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Matchulat is so raw right now, if he puts it together, he'll be nasty. That's a huge if.

I'd be worried about lack of secondary stuff as a starter than his drop in velo of his FB. The one FB he threw at 92 in his 1st outing had great movement on it, more movement than any of his other FBs so far. I don't really like his slider and his splitter has a bit to go before it becomes successful enough as an out pitch to where you can see him being effective 3 times thru an order.

Either one, his 4 seamer was 92-94 and flat, his 2 seamer is 89-91 with no command.

Damn, he would've been perfect for the Rays.

I don't see it with Reyes, while his change has gotten better, I don't see enough with his FB and breaking ball.

I hadn't heard a thing about him recently, I agree that with his feel of pitching, multiple avg. pitches, and the command, that he will do well vs. younger less advanced hitters.

How much of that could be related to possible elbow problems? I know fastball command is heavily affected by elbow problems (velo not so much which is odd in this case). Also, how much does TJ affect changeups on the way back? I can't think of many guys other than Angel Guzman who had TJ and have a good changeup. Guzman's change came all the way back, although command of his fastball didn't appear to. And a quick rant (no offense) quality of feel/finesse pitches vary a lot from start to start, it's possible you saw him on a bad day considering you just saw him once. However, given the elbow problems you're probably not catching him on a bad day. I'm sure it did play a role and I could've caught him on a bad day, but between the game I seen as well as talking to other MVC coaches, he wasn't nearly as sharp as he had been.

Aaron's change-up last year wasn't as sharp as it was early on at WSU. He left me unimpressed when I saw him against BU.

Even if Cuban's worth $2.8b, most of that is almost certainly money he could not easily liquidate and use to buy the Cubs. My guess is he has a handful of minority investors and people providing finance who haven't been publicly named. I wouldn't be surprised if he owned 51% or whatever to indicate that he is the outstanding shareholder.

Jeff Culpepper OF Jose Severino RHP

If Canning and his group are struggling to keep up with other potential investors, the odds of them being able to maintain or surpass the current level of expenses concerning payroll and other issues directly impacting the product on the field is likely minimal. I'll be glad if their group is eliminated from prospective buyers, espec. with the past relationship with Canning and Selig.

Really going out on a limb with that guess. :D You can't be that positive about that with the Cubs. :)

It really doesn't matter when there's 41K and more people are using public transportation now than ever. You're likely going to be very crowded on the L. Having said that, I haven't taken the Red Line on the day of the game in several years.

You're correct as far as taking the Blue to Red. You would make your transfer at State and Jackson.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chicago-cubs-wrigle-sale-jul18,0,4599368.story

It's expected at this stage, SD and SF are just playing out the season and STL and MIL are playing really well right now and have been almost the entire year. In previous years, it required other teams to lose to inferior teams for the Cubs to clinch the division. Now, it looks as if it's going to take 90+ wins to win the division with 2 teams likely to get there and the other real close.

Regardless of how well or how poorly he plays from here on out, the Cubs will likely need to address the OF again this off-season with a likely big addition. I wouldn't count on Edmonds being able to reproduce what he has done for the Cubs in '08, nor do I believe they have any faith in Pie both long and espec. short-term.

Good to see Redmond doing well today.

I'd like to see a straight line from his pivot foot to home plate and see where his stride foot lands. It could be that he generates so much torque with his hips that he has to fall off the mound like that, but it does look like his stride foot is too open/towards 1st base, IMO.

Mystique has a lot to do with it. Some things just go your way. Are you telling me that the Cards were better than the Mets or the Tigers in 06? Heck No!! How many errors did the pitchers for the Tigers make that led to wins for the Cards? Its just weird.....I'm telling you!! Being better on paper doesn't translate to some power beyond a team of 25 major leaguers being able to play better than another team of 25 major leaguers.

So this has turned into a Cubs are cursed thing? They haven't won b/c they didn't put together good enough teams for extended periods of time. Ask Boston fans how their supposed curse worked against them after they finally became the most talented team over the last 5 years.

Enjoy your site and welcome to this forum. I agree with his tempo being too slow, at foot strike, his arm isn't at its highest point. I also think his follow-thru puts some undo pressure on his shoulder as far as deceleration with a slight recoil and the lacking of what should be a more peaceful slowing down process of that great arm speed. Part of it might be caused by him flying open and throwing across his body when he breaks down mechanically. Thanks for the warm welcome, everybody!! PingHitter, You may be right though I can't say for sure. I'm not exactly a fan of his front side mechanics...you'll notice if you look at each graphic his glove is more by his side at release. He does firm it up, but I would rather see him firm it up earlier and have him keep the glove out in front of his chest. This is said to help protect the shoulder from some of the pounding that naturally occurs through pitching. I wasn't aware that he had a big problem flying open, but if he did, I would bet his front side mechanics would be a possible cause of that. To me, I wonder how his follow-thru would look w/his stride leg foot (left foot) landing more closed than it is now. But, he does great stuff and generates alot of torque b/c of his arm speed, so I can see why teams would be in fear of numerous alterations given his abilities despite the numerous arm injuries by eliminating the splitter. You're correct in pointing out the change in his arm circle. I shouldn't have said flying open as that's incorrect, but he does throw across his body.

I must say that I would be surprised that the Twins would be the team to go that much overslot, usually they're one of the more slot-abiding teams in the game.

I wish him the best of luck in that decision making, either way, he's in a position 99.9% of the HS baseball players would kill to be in. I do have different and biased standards if I was fortunate enough to be a parent in that situation. I will say this, if he does go to college, he will be facing some of the best hitters in amatuer baseball on a weekly basis which help him progress.

School offers are pretty common and included in many deals, espec. with the athlete headed to a 4 year school. 500K is a very good offer and probably a tough decision for him and his family. 6th rounder for 500K will get a letter from MLB/Selig about how much they went over slot.