caulfield12

QUOTE (Vance Law @ Jul 5, 2014 -> 04:43 PM) This "argument" is obviously entirely for sport. But anyway.. He did get closer to league average after having his best game of the season yesterday. We'll see if he keeps it up. His OPS on Tuesday was .698. Danks put up a .682 OPS last year while receiving the most regular playing time of his career. He has an .831 OPS at AAA this season. "is a black hole" doesn't give any quantitative reference to allow for a comparison between players. What color hole is Viciedo then? Dark, dark grey? Light black? Viciedo is a black hole as a defender. When you add up respective hole colors for the different facets of the game, how do Danks and Viciedo stack up? What if you have a lineup full of great defense and then one guy who is bad and is also a subpar hitter (Viciedo)? Balta has quoted over and over again the average OPS for a LFer in around 710-720. Whether we like it or not, offense/power are down, pitchers are dominating. By the way, what did the Seattle Mariners win for their "best defense" title (Safeco's actually an outfield where it makes a lot more sense to have three solid outfielders) 3-4 years ago? It would be one thing if Jordan Danks was a great defender. He's not. He's very good, but he's not any better than Brian Anderson...and most would argue in favor of Anderson around here surely. If he was Endy Chavez or the Mets' CF or Franklyn Gutierrez in his prime...and he could singlehandedly take over a game defensively, that would be one thing. But Eaton is ensconced in CF right now, so you want to move him to LF and play Danks there? WHY? So our offense, which is looking more and more 2013-esque by the day other than Abreu's presence, will have even more black holes?

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 5, 2014 -> 02:51 PM) But they have what MANY on our board want, young prospects, top prospects. We have many on our board who just want prospects. Well the Cubs have a ton of em and thus are gonna win it all finally. That jinx appears to be Ova in the not so distant future. That worked out so well when Hosmer, Moustakas and Bubba Starling led the Royals to the 2014 World Series title last year. Even "can't miss" guys like Wil Myers haven't proven themselves to be bulletproof. Other than Bryant, the Cubs don't have anyone you can be sure is going to make a huge impact.

Good god, Costa Rica is under a D-Day assault and still managed not to give up a goal. Lindstrom apparently has been back around the ballpark and doing better. Not sure if the Sox will give him a shot to pitch in September or not. Do we have an option on his contract or he automatically becomes a FA next year?

Good god, Costa Rica is under a D-Day assault and still managed not to give up a goal. Lindstrom apparently has been back around the ballpark and doing better. Not sure if the Sox will give him a shot to pitch in September or not. Do we have an option on his contract or he automatically becomes a FA next year?

And now the offense has no chance without its two hottest hitters in Abreu and Viciedo. And the bullpen has zero confidence and no Petricka to go to, since he was used for only out out. As much as the Leury Garcia PHing for Sierra worked, these late innings have all backfired in an equally horrendous way. If nothing else, it's ridiculous to take away Abreu's possible final chance to extend the hit streak unless you're going to PR right away. SIGH. World Cup time. Not crossing my fingers on this game ending up in our favor.

Konerko here please. Just for old time's sake. Didn't think we would see Viciedo at 727 passing Beckham at 714 in terms of OPS about 2-3 weeks ago. Well, Dayan was due to come out of his slump eventually and Gordon was due to regress to his mean.

Mariners leading the AL in ERA, unless the A's passed them last night. It's going to be a franchise-altering trade if Hahn deals Viciedo/Ramirez to them. Have to get prospects back who realize their potential, as that's our only remaining significant trade chip.

Dunn supposedly battling a sore hand/wrist. DJ questioning why he's still out there trying to hit when he seems to be hurting. Adam's numbers are really starting to nosedive, along with Beckham's.....which of course is perfect for trade deadline time.

What the hell was that Miller? Trying to emulate your DP partner Cano? 12 errors for Miller, their supposed defensive specialist. Hit Logan Morrison's wrist and then face. Alexei Ramirez AND Viciedo to the Mariners. How much are you going to get back in return?

QUOTE (scs787 @ Jul 5, 2014 -> 02:53 PM) What can you do??? Petricka will be next. Seems there's zero confidence in Webb. The amazing thing is the Dodgers have/had a streak where their pitchers had 2 walks OR less in 36 consecutive games. Not sure if that streak's still alive or not.

Honestly, we'd be better off with Rodon as the closer than anyone else we have in the organization. Might as well go with the Chris Sale 2010 plan.

That was a fastball, belt high. Why was Flowers setting up in that same exact location...where the ball was thrown to? Sigh. That's not close to Putnam's best pitch. We've now seen two great set-up guys ruined by pitching them in the 9th...out of their comfort zones.

QUOTE (greg775 @ Jul 5, 2014 -> 02:35 PM) So the draft lovers on this board can't have it both ways. You have to admit the Cubs are probably going to be regulars in the postseason for a pretty long stretch. If you are a draftnik (I use the term in a friendly way) you probably LOVE the Cubs' chances for success in the future. So many top players in the system now. The Cardinals are too good to simply go away...the Cubs are quite fortunate the Astros aren't in their division anymore, either.

Putnam fortunate there to get the "at 'em" ball...bad baserunning, could have been out at 3rd but didn't want to let the trail runner get to 2nd in order to preserve the double play ball. Ackley HAS to be at second base there. Huge break.

Sigh. Hung a change-up to Hart. This isn't going well. Don't believe Hahn in his wildest imagination believed the bullpen would have THIS many struggles to close games out this year, rebuilding year or not. DJ just said only 3 times in the year have we had 1-2-3 innings in closing situations....all by Belisario. At least one of them was against the Dodgers, if not twice.

Something happens to pitchers when they are in there with a small lead in the 9th inning.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jul 5, 2014 -> 08:54 AM) Applying analytics to the business side of baseball The Indians have already been doing this for 1 1/2 seasons, FWIW.

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/i...series-favorite

QUOTE (HickoryHuskers @ Jul 5, 2014 -> 09:09 AM) I've said that before and I still believe it to be true. I think Viciedo is going to be another Ross Gload. Not a good enough fielder to be a corner OF, but not a good enough hitter to be a 1B/DH. They have absolutely nothing in common. Gload was a baseball lifer who hit himself onto a major league roster by sheer persistence, never once ranking as a top prospect...and always reminiscent of a Conor Gillaspie/Mark Grace-Lite type.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 5, 2014 -> 08:57 AM) It is quite like the KC/TB trade. Sheilds for Myers. Sort of. Except Myers was instantly ready to compete for AL Rookie of the Year, whereas Russell's at least 1 year away, if not 2016. Then you also had Odorizzi as well.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/rosen...,6736530.column The Cubs now have a rotation of Arrieta, Wood and Edwin Jackson....maybe Straily or N.Ramirez/Grimm fill those other two spots for the time being. Edwards and P. Johnson are setbacks on that front. In an ideal world, they have Bryant at 3B, Castro at SS, Baez at 2B, Rizzo at 1B, Soler in LF/RF, Alcantara (eventually Almora if he develops) in CF and McKinney out there somewhere in the OF as well. They're going to have to trade for a catcher at some point. They're also going to have to decide between Castro and Russell at SS, and what to do with Schwarber. Maybe he moves to LF. That means at least two of those outfield prospects are expendable as well in Soler/Almora/Alcantara/McKinney/Schwarber. So there's your ultimate trade that has to get a topline pitching prospect....Castro/Russell AND one or two of those outfielders. It's not like Olt has increased his value, and Almora/Soler are both down this season, so what does Russell and Alcantara/McKinney get you back? But wait. There’s more. Russell ranked fifth in Baseball America’s midseason list of prospects. The Cubs already had the No. 2 prospect in Kris Bryant and No. 7 in Javier Baez. I don’t believe the Cubs have ever owned three of the top seven prospects in my lifetime. That doesn’t make up for not winning a World Series in anybody’s lifetime, but that’s how you at least get there. McKinney, meanwhile, also ranks in the top 100, and both new Cubs prospects are 20 years old, not 30 or close the way Samardzija and Hammel are. The trade makes the Cubs’ major league team a lot worse and makes the minor league system the best in baseball. Perfect. That’s what the Cubs need and want right now. No use threatening .500 with the big club. No use making next year’s draft slot worse to continue stockpiling talent. No use keeping players who will be on the wrong side of 30 when the Cubs start contending.

Farmer said they were supposedly going to sign 7-9 more. Not sure exactly when or from where in the world.

http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/white-sox/...-fourth-of-july Team really seemed to be energized by the crowd and "playoff-like" atmosphere. First 30K+ number since May 24/25 against the Yankees.

QUOTE (The Ultimate Champion @ Jul 5, 2014 -> 08:16 AM) CC is out for the year and someone else posted that the Yanks were looking at him. KW has long loved Betances and Banuelos apparently, though I'm not sure how much that flame flickers anymore, but Hahn has been on their catchers since at least the offseason. Seems like it could work, but I'd want something back, not just a dump. Danks looks like he could still be a winner, and if so the salary isn't a problem, really the move would be more about clearing a lefty slot for Rodon IMO. Thoughts/rumors on this? Yeah, it will be a cold day in hell when they trade Betances for Danks.

QUOTE (Feeky Magee @ Jul 5, 2014 -> 08:26 AM) Yes. Particularly Bryant. As weird as it sounds, people are sleeping on Bryant. He's going to be an absolute superstar. But his K rates have been in the 35-40% rate, haven't they? It doesn't matter if you hit 40+ homers, but if he's in the 25-30 range, it will become more of an issue unless he compensates for it with a bunch of walks as well. Even if he puts up Abreu-esque numbers, that still doesn't solve their pitching problems anymore than Jose being on the White Sox can fix the 4 and 5 spots in the rotation.