hawkeyecub

Iowa will still be rebuilding but will be improved in my opinion. Losing Tony Freeman lowers the ceiling for this team but may be best for a very young team. They will be better suited to play the style Lickliter wants and all but 3 are his guys. Cyrus Tate is the only guaranteed starter inside after he averaged 11 and 8.5 in the Big Ten last year while being our MVP. Jarryd Cole took Tate's starting spot from him in the non-conf and was playing really well before tearing his ACL. Jake Kelly really came on at the end of his freshman year and will probably be starting in the backcourt. I would say at least 4 of the 6 incoming recruits will play heavy minutes. I think Gatens will start from day one at the 3 spot. Anthony Tucker split POY awards in Minnesota and will likely be the first guard off the bench if he isn't starting. Aaron Fuller won big school POY in Arizona and has a good shot to start or be first off the bench in the front court. Andrew Brommer, former Minnesota commit is a 6'9 big who can shoot but may not be strong enough to contribute yet. Devan Bawinkel went to West Virginia out of high school, went JC when Beilein left and according to a few, he will be the best shooter on the team hands down at 6'5. Jermain Davis is another JC guard who is super athletic, strong and defensive-minded. Don't know how he'll fit in but he could be a candidate at point. The Primetime League opens tomorrow night so I'll probably stop by and check some of the new guys out.

Look, I know you guys have some incredible talent coming especially in '10. If Iowa was recruiting like that I would be super excited also. But does every single Illinois discussion have to turn into "wait for 2 years"? I swear it seems like it gets thrown into every Big Ten discussion. Hell all I heard for a year was "wait til E.J. gets here" and we know what happened. Now that's completely different and I'm not saying that will happen with any of your current commits. But could we just talk a little more about the upcoming season and recruits that are at least signed?

I know.

Yeah his situation is EXACTLY the same as Wood and Prior. :roll: It's not the same other than that I, and many other intelligent fans, called it, only to be told to shut up and stop worrying by homers who love to defend anything this stupid organization does stupidly. It'd be nice if we could be the Cardinals and somehow magically never pay for the stupid things we do, but we're not. We're the Cubs, and we always pay. Yeah you're an intelligent fan and we're all homers who defend everything. Truffle, TT, myself and others fit that description perfectly. Seriously you're being absurd and making a fool of yourself. And the Cardinals magically never pay for anything stupid. That's intelligent.

Yeah his situation is EXACTLY the same as Wood and Prior. :roll:

Overuse He hasn't pitched since Sunday. You can't flog an arm mercilessly for three months and expect no negative consequences. A few days off doesn't change that. Oh, and ballgame. Season. Lifetime. He hasn't been flogged mercilessly and it's 3 off days not one. Give me a break.

Overuse Umm, no

I think that was the right play with Henry up and the way we're swinging at SHields. Alright Font!!!

Can Henry get one down?

Maybe he just doesn't like baseball....or Canada. Or he's trying to lower the cost for the Cubs to acquire him.

Burnett had a terrible start today against the Brewers. 5 innings, 8 hits, 4 walks, 8 earned runs. His last 3 starts he's gone 14.1 innings, walked 12, allowed 22 hits and 18 earned runs.

The Braden Looper 2 hit shut out is all but assured The Royals will just lay down and die for anyone so what were you expecting? Yeah it's not like they won last night or anything.

The Cubs played a little sloppy last night, they didn't deserve to win. However, if I had to blame one person it would be Reed. He had his head up his own ass three times 1) trying to stretch the single (worked) 3) stealing third (didn't work) 4) bunting on that turf (didn't work). There's a reason why Tampa has the fewest sac bunts in baseball and it ain't b/c they're managed by an Earl Weaver clone with a lot of big hitters. I don't understand why you're complaining about him stretching that single into a double considering that it worked, but whatever. As for the bunt in the 9th, it was a great idea. If Longoria doesn't make a perfect play on that ball, the game would've been tied. Unfortunately, he did make a perfect play. Nothing wrong with dropping down a bunt there. Yesterday I drove backwards down the highway, it worked so I'm going to try it today too. Whatever works man'. I love Len but he's dead wrong. It wasn't a perfect play it was a routine play and Johnson was thrown out by 15 feet. Johnson should know better than to bunt on a billiard green. Like I said, there's a reason why Tampa doesn't bunt. 15 feet? Boy that's not much of an exaggeration or anything. I'm watching the replay right now on ESPN and as the 1B is gathering the ball, Johnson's left foot is planted and he's making his final step to the bag with his right. So unless Reed has a 15 foot stride, you're off by about 10-12 feet.

The Cubs played a little sloppy last night, they didn't deserve to win. However, if I had to blame one person it would be Reed. He had his head up his own ass three times 1) trying to stretch the single (worked) 2) stealing third (didn't work) 3) bunting on that turf (didn't work). There's a reason why Tampa has the fewest sac bunts in baseball and it ain't b/c they're managed by an Earl Weaver clone with a lot of big hitters. I disagree with 1 and 3, there is no defense for 2. With the way our offense was struggling, 2 outs and Theriot coming up, it was the right move to try to stretch that. He had a very good chance of getting there safely and he did, it was well worth it. With Longoria playing back the way he was, I had no problem with the bunt. The bunt wasn't perfect plus Longoria made a heck of a break on that ball and made a hell of a play.

What was the problem with Flannery? he missed 2 games in 2004-05, 5 games in 2005-06 and 2 more last year, mostly because of falling ill during games. skip prosser's son was a coach on the bucknell staff, so that probably hit home as well. anyway, he's going to be a fundraiser for bucknell, and i hope that he's a miserable failure in that, and that the new coach of bucknell does a terrible job and runs that program into the ground. Yeah I'm aware of his health problems, I mean why did you dislike him so much?

What was the problem with Flannery?

It wasn't a suicide squeeze (2 outs) he was just bunting for a hit.

You're wrong, that was a good read.

110 pitches and we knocked Kazmir out in the 5th despite scoring only 1 run on 3 hits. Man I love this team's approach.

I like it.

Man the Iowa ties to Tennessee basketball continue. Negedu was supposedly a near lock for Iowa before Alford was put on notice and then fired. He was going to be a packaged deal with the committed Beas Hamga through their caretaker/AAU coach.

Has anyone here paid much attention to his story or picked up his book? He played D3 baseball at a small school in Minnesota. He then played independent baseball in the Northern League for four years until age 27. He put up good numbers every year in short seasons and was signed by the Cleveland Indians organization. His first two years with them he played 71 total games in AA and 106 total games in AAA hitting fairly well. In '02 he hit .318/.377/.439 in 124 games in AAA mostly as a corner infielder. He then apparently has an injury and gets picked up by the Red Sox. '03 was a total lost season, playing only 40 games and putting up a sub .500 OPS in AAA. The Brewers then sign him in '04 where he plays 47 games as a corner IF, 5 as a 2B and 27 as a catcher with a .758 OPS overall. At age 32 he catches on with the Phillies organization, playing almost exclusively as a corner infielder (93 games at 3rd, 29 at 1st, 9 at C) he put up an .817 OPS in AAA again. In '06 he actually was hitting terribly in AAA playing mostly as a 1B but got called up at age 33 to catch due to injury I'm guessing. As a 33 year old rookie he hit .328/.376/.505 in 200 major league at bats. Last year he has some injuries and has a .730 OPS in 129 AB's. This year he's been in the majors all year and has a .907 OPS in 119 AB's. For his major league career he now has a .309/.356/.489 line in 446 AB's spread over three years. He's probably set to start tanking here sometime soon, but I find the whole thing pretty amazing. http://www.thebaseballcube.com/players/C/Chris-Coste.shtml

Yeah today really didn't make any sense.

Excellent post.

Most years I would say no for various reasons. This year yes. There isn't much I wouldn't trade to land Sabathia.