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I hope he's there next week, at least they'll be at Kane Cty. I haven't caught a Chiefs game yet this year, so hopefully that'll be the 1st time.

Cedeno did have a chance to make a play where if he had put more effort into a play, it might've saved a run. He sat back on a slower ground ball and underhand flipped it to Perez who was going to have to throw against his momentum compared to Cedeno who would have to run to 2B phantom tag 2B and throw out Floyd down the lin had he charged it aggressively and completed to throw to Nevin. It was more of a judgement call than lack of effort, IMO.

http://archive.tri-cityherald.com/sports/dustdevils/profilepavlik.html

Pretty high if you ask Girardi... http://www.palmbeachpost.com/marlins/content/sports/epaper/2006/07/24/a2c_marlins_notes_0724.html Quite the gaggle of former Cubs in that article.

http://blogs.chron.com/larrydierker/ If he wishes to get back into coaching, whichever team that would hire him would likely get a very good manager.

They could have him join the team without activating him on to the active roster until he is needed. You can't do that 5 days in advance. MLB is extremely strict as far as roster moves, especially with a player still on a AAA roster that isn't DL'ed being at the park and traveling w/the major league team.

Just my opinion but I'd rather see them just call Hill up now. Let him do his in-between workouts with the better facilities and specifically work with Rothschild on particular things as well as not having to make the last minute trip from Tucson to Chicago compared to an 8th reliever.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/cubs/cst-spt-cubnt23.html Sun-Times is reporting to expect Aardsma to be called up if Marshall is put on the DL. One can assume that Rusch will replace Marshall in the rotation if he does go on the DL.

Heh, you'd be surprised with how many college coaches and scouts know the lines to Anchorman.

Well, we're talking about guys that were hyped enough that they probably would be fast-tracked to the majors in many cases. There's part of the flaw, hype is based on a player's ceiling rather than where they're currently at. A scouting report has current and future reports, I wouldn't say a player that didn't reach his ceiling was a bust and if his current rating is higher than what it should be then that's a scout's error. Too subjective to determine whether or not a player is a bust.

How much of a bust can a player be if they made it to the majors? I'm going to be at a Low-A game tonight and I'll be pleased if I see more than 4 players that'll make it to the majors combined from the teams.

I have no problem with what Ozzie said, if he intentionally hits a batter especially Pierzynski, I think the pitcher should take it upon himself to exact revenge w/out Ozzie making threats before the series as any HBP will now take on a different meaning. Of course, if Padilla hits a lunging Uribe with a curve that doesn't break, it was likely unintentional and any act retaliation act based on that HBP led by Ozzie would be a mistake. A coach shouldn't force a player to drill a batter that is the pitcher's responsibility.

Guzman was signed by KC in '99 and was released b/c of arm troubles and then signed by the Cubs. I can't remember the difference from when KC released him and the Cubs picked him up, but it was less than a year. Of course, I don't see how that relates to Sisco going Rule 5 more than several years later.

Some people enjoy the game in its purest stage, which is not letting the team's record dictate whether or not you'll attend. I'm not one to tell to attend or not to attend to try and send a message to whomever will listen. If they enjoy going to a game regardless of the quality of the home team, attend as many games as you'd like. For the record, I have not been to Wrigley this year nor will I probably go and that's not b/c of the Cubs' record in '06.

Like I said that's not top to btm, you're talking about half to two-thirds. If you don't have a complete line-up of guys who get on base then you have to place those who do in an optimal position. I think line-ups of all OBPs are rare and you'd need the payroll to put forth that type of luxury (SS, CF, and Cs with the ability to get on base and not be a liability defensively) will be expensive. Then, you need the organization to take a hard-line stance towards building a team with OBP as its primary goal and willing to overspend to do it.

But how many line-ups in MLB have high OBPs up and down the lineup? If it was the norm rather than the exception, I think that could have merit. That doesn't equate to a team settling for a lack of guys who can't get on base, one can almost assume that a good team (espec. a NL team) will have 2-3 spots in the order where they might have a lower than normal OBP. Of course, what that hitter also does (speed, power, running, decent avg with low BBs) and those that surround him (6-7 higher OBPs) can dictate how much of a potential liability that player might be and how much what else he does well impact the team. Boston appears to be the best at balancing a team with a good overall OBP. The White Sox have had no OBP come from CF and SS and they can score with the best of them because of their core on offense (Thome, Dye, Konerko) and the productive supporting cast (Crede, Pierzynski).

Int BB walk rates, pitching changes, and sacrifice bunts have a much smaller impact on radical batting order changes than player egos. That is why you'll never see a radical batting order in the majors, maybe a collegiate coach could get away with it, but you'll never a team listed in OBA form. Everything has to go towards modification in a traditional batting order sense. The idea is to make the most out of what you have in two aspects; 1st is getting the 8 pos. players most likely to be the most productive (adjusting for injury/rest, splits, etc) and the 2nd is using those in the order that would yield the best results. Many managers have different evaluation skills as far as determining which are his best 8 on that given day and what he uses to evaluate that in the same manner as to what order they would go. You could bring in the 29 managers at the start of the season for any line-up and on July 17th, you would not see many of the same 8 as well as many in the batting order.

http://alumnus.caltech.edu/~raj/writing/BattingOrder.html

You don't think that Theriot could possibly be a better answer than Cedeno? If he could do a 270/350 and play good D would that beat out a Cedeno? No, not long-term. The only advantage I see Theriot having right now is his approach at the plate. Despite Theriot being more likely to draw a BB and work the count into a hitter's advantage, I see Cedeno being the better hitter. Right now Theriot is the better baserunner but Cedeno has more speed (it's only a slight advantage). Across the board I think Cedeno will be the better player as he currently is, which means it'll take regression from Cedeno combined with unusual improvement from Theriot for Theriot to surpass Cedeno on the depth chart. I do think Theriot can have a long-term role at the major league level just not at the expense of Cedeno.

If the choice is Perez/Theriot then it's a diff. subject as possibly it is in evaluation for the future mode but that's different than sitting Theriot for the 1st few days after he arrives.

When Bobby Cox recieves a callup, assuming the player didn't have to travel overnight, he will start that day. His philosophy is that the best way to get over the anxiety is to get him 4 or 5 ab's asap. That way, you aren't forced to send a guy up there in late/extra innings in a critical situation because you have no one else on the bench. My favorite case was Franceour striking out his first 3 ab's and then hitting the game-winning HR in the 8th inning of his first ML game last year. It depends on where they project him as well. If either Baker or Hendry assume Theriot to be a utility player in the future, his role will be more situational. Someone with the ceiling of Francouer and to a lesser case Johnson will have more of a chance to assume a starting role quicker b/c of their projection. Funny little story on David Wright. He signed and was sent to Kingsport (Appy League) with a couple of other rookies. 1st day in BP he was taking BP and for the round of BP was told to hit line drives into short RF, most of the rooks couldn't hit the ball out of the cage and he was hitting the base of the RF wall. Despite the amazing BP shows for someone just out of HS who just signed as he sat for the 1st 3 days and followed the every move of the coaches in the dugout. Well, the assistant for Joey Cora (who was the manager at the time) mentioned if they should play doubles in and Joey said we don't that * in rookie ball. Later on in that inning, Wright went to the assistant coach and asked why they didn't play doubles in. Although it's a diff. circumstance, it's not too unusual.

The "getting the feet wet" is somewhat common especially when the player is pretty much unfamiliar. This is true of better players at lower levels.

His last 3 starts have been terrible as his change-up is extremely inconsistent. Teams have been able to knock around him as tries to get ahead in the count. He hasn't been able to get his curve over for strikes as well as the change. He'll have to pitch backwards to keep teams from sitting on that 1st pitch, which he'll need his good curve and change. It's not a surprise why the Cubs hit him hard when his two biggest holes are RH'ed hitting lineup and very aggressive line-ups.

I don't think anyone should be shocked what was said, they both like aggressive hitters. If you comprehended those comments as being a knock on OBP, it should upset someone in a similar manner as the clogging comments (which has been run with for several years as that shocked people at the time).

Hendry was asked about OBP in the minors. Of course, a hitter will have to hit (show the tools to do so and produce) to work his way up the ladder. There aren't too many circumstances when a batter hasn't shown the tools to hit and hit hit for avg while being able to advance. Even major league hitters with the low avg/high obp/high slg traits of Dunn or on a weaker level (Bellhorn/Choi) did show an ability to hit that deserved promotions to the majors.