Shilzzz

hey, hey! no [expletive]!

don't want dempster getting too butt hurt by leaks.

no, i had no idea where you were going. it was quite confusing.

yeah, once Rubby comes back.... he is a very, very good young pitcher.

ivan de jesus is awful.

Smh

From 1999 to 2000 Adam Dunn stole 45 bases in A ball. He was caught 15 times in that span. A decent 3:1 ratio, or 75%, above the line of good production. ... Perspective. (This was in 215 games... Interesting how Dunn had lines of 428/.469 as a 20 year old in Dayton, then as a 21 year old between AA and AAA he posted .444/.671. Maturation is a crazy thing)

what are all these edits???

Mark Tiexeria is the Braves trade to recall about their deadline capabilities.

Nice... Looking good

Dreaming of an infield someday of: Rizzo/Vogelbach, Castro, Baez, Candelario. Outfield I don't like as much, but Vogelbach in left, maybe Jackson in center, and ? In right.

Fwiw I wanted candelerio as a top 7 guy last year w his age and patience after last year. Just saying.

i am certainly not a professional by any stretch, but baez's swing looks like it has a bit of length with a loop in it that i think will hurt him at higher levels on up and in pitches, and it seems like that's where he is targeted fairly often. Seems like a good enough player to adjust as the challenges are thrown his way, but that quickness will only make up for so much. with that said, i still like baez better than rizzo, as a long term prospect. there is a part of me that agrees with the one scouts notion that rizzo just eats bad pitching alive, which explains his struggles against MLB pitching. it's an interesting comparison, those two players, and their approaches/personalities. i just see rizzo as a casey kotchman esque player in the bigs. i'd take a john olerud type, but, alas, i'm saying too much non-sense.

first.

in retrospect, aren't we all kidding?

somehow reminded me of: http://29.media.tumblr.com/bGaPnwQcOr2lyx8wcftBplkmo1_400.jpg

that comp by Parks means more in my opinion because I feel like he tends to downplay prospects to backlash against the always uppity descriptions of others (Rangers' prospects not included, of course). and if he is saying Upton, well, that's damn fantastic

so Jason Parks just likened Soler to Justin Upton, huh

I'm just dreaming about the ceilings of Candelerio, Soler, Castro, Jackson, Baez, Rizzo all coming to fruition and how awesome that'd be.

yeah in the end i'm just not into cespedes. there are just so many hurdles from point A to becoming a competent big leaguer for a guy coming from cuba, or anywhere, assimilation of language, culture, learning a different style of ball, ... if he were a teenager i could see it, but at, what, 27 i thought i read, with that long ass swing, he can turn on a fastball it looked like, but yikes, i'm not sure if i think anyone can make the most of prime seasons with something so clunky added onto a swing first agenda.

Panick was drafted in June, and thus can't be dealt for a few months yet. And this second point is just my opinion, but Sabean is kind of a stubborn dude and I think that Panick caused so much laughter directed at the Giants for drafting him so high, and that he seems to have been a quite astute pick, it'd be a high point for Sabean to see him turn into a quality major leaguer.

i bet when it's all said and done the mariners win big with this one. i just don't like Pineda long term, and the M's already have plenty of backstock of prospects at pitcher coming up to sell high here. i think seattle knows that in a couple of years the angels will start getting old and expensive and bad, the rangers will level off, and the division will become seattle and oakland's again.

you know, i honestly am quite happy with keeping Garza. I think he is a legitimately good pitcher, and of course one in the hand is the only reality which exists. two in the bush feels exciting, but Turner becoming even a close approximation of Garza is speculation alone. And sure, the team is a couple years away, but what, exactly, suggests that Garza will not still be a good piece of that competitive Cubs' team? I get that they say they are willing to keep him, but it seems as though really they want to shatter the mold completely. Garza is a really good pitcher; and while it'd be nice to recoup a bit for what still looks like Hendry's having overpaid to acquire the pitcher, that's all in the past. He has been impeccably consistent, and has even began to improve. Furthermore, I believe that Garza becoming more of an adult, tempering his competitive nature, channeling that properly, will happen, to great effect, and not only will his pitching improve, but, and these are the intangible craps that can't be scienced out, i think he would become the ideal teammate for the young pitchers inevitable coming to fruition under the team's new front office planning; a savvy vet who remembers what it was like to be wily and slightly out of control, yet still an excitable cheerleader, who can, in turn, as a result of this personality, use it advantageously amongst his young teammates in a beneficial way which the coaching staff would be unable to do. I truly believe that he will emerge in the next few seasons as the Cubs' seasonal all star (along with Castro), with as good a chance to be in the running for Cy Young awards consistently through his lower 30s. It's nice to imagine prospects, as dreams can be as wide as the imagination frolics. However, Garza is a proven commodity, the likes of which, again, other than Castro, this club does not have. There are other ways in which the team can solidify the team's prospective future while keeping Garza. But, opinions are like :-$

there are now three cool things i've done on this website. i started the original mark derosa being signed thread. i started the music thread. and this. i've thought about this over the past two days far more than should be the case...

wouldn't it be smart for them to allow LaHair to build up some value if he can actually hit in the majors then deal him for something that will matter to the cubs? because if Rizzo can be identified better in Iowa than he was in the PCL, and LaHair can net us something in trade, then it works out multi-fold. it's kind of neat to see that all these deals have been strung together with a very particular idea. that the front office was able to accumulate and execute such a plan in the short amount of time they have had to evaluate their new team is impressive.