UK1679666180

Couch is by far the worst writer in this city, which is saying something. His columns are trite, misinformed, poorly written, and painful to read. I'd rather read a 9th grader at Minooka HS writing about the Freshman Wrestling squad losing 3 of 5 matches. I'd get more out of that article than I would one of Couch's, likely just as much useful baseball content in that.

I agree with the concept of not firing them prematurely, but I disagree with offering them up a contract prematurely as well. They've earned the right the be here next year, they haven't done enough to extend the deal. I'd let '06 dictate whether or not they should be back and that includes 90+ wins and a playoff berth as the starting guidelines. Speed up the winning process by allocating financial resources away from the farm system towards winning in the short-term, start winning please.

UK is about to lose at home vs. Vandy. Beyond this year, I'd give Tubby one more year to this around. UK should have more talent and players like Crawford, Rondo, Bradley should progress more.

I don't understand your disdain for the cubs major league hitting coaches i.e. Matthews and Clines. Over the last three or so years they have taken some players and improved them significantly. For instance, before Aramis Ramirez came to the Cubs he had one season in Pitt in which he had a OBP above .300. Since coming to the Cubs he has put up seasons of .358 OBP and .373. That is a significant improvement. Lee's OBP was 40 pts higher than it has ever been in his career, and those numbers came with Clines as hitting coach. Barrett has improved significantly since coming to the Cubs. Grudz put up great numbers coming to the Cubs. Murton put up great numbers last year in limited time. I am interested to see what your explanation is, as to why these players can excel once coming to the Cubs. Why can Clines or Sarge have such an effect on these guys but yet be horrible with players coming through the Cubs system. To me it seems like more of a problem with the Cubs inability to develop position players at the lower levels and wouldn't that failure fall on Zisk, Listach and Von Joshua? If not do you blame the Cubs scouts for selecting sub par players? Ramirez has had plenty of major league as well as having previous experience doing very well. He spent an injured '02 and came back in '03 and hit well in '04 and '05. Same goes Barrett, he was oft-injured in Montreal and had previous seasons of success. Neither of them have had any success at developing a young hitter, one with great tools like Patterson or minimal like Hill. There would be a track record of them developing young hitters, god knows Matthews and especially Clines would have had developed a hitter in their career as HC. I think it's a different mindframe and approach dealing with young players w/minimal experience and dealing w/veterans. As far as Murton, the test will be when he struggles, he's going to struggle, he's going to go in a severe slump. When he does, I'd like to see how they handle the slump. I watch Kelly Johnson start off his career in a major slump, the Braves handled it much different than I'd expect the Cubs. The Braves know how to handle young in-house position players, the Cubs have not shown that.

Despite Zisk and Joshua, I think Pie would likely be in a better position to succeed and rec'd better instruction.

I don't think scouts are expected to always be right. in fact, they are mostly wrong. 83% of the players who sign pro contracts never make it to the majors, the Lucadellos of the world are very rare and a thing of the past.

If Hairston is given the righthanded pitcher part of the platoon it might be OK, if memory serves, Hairston has reverse splits while as Neifi! is decent batting righthanded versus lefties. If reverse splits were emphasized, Remlinger would've never seen that many LH'ed batters. If it was a Perez/Hairston platoon, Perez would likely see too many ABs.

Another poor offensive showing by UK, 4 points in the 1st 9 minutes at home vs. Vandy. This team can't shoot and they take and miss more open shots than I've seen in quite some time. Morris can't turn that around.

Stole or bought? :)

Players I would've targeted... Michaels-CF Giles-RF (The other 6 position players are as expected) For the Bench Saenz Sweeney Branyan Call-up Fontenot (Hairston/Blanco as the remainder) Pitchers: Everything what Hendry did except bringing back Rusch.

He'll have to draw more walks, he's still very aggressive, but his strike out rates haven't prohibited his production, yet.

I have a great deal of respect for Joshua and Zisk (both would do a better job than Matthews or Clines, IMO) as you know, but a player like Pie is going to need just as much coaching as the ML level, if not more. I have little confidence that Pie would progress as a player during his rookie season as he would if he played his rookie year with ATL. Once the League adjusts to a player, that's when the coaching at the ML level kicks in. If Pie struggles at the start, would you be more confident with Baker handling it or Cox? That's an obvious choice for me. Overall, I think Braves have better instructors though in the minors and that includes Joshua and Zisk, which isn't being critical of those two, just praise for the way the Braves operate.

Every pitcher has a different release every hitter has a different swing, there are certain absolutes though and if you adhere to those any adjustment in-between will focus on the type of contact. When hitters adjust, if they have no major flaws they are likely adjusting bat speed for bat angle as it goes thru the zone. When you have power hitters like Dunn, Burrell, Edmonds or any power hitter with a high # of Ks, they generate a great deal of bat speed and in generating that bat speed, it puts their bat in a position where it becomes more difficult to make more contact. Typically, you'll see an upper-cut swing at that generates a high bats speed (90+), more often than someone like Pierre or Eckstein, won't make any contact or pop-it up b/c it isn't a very level plane.

That's a good question, I'd feel more confident in ATL making that decision. Pie would've had better instructors during his ascent to the majors as well as having more confidence in their decision makers as far as him being ready compared to the Cubs making that same decision. Once he got to the majors, you have Bobby Cox compared to Baker, Cox dwarfs Baker as a manager and ATL has better instructors at the Major League level as well. Comparing the track record of the Cubs and Braves as far as position players, is a model of success vs. a model of futility as far as drafting and developing quality position players.

I also forgot Mitre and intentionally Theriot. Stavisky out of ND was in that draft as well as Jecmen, who I regretted not signing moreso than Greene at the time.

Any draft with Prior is going to be a good one. That draft would have been really good if we had signed Khalil, though. Prior, Sisco, Harris, Nolasco. 1st 4 will likely make to the majors, that's a a great draft.

They have a better and cheaper 2B in Cantu compared to Walker.

I knew I was forgetting one of them, I could remember Clanton, but forgot JJ. :x Why did I put Sisco into that group? Meh, it's late... Speaking of the Sisco draft, quite a dropoff compared to '01.

Mmm. Draft picks galore. :D How's that '02 draft looking? :) David Weathers? Brownlie, Hagerty, Clanton, Sisco, Dopirak....

They'll need to somehow find a taker for Walker and probably shift Cedeno to 2B and Lugo to SS. That'll boost the defense up the middle and create a poor man's version of the daily double that Florida had with Castillo and Pierre. Lugo's potential value scares me as talks of Marte have been thrown around. The Cubs have no one of that value, including Pie. If they trade for him, he'll join the cast of thousands as far as being a FA after this year.

I hope so as that would likely be a combo of not going to a 4 man rotation while they all the offdays in April. I wish they felt the extra days of rest were the luxury instead of the ability to go to a 4 man rotation.

Gone. Someone already mentioned that Aramis is the one with the most tenure of all position players now. That's incredible. I wonder if any of the other 29 teams can say the same thing. Aging veterans and stop-gaps. The Cubs have been stockpiling them for years.

Getting another Ryan Theriot w/less patience. :( Baiting Tim.. here fishy, fishy, fishy. :)

In a proper role, I think he can handle a platoon with Jones, b/c Jones isn't going to hit LH'ers as well as Marrero would've. Of course, the Cubs might look at the salary as the determining factor as whether or not to platoon Jones rather than something like *pondering* his previous inability to hit LH'ers. The Cubs are in an ideal situation to use a platoon with a player who struggles to hit against LH'ers. Marrero crushes LH'ers and struggles badly against RH'ers. For a minor league contract at 750K, it would've been worth finding out if Marrero could've been a solid platoon option or worse case, becomes a spot starter and the 1st RH'ed bat off the bench. Meanwhile, the Cubs are looking at Grissom as a possibility to make the 25 man roster.

Although I want the Pig Unit to start, I assume at this stage it'll be Reyes over Ponson. I don't expect any drop-off from Morris to Reyes, maybe some improvement depending on how the league adjusts to him and then how he adjusts to the adjustment.