texascub

Ouch, I bet that didn't feel good. His head bounced off of the scoreboard.

For being a former hitter, Marmol seems to have no interest in making contact at the plate anymore. All of the balls he swung at were in the LH batter's box.

One thing I've noticed with Marmol so far is that he's doing well when he comes over the top or from that high 3/4 arm slot, but when he tries to get a little extra on it and drops down to a sidearm motion, the ball really rises in the zone.

What in the heck....did Rothschild lose his jersey? It looks like he's in his PJ's.

After that first inning, Marmol seems a little timid right now. I know he got shelled pretty good, but he needs to gain some confidence in that incredible stuff of his.

Im with ya. Gooz still intrigues me though. Maybe so, but I still believe if people are locking Marmol and/or Marshall into this rotation for '07, then they're thinking too small. Nobody knows what will happen with these two. Not saying automatically no, but I haven't seen anything that tells me they should have secured jobs as starters. I don't think they've secured a spot either, but they've shown me enough that I think they'd do pretty good in a competition for slots during spring training. Unless we go out and spend some serious money on a few starters, they're already got the upper hand on anything else we've got.

Pagan looks really sad at the plate , that bottom lip hangs way out when he's trying to pick up the pitch.

That was a long homer, The Rocket has some nice movement but his location is horrible tonight.

Wow if Ramirez would've connected on that swing it would've gone well over the train tracks.

96 that time but in another bad spot. I think he'll settle down, his pitches are excellent his command just hasn't showed up yet.

IMO it started out in a pretty good location but had some late rise on it that put it in a bad spot. A 94mph heater can be blown by alot of people, you just need decent location.

It looks like the Cubs are actually going to be the more patient team tonight...it looks like Marmol is starting to settle in though.

Damnit, that wasn't a good spot for a first pitch....this could be a long night.

I hope Marmol has his pitches working tonight, it looks like the HP umpire is running a tight zone.

Man he barely missed that, anywhere else and I think that's probably out.

I know that Pierre likes to wear his hat off-center, but did anyone else notice that his helmet brim and his hat brim didn't even match up?

This is actually a pretty good lineup. I'd rather see Murton in there, but I don't mind playing the hot hand in Pagan either as long as his production stays up.

And then Hendry's going to put him in the pen until the surgery. He should be ready by the spring. Until the surgery? He's already had the surgery and he's pitching again already. He supposedly was hitting 93 just before the draft in a bullpen session.

He's got talent but he's still also rather raw. I think that he's at Boise because any changes in his swing will be easier to implement there against lower talent than at say Peoria or Daytona. He'll probably have good production while there but I don't think we'll see any sort of vast improvement until the offseason where he can start working more seriously on changing his swing mechanics.

I don't think they have any intention of getting back into the Venezuelan league. I think they've said they like having all their Latin guys working together at one complex. And given that even by combining both their Dominican and Venezuelan guys, they still finish last in their Dominican league every year, if they don't have enough to compete with one team, splitting over two teams would just make them lose even more, I'd assume. Question: how did you get that Elvis Lara is a 2B? I haven't found out how to figure who's playing where. IN the Cubs Media Guide, they list him merely as an infielder. But since he lists at 6'5", 230 pounds, I'd assumed he was a 1B, with at best an outside shot to play 3rd. I can't really imagine a 6'5", 230-pound 19-year-old second baseman.... Still, a 6'5" 230-pounder with only 4 K's in 80 AB, there's a chance you might have a guy with the size for power but the contact skills for game-time power. I had a hard time finding out anything about him on the internet. I did a player search for him on Baseball America, and they had him listed as a 2B. Of course their stats are outdated by over a week so there's no telling what else is wrong with them. If Lara is truely 6'5" 230lbs, he must be a beastly athlete. If he can hit 5 doubles and 4 triples in only 21 games at that size, his athleticism and speed should surely allow him to play pretty much anywhere in the IF atleast for the time being.

If anyone is interested, you can view stats for the DSL Cubs here. There doesn't seem to be alot down there this year; Elvis Lara (2B), Reynaldo Gomez (OF), and Andres Quezada (OF) seem to be about it for hitting prospects. The pitching is a bit deeper with guys like Francisco Acosta, Alberto Cabrera, Willy Garcia, Carlos Guerrero, Edilmar Infante, and Audy Santana. I was also wondering if anyone knew if they Cubs plan on fielding a VSL team anytime soon? I knew they pulled it out because of the political unrest in the country, but it seems like most teams are back down there again.

In the top of the 8th Mesa got 2 triples and a double, and scores 2 runs to go up 5-4 now. I wonder if they'll take a page out of the parent club's book and blow it?

Mesa's game actually didn't start until 1:30 but it doesn't matter because they're losing again. Score is 4-3 in the top of the 8th; Vanderhook and Williams have the only 2 RBI for the Cubs. The teams have also combined for 5 errors, 3 HBP, and a WP...typical rookie league game I guess.

IIRC, we gave Clemens his first loss in 2004 after he started the year 8ish-0 and delayed his 300th victory as well. this has been the cubs as of the last 5 years we get owned routinely by guys like wes obermueller, but when living legends roll into town, we become all worldly. It's been a general rule of the Cubs in the past to play to the level of your competition. I remember just a few years ago when we were actually contenders, our toughest games were always againstly the horrible Brewers. We also have and always will lose against soft-tossing lefties.

Losing Jones would hurt a little bit because we don't have anyone who could take his spot, but we could make it work. CF Pierre (sucks but he's still probably the best one) 2B Walker 1B Lee 3B ARod C Barrett LF Murton SS Cedeno RF Pagan/Restovich/Mabry P