Iowa Cubs 3 @ Albuquerque Isotopes 7
Nick Struck walked none, but only struck out 1 and scattered 8 hits across 4 innings en route to a 4 ER performance. Casey Coleman picked up where Struck left off, surrendering 2 ER in 2 IP on a 2-R HR by Scott Van Slyke. Jensen Lewis gave up a home run in the 8th to complete the damages.
Offensively, Logan Watkins was held hitless but drew a walk. Brett Jackson's new approach yielded a 1-4, 1 SO performance. He ended up scoring a run. The big day, though, belonged to Ryan Sweeney. He went 2 for 3 with a walk and a home run. For the most part, Iowa's bats were silent, though they did draw 4 walks as a team.
Tennessee Smokies 4 @ Pensacola Blue Wahoos 5
Kyle Hendricks made his debut today and it…wasn't pretty. He gave up 5 earned in 5 pitched, the brunt of it coming on a 3-run HR in the 5th innings. He also walked 2 and punched 5. The other pitching prospect in on the team, Tony Zych, came in relief and went 1.2 scoreless with a walk and K. AJ Morris did the same as Zych in 1.1 innings and hopes to become something.
Christian Villanueva got the day off and his replacement, the eminently fungible Tim Torres, went 2 for 3 with a walk. Arismendy Alcantara had an 0-fer in 4 AB. Matt Szczur drew a walk and had a hit. He also stole a base. No one else had a performance worth noting, though the team as a whole had a nice 5 BB/5 K ratio.
Daytona Cubs 9 @ Brevard County Manatees 0
P.J. Francescon got the start and was awesome. He surrended a single hit and a single walk and stranded them both. He also struck out 6. Yeiper Castillo, Luis Liria, and Austin Reed all relieved in the game and similarly dominated the Manatees. All told, the Cougars pitching staff punched 9, walked one, and allowed just 4 hits.
Javier Baez had a really rough day. He was hit by a pitch and stole a base, but he also struck out once, went 1 for 4, and committed two errors. Baez is hitting just .188 on the season. Jorge Soler hit his 2nd HR of the season and added another hit and walk (and SO) to provide the lion's share of offense. Daytona also walked an impressive 8 times, led by 2 each from Zeke DeVoss (1-4, 2 RBI) and John Andreoli (2-3, 1 3B). Micah Gibbs also had a longball in his only hit of the day. The Daytona Cubs have been as good as advertised thus far.
Quad Cities River Bandits 3 @ Kane County Cougars 1 (13 innings)
Michael Heesch took the bump and went 6.1 very strong innings. Heesch walked 2, struck out 5, and allowed only one hit, good for a single run. Felix Pena came out in relief and went another 5.2 innings (and was similarly dominant, with 5 punchouts and a single walk amid 3 hits). After the first 12 innings resulted in a 1-1 deadlock, Eduardo Orozco finally obliged the Bandits with a single inning of 2 hit, 1 walk, 2 ER baseball.
The Cougar bats were largely silent. Gioskar Amaya and Marco Hernandez went 0-6 with 2 K and 0-5 with 1 K, respectively. Jeimer Candelario and Dan Vogelbach both went 1 for 6 with no walks or strikeouts. The only successful offensive day was Rock Shoulders, who went 2-3 with a walk. The Cougars have looked very bad this year.
Comments
Thanks, Myles.
dmick89Quote Reply
Such a great series name.
Suburban kidQuote Reply
Apparently the Hobbit woke up on the wrong side of his mom’s basement today
In a related note, I have apparently been blocked by him and possibly the rest of the Shire.
mikeakaleroyQuote Reply
Sully forgot to have second breakfast.
Rice on busQuote Reply
I have to admire Brett for taking it in stride and being the bigger person, though.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Rice Cube wrote:
Oh shit. I just saw what I did there.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Rice Cube wrote:
link?
Suburban kidQuote Reply
@ Suburban kid:
Brett Taylor @BleacherNation 15m
While I appreciate kind words, let’s take it easy on @PWSullivan. I remain hopeful that was just a bad joke.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
@ dmick89:
yes, it was Recalcitrant Blogger Nate that fixed it thanks
Recalcitrant Blogger NateQuote Reply
Recalcitrant Blogger Nate wrote:
Not very recalcitrant.
Suburban kidQuote Reply
@ Suburban kid:
I’ll work on that
Recalcitrant Blogger NateQuote Reply
I like Brett and have no idea where this anger is coming from with Paul; that being said, I like Paul Sullivan more than most and can’t imagine he’d do this without SOME slight, real or imagined. I also am fairly sure that I offended Brett in some manner with my DH post, because before then he was always very kind to me (he gave me very good advice when I was just starting out) but after that post he said some snarky thing to me and hasn’t responded to anything I’ve sent out since. The whole situation is weird.
MylesQuote Reply
@ Myles:
Paul Sullivan’s feuds with Cubs bloggers have gone back to the founding of the Shire. That is, unless you get invited onto WGN radio. Then you can’t say enough good things about Sullivan.
BerseliusQuote Reply
@ Myles:
What could that post have done to upset him?
dmick89Quote Reply
Everyone knows my opinion of Sullivan.
I think it’s funny that he mentions plagiarism. At one point every single article on the tribune sports page was literally quoting reporters in Boston.
dmick89Quote Reply
dmick89 wrote:
Brett
January 3, 2013 at 4:54 pm | Permalink | Reply
Everything is solid … except the part where you dump on my primary argument with sweeping statements that aren’t really accurate. Like, suggesting that the White Sox are at a disadvantage because they have to sit their DH when they play against an NL team? … when the NL team never would have had a plausible opportunity to carry someone like Adam Dunn in the first place? Come on, dude. That’s just incorrect.
I responded:
Lets think about it, though. When Adam Dunn is in the field, he is the “pitchers hitting” of left field or first base. You can put him in the field, sure… but he’ll be atrocious. You are, in effect, playing with a 24.5 man roster. When the NL has to field a DH, they are pulling from a pool of players that they are already confident can hit major league pitching. They already pinch hit or spot start. The “true DH” like David Ortiz or Dan Vogelbach or Adam Dunn can spot start, but the drop off is essentially the same defensively as the drop off from a “true DH” to whoever you’re slotting at DH.
Which brings me, actually, to an argument I neglected to make (and I think it’s a salient one). There basically is no such thing as a DH. As I’ve shown, only 6 players had 81 games or more as a DH. Let’s call DH what it really is, which “a fielder’s day off”. It’s just a way to get a bat in the lineup without that guy having to take the field. There isn’t a plethora of DHs now and there never was (the maximum number of players in a season with 81 or more games at DH? 9, in 1996. No other year has more than 7). Teams are adding some offensive value (by replacing the pitcher with a fielder), but in over half the cases the difference is from your pitcher to your best bench bat, more or less. That’s like replacing your pitcher with Reed Johnson, or Joe Mather. For every Edgar Martinez and David Ortiz (who both, incidentally fielded there positions about as well as Miguel Cabrera fields 3B), you’ve got the Mastroianni/Morneau/Doumit/Mauer/Willingham timeshare, or the Jones/Ibanez/Rodriguez/Jeter/Chavez/Swisher timeshare.
At the heart of it, this is the best reason to actually adopt the DH. 162 games is a huge, huge grind. Since it is difficult to just use off days to recuperate, the ability to not play defense but still contribute to the game is a tempting prospect. Is it inherently better than testing a player’s ability to play day in and day out? Our hero worship of Cal Ripken Jr. would have his believe that’s not the case. (Want to hear something incredible? Cal Ripken didn’t play DH a single game during his streak. How crazy is that?) If the choice between a shorter season (or a season the same length with fewer games, or a longer season with the amount of games) or adopting the DH is on the table, I’ll be first in line to sign up for the DH. It is, in my opinion, the best argument for the position.
Getting back to “dumping on your primary argument,” I didn’t mean to offend you, but I don’t think my statements are poor. I think my logic is sound; if you’re hiring Adam Dunn to play DH, he’s not playing good defense. That is a consideration (tying up assets in a player that also squeezes your roster) that is worth thought, just as much as not fielding a DH is on the NL side.
Also, pitchers in the NL or inherently better than AL pitchers by lieu of MLB hitting experience. Maybe.
MylesQuote Reply
@ dmick89:
True, but I would imagine something like this is what Sully (as bad as he is) refers to in that tweet. That article on BN is basically a copy and paste of the Sun-Times reporting, with an intro paragraph and a comments section. I can see how the traditional media would be upset at doing all of the leg work of developing sources, attending community meetings, and working the phones, only to have someone else take the credit and earn a little ad revenue in the process.
I’m not saying the traditional media doesn’t sometimes do the same, but I do think they have a reason to complain. And I do think Sully did a shitty, petulant job of it.
26.2cubfanQuote Reply
26.2cubfan wrote:
Yeah. Contact him personally and talk about it. It’s pretty easy to contact Brett so there’s no reason to handle it publicly.
dmick89Quote Reply
Preview up
http://obstructedview.net/previews/series-preview-brewers-1-5-at-cubs-2-4.html
BerseliusQuote Reply
@ Myles:
I don’t want to get involved in this.
dmick89Quote Reply
Myles wrote:
Say wha? I’ve got nothing but good feelings, Myles. We disagreed on some substance, but I’ve got no beef there. I wasn’t aware that you’d contacted me since – I wasn’t intentionally ignoring you or anything like that.
BrettQuote Reply