/4, 2 R, 2 RBI, 2B (17), HR (7) 3B C. McGehee 0/5 SS B. Coats 3/5, R, 3B (5) RF/1B B. Sing 3/4, BB, 2 R, 2 RBI, 2B (24), HR (16) PH/CF D. Bacon 2/2, 2 R, SB (22) SP C. Marmol 6 IP, 9 H, 4 ER, 2/5, HR Daytona won 8-1 Box Score CF C. Walker 2/5, R 1B B. Dopirak 1/3, BB, R, 3 RBI, HR (8) 3B S. Moore 0/4 DH J. Fox 2/4, 2 R, RBI, HR (3) SP J. Mateo 6 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 8/2 RP R. Wells 1 scoreless, 1 H, 1/0 Peoria lost 4-3 in the 10th Box Score CF S. Fuld 1/3, 2 BB, CS, PO 2B E. Patterson 0/4, RBI RF R. Harvey 0/5 LF L. Montanez 3/5, 2 R, 3 2B (27), SB (9) DH B. Flowers 1/4, BB SS J. Simokaitis 0/3, BB SP C. Shaver 5 scoreless, 4 H, 4/4 Boise lost 7-1 Box Score LF A. Joseph 1/4, RBI, SB (2) RF C. Quinones 2/3, BB DH M. Reed 1/4, 2B (4) C J. Muyco 1/3, BB, R 1B J. Valdez 0/4 2B J. Rios 1/3, 2B (1) SP J. Yepez 4 IP, 6 H, 1 ER, 0/0 Mesa with an off day OVERALL: 3-2

Great day for blowouts it seems.

The average runs per game is a bit of a misnomer, imo. We've had some pretty big blowouts against some teams...and have also really sucked wind at times. I gave up hope for the division awhile ago. It's like things never click together at the right time. When the starting pitching is rocking, the offense is lifeless. When the offense is producing and effective, the bullpen turns into the gascan crew. All teams this season have these problems, I will accept and admit that. Even the best teams this season have had issues. The biggest problem is that for the Cubs, none of the bullpen, offense, and starting pitching has been consistently good this season. We'd be in the thick of things if, say, we had an offense that could score 10 runs on days when the pitching is thin. Or if we had pitching that could be counted on to hold down the opposing offense when our offense is sucking. With Wood and Prior back, I think our pitching staff will drastically improve from here on out. The bullpen guys seem to have found their roles and are getting comfortable with them, so that's a definite plus. I think this crew can be consistent. The offense just needs something, anything, to get out of its rut. A trade for a sparkplug bat to get the offense going. A bunch of the guys going out to the Wrigleyville bars to pick up some slumpbusters. A new manager who comes in and straightens everyone out. Just get these guys something to get their blood flowing. The bats need to be woken up and kept awake if the Cubs want a shot at the Wild Card.

This would be much easier to stomach if there was more than "A View to a Kill" on TV.

Ryan Langerhans doing his best Alex Cora impersonation.

Well that, plus the throw was really high. It was in and out of Furcal's glove, though. I'm guessing the slickness of the ball didn't help on the throw, either. Wow. That was a sad result to that inning.

I'm guessing the ball is kinda slippery out there.

Great, another deficit the Cubs are going to have to crawl back from. Yay.

Jerry's arm in center surprisingly pretty good.

2 BBs, there's the Kerry Wood we all know and love. Seems like it's starting to pour.