burnt out cubbie fan

I still don't really understand why he is in there...

Stupid espn...I thought I was recording the game but I was recording womens golf. wtf...

Thanks for sharing your time with us. A while back I heard that you were working on a cutter along with your change that you are still developing. How is that coming along? Are you still working on cutter or did you decide against it? Are you throwing it a lot in game or are you working on it more on the side? Are there any other pitches that you are thinking of adding? Also, I saw you pitch earlier this year at Kane County and you seemed to have a very good move to first and picked someone off. Is that something that you have put a lot of work into? Good luck on the rest of the season.

Not only are we calling him up too early, but we are making him our savior too? Yikes.

Yay, it only took 7 posts for that one to be used.

Ugh...great, now get to call up another prospect before he is ready so Baker/Clines/Matthews can mess them up. I'm sure Felix will enjoy a large amount of time on the bench. The only way I want him called up is if those three get canned and Von Joshua gets called up to be the hitting coach.

No, when the reliever comes in there has to be a fewer or an equal amount outs left in the game when compared to the run differential minus the amount of runners on base. There was only one out left in the game and the Brewers were up by three with nobody on base so it wasn't a save situation. If there had been two people on base or nobody on and the Brewers were only up by one then it would have been a save situation. Hopefully that makes sense...

If you could trade him, or if he agreed to one. I don't see him waiving it. Add to the fact that his is making 12 million next year and other teams know about his injury concerns. I would need a really nice package to think about letting him go and I don't see that happening.

Fire Dusty, Clines, Sarge, and maybe Rothschild (although I would be most inclined to keep him out of the group) Starting Lineup Walker 2B Murton LF Lee 1B Ramirez 3B Quentin RF Barrett C CPatt CF Cedeno SS Bench Hairston Hollandsworth Fontenot Greenberg Blanco SP Wood Prior Zambrano Burnett Williams BP Aardsma Ohman Wellemeyer Williamson Wuertz Dempster This also includes a large amount of praying that Corey will turn things around (I haven't given up yet). Maddux, Mitre, Leicester, Nolasco, and Novoa to the Diamondbacks for Carlos Quentin before the trade deadline. Eat as much of Maddux's contract as needed. If Williamson doesn't work out or Aardsma isn't ready, sign BJ Ryan or Mota if Ryan is too expensive.

Murton's speed looks pretty decent to me. He isn't a burner but he isn't Mo Vaughn either. I would put it: Bartosh: ability Wuertz: consistency/overuse Novoa: control JVB: stuff

I don't trust it. I hear that site practices large amounts of group-think.

Perhaps that's part of the problem..

Updates on Aramis and Adam. Link

This thread has become disturbing rather quickly...

NO. TRADE. CLAUSE.

First of all, I think you are looking at the teams that are showcased all of the time, such as the Braves and Twins. There aren't that many teams that bring up a quality position player every year or even every couple of years. That is just an incredibly hard thing to do. I can easily name 5 teams that haven't brought up an every day player in the last 3 years. Secondly, I think that we do have some good coaches in our system but there needs to be more of them and I am not so sure about how good of hitting coaches Clines and Sarge are. Also, I might have been the only one witnessing this but Corey was actually working the count really well his last week and a half or so. Granted, he wasn't getting any hits but he was seeing a ton of pitches.

Not at all.

They feel they need to trade another player to us and get close to nothing back?

I'm sure a lot of them don't want him called up before then. I know that I certainly don't and I have stated that multiple times. What amazes me about that is the organization was reportedly thinking of making the same mistake twice and messing up another promising, young athlete.

Pretty much and no. Also, I have been a fan of his for a while. I kept worrying that his average would drop at AA since his BABIP was high but he definately looked good last night. He is faster than I expected as well.

Can anybody find Neifi's LD%, especially if it is over the last month or two? It would be interesting to see how much it has decreased since his hot streak at the beginning of the year.

In what regards? 10 year plan, build thru minor league pitching have scouts, instructors, and everyone in-between all on the same page. Draft high ceiling players and put faith into their ability to develop a player from within. Unlike many teams that draft college players, be willing to put faith in their ability to develop a HS player with a high ceiling and risk a potential bust. Baseball starts and ends with scouts and instructors as far as the ability to find the right players and maximize those abilities, in regards to building a system from the btm up. Everything starts at the btm, which is why I'd like to see the Cubs allocate more resources towards scouting and hiring top notch instructors along the way. I watched the Cubs have a long-term plan and watched it turn into a short-term goal. They were on the right track (even during the '02 season), now I'm not sure which direction they are heading. Are they looking long-term or "waiting till next year"? Hendry has been wise as far as getting important players in their prime, which has been valuable but expensive as far as salaries. My impression is that the Cubs have sacrificed scouting and signing expenses of draft picks and international FAs for current payroll, which I don't agree with. I agree. It is a shame that they have decreased the amount of funds they put into international signings recently. That is really a good way to help build a farm system.

I actually caught the interview halfway through. Hopefully they put it up, although I don't think they will unless someone sends them an email asking them to.

Man, I hope they aren't that stupid. I think he is going to hit 4 or 5.

Some highlights from the interview: His parents were at the game yesterday (they made the trip down from Florida to watch him play) along with a bunch of other family members that still live in Florida. After he got his first hit, Carlos Delgado told him something to the effect of that's one hit, now you have 2,999 to go. During the game at one point he said outloud that the atmosphere at Pro Player was great (since it was so much better than AA parks) and Ronny turned to him and said, "Are you kidding me? Wait till you get to Wrigley." Apparently someone played a little trick on Matt with the ball that he got his first hit with. When he got back to his locker, it was sitting in the front but it had really bad hand writing on it. The day said 7/7 with the 7 crossed off and replace with an 8 and stuff like that. When Matt went to ask somebody about it they laughed and told him to look in the back part of his locker, where the real ball was. He said that there haven't really been any pranks or thngs like that played on him yet. He said that he and Greenburg sat down on Thursday and said that they were going to help out the team no matter what they would be doing. He said that they need to just do whatever they can, whether it be pinch hitting, pinch running, or starting. He said that after the game he just sat down in his locker for a bit and thought about what happened. He said that he had just been going so fast since the time the game started that he didn't really stop and think that he had just gotten his first hit or whatever. After the game he said that he just went back to the hotel and fell asleep right away because he was so tired.