CubsInNC

A: Jose Bautista B: Mike Stanton, Miguel Cabrera C: McCutcheon, BJ Upton, Smoak D: Delmon Young, Ryan Zimmerman, Andre Ethier, Adam Dunn, Carl Crawford Wild Card: PM'd

What's up with Greathouse? He's been saying on twitter to teammates that they likely won't see him soon/at all in Az. I know he just had a kid, and could be staying behind a few weeks for that. It just seems weird.

James Pugliese had a great spring in Boise, and is in Peoria by the end of July.

Per MLB twitter, he won it.

Some of this seeding is weird. LaHair a 2? Dempster a 10? https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=372247192787575&set=a.113015875377376.17510.110242065654757&type=1&theater Per Bruce, he stated that there's little logic, or significance to the seedings.

I'd guess we'd look into it, but after March 8, and that freeing up of $, he's gonna be a Colts target

CubsInNC Yes Yes, will get Peoria autos when they come to Grand Rapids

The good news is he can play all over the field and he's a switch hitter. He's extremely versatile having played professionally at 1B, 2B, SS, 3B, LF, CF, and RF. He's got plus speed and a plus glove. Good player to have come off the bench. He's been poor offensively in the bigs unfortunately. Pretty good minor league career got him spots in the Futures Game and AAA All Star game though. Hopefully if he makes the team he'll have better numbers because his plate appearances off the bench should go up a good bit being in the NL now. I'm glad he's a Cub! I wouldn't expect him to make the team. Unless someone is traded, our reserves will be Baker, DeWitt, and Johnson, with either Sappelt or Campana rounding it out and of course a backup C. It is interesting how many spare MI we have invited to Spring Training. between Tolbert, Amezaga, E Gon, as well as Scales and Mota. Could be that they're still shopping Baker and DeWitt. I guess if Stewart gets hurt or is a total bust, Baker and/or DeWitt could hold down 3rd and one of them could be called up. Side note, I did notice that E Gon has a solid minor league line (.296/.374/.449)and it's pretty consistant all the way through. Don't forget Mota has some experience behind the plate. he'll likely one of the latter players demoted back to minor league camp, just to be the an extra catcher.

Story here in Michigan is that Miggy is working with his trainer to get in much better shape, and committed to being 255 or less at the start of the season. He was supposedly contacted before the signing, and was eager to get back to 3rd, calling it his "natural" position. There's a strong feeling from some of the connected journalists that they're not done. Whether that's getting Cespedes or trading for a SP, is the debate, but they're generally very, very, positive that something else big is happening before the start of the season.

Makes sense with Theo's statements about pitcher health being the new market inefficiency.

Unbridled enthusiasm? Well , that's what led to Billy Mumphrey's downfall.

That's been one of my hangups. But, I'm pretty sure that with the advances in advance and self-video scouting, a lot of that will payoff in development of our own players. More of a, we're bringing things up to normal in some areas, so by default we'll have a better development system.

What are Turner's mechanics like? he's known to throw hard, and frequently, with mechanics issues, can cause early wear and tear on the arm. I've only seen him a couple times, but it was basically fresh out of HS, with the Whitecaps. Is he a likely future arm injury?

I think some of that is just paying lip service to the things fans and media demand, while also referring to a guy who will come into a game prepared with the pertinent information/data. I could see that being possible, and I'm hoping it is. Still too scarred from the past administration to give the new one the benefit of the doubt. Time heals all wounds. :)

It's not just the beer. It's the "players manager" style. There's less accountability in general assumed in that. Francona was/is considered a players manager. Not to mention that the anecdotal lax approach to conditioning taken by some of the Red Sox players this year was one of the many scapegoat excuses. Ultimately, the GM places that on the manager, whether right or wrong. I'm not taking a position for or against that idea, frankly, with a well assembled team, I'm pretty sure that most managerial candidates won't cost or gain many wins. Right. What I'm saying is that those kind of antics have been the scuttlebutt about the Red Sox for at least the entire time Francona was running the team, and they were even hyped up after they won the '04 WS. I can buy someone saying a lack of conditioning meant their pitching went flat at the end of the season, but that general climate/attitude/whatever was pervasive the entire time he was there and it didn't seem to be too much of a detriment. If this was Hendry, wouldn't we call this obvious reactionary BS, designed to imitate this years WS winner? I don't get it. If what was Hendry? Theo in the press release about the next manager placing "an emphasis on preparation and accountability". just nitpicking it. But is has a feel of Hendry's reactionary mode in the offseason.

It's not just the beer. It's the "players manager" style. There's less accountability in general assumed in that. Francona was/is considered a players manager. Not to mention that the anecdotal lax approach to conditioning taken by some of the Red Sox players this year was one of the many scapegoat excuses. Ultimately, the GM places that on the manager, whether right or wrong. I'm not taking a position for or against that idea, frankly, with a well assembled team, I'm pretty sure that most managerial candidates won't cost or gain many wins. Right. What I'm saying is that those kind of antics have been the scuttlebutt about the Red Sox for at least the entire time Francona was running the team, and they were even hyped up after they won the '04 WS. I can buy someone saying a lack of conditioning meant their pitching went flat at the end of the season, but that general climate/attitude/whatever was pervasive the entire time he was there and it didn't seem to be too much of a detriment. If this was Hendry, wouldn't we call this obvious reactionary BS, designed to imitate this years WS winner?

According to Bruce

Am I misremembering/making too much of it but didn't LaRussa occasionally place blame on Pujols (but not some of the other players) the last season or 2? Is it possible that his leaving StL was conditional for Pujols? I doubt it, but I could also see it.

It's not just the beer. It's the "players manager" style. There's less accountability in general assumed in that. Francona was/is considered a players manager. Not to mention that the anecdotal lax approach to conditioning taken by some of the Red Sox players this year was one of the many scapegoat excuses. Ultimately, the GM places that on the manager, whether right or wrong. I'm not taking a position for or against that idea, frankly, with a well assembled team, I'm pretty sure that most managerial candidates won't cost or gain many wins.

Bruce Levine on the SVP show, top 2 candidates Sandberg and Francona..... umm, can you read?

We can rule out Francona.

Confirmed by Bruce & Len on twitter as well.

If Castro were to be a demand from the M's, the package coming back from them would have to include Smoak for me to be ok with him going in that deal. But there's no way that happens, so imo, we're just not a match with them. If they'd accept a package around a 3=4 prospects (Vitters/Jackson/Casher/Szczur/etc), I'd be more likely to jump on that. But they'd be stupid to take that, imo.

An all expense paid trip to the IR?

Never heard of this guy until this post, but apparently he's been around since '05. Looks like he's bounced from Boise to Daytona to Tennessee to Iowa this year. Looks like they were functional promotions rather than performance based. Like I said, I doubt anyone would notice. I saw him back in 06. He had a decent year for Boise that year, but really didn't do much at the upper levels after that. Saw him last year for Peoria, when they played in Grand Rapids. He caught 1 of the 3 games, I think. I'm comparing a very small sample size, to another very small sample size, and a player who was learning the position, Mota. He was more refined behind the plate, and seemed that his receiving skills were adequate/good. I didn't see any pitches being called in that game from the dugout (as a lot of direction was given during mota's starts), but I was also a little distracted that game, watching McNutt and Yung more closely than Mercedes. I wasn't impressed with his hitting/contact, but he didn't appear to be a free swinger either. If he can hit at the same rates in the majors (unlikely) as he does in the minors, he can be a serviceable backup while he's cheap. But we already have a few of those in the system, at the same level, who are likely better performance candidates.