Shilzzz

just saying. there is very little to not love about his game. he keeps his hands back so damn well, is so quick and smooth through the zone, and is gaining pitch recognition at an encouraging rate. in the second half, before today's game (8/10/11), Castro has a slash line of .340/.369/.474. Though I suppose when any one player does well, a team tends to win more often, but staggeringly Castro's OPS in wins is 1.039, while only .579 in losses. he leads the league in hits as a 21 year old. and the thing is, there is reason to believe he will continue to improve. not only is his imagined power coming to fruition all of a sudden, in hitters counts, such as 2-0 & 3-1, he has largely underachieved. but as he has shown an ability to continually adapt to major league pitching, and force his way into hits, he should only get better as he learns the value of patience turning into more quality chances. he still carries the smile he had during his debut when he hit that homerun and gleamed ear to ear. basically, he is really fun to watch, solely makes this club bearable, and deserves a thread erected to his likeness. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_CajufBiDrks/S-VvI3lK5lI/AAAAAAAABNc/g3DR76PE_hc/s1600/castro.jpg

is it not weird to anyone that there has been little to no talk of baez behind all of the other overslot news? edit: nm. the last post of the last page got buried for me.

yeah, that stuff with Scott sounds sketchy for sure

this szczur / pierre joke business needs to be squashed out before it goes into the absurd land of

i, too, am very excited about the prospects of our prospects, as all these signings in the last month and a half or so seem like the cubs could quickly have a bevy of future major league contributors. however, i think it's also important to temper this by remembering just how quickly most of the top guys going into this year (i realize the new signees have often higher ceilings than last years top ten lists, etc, and welcomely so) crapped the bed, or, if not completely crapping, they kind of got gassy and lessened optimum talent realization. my major question, specifically concerning the offensive ideologies of the cubs organization regarding prospects, is whether there has been a true turning towards patience at the plate, or if there is, somehow, an overcompensation, especially looking at this years draft class, with grasps towards big time power threats at corner positions to kind of mask an inability to teach on base skills, if such things can be indeed taught to young players with natural inclinations which lean otherwise; that targeting guys with swings which are quick through the zone (which, please don't misunderstand my objection, as, i mean, castro hit a bomb earlier this year where he waited back on a hanging breaking ball which he was originally well out in front of and was still able to pull it with power, and that sort of baseball play is, to a baseball fan with mildly educated eyes, as enthralling as any other i've seen, at least on the big league level in 2011) to, again, compensate for a lack of knowing how to teach patience? now, if it is in fact a recognition, that is a remarkable move of realizing what your organization has utterly failed at at every turn, and not flat out giving up, by trying to go laterally to find a jumping point towards vertical improvement (redundant, sorry), i think it speaks to someone somewhere doing something right towards the farm system. not to say this is worth maintaining hendry, as, i'm sure we'd all agree that having an organization which gives just praise for pitch recognition would be better than mere making-up-for, but, alas, it's kind of bittersweet to loathe your favorite team's general manager all while seeing this flux of talent, oddly accrued it may be, while wanting to be optimistic as hell about a chance to finally watch a world series champion, yet wanting to be realistic and acutely critical of those in charge and what development means to those in charge of raising the kids to a degree of mastery where they can realize their full potential, rather than seeing quick, obvious declines at each level of promotion to a lesser version. hopefully i wasn't speaking in circles and this ends up being a talkable point of concern for the organization at large.

watching these Paul Hoilman videos... is it just me or is his voice eerily similar to brett farve's?

if rich hill was made of mononucleosis, would you draft him?

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_9Lp273XJu6o/R2BTWOX007I/AAAAAAAAA6k/xL7wFbznRnI/s400/harrycaray.jpg

moreso, i hope that colvin doesn't come up and have one good month and have management fall in love with him again to a fault. that is the only real possible downside of the deal.

i just hope the money saved on fukudome's contract will help pay for either a draftee or an international prospect. otherwise, whatever.

is a mullet to the head an option? I would recommend that.

why do they have to re-sign fukudome if soriano is traded? or are we dealing in irreverent hypothetical questions for the hell of it?

is he an overslot by a ton guy? i've not seen him play. but your description sounds like a few rounds later version of vogelbach, which would kinda make sense.

why not? the rawness?

so what i'm getting here is that people think the cubs will compete next year. is that correct?

soriano wouldn't have those rights -- if he does -- if he weren't signed to that deal. ditto everyone else you named thus hendry should still be slammed.

zach cox?

i still can't believe the one he hit off his shoetops user name/post

ortiz is to the homerun derby what dominique wilkins or spud webb or some other loveable gimmick was to the slam dunk comp. it's tough not to smile watching him swing.

prince is slaughtering the baseball. deeeezamn!

apparently very few posters are familiar with the red sox organization. they haven't "pumped out superstars" in a little while. many of their guys come up and flail about or are overrated wildly. bowden is no great shakes, lars anderson was a good hitter in a good hitter league then bombed when he faced a challenge, reddick is ok but by no means a starting corner of on a contending team, doubront is a back end starter at best, ranuando or whatever his name is is ok, jose iglesis is interesting but a lightweight ala eduardo escobar in the white sox system & not a huge difference maker, ... i think if people still believe that anthony rizzo and casey kelly are in boston's system that goes to show just how underwhelming their actual prospects are. there is no realistic package that boston would offer for garza that the cubs should consider.

how do these posts still happen around here?

big homey zambrano fenna be pitching in peoria tomorrow,

sometimes threads unravel quickly.

kaplan is a punk who doesn't deserve the attention a thread garners. he should be, in all capacities, ignored into a deserved irrelevance