Transmogrified Tiger

Yes

Sexy ++++++++++++ A little bit of hope for the future. He's, without a doubt in my mind, the Cubs second best hitting prospect and he's closing in (but not quite there) on my top 5. That seems high praise for a college draftee(21 at season's end) in short season A. I think I'd have at least Pie and Patterson above him.

CFP during the '03 offseason had a great breakdown of it. It was fan interference, it should've been called such.

7-3

Sexy

Floating the idea: Promote Colvin?

I've thought about it...but that was more for the Cubs' draft sake then anything else. I've seen this mentioned a few times. Did they eliminate the alternating leagues get the #1 pick rule? Yes, they eliminated it.

How about making a trade just to improve the team? Would be nice wouldn't it? Use guys like Maddux and Nevin who likely will not be here next year, and get just average to decent prospects. You get something for nothing and have extra trading chips. It takes two to trade. Wait til Tuesday for this angst.

Lets not forget Maddux was 20 and 21 in his first two years in the bigs. Hill is 26 years old. That's the other thing - he is closing in on his prime years. That's a valid point to be sure. On the other hand, it's worth noting that pitchers have a much less stable career track than hitters, with Hill himself being an example of that. It's been pretty much agreed that Hill made some type of adjustment(physical, mental, mechanical, philosophical, spiritual) that helped him start dominating in the minor leagues. I don't think it's a matter of simply him sticking around until he was old enough to me a man amongst boys(note: I'm not saying that anyone is saying the opposite of this).

if he has trouble thowing K's he should'nt be in the bigs Then every pitcher should be in the minors, they all have games where they struggle with the strike zone. Yeah, but Hill has not been consistent enough in the strike zone to stay in the big leagues. His minor league stats are so impressive though that you know it is mental. I'm pretty sure the guy can throw strikes, he just needs the confidence that he can go out there and get the job done. Just for kicks look up Scott Ruffcorn minor league stats... just for kicks look up greg maddux's 86 and 87 stats. People keep saying that, but no one acknowledges that we are essentially comparing Hill to a once in a generation talent. Do you truly believe Hill will even approach Maddux? Isn't it more likely thaat he will be, at best, serviceable? There are also worse pitchers than Maddux who have had rough goes in their early MLB time. I think the point is not to say Hill will eventually repeat his AAA dominance in the show, but rather that we should wait before condemning him as a one trick pony.

Bold prediction: Wuertz is closing games by this time next year, or everyone is clamoring for him to do so.

It's omnipresence? Wouldn't it be easier to ignore than to goad then? I think people are trying to show how wildly irrational it is rather than egging him on.

Fontenot is also significantly better offensively.

It's omnipresence?

I don't see Riccardi taking on Neifi.

Howry + Maddux for Ethier + Broxton

No one ever said that. In fact, if you go to that thread you'll find several people distinctly clarifying that to you. Many people did not want Tejada because his price(players, dollars, both) wasn't on par with his production, and people used Walker as a comparison for how Tejada's production wasn't worth that price. No one ever ever ever ever said "we have Walker, we don't need Tejada" or "Walker is just as good as Tejada".

Oh how I love the Pie chart.

the bolded part is the operative sentence. the return on the trade doesn't look great to me, but noone on this board is in a postion to accurately assess these young pitchers. the farther down in the minors, the less likely the numbers will reflect what kind of a prospect the player is. judging low level ball players based on their stats and the published scouting reports is rather foolish. it's even a problem judging higher level prospects. no amount of stats would have told you that Jason Dubois couldn't recognize or hit a curveball, but the stats and BA sure made it seem like he could be a force at the major league level. it takes a combination of both in my opinion and the guys at BA often talk about their inability to fully cover all minor leaguers because of their lack of staff. Here's the thing about that though. Like the Dubois example you gave, there are many players that are statistically sound yet have flaws not revealed by their production that prevents them from repeating that at higher levels. On the flipside, how many players are statistically horrid and then make some adjustment to completely change their performance? I'd wager there are significantly fewer that fall into the latter than the former. As it pertains to these specific players, Santo is in his 4th pro season with over 320 IP, and no longer is young for his league. Jiminez is young for the MWL, but he's never had any sort of success in his pro career and is getting overwhelmed this year(more walks than K's, eek). I think the degree of how poorly they've performed is being lost.

Most of Dusty's comments are horrible analogies that sound laughable in or out of context. In addition, Dusty's comments are endemic of his actions when they are interpreted poorly. People may assume the worst with what Dusty says, but it's usually backed up by what he does, or another comment he's made. That said, he does get taken out of context at times, and I've pointed that out in a couple occasions, although I admit I've readily hammered him for a multitude of quotes in the past.

Ozzie making a mountain out of a mole hill. If he ever loses his job I wonder if he ever manages again.

Does he go into more detail on why he thinks that(i.e. pitching/throwing programs, strength/conditioning stuff, etc.)?

Wow, great stuff. Too bad there isn't a similar resource for other people that would be considered for the job.

how? The only quote that looks particularly egregious is the first one, and if you consider the question was likely "Aramis, you hit very well this afternoon, what are your thoughts on the loss today?" even that is a fine response.

Why does it matter? That looks like it's out of context anyways.