Matt Szczur went 2-4 with a pair of doubles and stole his 29th base along the way. Kyle(r) Burke worked 6 IP and allowed 2 ER while striking out 4. Torreyes had a pair of hits as well and got his BA up to .240.
Another day another Javier Baez HR. His 7th of the year was all the offense Peoria would need as Starling Peralta, Larry Suarez and Yao Lin Wang combined for a shutout game. Peralta struck out 4 in his 7 innings.
Rock Shoulders and Trey Martin hit HR's last night. Martin has replaced Shawon Dunston Jr who was sent back to AZL. Jose Arias gave up a solo HR in 5 IP and struck out 3 batters.
Dan Vogelbach see ball, Dan Vogelbach SMASH! Our favorite portly gentleman ballplayer hit his 4th HR of the year last night and added a double and (wait for it MO) a stolen base for good measure. Lendy Castillo continues his brave struggle with David Patton disease & worked two innings last night. Let's all pray he can continue to reclaim his life, one day at a time.
Did whoever the cubs got Castillo from not even want him back or something?
By the way, I vote for Vogelbach’s nickname to be SMASH!
http://www.stltoday.com/sports/baseball/professional/cards-in-the-market-for-pitching-help/article_dcb58688-cc13-11e1-bb54-0019bb30f31a.html
cards willing to deal shelby miller for pitching. having a shitty season, but still strikes out a ton
http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/07/12/marlins-tell-no-9-pick-andrew-heaney-they-wont-sign-him/
@ mb21:
is he rehabbing?
@ GW:
He was the 8th ranked prospect by BA entering the season. Shitty year so far, but I’d definetly take him.
loved the prospect writeup dj and mb.
and to wali’s comment near the end: yes, failure rates are much higher for high upside guys, and yes, those are the type of guys that hendry liked. that’s the classic high school vs college debate
@ GW:
I don’t know. Rehab can only last 30 days, but I doubt whoever they took him from really cares one way or another.
@ mb21:
yup. still very young.
did anyone watch the franchise on showtime?
@ GW:
Thanks. I’m not sure we can say the failure rate of high upside guys is higher without defining high upside. I’ve never seen anyone do that with the exception of pointing out someone who is toolsy has more upside. Personally, I don’t like either term (upside or potential). I think both mean the same thing and both are misleading. I know I use them and probably will continue to, but that’s really just to get a point across in a language most people are already familiar with.
The best work I’ve seen done on the draft was by BP in Baseball Between the Numbers (think it was that book). College picks are safer picks, but high school picks tend to be bigger wins for organizations in that those who work out tend to be really fucking good as opposed to just good. Or at least that’s what I seem to remember from that anyway. If I’m wrong go ahead and correct me.
@ mb21:
http://www.thecubreporter.com/2012/07/12/vogelbomb-and-vogeldub-lead-cubs-victory
azphil does the math on castillo
@ mb21:
right, i’m just going by that old bill james study. high school vs college is really the only way to quantify upside vs floor in a quantitative fashion.
also, i’m sure the relationship has changed over the years and will continue to change. for the last five or so years, high school guys were getting bought out of school, and now that’s less likely to happen as frequently.
apparently vogelbach stole third!
@ GW:
What is this I don’t even
forum post on Freech Report (blame to Paterno): http://www.obstructedview.net/forum.html?mingleforumaction=viewtopic&t=99.0#postid-1337
@ GW:
I don’t think we’ll see a noticeable difference in the number of high school players not being bought out of college. I just see no reason to expect that to happen. They won’t e able to enter the draft in 1 or 3 years and demand all the money they possibly can. A 24th round high school pick who has the potential to mature into a 3rd round pick may very well do just that, but is that really a big loss? You let the college take the risk on developing him and if he matures as he hopes he’s picked high in the draft when he enters it. A 1st round pick more than likely isn’t going to decide to go to college unless they believe they can become a top 2 or 3 pick in the draft in a year or three.
@ GW:
Which study are you referring to? I vaguely remember his study, but haven’t read it in quite awhile.
@ mb21:
whatever happened to joe pos’s book on Paterno? he was given the golden ticket with the whole story breaking while he was there researching. it seemed at the time that he was very sympathetic to joepa, but I assumed that he would get over that and crank out a huge bestseller. did he just walk away from it?
@ mb21:
i think it was in the ’85 abstract
@ GW:
Last I read he was giving it some time before he went back to work on it. He really pissed a lot of people off with the posts he wrote about that topic on his blog. I lost some respect for the guy too. Sometimes you have to realize you’re just too close to something to be making public comments on a topic such as this one. He didn’t and he got attacked by the commenters (even some professors as I recall). He should have been.
@ mb21:
it’s just that the maples’s and vogelbachs of the world who are set on college can no longer be paid off to change their minds.
I don’t know how you write a book about Joe Paterno at this point without this scandal being the focal point.
@ GW:
True, but Maples only fell because of his college commitment. My guess is that more guys like that are going to be picked in the 1st and 2nd rounds. The Cubs gave Maples 1st round money. He’d be picked there now. At least I think so. I really don’t know for sure until we’ve had several drafts. I don’t think anybody does. The one thing I’m certain of is that losing 2-sport guys (if that even happens) is no big loss to baseball. There just aren’t enough of them.
@ mb21:
man, how many struggling writers would kill for a break like the one he had?
while i don’t have any sympathy for his opinion, i respect him for voicing it. it could have easily killed his career.
@ GW:
Thanks. I don’t think I ever read it. I must have read about it online somewhere.
@ mb21:
right, those are the guys i’m talking about, the ones with strong college commitments. like it or not, college is the sacred cow right now, and plenty of guys still put a ton of value in the college experience.
@ mb21:
exactly. if it’s not the focal point, you are going to have to sit on it for approximately 25 years
GW wrote:
How much of a head start would he have on other writers though? I’m sure there are others who know more about Paterno’s coaching, success, and general history than Poz does. We’ll see a bunch of books coming out about Paterno and this scandale (are there any out yet?), but I’m not sure we’re going to see any books on Paterno’s coaching career AND this scandal for some time. I think any books that focus on both are going to have to be careful in how they write and they’re going to have ben extra careful about dealing with the years between 1998 and 2011. For that matter, go back to the start of the Big Ten days and be careful in what you say about him as a coach and a person. I don’t envy the person who writes that book.
I think you write about either/or and I don’t think Poz had a head start on anyone on that. If anything, his credibility on the matter is shot. Just my 2 pennies though.
@ GW:
I’m curious how many highly ranked high school students didn’t sign this year as opposed to past years. I have no idea what the numbers are, but I’ll bet $5 it’s comparable to any of the last 5 drafts.
@ GW:
Agreed, but I’m not sure that Poz is in a better position to write that book than practically any other writer. He can’t write the book he was writing and I suspect it’s never published.
@ mb21:
IIRC the book that he was working on was some bullshit fathers day puff piece, so it’s not like he had a ton of inside info on the scandal. He did have some access to the people involved but once the story broke they weren’t going to be any more likely to talk to him than anyone else.
@ mb21:
i think by virtue of his sympathy and the background work he was in the process of doing, he could have gotten access and stories that no one else could have.
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2012/07/teams-calling-red-sox-about-outfielders.html
cubs not interested in sweeney (shocker!)
http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/8150343/jurickson-profar-texas-rangers-new-no-1-prospect-baseball-mlb
Keith laws mideason top 50
Baez 35
Almora 47
Soler 50
The Pos book on JoePa book comes out in August
Did anyone at Obstructed View ever do an analysis on the trade for Ian Stewart? Was that considered a decent trade at the time, or was that a head scratcher?
@ dylanj:
Seriously?
@ millerea22:
I thought it was a good trade at the time, but you also have to evaluate the trades after they happen to get a fuller picture. Being a good trade at the time tells us, in my opinion, that it was a trade worth making. The results after the trade tells us (also in my opinion) whether or not teams are able to project future talent. You obviously need many trades to evaluate trades after the fact in the sense I’m talking about, but that’s usually how I see it anyway.
@ mb21:
Thanks. I guess looking back now it’s harder for me to see why the Cubs did the trade, but I’m probably just too biased at how poorly Stewart has been. Colvin could of at least been a decent option off the bench, and I was curious to see how DJ would have turned out. I’m sure if Stewart was playing even a little better I wouldn’t even care.
@ Edwin:
I didn’t expect anything from Stewart, but I also didn’t expect anything from Colvin. The more I think about it, I’d have to look back to see what I said at the time. I know I wasn’t high on LeMahieu, but he was cheap and a middle infielder. I’d say the trade was a wash at the time (at best). Now it’s looking pretty bad so you’re not wrong to think it’s a bad trade. You might be wrong to say that it was a bad trade at the time. I don’t think it was based on numbers and expectations.
@ dylanj:
that will be… interesting
Cubs Finally Remove Wrigley Field Ivy After Third Outfielder Hangs Himself On A Vine http://onion.com/PTbwef
@ WaLi:
Ha!
@ Rice Cube:
…or…
Szczur!
/Jae-Hoon Ha joke’d
Best Breaking Bad memes:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/daves4/the-best-memes-from-the-first-four-seasons-of-bre
Peasants! Hast thou been conversing for the past five months?
Also:
(dying laughing)
Vogelbach didn’t steal that base, he swallowed it whole.
@ fang2415:
Nay, m’lord, We’re an anarcho-syndicalist commune. We take it in turns to act as a sort of executive officer for the week. But all the decision of that officer have to be ratified at a special biweekly meeting. By a simple majority in the case of purely internal affairs, but by a two-thirds majority in the case of more.
@ Mercurial Outfielder:
Be quiet.
@ Mercurial Outfielder:
Look, supreme executive power comes from a mandate from the masses, not some farcical bunting tournament!
@ Aisle424:
Now we see the intangibles inherent in the system.
@ fang2415:
Look, if I went around saying I wield supreme power just because some sunflower seed eating SS lobbed a scimitar at me, they’d say I was daft!
Right, well… Good to check in.
(dying laughing)
OV has now jumped the shark.
@ Aisle424:
EHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Aisle424 wrote:
Those responsible have been sacked
@ Aisle424:
for the record, there was an episode of Happy Days where a guy literally jumped over a shark and it was THE BEST one.
@ Berselius:
A møøse once bit my sister
@ Mercurial Outfielder:
Mynd you, møøse bytes can be veri nasti
@ Aisle424:
No realli! She was Karving her initials on the møøse with the sharpened end of an interspace tøøthbrush given by Svenge – her brother-in-law – an Oslo dentist and star of many Norwegian møvies: “The Høt Hands of an Oslo Dentist”, “Fillings of Passion”, “The Huge Mølars of Horst Nordfink”.
Kasper on The Score right now saying the Cubs will eat salary in trades to get a better return.
Paging GBTS, lawyerly question for you in the Freeh Report thread.
http://www.thesfegotist.com/news/national/2012/may/22/best-ad-boxing-gym-ever-seriously-ever
Jay & Silent Bob iPhone app: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/jay-silent-bob-in-too-fat-to-fly/id541591374?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4
@ Mercurial Outfielder:
Funsuckers.
@ Mercurial Outfielder:
But the cubs have already won the world series so it doesn’t matter.
Watching Doug Davis pitch against the Iowa Cubs on tv. They show the Omaha Storm Chasers around here.
Vitters just took a walk, but Davis missed by a lot. Also, Vitters doesn’t look all that big. Castillo just went WAY deep.
mb21 wrote:
yeah, i was a little surprised by that too. although compared to sappelt he’s a monster.
I do enjoy the Monty Python jokes.
@ GW:
No shit. Sappelt looks like he’s 8 years old.
Chris Volstad looks just as shitty on an Iowa Cubs uniform as he does a Chicago one. Brett Jackson has a tremendous eye at the plate. He will be the most patient hitter in the Cubs lineup the day heirs promoted and it’s probably not that close.
@ mb21:
You’re not the first person I’ve heard say that about Jackson, and it makes his contact issues all the more strange to me.
@ Mercurial Outfielder:
Part of the issue is that he takes a lot of close pitches on the edges. But it’s not just that from what I’ve seen of him in person, tv and online. He just swings and misses a lot too. In the PA he struck out tonight he foul tipped a couple pitches and barely made contact on another foul before swinging and missing. It is weird.
BTW, their defense as a team has been shit tonight. 4 errors, forgot h ow many outs there were, forgot there was a runner on 3rd and poor communication between all the outfielders. And Castillo couldn’t even catch a fuckng fastball.
Wil Myers wasn’t playing tonight either so that sucked.
Jackson is going to be a guy who hits for a low average, has a lot of walks, a shitload of strikeouts and he should hit for enough power too.
Well played, Josh…
http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/07/13/bill-james-probably-needs-to-stop-commenting-on-the-penn-state-scandal/
new shit: http://www.obstructedview.net/commentary-and-analysis/when-to-evaluate-a-trade.html