texascub

Easy first for Hill. Looks like he's got good command and velocity tonight; lets hope he brought his curve with him as well.

There's 2 now and he hit 92 in that AB. I think he's thrown nothing buth FB's so far.

There's one out...that first pitch was only at 86 though.

Will the weather hold up for the game? I'm watching CNN right now and they just showed tornado warnings for Cook county and a pretty nice sized storm heading for Chicago.

Wow, Fred gets around :lol: In all seriousness though Fred, I'd stay as far away from the border as I could...supposed to be a fierce turf war going on down there over the past few months; I'd recommend a trip to Acuna though.

I've said it before and I'll agree to that move if and only if the Jaxx take Frisco's spot in the Texas League.

I bet that Daytona squeezes in game 1 and game 2 gets rained out; any other takers on that bet? :lol:

McPherson, Aybar, and a pitcher like Amalio Diaz would be a pretty good package for ARam IMO. McPherson is 26 but he's got some pop and hits left-handed. He'll probably never put up a great average, but his offensive production would most likely be similar to ARam. Aybar is tearing up AAA and he's still only 22. It appears as though his defense isn't too stellar but a middle IF of Cedeno and Aybar would get to a ton a groundballs most teams couldn't, which will help with some of our groundball pitchers. A minor league pitcher on top of that is gravy. I think you are undervaluing Ramirez or overvaluing those particular prospects. I don't see McPherson ever being anything close to Aramis. His .284 OBP at AAA this year isn't too promising. Aybar is having a nice season so far, but I'm not sold on him. McPherson has been injured and his numbers at AAA aren't fair to evaluate him by. He's played a total for 36 games there and I believe it's been split between 2 rehab assignments. He's averaged a line of .308/.393/.575/.968 while he's been in the minors and he's got a boatload of power (total of 43 homers in 04). He's struggled with injuries but he's got excellent potential. Aybar might not be spectacular, but he's got better plate discipline than Ronny and more power. If nothing else, he's a pretty good trading chip if we decide that we don't want him anymore. I think that you may be overvaluing Ramirez. 2 ML-ready prospects plus another young pitcher is pretty good for someone that can void out of their contract at the end of this season. He's hot right now but he's also streaky, I don't see us getting a couple of top prospects for him with other offensive players like Lee and Soriano out there.

McPherson, Aybar, and a pitcher like Amalio Diaz would be a pretty good package for ARam IMO. McPherson is 26 but he's got some pop and hits left-handed. He'll probably never put up a great average, but his offensive production would most likely be similar to ARam. Aybar is tearing up AAA and he's still only 22. It appears as though his defense isn't too stellar but a middle IF of Cedeno and Aybar would get to a ton a groundballs most teams couldn't, which will help with some of our groundball pitchers. A minor league pitcher on top of that is gravy.

The other question I have is why do the Padres want Giles? Barfield is younger, cheaper, and a better overall player than Giles. Do they plan on moving one of them to third?

I don't think it's the best thing he could do, but I'm resigned to the fact that he'll most likely do nothing. Pierre could fetch some prospects but I also wouldn't mind offering him arbitration and taking the draft pick. Bench players are always in demand and since we aren't going anywhere I think we could ship Walker and Nevin somewhere...maybe even Mabry too but I don't think he's too valuable. Blanco has also been pretty hot recently and backup C's are in demand right now. Maddux could fetch some decent prospects in return. There are plenty of moves that he could make to dump some salary and get younger while maintaining a similar talent level, but he probably won't.

Wow! 26/9 K/BB ratio for him now in 22IP. The 0.77 WHIP and 0.82 ERA aren't too bad either :shock:

Sounds like he's living dangerously; I'd really like to see that 12/22 K/BB ratio improve. It seems like he gave up quite a few sharp hits and line outs tonight, any idea what his GO-FO ratio looks like for the season?

Ojeda just broke up the perfect game for Adam Bass on a single back up through the middle.

On ESPN's rumor line deal during SportsCenter, they thought that Betemit would be a Yankee before the trade deadline so moving Giles wouldn't make much sense.

Z has to catch Webb before he can pull away from him. Webb is doing his part to help that happen tonight. Webb's ERA is now 2.64. And his RA is 2.98 as well now and Z's is 3.46. That's still a decent gap but not as big as the ERA gap, and IMO RA is a better factor of how much a pitcher helps his team than ERA. The difference in WHIP is now down to 0.10. Webb may still have a lead, but Z is coming on fast.

All of his K's so far have been swinging, after a bit of a rough start to the year it sounds as if he's starting to turn the corner.

There are about 400 inappropriate things I could say about that picture. I hear Lance Bass is a huge Dodgers fan :lol:

They're lucky to have completed their initial game. I think it'd be pretty cool to play the rest of the season a day behind; schedule a doubleheader each day and play the game from the day before but cancel the 2nd game :)

I'd add the Dodgers and maybe even Tampa Bay as another trading partner, but other than that I would agree that this is the team to deal with. I don't think that the 'Rays would be good trade partners. With their low budget we'd have to pay a majority of any contract we'd try to ship to them, and they probably wouldn't be willing to ship enough back to make it worth it.

ESPN said the most by a pitcher in recent years is 7 by Hampton in 2001.

No NSBB shout out? All in all, great interview Nathan!

He had enough ABs in 2004 to make that his rookie year. If Scout.com is defining a prospect as a player who would qualify as a rookie, BJ wouldn't qualify (that's why BJ hasn't been considered in BA's last two top prospect lists). Ok, I guess I'm just not very observant. I did a quick search on Yahoo for him and they didn't come up with a player page so I figured he hadn't been up yet. I guess playing in Tampa makes him rather invisible.

He's hearing footsteps, but he'll get used to it. After he meets Roy and DeMarcus...he won't be on the field. Footsteps? Who's near him, the ref? He's just getting ready there...since he's on the Redskins now he'll really be hearing the footsteps.

I don't see B.J. Upton even mentioned; while he's had a slow year I think that's a rather large oversight.