caulfield12

Amazing catch and throw in RF when he was playing for Cienfuegos in Cuba. Batting practice/prospect video from Rancho Cucamonga http://www.vinscullyismyhomeboy.com/2013/0...irt-yasiel.html Cienfuegos Elephantes highlights of PUIG seekaywhi 4 weeks ago I'm not really trying to get in a fight with you but I think "it's hilarious" that you think Puig is our best player in the majors after one night. Either way, keeping him in the minors for 20 days (although he was down longer, that you can argue against and I'm all with you) so you can keep him in the majors for a whole year longer makes more sense regardless of how much money the Dodgers have in the bank.

QUOTE (Jbabs34 @ Jul 4, 2013 -> 05:53 AM) I think Dunn's too streaky of a hitter to take that gamble. If he keeps hitting the way he's been for the next couple weeks, his value might never be higher. I think if a GM calls with good deal, you pull the trigger immediately. Except it's a Catch-22 because we have no way of replacing yet more power in the middle of the line-up for 2014. And that pretty much ends up ANY hope of competing. You can see Rios, Peavy and Ramirez going (and most would argue that's the end of 2014 unless we go crazy on the free agent market), but Dunn probably stays just because they need to maintain the illusion of everything breaks right they could still be competitive. What are they going to sell to season ticket holders....? Now some would argue that the majority of the fanbase would be overjoyed to dump him, and that he's hurting season ticket sales...and morale of the fans, but his play the last 6 weeks has complicated things. IMO, you hold onto him until the summer of 2014, then you try to make any possible trade. Trading him now makes it that much harder to field a respectable team next year because the odds of the money that we save on Dunn being reinvested completely into veteran free agents isn't very high.

Along with the international prospects, the Cubs need a better haul than the one they got from last summer's sell-off. Paul Maholm, Reed Johnson, Ryan Dempster and Geovany Soto netted pitching prospects Arodys Vizcaino, Jaye Chapman, Jake Brigham and Kyle Hendricks and infielder Christian Villanueva. Here's how they had fared through Tuesday: •Vizcaino, who was rehabbing from Tommy John surgery at the time of the trade, was ranked as the No. 5 prospect in the Cubs system this spring after coming over from the Braves. But he suffered more elbow soreness in late May and will not pitch for the Cubs in 2013. •Hendricks was 8-2 at Double-A Tennessee with a 2.06 ERA and is considered a potential major leaguer. He was 7-0 with a 1.52 ERA over his last 10 starts. •Chapman was non-tendered last winter and re-signed. He went on the disabled list at Triple-A Iowa in April with a left hip strain after compiling a 17.05 ERA in four games and hasn't pitched since. •Villanueva was hitting .248 at Tennessee with a .306 on-base percentage and nine home runs. The selection of third baseman Kris Bryant with the No. 2 draft pick doesn't bode well for Villanueva's chances of making it to the Cubs. •Brigham was sent back to the Rangers after two appearances and a 19.64 ERA at Tennessee when he was deemed to have had an elbow injury. The Cubs received Barret Loux, the sixth pick of the 2010 draft, as compensation. Loux was 4-2 with a 4.56 ERA at Iowa, including 3-2 with a 4.94 ERA in 11 starts. paul sullivan, chicagotribune.com/sports

QUOTE (hammerhead johnson @ Jul 3, 2013 -> 01:12 PM) That's why it's called a futures squad. I never said that they'd all work out. Why isn't Concepcion on your list there, buddy?

Analyzing The Cubs' International Expenditures By Steve Adams [July 3 at 10:51pm CST] The Cubs have been extremely active on the international free agent market in the past two days, signing Gleyber Torres ($1.7MM), Jefferson Mejia ($850K), Erling Moreno ($800K), and reaching agreement with Eloy Jimenez ($2.8MM). If those figures are accurate, those numbers total $6.15MM in international expenditure. As MLBTR's Tim Dierkes noted yesterday (Twitter link), the Cubs began the international free agency period with a bonus pool of $4,557,200. They acquired an additional $388,100 in the Scott Feldman trade with the Orioles and $784,700 from the Astros in the Ronald Torreyes trade before sending $209,700 to the Dodgers in the Carlos Marmol swap. All told, they gained an additional $963K in bonus space. That total brought their bonus pool to $5,520,300 -- which is a significant ways short of the $6.15MM they've spent following the Jimenez signing.That would mean the Cubs are over their allotted bonus pool by $629,700 -- an overage of 10.2 percent. Baseball America's Ben Badler reported back in April that the penalty for exceeding a bonus pool by 10-15 percent would be a 100 percent tax on the overage as well as the inability to sign a player for more than $500K in next year's signing period. If the reported signing bonuses aren't 100 percent accurate, the Cubs could be less than 10 percent over. However, barring a significant inaccuracy, they would still fall into the 5-10 percent overage bracket, which would prevent them from signing a player for more than $500K in 2014-15 but require only a 75 percent overage tax. The other thing to consider is that the Jimenez deal isn't official as of yet. It could be possible for the Cubs to acquire additional bonus money in trades, as they haven't technically spent the $2.8MM on Jimenez. Per the new CBA, teams are allowed to acquire up to 50 percent of their initial bonus pool. That would be a total of $2,278,600 for the Cubs, meaning they can still acquire an additional $1,315,600. That would be enough to cover the remaining difference and keep the Cubs from incurring limitations on next year's spending.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 3, 2013 -> 08:05 PM) Shortstop is a pretty important position. If we trade Lexi without somebody at least as good as Lexi, wow, we are going to be a really really bad team til that guy we drafted is ready. I would think we'd have to move Gordo to short cause second basemen are a dime a dozen. Shortstop is pretty important. I've been in favor of keeping Lexi, Beckham and Viciedo and trading all other position players. Also keep all the pitchers except Crain/Thornton/Peavy. Why don't you like Gillaspie? He has more homers than Dayan. He had one robbed right at the top of the fence or he would have 7.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 3, 2013 -> 08:10 PM) caulfield, any idea why Trayce left tonight's game? I didn't see it well because they have this weird camera angle from the netting off to the right side of home plate....so you can only see about 60% of the field and it's hard to even differentiate the pitches besides FB and offspeed. Would guess it was related to his swing the previous inning, where he popped another ball up to 2B.

QUOTE (Noonskadoodle @ Jul 3, 2013 -> 08:13 PM) Okay that was a heck of a play by him in RF tonight. YEP, sac fly, RBI #18. Puig now out of the game after that at-bat, hopefully just a precautionary measure, has to be really sore. Steve Lyons calling it a charley horse/bruise/contusion. http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?g...mp;mode=gameday Puig video highlight there, as well as scoring from 2B on an infield error (ball got away from Helton) where he just kept running. http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20..._la&c_id=la Listed as day-to-day with bruised left hip and thigh tightness. X-rays negative. JP Howell was late for about 5 minutes to the game today (the game time was 30 minutes earlier for July 4th) and Skip Schumaker hid behind all of his clothes and grabbed him and scared the hell out of JP and everyone laughed because he jumped about 3 feet in the error and freaked out. Too bad no hidden camera footage. Maybe it will come out from someone's cell phone or twitter. ''You're getting to be where you kind of expect him to do something all the time,'' said Mattingly, who compares his slugger to a young Ken Griffey Jr. ''If he doesn't get a hit or get on base, you're like, 'What's going on?' It's amazing.'' Puig is only the fifth player to win both awards in the same month since the rookie honor was introduced in 2001. The last player to accomplish the feat was Los Angeles Angels outfielder Mike Trout in July 2012. ''Whatever league that I'm in I'm going to do the best I can,'' Puig said Tuesday after going 3 for 5 with a homer to begin July just as torrid as he left off in June. Puig certainly left quite an impression on Rockies reliever Adam Ottavino, who served up his solo homer on Tuesday. Ottavino tried to throw a slider low and away to Puig, only to have him hit it over the fence in the deepest part of Coors Field. ''It's not a pitch you get hit for a home run that often. It was impressive,'' Ottavino said. ''He's so strong. That's evident. I really don't think he got all of it and it went really far. ''When he hit it, I saw his bat flip, so I knew he thought he got it. I didn't think he got it. When I turned around, I was like, 'Oh, yeah, I guess he did get it.''' www.yahoo.com/sports

Dan Wagner with 3 hits tonight, drove in Short, who'd slapped one to the opposite field into RF for a single. Gonzalez scored on the error. 3rd error for the Generals, 2nd on the RF for JAX (Borbon). 7-2 Barons. Landry robbed Semien in the outfield, would have been a 2 run double and probably a triple if he didn't make the desperation catch.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 3, 2013 -> 07:23 PM) The big 3 of Hawkins, Thompson and Anderson have done very little so far this week Does committing errors count? At least Hawkins has cut his K percentage down to 33% his last 10 games, but 540 OPS, 740 OPS for the year. Dan Black with a very loud out, blast to CF in a big stadium but caught just in front of the warning track in Jackson. Thompson pulled out of the game, not sure why. Earley in. Need to buy a Popemobile for Courtney Hawkins to protect him from getting injured in Winston-Salem, lol, after Johnson strained his groin, what else can happen this season?

Marcus Semien stayed back just enough on a curveball and got it out... Nice looking prospect, does everything well but not a "plus" tool that stands out, just a baseball player. Good but not great speed, good but not great power, arm/range, etc. Probably will end up as a utility player but he has as decent a shot as Carlos Sanchez IMO. Trayce Thompson 1 for 20 in the five game series, seems to be getting under everything with his swing plane just off.

Generals' announcers raving about Taylor Thompson... Rare 2-3-9-5 putout....Gonzalez threw a pickoff attempt down the 1B line past Black, but Walker threw out the runner at 3rd when he stumbled rounding 2nd. Impressive, Hector Santiago still throwing 94-95 after 110 pitches. (AN ASIDE)

K. Walker a single through SS....Thompson just got under one, towering fly to LCF, more bad defense....Dan Black pull hooked a grounder into RF and then Borbon overran it and Walker scored all the way from 1B on the error. Jared Mitchell, homer #4, frozen rope liner over the high RF fence....91 MPH FB, in on his hands but not enough, was able to yank his hands in and get around it. 4-0. No wind at all aiding it. Brandon Short a single, Generals' pitcher at 70+ pitches in the 3rd still and scuffling.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 3, 2013 -> 06:31 PM) Interesting that Erik Johnson is pulled after 3 innings. Hopefully he's not injured, but the way things are going of late, you have to hold your breath. If he's not hurt, maybe he's on his way up and/or getting traded. Trading Johnson would be a COMPLETE shocker. Unless he's being packaged with a Dunn/Dunn/Ramirez to clear salary off the decks (the kind of move we've grown to love to hate). For M's fans, since it's the Jackson Generals' tv feed: D. Hultzen having some ouchiness, pulled from his start at Tacoma. Taijuan Walker has started out pretty dominant after being promoted to Tacoma.

Another double and run scored. 48/109=.440 (essentially 4/9) New strategy, former Angel Tyler Chatwood has started busting Puig inside with fastballs. Struck out on one that was a good 6-8 inches inside, should have been his 5th walk. Puig just made an incredible catch crashing into the fence at Coors Field to preserve the lead...fell down on the ground after throwing the ball back to the IF, looked to be a left upper hamstring or hip injury, doing wind sprints across the outfield. Mattingly let him stay in the game, seems he tweaked it. Want to see the replay again.

Don't like Jared Mitchell's body language...struck out and threw down the bat in disgust, although he checked his swing and shouldn't have been out. Also has a hitch in his swing, his hand positioning and the bat pointing towards the pitcher, it's slowing down his swing too much. Like Walker's balance at the plate, he's leading the Southern League with 29 steals. Black is a BIG guy...250-260 pounds, showed good patience and took a walk, Semien also walked to lead off the game and Walker should have walked as well but got a bad call for strike 3. Nicks/Nix or however you spell his name, the starter for BIRM, was in independent league ball for 4 years. Originally drafted by the Braves. Semien with a nice play ranging towards the area behind the mound and throwing across his body for the final out. 1-0 Barons (run scored on a Saladino soft liner to LF that was dropped in the sunset) Short, 6-3, Miguel Gonzalez lined to SS, Dan Wagner a seeing eye grounder down the 3B line for a single, Semien grounded one up the middle and thrown out 4-3

Jayson Nix to the DL for the Yankees, they picked up Cruz from the Dodgers for now, just DFA'ed. http://sports.yahoo.com/news/yankees-put-n...12338--mlb.html

QUOTE (zenryan @ Jul 3, 2013 -> 05:00 PM) FOX doesnt need Puig for the All-Star games because for the most part no one gives a crap about the ASG. The argument was that Harper and Trout helped reverse a downward trend, even though it was a rise of only 3.1 to 3.2 in ratings share. One thing's for sure, the t.v. ratings in LA alone would skyrocket, and that alone would make it worthwhile for FOX advertising locally/regionally/nationally.

QUOTE (Jake @ Jul 3, 2013 -> 04:24 PM) We don't have a thread about Alexei and he is most certainly among the more likely to be traded. Let's have a groupthink about where he might fit. Cardinals' need for a shortstop is getting more and more problematic. Kozma/Descalso is an atrocious combo. I don't know if the Reds love Zack Cozart at this point. Dodgers could probably benefit from moving Hanley to 3B and Uribe to the bench. As an added bonus, they don't even know what money means. Mariners could use an SS, but I have no idea what their strategy is right now. Some seemed to think they were pushing to compete soon, but this year has been a total flop. Someone a little more in the know might be able to shed some light. Any other ideas? There aren't many good shortstops out there right now and not many with much of a track record. Alexei may not be great, but the dude can throw some leather (even if he's been a bonehead this season, he just makes SO many more plays than the average SS) and you know that you're going to get at least a passable, roughly league average hitter out of him. He has to have some value. Reds are 100% behind Cozart, who was one of their top prospects. Dodgers with Uribe has been playing much better recently (with Hanley and Kemp back, too) but they could definitely use an upgrade....maybe sending us Dee Gordon...Luis Cruz was also DFA'ed for them Mariners just brought up Miller, there's no way they would be looking at Ramirez Pirates with Mercer....a little bit like the same situation in RF, where they could definitely use both Ramirez and Rios (for Snider/prospects) but at what cost...Mercer's hit pretty well, too. http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/batting/_/pos.../OPS/order/true You have to put the Yankees there for Keppinger or Ramirez. Atlanta has a young player in A. Simmons, they're not going to bench him. There's no way, despite how bad Andrus has been hitting, they're going to move for Ramirez because of Profar and the fact that Ramirez's offensive upgrade isn't worth the cost because you'll be giving up quite a bit on defense benching Andrus. So Dodgers, Pirates, Cardinals and Yankees, that's your market.

Heard Crain on the pre-game show. Seemed to attribute it simply to throwing so many pitches/workload/everyday wear-and-tear and also going at 100% maximum effort when he's out there. Almost exactly a year to the day last year he had to get an MRI. Said he didn't feel great warming up before the game and then when he started throwing curveballs in the pen it got progressively worse. Hoping to come back in two weeks.

http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?g...ox&sid=milb Hopefully, no more injuries.

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 3, 2013 -> 04:21 PM) A truly bad team has no reason to pull a block. Any team on the edge could use a Jesse Crain, as could any team in contention. Relievers aren't like 3B's. You really can't have a deep enough pen, especially in the stretch run where starters get pulled quicker, and the pen works harder and longer. Except the obvious drawback of being limited to negotiating with only one team that's perhaps on the periphery of contention...that said, the claim does create a lot of pressure on both sides to consummate a deal if the posting team really does want to move him.

http://tv.yahoo.com/news/why-fox-needs-yas...-201025479.html Why Fox needs Yasiel Puig for the All-Star game. Today, he was the first player in MLB history to be named Player of the Month for his debut month in the big leagues. http://espn.go.com/espys/2013/vote/?id=9402507&lang=en ESPN has already nominated him for an ESPY for Breakthrough Performance/Athlete, along with Trout, Johnny Manziel, Russell Wilson and Colin Kaepernick.

QUOTE (lasttriptotulsa @ Jul 3, 2013 -> 03:43 PM) Per Rotoworld, Manny signs with the Rangers. Dublin?

QUOTE (southsider2k5 @ Jul 3, 2013 -> 04:12 PM) Don't forget that a waiver trade could still be a possibility, even if the Sox don't get what they want. It will be interesting to see who (or if someone) claims Ramirez, Dunn and John Danks, if it gets to that point...the whole blocking thing. We should be perfectly willing to let go of John Danks for basically nothing, just like Rios came here for nothing. From the history of pitchers with shoulder injuries, we can speculate all we want about him building up value for a trade in 2014 or 2015 or whatever year, but it's better just to clear that money off the books. Best case scenario, he's a #3 guy, or strong 2 on a weak team. But there's just as much of a chance he remains a 4 and overpaid for that level of production that we could get from Quintana or Santiago for 1/10th the cost.