ptatc

How did that second contract work out? Maybe his obsession with the second contract was a clue as to his motivaton. Once he got paid he's never played even half a season. Turns out to work better for the Cubs. Unfortunately.

There is something to be said for having the rookies go through their growing pains this year and be ready to produce next year.

Agreed. It's a building block.

I thought quero and Teel looked good. Pitching is ahead of the hitting. Pitching is the base of a good team with the number of injuries throughout the league.

Going south? I think the prospects are looking pretty good.

That's what they do. With by buying everything, especially ones that are injury prone that others won't take a chance on for the high cost.

Uh oh.

Thorpe did not have a ucl injury which linked to velocity/ max effort.

Has he had a ucl reconstruction?

I agree. Not ready yet. Just my guess.

Smith will be here at the end of the year. My prediction.

As he should be.

Never said it was good baseball. But I go to college and HS as well so I'm used to the level of play. I'm working games this weekend actually.

I heard that too. Too bad, he is a good one. I think he's ben in the business nearly 40 if I remember right. Enjoy retirement!

I have my season tickets so I will be there for many of them. Cuban sandwiches and empierogies will be the main attractions besides summer baseball at the park.

Rightfully so. It's not going to be a good year for wins. Hopefully we see prospect progress.

They are trying to find the inefficiency with the weird arm angle guys. If everyone else gets strikeouts with straight fastball maybe others can get strikeouts with weird arm angles.

Exactly. That's why everyone needs to accept that the pitchers are going to need a year off somewhere for surgery. Along with this comes shorter starting pitcher outings and increase importance of bullpen pitchers. Bullpen pitchers are no longer just failed starters. Just starters who can't hold their velocity for more than 2-3 innings. Pallette as a sox example. Pitching depth is more important than ever.

Watch the flame throwers in the system and expect most to go down the a UCL injury. We've seen a few already. I know Taylor had his in college but Smith had his in high school so he had it but it was a while ago.

You are correct. This is why teams now expect UCL reconstruction for pitchers. Velocity and max effort is also tied to UCL injuries. If a pitcher hasn't had a UCL reconstruction odds are they will so build that into their development.

Personally excited to see Schultz, Smith, Teel and Quero against the rockies.

Still think it will be Amaya until Montgomery is ready for defense alone.

Yeah, after the first 8bweeks I would guess there will be turnover as the prospects arrive.

I think it more the quality of players. We know that they still aren't planning to be good and it shows. I would like to see how many games they had 16 opportunities with RISP. I bet it wasn't many that offense was awful. Not that I'm expecting it to much better this year until they bring up the young catchers.

Don't know what you are talking about. I'm impressed as hell that got enough runners on to have that many opportunities. Last year they probably didn't get enough runners on to create the opportunities.