Hairyducked Idiot

In his third PA, Baez swang at a bunch of pitches out of the zone. In his fourth, he took a borderline 3-1 pitch and took a few steps toward first when the umpire made a late call, then struck out swinging on the next pitch.

This ain't the game thread, kid :) Baker's had a setback and Garza's rehab seems to be moving a bit slowly. Having Wood, Villanueva and Feldman in the rotation simultaneously isn't terrible, but it doesn't make me feel like it can overcome our terrible offense.

"If everything looks right" is starting to look very thin.

Sappelt 3-run home run. Surely he's secured his spot on the roster.

Sveum said that Tuesday's lineup, with Valbuena, is the Opening Day lineup.

Proving once again that nobody reads my posts. Not that I blame you.

Speaking as someone who has no idea of the layout of Chicago, yes. Screw Wrigley.

So even if they find nothing in the MRI, I'm betting he gets shut down for a little bit. And he's early enough in his stretching out that it basically means starting over.

The former is part is talent. I thought maybe he was talking about something more complicated or interesting than just "this guy wasn't covered under the pool restrictions."

Well, that's an interesting comment: Ben Badler ‏@BenBadler Seems like they're backing away. Not much success there RT @YesThatBrooke Cubs are all-in these days when it comes to Cuban defectors.

Kyle: 6 years versus 1, maybe 2. The six-year price is a lot more than $3.1 million. Jesus. Its a lot less than finding a different 35 year old one year wonder on the FA market each year. It's at least $3 million more, and probably a lot more than that. You can't just say "Well, they got six years of a MLB middle reliever for $3.1 million." Especially when there's a very good chance he won't be a good MLB middle reliever. This feels like Concepcion all over again.

Kyle: 6 years versus 1, maybe 2. The six-year price is a lot more than $3.1 million.

Well, why don't they equal talent?

That seems ... high. The Cubs know you can get an actual middle reliever for that price, not just a hopeful one? Edit: Also, he's 25 now?

Would that render the Dominican Academy moot?

Baker was only throwing 85 yesterday. Concern, or too early in his spring?

Baez isn't better than Patterson was at this age. In his age 19 season, Patterson hit 320/358/592 for a .949 OPS in the Midwest League, with 33 steals, and after the season was ranked as baseball's No. 3 prospect by Baseball America. They are/were very similar prospects at this point in their development. Patterson had more speed and better defensive projection (not that Baez's defensive projection is bad. Just that Patterson's was better), while Baez has more power, but both are at least good at what the other is great at. I'm hoping for and expecting much better results from Baez, for a lot of reasons. But at this point in their development, Patterson was higher-regarded.

I never did. I trolled the Bulls thread.

OK, so we've got the following that seem like essentially locks to me for the Opening Day roster: Outfielders: Soriano, DeJesus, Hairston, Schierholtz Infielders: Valbuena, Castro, Barney, Rizzo, Lillibridge Catchers: Castillo, Navarro Starters: Samardzija, Jackson, Wood, Villanueva, Feldman Relievers: Fujikawa, Russell, Marmol, Camp, Rondon I'd resisted putting Rondon as a lock in the past, but he looks good enough and there's not a bunch of other bullpen guys knocking down the door or anything. That's 21 spots. Bowden is out of options and has been outrighted before, so he can't be sent down without going through irrevocable waivers and being given the option to elect for free agency. He's pitching reasonably well and nobody else is going nuts in the pen to take the spot, so I think that has to go to him. They don't seem to be stretching him out as previously discussed, so that's 22. Ian Stewart apparently might start the season on the DL, so that's why he's not a lock, but if he's healthy he's almost surely No. 23. If he's not, Clevenger probably takes his place temporarily. Bogusevic still has some non-zero chance of replacing Sappelt for the final OF spot, though I will rage with a thousand doom boners if that happens. One of them will be 24. That just leaves the final spot, which seems very likely to be in the bullpen. You'd have to assume that would be between Rusin and Takahashi, both left-handed, otherwise Russell is the only lefty. I'd hate to see Cory Wade not given a shot, though, so maybe he can sneak in somewhere.

I guess it probably just means DL. Objectively, I know they can't afford to cut him. Even if Valbuena is the starting 3b, then Stewart probably has a role on the bench. But dang would I enjoy it.

Yeah, during the course of this argument I was wondering if his AFL performance (BABIP issues aside) plus this spring has convinced them to put Javy in AA. How would his AFL performance look with neutral BABIP luck? I've got it at 281/305/526 with a .333 BABIP. Still a 23.7% K rate and a 3.4% BB rate. Unrelated: Ian Stewart will get another MRI on his quad and Sveum apparently said he doesn't know if Stewart will have enough time now to make the team. They can't cut him for medical reasons, so I'm not sure what they mean by that.

I think September 2014 is a best-case scenario., and that's as a September "let him hang out in the clubhouse for the last week or two" call-up. The best case scenario for a top-20 prospect starting at high-A this season is two weeks in the big leagues in September of next year? In the specific case of this prospect and this front office? Yes.

I think September 2014 is a best-case scenario., and that's as a September "let him hang out in the clubhouse for the last week or two" call-up.

I'm arguing that they should do exactly what they've said they will do and haven't given any real indication that they won't do. That's not exactly doom bonerish.

Wait. I said "If Baez were a normal prospect, he'd do X. But he's elite, so I think it's possible he'll do Y, but Z is crazybuckets." And that means that I'm not acknowledging that he's not a normal prospect and won't X? I not only acknowledged it, the entire post is about it. It's a two-part post about what a normal prospect would do vs. what Baez might do, implicitly acknowledging he's not a normal prospect on a normal plan.