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That's entirely possible. Whether by design or accident, the Cubs have definitely gone the quantity over high end quality route. That may work perfectly if we can go out and get a Pujols in free agency, or it could result in the type of team we saw a lot in the 2000s - very good teams that didn't have the superstar type player to put them over the top.

Colvin and Vitters are probably the most questionable players on that list, though Colvin's major league career to this point (including last year and the start this year) makes him look like a ML player of some degree - I tend to think he's more of a 4th OF type who won't walk enough to merit a starting role, but the organization thinks more highly of him. Vitters hasn't had a huge amount of success in the minors, but as has been mentioned, is very, very young for being in AA. At some point he's going to have to produce at a high level, but he has an impressive skillset (including a lightning fast bat) that could translate well. Cashner has shown the ability to utterly dominate throughout the minors. He struggled in a bullpen role last year, but I'd argue he should have still been starting in AAA at that point. Durability is a major concern and probably the only one with him - if he can stay healthy and strengthen his arm, he'll be a top of the rotation starter. Jackson has also been dominating the minors and is still young for his league. He may never become a superstar, but it's really hard to argue he won't become a legitimate starting OF - perhaps even a strong hitting CF - within the next 1-2 years. Simpson hasn't been a pro for a full season and, so far, has dealt with mono and another significant sickness. He's currently pitching well underweight and his velocity is still down. It's simply far too early to say anything either way about Hayden. As for delusions of grandeur, the minor league system hasn't been as good as it should be at this point overall, but has seen significant improvement since Wilken took over. There's a lot of promise throughout the minors, but it's way too short on legit superstar type players (McNutt might qualify, maybe Jackson or Vitters if they really take off).

Good to see Demp with a couple really nice starts in a row. Along with the positive signs Wells and Cashner are showing, the starting pitching could be turning around.

Since Tim Wilken took over as scouting director in December of 2005 our top picks have been: 2006: Tyler Colvin 2007: Josh Vitters 2008: Andrew Cashner 2009: Brett Jackson 2010: Hayden Simpson Two of those have reached the majors, one is generally considered our top prospect (Jackson), one is still ranked in the top 5 of the Cubs' system (Vitters) and one has been slowed by illnesses and it's still far too early to tell (Simpson). Opinions on these guys vary, but to call them "terrible" is a bit of an overstatement.

If I recall correctly in the Pearl situation, Tennessee self-investigated, punished Pearl and then the NCAA investigation started. I don't believe the NCAA investigated at the same time.

Doesn't the school usually do its own investigation first and then the NCAA double checks everything? I know Tennessee did "internal investigations" during Hostessgate and after Bruce Pearl admitted to lying. Not sure if that was before or during the NCAA investigations, though.

Id give him time too, but the way hes playing, hes not going to get time, playing time at least which is why they should give him some time in Iowa and call up someone from there. All we really need at this point is a 5th outfielder. Our starting OFs are too streaky to send Colvin down, I think. With Soriano and Kosuke making up 2/3 of our outfield, almost any at-bat could begin an extended slump. It's at least more convenient to have Colvin ready on the bench as opposed to having to call him up and send another player down. He may not be getting a ton of playing time now, but with the streaky outfielders we have he'll get his ABs in time, we're just in a period now where the streaks have been hot for both of them.

Surprised this hasn't been posted yet (unless it's been posted elsewhere and I missed it, in which case feel free to make fun of me). Excerpt from Bruce Miles' blog today:

Kind of like with first base, I don't know that we have any better options than to give Barney some extra leeway. If this start is just a mirage for Barney, DeWitt might be a better option but management seems to have no confidence in him at all. Baker is a great option against lefties, but absolutely horrid against righties and isn't an option to play full time. So benching him probably won't happen even if he cools down considerably. If you're talking about leaving him in the two-spot for too long if he cools down, however, you may be right there. However, getting Pena and Byrd hitting again would allow Quade to do what he originally wanted to with Kosuke and Starlin in the top two spots - which means Barney would naturally shift down. If those two don't pick it up considerably, however, Barney may hang out up there by default.

Nessler and Sean McDonough are my two favorite college football play by play guys in some order. Nessler will be good on those games, although I like him better on college games. I like Nessler a lot. I hadn't thought about this move taking him off college broadcasts - that'd suck if it does. This is a much better team than the NFL Network has ever had, though.

Not quite the pure awesomeness that Gus Johnson/Mike Mayock would have been, but still solid. Brad Nessler and Mike Mayock paired together for NFL Network broadcasts

If they won't take McNutt/Vitters/Ha and are only interested in Soto/Vitters/Ha, then I might do the deal with Soto - I simply think I'd prefer McNutt over Soto since productive catchers are so scarce. As for the pitching in the minors, it's true that much of our pitching does project to more of a 3-5 starter range, keep in mind we already have Cashner and Garza at the major league level. Both could become frontline starters (many would argue Garza is already there), so the need for a more elite arm may not be there for us.

IsoP or IsoD? His IsoP is .102 which is pretty good, I think. His IsoD is pretty low, but his patience is still developing and I didn't really expect him to be real patient this year. It's lower than I had hoped at this point, but not considerably so. IsoP - I was thinking around the same SLG as SSR. I would love more isoD...but I didn't expect it until he showed more power first. Huh, I guess my power expectations for Starlin were lower than some. After a .408 SLG last year, a jump up to .450 seems significant for a 21 year old SS who doesn't have a lot of natural muscle. His IsoP last year was .108 and it's .102 this year, so I can see from that perspective where you'd want it to have improved, but I guess I'm just not ready to say he's underperforming in that area.

The problem with that is we're losing a lot of the value of going from Aramis to Wright by dropping from Soto to Wellington Castillo/Koyie Hill/Max Ramirez. As much as I'd hate to trade McNutt so shortly after dealing Archer, I'd almost rather include him than Soto. We've got a lot of good, young starting pitchers floating around the minors - we don't have any catchers who will give us an .850+ OPS.

Am I crazy or doesn't Berkman hit lefty most of the time? Has he dropped switch hitting and I didn't notice it? The only strictly right handed option Hendry had this offseason was Konerko and he wasn't really an option at all. Derrek Lee says hello Forgot about DLee, but his .774 OPS and less than stellar peripherals last year didn't indicate he'd be a better option than Pena. And he's not lighting the world on fire this year with a .664 OPS. You can argue DLee was a similar option to Pena, but I really don't see superior at all.

The OBP I can see, but that's a lot of slugging to add after slugging .408 last year. I'm just happy to see an improvement in his slugging from his 20 year old year to his 21 year old year.

IsoP or IsoD? His IsoP is .102 which is pretty good, I think. His IsoD is pretty low, but his patience is still developing and I didn't really expect him to be real patient this year. It's lower than I had hoped at this point, but not considerably so.

Castro and Ramirez are underperforming my expectations. You thought Castro would be better than .315/.341/.417 with a .343 wOBA so far? Yes What were you expecting?

I believe he was. I hesitate to say this because I'm unsure about it, but I keep thinking Maddux played a part in discovering Demp was tipping his pitches and the subsequent glove waggle. I recently saw Dempster doing an interview on TV, and he credited Colvin for this (I honestly can't remember what show it was...might have been on MLB network). If I remember correctly, he said that during spring training one year, Colvin asked if he could stand in the batters box for a bit while Dempster was throwing. Apparently, he told Dempster he could see when he was changing his grip from his splitter to something else. That's kind of what started it all. Huh, interesting. Never heard that before.

Am I crazy or doesn't Berkman hit lefty most of the time? Has he dropped switch hitting and I didn't notice it? The only strictly right handed option Hendry had this offseason was Konerko and he wasn't really an option at all.

I'm confused. What exactly did Hendry covet this offseason? He signed Pena, a lefthanded hitting first baseman, when there were a mass of mediocre lefty hitting first basemen available, one really good lefty hitting first baseman who wanted to get paid more than he was worth, one great lefty hitting first baseman who was traded in a deal we couldn't/wouldn't match and one really old righty first baseman who was determined to stay where he was. No matter what Hendry coveted, odds were incredibly high we were getting a lefthanded first baseman. So what exactly did Hendry covet that Pena had that no one else available did?

If they're getting a good haul of prospects either way, getting a name like Ramirez might help keep the fans a little happier. An Aramis+prospects for Wright deal looks a lot less like giving up - especially to the casual fan - than all prospects for Wright.

Castro and Ramirez are underperforming my expectations. You thought Castro would be better than .315/.341/.417 with a .343 wOBA so far? Those are some high expectations for him. His .336 BABIP isn't even all that high. As for Barney, I love what he's doing so far. Both he and Castro are a bit low on the IsoD side (.026 for Starlin, .023 for Barney), but neither are sporting super high BABIPs either. If Darwin can keep giving us around a .300 avg with around a .350 OBP, he'll be better than I thought and useful while cheap. A better version of Theriot at this point.

I believe he was. I hesitate to say this because I'm unsure about it, but I keep thinking Maddux played a part in discovering Demp was tipping his pitches and the subsequent glove waggle.

I believe there might have been a couple of comments somewhere that they'd prefer a lefty bat if all else were equal because of how righthanded the lineup was. It wasn't a scenario where they were consciously looking at only lefties and nothing else - though they may have been doing that by default since there weren't any good righthanded bats truly available (I'm working under the assumption Konerko was going to be a White Sox unless we threw an utterly ridiculous contract at him). There actually were rumors, if I recall correctly, that Hendry wanted to pursue Konerko, but he had no interest in going anywhere but the South side.