Nothing worth talking about.
Junior Lake as 2-4 with a triple and is now hitting .299. James Adduci hit a HR and Dae Eun Rhee earned the win despite not pitching that well.
Daytona
Rain
Javier Baez went 2-3 with another monster shot of a HR. It cleared the scoreboard in LC according to twitter. Zeke DeVoss went 2-4 with a SB and Jose Rosario earned his 6th win after allowing 1 ER in 6.1 IP.
Obstructed View Forum
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stercus ad temere intempestivo temporibus
Is Valbuena any good? Is he better than Vitters?
@ josh:
Well…he’s older
Looks like he’s been having tons of fun in Iowa this season though. He’ll probably just be doing Cardenas things at MLB, I wouldn’t expect too much.
josh wrote:
I think so.
Koyie Hill ————–> DFA
Ian Stewart- possible nerve damage
I dont think I would call Vitters up. He still needs development
@ Berselius:
Woah! Does that mean Castillo got called up or Barney is still emergency catcher?
Castillo ———-> Cubs, probably just until Geo is back
Beef Castle is back
@ dylanj:
That sounds bad. Would that be a surgical repair if so, or something worse? That wrist has bothered him for a while hasn’t it? It sucks how many guys who were once as well-touted as Stewart get a little nagging injury like that and never quite get there. It seems like not getting hurt has as much to do with success as talent.
They need to post the 27 out video for Cain. I love those.
Ian Stewart is a prime example of why its good to temper your enthusiasm for prospects especially in lower levels. That guy DESTROYED the minors and it just didnt translate to the bigs.
@ dylanj:
No. 4 prospect in baseball at one time. And now he’s a scrub on a bad team.
@ josh:
http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=22272193&c_id=mlb
imagine how love struck we would be if a 19 year old hit 30 HR’s in Peoria. Dear god.
@ dylanj:
Or if a 23 YO hit 19 HR and 15 2B in 298 AB at Iowa.
@ Rice Cube:
Cool.
@ dylanj:
Yeah, that’s what I’m saying. I wonder if he wasn’t slowed down by an injury or something. Like if that wrist hasn’t been more of a problem for awhile. Maybe it doesn’t even hurt all that much all the time, but just took enough off his swing to limit his ability. I don’t know, just a thought.
if somebody has a BA subscription i guess they did a good piece on Spellcheck Jr. BA has always really liked that guy
@ Rice Cube:
The 27th out was exciting (among others).
maybe MO but producing in AAA is measures better than in A ball. Stewart was amazing in A and above average after that. I like seeing guys crush the higher levels at young ages.
@ tinyjiney:
Arias seemed a little anxious on the transfer and throw. But that catch by Blanco earlier was pretty good. Diving onto the warning track can’t feel that great.
Melky Cabrera made a couple of nice catches, especially that deep drive that somehow stayed in the park.
@ Rice Cube:
True, the one running into foul territory over the bullpen mound was good. That’s always a tough play. The warning track catch was almost as impressive just for the fact that it didn’t go out. It looked pretty good off the bat.
Speaking of Melky, there’s a guy who was kind of a late bloomer.
Hey, just wanted you guys to know that I was checking constantly this blog and I’m impressed! Extremely helpful info particularly the last part. I care for such information a lot. I was looking for this particular info for a very long time. Thank you and good luck.
@ josh:
Hacked?
/not sure if serious
@ Rice Cube:
Just messing around. I get a crap ton of comments exactly like that on my own site.
Rice Cube wrote:
in the spirit of things, melky makes me think of this (dying laughing) … i was really an irritable asshole when i was writing on that blog. though zambrano was a fine pitcher, i still wish we could’ve traded him for melky.
Really good interview with Theo:
http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2012/06/14/with-theo-epstein-red-sox-and-cubs/gUgsS0bjvyIDxWYr3tYGxK/story.html
I like the part where he downs the media and the part in regard to free agents:
im glad we never did that trade. Z was a pretty big part of the 07 & 08 teams.
@ josh:
I know what you mean. Some of the spambots don’t even try, it disappoints me.
Dickey’s lone hit. This is a tough play either way. I guess the only other baserunner was an error by Wright. Basically, David Wright cost RA Dickey a perfect game and a no-hitter.
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120613&content_id=33270526&vkey=news_mlb&c_id=mlb
@ dylanj:
Those numbers I provided were Stewart’s numbers at AAA in 2008.
oh. well shut me right up. (dying laughing)
@ Mercurial Outfielder:
Do they have humidors in Colorado Springs?
dylanj wrote:
he was and no denying that. but a lot of pitchers you could’ve bought for 5yrs/$91mm would’ve done that, and you’d have had melky in center to boot instead of byrd, freeing up byrd’s contract money for help at another position.
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2012/06/trade-candidate-ryan-dempster.html
http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/blog/danny-knobler/19347699/cubs-prospect-rizzo-has-great-numbers-but-not-all-are-convinced
problem is Byrd wasn’t a Cub until 2010 and he put up 6.6 WAR in 10 & 11 before this year. Whereas Melky was basically worthless from 07-2010. So he would have been a black hole during our 3 year window of 07-2009. Plus at the time Z was an Ace instead of the above average pitcher he declined to about the time you published that. (probably should apologize to all of us for ruining him) so the Cubs should have expect a lot more than Melky if they wanted to trade him in 2007. So yeah NOW it would be ok but the Cubs would have cut bait on the kid before he figured it out again and we wouldn’t have had the magical season of Jim Edmonds in 08 either.
dylanj wrote:
apology offered, if you will have it.
that edmonds year was brilliant, wasn’t it?
it was pretty amazing. The entire 2008 season was.
@ Berselius:
That’s a pretty milquetoast criticism.
@ dylanj:
I’m still waiting for the best to come.
so Rizzo does better vs bad pitchers than good ones? This is changing my entire perspective (dying laughing)
@ dylanj:
Exactly. There are reasons to be cautious with Rizzo. His destroying bad pitching isn’t one of them.
http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/06/14/what-if-harper-and-trout-are-mantle-and-mays-all-over-again/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
Mike Trout is black?
If I read that Rizzo article right, we should be concerned because he hits bad pitching and had a poor 49 game stretch in SD? This passes as analysis? *recalls yesterday’s Theo/Dempster twitter storm* … welll I guess it does.
@ GBTS:
This also invalidates the KPat vs Brett Jackson comparison from yesterday (dying laughing)
@ GBTS:
I wouldn’t allow any more black players into the HOF until Mike Trout becomes black.
@ Mish:
gaius marius wrote:
I was a total asshole too, GM. I take full blame for that shit though I stand my comments regarding Melky not being nearly enough in return for Zambrano at that time. (dying laughing)
@ gaius marius:
I’d have been OK with trading Zambrano, but I still think he had more value than Melky. Oh well.
We’ve added some post formats to the blog and you’ll see some of them pop up from time to time. I missed writing short posts or just quoting an article that I think is worth reading or highlighting. We didn’t want to interrupt all the longer articles though. Please comment on them if you have something to say, but we’re not going to say new thread when they’re published. Anyway, you can see one on the home page right now about Baez (just click the title to read it).
@ Mish:
To be fair, we’ve been putting all our love into the Cubs scouts who are talking about how great he’s been in AAA, ignoring MLB and ignoring when he was basically slightly better than average before. The poor analysis by scouts works on both sides. It’s why I just don’t trust them.
That’s not to say that I don’t think they’re good at their job. I do. I think they’re very good at what they do, but it’s subjective analysis and there are always going to be people who ignore evidence that doesn’t support what they think they see or focuses entirely on evidence they want to see. I don’t weight the opposing scouts any less than the Cubs scouts and might actually weight them more because they’re unbiased.
gaius marius wrote:
2008 was awesome. I remember when they sent Pie down so early and I was pissed, but Edmonds was awesome that year for the Cubs. He’d lost a step in the outfield, but he still made things look easy out there. Not the fielder he was in his prime, but not terrible either.
Cubs baseball hasn’t been as fun since that 4-game sweep in Milwaukee in early July that year. That closed the door on the Brewers for the most part who had crept within a game or two of the lead. Hard to believe it’s been 4 years since that season.
Regarding Mantle/Mays and Harper/Trout I just don’t see it these days. Media coverage was extremely limited back then compared to today. As great as Bonds, Pujols, ARod and others have been, most fans still cared more about what was going on with their favorite teams. I wasn’t around for Mantle/Mays, but my guess is the closest we ever come to that kind of media coverage is with Sammy and McGwire. I’d also bet that the coverage of those 2 was far greater than the coverage of Mantle/Mays.
Thought that one was gone.
It’s raining HRs in GAB today
mb21 wrote:
I was at the first game of that series. Easily the best game I’ve ever attended. Miller Park was insane.
Cubs lose
@ Perkins:
Was that the game CC started? Cubs trailed and then took a lead late?
@ mb21:
It was. His first loss in the NL. Soriano had a great game against him. Led off with a double off the wall, and hit a bomb later if I’m remembering correctly. The whole park was vibrating from all the Cubs fans cheering.
I miss 2008.
EDIT: CC didn’t take the loss, but it was his first non-win in the NL.
Does it bother anyone else to hear the stadium cheering for the Tigers? I know the Cubs suck, but damn.
@ josh:
It doesn’t bother me. To be honest, I’m glad it’s like that. It would be a damn shame if that place was packed with Cubs fans. It would give the Cubs no incentive to ever improve.
@ josh:
I heard that Tigers fans were outnumbering Cubs fans at Wrigley over the entire series.
@ mb21:
Good point.
I guess it just bothers me that the Cubs suck. I knew it would be this way, but still.
@ mb21:
I think he took his first loss in the NL when he faced the Cubs the 2nd time IIRC.
@ Rice Cube:
I saw something earlier today that this series could set an attendance record for a weekend series at Wrigley. WTF? Must be some strange qualifier like “on this date” or “interleague” or something.
@ Berselius:
Keith guessed maximum capacity last night and was over 1,000 short.
@ mb21:
I think you’re right. Damn, that was a fun team. It’s a shame they went down so quickly in the playoffs.
I guess what was more impressive about Dewayne Wise’s catch in Buerhle’s perfecto over Gregor Blanco’s last night was that DeWayne not only probably pulled a homerun back, but also bobbled it, it rolled out of his glove and he caught it with his barehand and held on. Gregor’s was I think a more challenging catch, but Wise’s was a lot closer to being dropped.
@ Berselius:
This shows how much I’m already disoriented by summer – I thought this was a weekend series (dying laughing)
/academia
@ Berselius:
I’m working from home today (“working”) so I didn’t catch it either.
josh wrote:
The “(“working”)” is redundant after you mentioned from home.
@ Mish:
Good call. On the other hand, my job is kind of like that even when I’m in the office.
josh wrote:
Ginger Acrobat has been talking trades
By cubs rules, this means Ryan Dempster is not going to be traded and instead signed to a cheap, long-term deal. But rules were made for Thepstien to break them.
@ WaLi:
Considering I’m in one corner of an open-area office, that would make that especially awkward.
Pitcher TOOTBLAN (dying laughing)
new shit: http://www.obstructedview.net/news-and-rumors/koyie-hill-dfad-ian-stewart-to-the-dl-welington-castillo-luis-valbuena-re-called.html