BearSox

It's a start, but I'd still like to see him turn on more fastballs. His swing however looked a lot better yesterday and he was more aggressive at bat. His best hit was the line drive where he took the pitch he got and went with it into RF. It was also nice to see him actually hit a rolling breaking ball for once instead of fouling it away.

We could see a big time reach with the Pirates at no. 4. Word is that they want to save money to go all out for 16 year Dominican SS/RF Miguel Sano (who is supposedly a great player). If they don't reach, the pick will likely be Crow or Gibson (probably Gibson cause he would be cheaper than Crow). However, if they really want to save a lot and reach on someone, they are said to really like Wil Myers, a prep catcher, who has been raising up boards recently. They also like Tony Sanchez and Bobby Borchering.

QUOTE (santo=dorf @ May 29, 2009 -> 07:47 PM) Chris Davis: 0-4 4 K's, 75 K's in 162 at-bats so far this year. Still has to play in game 2 right now. EDIT: Game 2, 0-3, 2 K's. 77 K's in 165 at-bats. I never understood why Hawk drooled over this guy so much. He's a bad player. He's got some big time pop, but he only makes contact a little over half the time. At best, he's a backup CI who can pinch hit late in a game when you need a home run. With Smoak tearing up AA, odds are he could be called up soon.

How much was Castro getting paid?

Is this a movie with real people, an animated movie, or comic book? I'm confused.

Last year and going into this year, I was one of the harder critics on Richard. I wasn't impressed with what I saw from him last year and didn't think he had the stuff to be a quality starter... However, I was dead wrong! In his pas 3 starts, Richard has shown me that he has some very legit stuff. Also, it's obvious he's learned a lot about pitching from Buehrle. He's become much more of a pitcher and he works fast very similar to Buehrle, and he has developed a really good pickoff move. However, he's got a lot better stuff. He's basically got 5 pitches he can throw for strikes: 4-seam fastball that averages around 94 that can get up to 95 or 96. 2-seam fastball that averages around 91 with good sinking action. Slider with good sweeping action that can be nasty at times. A solid-good changeup. And I think he might have a bit of a curve as well. Obviously, it's only been 3 starts, but Richard is showing he has the stuff to be a pretty darn good pitcher. I'm glad we didn't trade him now, and if he keeps progressing, we'll be in good shape. This crow is tasting terrific!

If we have Nix or Castro in the lineup tonight, Wise will start. Ozzie needs to have the final 4 batters alternate between lefty and righty.

He hides the ball extremely well. With his arm action, that probably makes his fastball seem 2-3 mph faster than it really is to hitter. Not to mention, his fastball already sits in the mid 90's! I wouldn't be shocked if he went in the top 10.

QUOTE (elrockinMT @ May 30, 2009 -> 10:25 AM) Bit shocked with the trade and the demotion/release of Corky. I wonder what's the chances of Miller clearing waivers and accepting a demotion to Charlotte? I don't know much about Whistler but he's a lefty and my guess is he replaces Gobble when Jose is back and Gobble goes down to the AAA. I liked Corky, but Castro appears to be better with the bat and defensively. Now Lance? I liked the guy, but I guess he wasn't going to make it on our staff and Clayton Richard has stepped up for sure. Odds are good, but Miller doesn't really improve our AAA team much. We already have two catchers who can't hit down there. However, if one of Pierzynski or Castro get injured, I'd much rather see Lucy up at the big league level than Miller returning. As for Whisler, I agree. This is likely a tryout to be the second lefty in the pen. Gobble sucks. As for Contreras, I don't think he's close to coming back. He's only had 1 really good outing. Otherwise, he's been mediocre or worse.

QUOTE (SoxAce @ May 30, 2009 -> 01:51 AM) I am number 2. Good luck Lance. Though I pray we get rid of McCullough and soon. He was waaaaaaaaaaay worse of a pick than Broadway. This deal is meh for me as a fan of Lance but I won't complain. I woulda thought Whisler would come up for Gobble. I can't stand watching that guy pitch. I'm the 3rd... so who's the 4th?

Kinda sad to see Lance go, thought he was a solid mop up man/spot starter, but Castro is a great addition.

Call it wishful thinking, but I'm still holding out hope we can go the Dan Haren route.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 29, 2009 -> 09:03 PM) Give them someone like McCullough for him. I'm not sure if we could get a bag of balls for him. But I'd love to get rid of him.

If we go the leadoff hitter route, I'm looking at Tim Wheeler. Much more polished than Mitchell, but less upside. However, I'd rather get a solid leadoff hitter over the next Joey Gatright. Right now, if Brothers and Leake aren't around at 23, I want one of Pollack, Wheeler, or Sanchez.

I'd love to get Castro. He'd be an ideal backup catcher. He has always mashed left handed pitching, and he's pretty solid behind the plate with, IIRC, a cannon or close to it for an arm.

Beck 2-3, rough night for Huddy.

QUOTE (fathom @ May 29, 2009 -> 08:44 PM) Why's that? I haven't seen any video on him, so you might know more than I do. From what I've seen and heard, he is a pull/home run happy type of hitter who K's a ton. However, he is more polished than the usual extremely athletic, toolsy high school player.

Here's BA's top 100 players (they are separated by hitters and pitchers) http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/draft...009/268178.html

I remember in 06, Perry went off on how we gave up too much for Thome... what a f***ing idiot. The only one who is doing good is Rowand (who isn't even with the Phillies anymore), and I'd much rather have Thome over him.

If the asking price is less than what it is for Peavy, I'm down.

Even if she is pro-life, that doesn't mean she's gonna vote in that direction. Nancy Pelosi is "pro-life" after all. However, it'd be nice if Sotomayor became like the anti-Souter.

I'm hearing that there has been increased talk about raising the sales tax on everything up to 25% to fund for nationalized health care. Oh goody. Lets have our taxes raised even higher and also have to wait for months to get medical treatment!!!!!!! I love America more than anything, but every single politician needs to be booted out office and we need to start fresh. This isn't even beyond ridiculous anymore, words can't describe it. Anyone ever wonder how we are gonna pay off all this depth we keep piling up? China ain't gonna be helping us out for much longer, and printing our own money is just gonna lead to hyper inflation. I don't know. I don't care anymore. We are all pretty much screwed is how I figure it.

QUOTE (Stocking @ May 28, 2009 -> 05:27 PM) Finish MGS4 but thought the game was meh. There is less than two hours of actually playing time, the rest is just cg clips. The gameplay was great, just wish there was more. On the snow area, go under the truck and snipe, easiest way to beat the rail gun. SNAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah, that was one thing that really annoyed me. I wanted to play, but there was about 20 minutes of cut scenes in between each section. If they cut that down, the game would have been epic. I remember when I first got it, I played for about 14 hours straight. So addictive once you get into it.

You can never draft too many guys like him. However, since he ain't much of a hitter, he'll probably stay for his senior year.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ May 28, 2009 -> 05:23 PM) Long term, how can you not like the idea of having his bat at 2b, with Alexei and Beckham's bats up the middle. That's a ton of offense out of 2 defensive positions. Personally, I don't care, I want to see the best lineup put out there. Lets say Getz pans out, he makes the most sense for 2B. Lets say Nix pans out, he'd make sense at either 3B or 2B. But personally, ideally Viciedo pans out at 3B and Beck moves to 2B.