Outshined_One

Hi Bruce! Nice article today.

The Iowa/New Orleans series has been cancelled due to Hurricane Dennis. Also, the AAA All Star Game will be happening immediately thereafter. In other words, the I-Cubs have a week off. The Cubs didn't want to disrupt Rich Hill's regular work schedule, so he was sent down to Peoria to make a start. Also, Jason Dubois and Corey Patterson will be down in Mesa for the time being until Iowa starts playing again.

Box Scores West Tenn lost 3-2 in the 11th Box Score CF D. Bacon 1/5 2B R. Theriot 1/5 3B C. McGehee 2/5, CS (2) 1B M. Craig 0/5 RF B. Sing 2/4, BB, R PH M. Hoffpauir 0/1 SP JK Ryu 7 IP, 7 H, 2 ER, 9/1 RP D. Aardsma 1 scoreless, 1 H, 0/1 Daytona PPD: Rain Peoria won 5-2 Box Score CF S. Fuld 2/4, R, 2B (17) 2B E. Patterson 1/3, BB, RBI, SB (25) RF R. Harvey 2/5, 2 R, 2 RBI, 2B (16), HR (12), SB (6) LF L. Montanez 0/3, 2 BB, R, SB (10) DH B. Flowers 1/4, RBI 1B D. Larsen 2/3, BB, RBI, CS (6) SS J. Simokaitis 0/4 SP R. Hill 8 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 12/0 Boise won 12-4 Box Score CF D. Gregg 3/6, 2 R, RBI, 2B (2) LF A. Joseph 2/4, 2 R SS K. Reynolds 4/5, 3 R, 5 RBI, 2 2B (2), 3B (1) 3B E. Puello 1/3, 2 R, 3 RBI, HR (1), HBP DH C. Quinones 1/5, RBI, CS (1) C M. Reed 2/4, BB, CS (3) 1B C. Gaskin 2/4, R, HBP 2B S. Hode 1/4, BB SP M. Billek 3.1 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 4/1 RP A. Santana 2.2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 3/2 Mesa won 7-6 Box Score 2B E. Serrano 1/4, BB 3B L. Rivera 2/5, R, 3 RBI, SB (2), CS (1) LF R. Episcopo 2/3, RBI 1B R. Canzler 1/4, R DH M. Mercedes 0/2, BB SS S. Baez 0/4, R CF R. Brown 2/4, 2 R, RBI, 2B (2) SP A. Francisco 5 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 5/1 Iowa off until July 14th OVERALL: 3-1

Murton's a prototypical LF all the way. He doesn't have much of an arm to speak of. He's not going to be taking reps away from Burnitz in RF. He needs to beat out Holla & company in LF.

Nope. Just hope it happens in the next day or two.

Anyone want to put the odds on Dusty actually playing Murton and Greenie?

It's being discussed in transactions as we speak.

Greenburg and Murton? Was there open space on the 40 man or did they actually release some one?

Dubois and Corey sent down? So, did we call up people to replace them or what?

Yes, let's add some more pyrotechnic specialists to the gas can crew in the bullpen. That's the best solution!

Man, it's a crazy party in here.

This team barely has a pulse as far as its playoff chances are concerned. If Florida sweeps them, all will be lost.

It has its moments. When one of the pitchers is on, when Derrek Lee is hitting well, when Ramirez is hitting well, or something like that tends to at least make things interesting. None of that has been happening much recently.

This was addressed in two other threads and the general consensus was that it would be a bad move.

My pleasure. :D

If you have the patience and the time (it's 8 pages), this is a fun article on Joe Morgan that gives a nice insight into how he works: Link

Hm, given the number of CGs their staff had, I was under the impression that McKeon was riding them pretty hard out of the gate and might break them down come later in the season. However, the stats are kinda interesting for this season... Willis Games Started: 17 Pitches Per Game: 104.5 Most Pitches in a Game: 117 (6/8) Least Pitches in a Game: 70 (4/30, rain shortened) Number of Games with 100+ Pitches: 13 Number of Games with 110+ Pitches: 8 Beckett Games Started: 16 Pitches Per Game: 94.7 Most Pitches in a Game: 121 (5/18) Least Pitches in a Game: 45 (7/5, injury-shortened) Number of Games with 100+ Pitches: 7 Number of Games with 110+ Pitches: 3 Burnett (Pre-7/6) Games Started: 1 Pitches Per Game: 97.5 Most Pitches in a Game: 123 (6/26) Least Pitches in a Game: 86 (4/7) Number of Games with 100+ Pitches: 10 Number of Games with 110+ Pitches: 4 Now, I grant you, these numbers are not all-inclusive and extensive. They don't properly measure other factors that could contribute to a pitcher's abuse. Also, these numbers don't measure up well when you compare them to other pitchers. I'll post that at a later time, however.

With comments like these, rest assured you will fit in quite well around here. :D Tim went on a bit of a rampage earlier in the season trying to figure out how to pry Carlos Quentin from the D-backs. Here are a couple of the things worth noting right now regarding that team's current state of affairs... -They're in a weird position fairly similar to the Cubs. The NL West is up for grabs considering the talent in that division, but the Diamondbacks' record is not a pretty one, at 41-45. They still have the opportunity to make a run at the division, but they're going to need to acquire some big cogs to help out. -The most notable area they could use improvement is in CF, where Quinton "Don't Call Me Phil" McCracken has been sharing duties with Luis "The Terrible" Terrero and Jose Cruz Jr.. All of those players are rather sub-par, needless to say. I'm unsure of what kind of interest the team would have in Corey Patterson, but I'd imagine that they'd be interested at the right price. -The other area they need some help is in starting pitching, with Javier Vazquez and Brandon Webb propping up the rotation. You are correct that they might have interest in some one like Glendon Rusch, or possibly some of the younger players like Sergio Mitre and Rich Hill. -As you mentioned in your post, this is a team with plenty of salary tied up in key positions, especially in RF with Gonzalez and LF/1B with Shawn Green. Unfortunately, both are blocking Quentin and Jackson and will do so for the next year. I'm not so sure that they'd be willing to axe their salary, though, considering the amount of money they threw at Troy Glaus in the offseason. -If we are going to trade Lee...that would go over like a lead balloon. Even if the Cubs got Drew, Jackson, and Quentin in return. He's managed to become the top dog on this team this season and every single fan would see it as... A) Surrendering all chances at the playoffs. B) Trying to get rid of a player so they don't have to pay him. In other words, it'd be a white flag trade. The last time that happened in Chicago, there was a huge uproar. -Finally, I don't know what kind of interest the Diamondbacks would have with Lee. Green and Tracy both can take care of 1B duties fairly competently. They can definitely upgrade at the position and move Green into the OF, but as to whether they'd trade top prospects for Lee is unknown.

Cool, thanks...hell of a night anyway, he looks like he must be all the way back? We'll see what happens. As I mentioned before, McKeon comes from that old school mindset of driving your pitchers and getting the most out of them possible without babying or coddling them. Guys like Felipe Alou, Frank Robinson, and Dusty Baker are much the same. While this can be effective in riding the hot hand, you also get cases like Chad Fox, Jason Schmidt, and Robb Nen where their arms either explode or the wear and tear causes them to lose their stuff. AJ Burnett's coming off of a serious surgery; this kind of workload can be problematic down the stretch. Remember Chris Carpenter last year?

He was at 124 pitches through 6 IP. Jack McKeon likes to ride his pitchers and everything, but I think even he knows that it'd be lunacy to have a pitcher coming off of Tommy John Surgery pitch some obscene amount.

Yeah, but KC would be smart to trade for Sisco's Rule V rights so they could send him down to AA to retool him as a starter. Otherwise it would be a wasted draft pick IMO. Trading Dubois and Sisco's rights for Affeldt sounds like a decent trade to me. Excuse my first post, but I don't think KC has any intention of trading for Sisco's rights right now, because he is actually helping them at the major league level. They aren't going anywhere, so what is the danger in keeping him on the roster? He's still young, so they can start him in AAA next year if they want to go that route. Also, I don't see the point in acquiring Affeldt. He's had some flashes of competence, but what has he ever done to make himself desirable to get, other than that shiny "veteran" label? Arm troubles and middling performance don't excite me. I don't think he'd be an upgrade anywhere on the roster. I'm sure he's not as good as Rich Hill. Welcome aboard!

FYI to everyone. I'm going to be in and out of the house all day tomorrow. A couple of things are up in the air at the moment, but as things stand right now, I should be back by late Thursday night/early Friday morning to get it all updated. There's an outside chance I might not get things updated until Friday afternoon, but the odds of it happening are really unlikely.

Box Score Iowa won 16-9 Box Score 2B M. Fontenot 2/6, 2 R, RBI, 2 2B (15) 3B S. McClain 2/4, 2 BB, 3 R, 2B (18) RF D. Kelton 4/6, 4 R, 3 RBI, 2 2B (20) 1B M. Hoffpauir 4/6, R, 5 RBI, 2B (9), HR (3) C G. Soto 1/5, BB, 2 R, 2 RBI P R. Valdez 2/2, RBI, 2B (1) (hehehe) SP R. Valdez 4.1 IP, 11 H, 6 R, 4 ER, 4/0 RP R. Rohlicek 2 H, 3 ER, 1/2 RP B. Brownlie .2 perfect, 0/0 RP J. Van Buren 1 scoreless, 1 H, 2/0 West Tenn PPD: Rain Daytona lost 6-0 Box Score CF C. Walker 1/4, 2B (15) 1B B. Dopirak 0/2, BB, HBP DH S. Moore 1/4 LF K. Collins 0/3, BB SP A. Tavares 1.2 IP, 6 H, 6 R, 2 ER, 1/3, HR RP R. Wells 1 scoreless and hitless, 1/1 Peoria lost 4-0 Box Score CF S. Fuld 0/4 2B E. Patterson 0/4 RF R. Harvey 1/3, 2B (15), HBP LF L. Montanez 0/2, BB, HBP DH B. Flowers 0/4 1B D. Larsen 0/4 SS J. Simokaitis 1/2, BB SP S. Gallagher 7 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 3/1, HR Boise lost 10-3 Box Score CF D. Gregg 1/4, BB, SB (13) SS J. Mota 0/5 LF J. Valdez 1/4, 2 R C M. Reed 1/3, BB, RBI, CS (2) 3B E. Puello 0/2, 2 HBP 2B S. Hode 1/4, RBI SP M. Avery 3 scoreless, 3 H, 1/1 Mesa lost 9-2 Box Score SS L. Rivera 0/4 RF D. Lewis 1/4 LF R. Episcopo 1/4, R, RBI, HR (1) 1B R. Canzler 0/2 CF R. Brown 0/3 SP F. Santana 3 IP, 8 H, 4 ER, 3/0 RP C. Guerrero 1 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 2/1 OVERALL: 1-4

He's also Seattle OF Jeremy Reed's younger brother. Drafted in the third round last year.

Hey Nathan, thanks so much for doing this for us here at NSBB! Sean Gallagher has received much deserved press in the minor league circles of baseball. However, it's pretty rare to hear much about other guys in the Peoria rotation. What kind of future do guys like Grant Johnson, Chris Shaver, Matt Weber, Jesse Estrada, et al. have down the line if things go well for them?