Rex Hudler

Smoke and mirrors my friend, smoke and mirrors...

I watched him botch a couple this year, and as A non-Cubs hater(sorry), I watched him in SF a bit too. Regardless, you may be right as far as one not being a better bunter than the other, but if he was just going to put Graffy in in the bottom of the ninth anyways, why waste Rios in a sac bunt situation? He might have been needed later in the game. Probably because of a lack of confidence in anyone else. What is everyone screaming if he puts Graffy in there again and he fails again? Then you call JM the dumbest manager on earth. JM is HORRID Perhaps, but not in this case.

I watched him botch a couple this year, and as A non-Cubs hater(sorry), I watched him in SF a bit too. Regardless, you may be right as far as one not being a better bunter than the other, but if he was just going to put Graffy in in the bottom of the ninth anyways, why waste Rios in a sac bunt situation? He might have been needed later in the game. Probably because of a lack of confidence in anyone else. What is everyone screaming if he puts Graffy in there again and he fails again? Then you call JM the dumbest manager on earth.

Situational hitting is not their strong suit, obviously.

If you recall, the last time Graffy was sent in to bunt, he f***ed it up and everybody on here was crowing that he was the worst bunter on the team. My question is, how many times have you seen Rios bunt? What info do you have that he is arguably the worst bunter on the team other than this situation of not getting it down? Rios hasn't played enough to be called on to bunt more than a few times max, so how can he be labeled "worst bunter"? Sorry guys, but that wasn't JM's fault at all. Rios didn't get the damned bunt down. You cry for Graffy, but he screwed his last chance up. Josh Paul wasn't the answer either. If I am the manager, there is no way I am going to use a guy who basically just got off a plane after hitting .200 in AAA and rarely playing here before he was sent down. Josh Paul is on the club right now for one reason, and that is insurance against Miguel. I would not be shocked if he never gets into a game. If he does, it will be few and far between. The player's have to do their job. It is not ALWAYS the manager's fault.

Is LaMura the kid that pitched for Clemson in the CWS last year?

If you are going to look at ex-Cardinals for candidates, I think Rex Hudler would be an excellent choice!

Who said anything about command?? LOL... Rexy... i need those boards back up man... miss the gang... well most of em atleast Did you say you missed 'Oats??? Actually, with the other board down, it has been kinda nice. It's amazing how much work one can get done when not spending half the day on the boards. LOL

Have another drink now. Even if it takes you an hour to finish it, adding a little alcohol will help.

Who said anything about command??

Were they good picks or bad? That wasn't the point. I definitely like Honel as a pick but wonder how Ring will translate to the Majors. Will he have big success or will he just be a solid setup guy? Relievers tend to have short shelf lives. Only very few have long careers. I hope he is one of them. But the point of my comment was just that it seems every prospect is hyped as throwing hard. Harder than they probably actually do.

Reports are that Honels velocity is back up into the 90's which is very refreshing. I think he's back around 92 mph. Yea.. but he was touted as hitting 95ish. It always concerns me when HS pitchers lose velocity as they develop... its not a good sign. Sometimes it might not be anything... but often that speed never returns... esp with our young-uns. Method, you are right in how Honel was touted, but the more I see guys, the more I think all of that is just hype. You rarely see a guy throw more than 92 these days, and most guys are at best 88-90. It seems that every high draft pick throws "mid-90's". I have yet to see more than 10 guys in the last 5-6 years at AA throw higher than 93. Hell, I thought Ring was hyped to throw hard, yet he rarely breaks 90.

Speaking of, Gord Ash was at the Hoover Met a couple of nights ago. Not sure why. Guerrier had a decent year (actually a good one less 4 bad outings) but came up with some soreness this January. The Pirates docs told him not to worry about it, then when he came to camp and the same pain was there, they decided to shut him down. Now he is trying to do rehab that could have been done before ST. He's been inconsitent this year, with one VERY bad outing. His most recent start was good. 7 IP 5 H 1 R 1 ER 2 BB 9 K His outing before that was horrendous at: 3.1 IP 9 H 10 R 9 ER 3 BB 2 K The most runs he has given up in any other outings has been 4, so he hasn't been as bad as a 6.03 ERA might suggest, but he has been inconsistent after dealing with the soreness in ST.

It's about damned time!

He's been on the DL for almost a month now, so hard to say getting his ass kicked. But his numbers do suck, so I get the general idea.

so you like hankins huh.....im really anxious to see him play.. im more curious about his defensive stuff as opposed to his offensive.. he looks good in the numbers department as far as offense is concerned... want to see how well he performs in the field though......the more i read up on this kid the more i like him......... Here is the deal with Hankins.... He is unimpressive unless you watch him over time. He has little power and is basically a corner player, which will cause him problems getting to higher levels. Along with a lack of power, he has little speed. He is adequate to good defensively, but not Brooks Robinson or Don Mattingly. He has very average overall skills and seems to be headed for Minor League veteran status. All that said, Hankins is a gamer. He is the kind of guy that will end a season with 85 RBI and you can't figure out how he got there. He drives in big runs and is the kind of guy you want on your team. He isn't big and is not likely going to make it as a corner infielder. Lots of players have Ryan's skills that never make the big leagues. He has begun to play some 2B and even C for a few games to make him more valuable. As much as I like Hankins as a player, I really thing he will have a tough time ever making the Majors or sticking if he ever does. He's a great guy to have on a AA club, but I think that is about as far as it goes. He will likely see AAA next year and do okay, but I wouldn't expect him to tear it up. I hope I am wrong.

Railed?? Define, please...

You are correct. Basically back then, lots of companies were trying hard to build content so they were doing it for teams for free. Those same companies soon found out that their ad revenue could not support their expenses, so they starter charging. The company that did the games is based in Huntsville and still does the Stars games as far as I know. Unfortunately, the cost has gotten to the point where many teams don't feel it is cost-effective to provide a internet audio or video stream for a small amount of fans again. Some teams are able to work out deals with clubs, some will spend the money, others will not. The Barons radio station does not have a web site nor does it broadcast its station via the web, so there is no internet broadcast available for the Barons this year.

Alvarez has quietly gotten up there to .324. Seems like he was just around .270.

The Knights do video online??

No, he has looked excellent. He still only throws 87-88 most of the time (he did get it up to 89-90 a couple times last night) and that bugs me for some reason. I was just pointing out that although his numbers look like he has been untouchable he has not been perfect. He has been very, very good however.

Per your request, HSC... BIRMINGHAM BARONS Individual Statistics Thru Games of: 5/28/03 W-L Record: 26- 23 PLAYER AVG G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS SLG OBP E Acevas, Jon,C .280 29 75 11 21 5 0 3 11 10 19 0 1 .467 .396 1 Alvarez, Gabe,1B .324 42 139 18 45 15 0 5 22 25 29 0 3 .540 .437 7 *Bikowski, Scott,OF .322 42 143 16 46 7 1 0 10 20 30 1 2 .385 .400 3 Durham, Chad,OF .278 47 158 19 44 6 1 0 13 17 32 8 9 .329 .345 1 Hankins, Ryan,3B .271 49 181 25 49 15 1 5 24 24 33 3 2 .448 .359 4 Ingram, Darron,OF .217 38 138 15 30 1 1 6 17 15 43 2 0 .370 .299 0 Maldonado, Carlos,C .298 40 141 16 42 8 0 0 18 13 20 0 1 .355 .352 1 Piniella, Juan,OF .243 42 115 9 28 6 1 1 9 8 27 3 3 .339 .310 2 #Reyes, Guillermo,SS .197 35 127 12 25 2 0 1 11 11 26 5 6 .236 .261 2 Sandoval, Danny,2B .250 47 172 17 43 9 1 1 17 12 26 7 5 .331 .296 8 Saunders, Chris,3B .217 8 23 3 5 0 0 0 3 7 6 1 0 .217 .400 0 *Shaffer, Josh,SS .196 35 112 9 22 0 1 0 6 3 18 1 1 .214 .222 9 All Others .178 73 7 13 2 0 0 3 10 20 2 0 .205 .299 10 Total-All Batters .259 1597 413 7 164 329 33 .336 177 76 22 175 33 .356 48 OPP PITCHER W-L ERA G GS CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR HB BB SO WP AVG Bajenaru, Jeff 2- 1 4.19 16 0 0 0 1 19.1 22 11 9 2 0 5 19 2 .289 *Bullard, Jim 1- 1 5.12 18 3 0 0 0 31.2 43 20 18 3 3 15 20 1 .328 *Cotts, Neal 6- 2 2.28 10 10 0 0 0 51.1 33 15 13 2 1 32 69 0 .181 Eason, Clay 1- 3 3.72 17 1 0 0 1 36.1 47 23 15 5 0 13 38 0 .313 *Malone, Corwin 2- 2 7.16 6 6 0 0 0 27.2 37 23 22 2 1 24 17 2 .322 Meyer, Jake 1- 1 2.96 16 0 0 0 1 24.1 21 9 8 0 1 9 20 1 .231 Pacheco, Enemencio 5- 0 1.61 13 7 0 0 0 56.0 42 12 10 1 3 18 47 1 .210 *Ring, Royce 0- 2 0.39 23 0 0 0 13 23.1 16 2 1 0 2 8 32 3 .186 Smith, Matt 1- 0 3.57 17 0 0 0 0 22.2 20 10 9 3 0 11 14 3 .227 *Ulacia, Dennis 1- 5 4.70 10 9 0 0 0 46.0 56 26 24 4 1 15 28 1 .306 West, Brian 2- 4 5.56 10 9 0 0 0 45.1 59 32 28 6 2 24 31 10 .311 Wylie, Mitch 1- 0 6.75 1 0 0 0 0 2.2 1 2 2 0 0 2 4 0 .111 Yofu, Tetsu 3- 2 2.68 12 4 0 0 2 40.1 35 13 12 3 2 10 35 1 .240 All Others 0- 0 4.50 1 0 0 0 0 2.0 2 2 1 0 1 3 1 0 .222 Total-All Pitchers 26 3.61 49 3 429.0 200 31 189 25 23 0 18 434 172 17 375 .262

Chad Durham has definitely woken up. I'll post the stats in a new topic.

Numbers can be deceiving.... Ring gave up a 2-run double to the Huntsville pitcher, allowing both runners he inherited to score, before he settled down and got the save.

Nope