Jeff Samardzija transformed. We heard about it all spring. We were to believe the transformation began in the second half of last season in which he threw about 40 or so innings. We had to put all our faith in those numbers that were as a reliever and a scout or two, which was a little silly to me as …
Series Preview: Los Angeles Dodgers of Los Angeles (17-8) at Chicago Cubs (9-16)
The Dodgers have the best record in the National league, and are only one win off of Tampa's 18-8 mark for the best in baseball. A big part of that is Matt Kemp, who is making Bryan LaHair's numbers look pedestrian this year. Kemp has hit 12 HRs to LaHair's 7, though their wOBAs aren't that far off when you …
The Children Are The Future-Cubs Minor League Watch Sponsored by Bud Light Ultra Platinum Centurion Label
Iowa Josh Vitters hit his first HR of the year and got a pair of RBI's for his effort. On the pitching side Frank Batista has been promoted and was stuck with the loss in relief. Smokies Trey McNutt got the start and was lit up giving up 5 R (2 ER) in 2.2 IP. I watched McNutt on milbtv …
Big Dylan’s BIG Prospect Review Extravaganza Sponsored by The Department of Philosophy at the University of Oregon State (which is the best philosophy department in all of Oregon)
Today is really special guys. I'm going to give you an update on how the top 20 prospects in our organization are faring. (hint- not well!) All rankings come from John Sickels 1. Brett Jackson OF AAA – Jackson is sporting a slash line of .255/.357/.436 which is what a lot of people think he will do in the majors- …
Site may be offline this weekend
We just wanted to let you know that we are changing hosts as Dreamhost has been one fail after another since we joined. We'll be making the move this weekend so I wanted to let you know that you'll probably encounter some weirdness. It takes 1 to 48 hours for new domain nameservers to propagate. What this means is that …
The Children Are The Future-Cubs Minor League Update Sponsored by The Weyland Yutani Corporation
Iowa Lots of hitting going on as Iowa put up 13 on Memphis. Brett Jackson went 4-5 and raised his batting average by almost 30 points. Adrian Cardenas went 3-5 and really by this point should be here over DeWitt. Vitters went 2-5 and Dave Sappelt went 3-6 with a HR. Smokies Logan Watkins had a great game going 2-5 …
Series Preview: Chicago Cubs (8-15) at Cincinnati Reds (11-11)
I'm swamped with work deadlines so this is going to be relatively short. After a slow start to the season Cincy finished April strong, winnign series against NL central foes St. Louis, the Cubs, and the Astros. Jay Bruce is the hottest hitter in the NL right now, and has hit HRs in his last 4 games. The Cubs splitting …
The Children Are The Future-Cubs Minor League Update Sponsored by Sunny D
Iowa The Iowa Cubs faced top prospect Shelby Miller last night and roughed him up. Miller gave up 7 hits and 4 runs in 5 innings as Adrian Cardenas touched him up for a HR. On the AGGRESSIVE BASERUNNING side of things Rizzo and Brett Jackson were caught stealing. This is a reoccurring theme at about every level this year …
Where We Stand Now 5.1.12 – Batters
Now that a month has passed, let's take a look back at what's gone wrong (and a few things that have gone right). First, a look at the batters. Here are the regulars' current slash lines, wOBA, BABIP, and preseason projected wOBAs. I'm only doing Johnson and Mather because they've picked up the most PAs of the bench guys, and …