DHonks

my question, Heether or Festa? Based on offensive numbers, I'd want Festa promoted since he's older and could be fast-tracked (ie, I'd like to find out if he was for real)

wow, that was a shock to me. I figured he'd be helping out in AA in the pen and lineup.

What all of this has to do with golf or slow pitch softball(where the object is basically screaming at you to hit it, rather than avoiding you) is beyond me. that was to the "good swing, but misses it." To me that means he's hitting the ball, but rarely in the sweet spot. And the sweet spot is the whole key in any swinging sport. Whether it's mechanical, reaction time, poor hand-eye coordination, or whatever, that's what that quote means. What's the difference? An inch or two closer to the hands and it's a broken bat. An inch or two farther away and it's a squibber off the end of the bat. A half an inch too high or low is a chopper or soft popup. Without seeing much of him, it sounds like it's a problem with keeping his elbows in. In most swinging sports, the athlete is left scratching his head after seemingly good swings when the swing gets a little long. My point with the BP thing was to show that I think it means he's more than capable, all he has to do is make the adjustments. But for him to succeed this year, a first step will be increasing his walks by about 20 while decreasing his strikeouts by at least that much. Gotta figure that as a contact hitter, just making contact should at least yield a few more hits. Another year in AA should be of great benefit, especially since he's in the same lineup as Cruz, Bibbs, Van denberg, E. Cruz, and possibly Mendez, Crabbe, Palmisano, Anderson, and Rottino. Not a great lineup, but should be fairly deep. The real question I have is...how good is his defense? We've heard great reviews from scouts, and lukewarm fan comments. Which is it?

He has a good swing, but just misses(repeatedly)...give me a break. so lend, I take it you don't play softball or golf then, because surely anyone who plays them knows what this means. Heck, I reported in the Fall League that Gwynn took the second best BP of anyone I saw (behind only Lance Niekro, whose knuckler amazed me). Gwynn absolutely pounded the ball, and to all fields. If I saw Weeks take 50 swings during the Fall League, one was a homer, 10 were true basehits, and at least 15 didn't make it to the pitchers' mound. I know that doesn't mean much, but it's all a matter of translating practice into game performance.

why not take a stud 1b if he fell to us? I mean, if Fielder has a good first half, we could ask for 3 stud prospects for him alone. You take the person with the best chance of making an impact while also factoring in injury, character, etc. You can always trade a stud for other studs

I'm a fan of Tony because the scouting report screams of his father. But I'm not expecting him to be a clone. I met him in the Fall League and he's a good guy, and he said he really appreciates all the thoughts from us fans, and that it means a lot knowing we check out the boxscores and game recaps each day/night. I still have some hope for Josh Murray, but he'll need a big spring training, since we've got some other low level Shortstops

off-field incident could be anything. I knew someone in college who came home from the summer league with a broken hamate bone needing surgery. His first morning at school for his senior year, he jumped off his lofted bed, landing on his tshirt. unfortunately, under the shirt was a full water bottle, causing him to fall awkwardly and break his leg or ankle. Bad luck happens to some I guess

Colby, I was thinking. -We know Counsell wanted to start somewhere. -We know the Dbacks wanted him back from the moment they traded him. Given that the Dbacks weren't going to forfeit their 1st pick, wouldn't it have made sense to offer arbitration? We would have landed a 3rd rounder and a supplemental pick, right? I guess I'm saying that we knew (or at least presumed) that Counsell would return to the Dbacks at all costs. We knew he wanted to start and would likely have rejected arbitration. Did they make they right choice?

Hey DHonks, I guess some posts were meant to go in the "Trade Rumors" forum okay, the latest I've heard is that nobody seems to know what happened. They know he was claimed by the Brewers, and nobody seems to know if he's Brewers' property, Dbacks' property, or what. Dbacks minor league coaches and coordinators either don't know or are playing dumb.

and who knows, they're Dollars probably go a lot farther in setting them up for life in the home country. If the dream is to make it to MLB, and it falls apart, they may not have many other opportunities

I still think there's more talent in HS, and it's more projectable. As I've said, I think a typical college junior class has already been picked through when seniors in high school and the fair amount of talented players who went to JuCo. So in any given year it would seem that the 100th best high school player has more upside than the 100th best college player, and therefore I'd shift my efforts to drafting even more high schoolers.

yeah Mass, I'll ask him what happened with that. Like I said at the time, the unfortunate problem in clubhouses is you hear EVERYTHING, and I'm assuming somehow things weren't worked out or he was fed bad info

and Al, don't forget that trades do happen. Just think about how we got Vizcaino.

my source has been wrong before, but this is just what I was told. The problem with being an insider is he hears all the facts about a week in advance, along with all the rumors.

Mass, I was wondering about the claiming, too, but my insider doesn't know the waiver rules all that well, just that somehow the Brewers claimed him and were working out a trade. Also, I heard that the Dbacks and A's had a done deal with the Valverde-Byrnes swap. All that was needed was for a Dbacks official to get Valverde to the US for a physical, but somehow all the executives thought someone else was calling him or his agent, and nobody took the initiative to call. So when Valverde still hadn't arrived for a physical after several days, the A's assumed something was wrong with him phyisically, and began demanding that Cintron be included in the deal. So if the Byrnes to Dbacks deal happens, sounds like it's no longer just Valverde.

I heard that the Brewers have claimed Phil Stockman from the Dbacks. He's a big Australian righty who throws hard, and is kind of a project. He was DFA'd, and the Brewers are working out a trade that should be finalized by Wednesday or Thursday.

wow, another great looking signing that screams of Jayson Durocher and Dan Kolb

wow, those zero walks really help the whip.

wow, that's a name from the past

Once again, congrats fellas. You have created the site where Die-hard fans come together to get excited, and you also apparently are now a prime source for some visitors.

94+ people for the second straight day! When I was posting around noon yesterday, there were 2 or 3 users. Pretty sweet. Way to go Brian et al. This is where fans go to share their enthusiasm

I was looking at Keith Ginter's page, and his 2003 stats could use some updating

Diggins and Bruso may go to AAA on a make or break plan. Signing Davis is alright. Before he blew out his arm with the Mets (I think), he was the talk of spring training and the early season cause he was hitting 100 mph.

Sorry to be in your face this morning, DH, No problem gregmag. It means someone's reading my posts. Basically, I mention Cirillo for two reasons. One, he was a great hitter as recently as 3 or 4 years ago. Two, as it stands now we will have Branyan, Ginter and Helms in Milwaukee. Erickson probably is the AAA shortstop. But at 3b, our nearest guy might be Enrique Cruz in AA. I figure rather than sign a 6year free agent who we'll let go at the end of the year, why not sign a guy who--with some luck--can either be called up or traded?

good to see Cirillo with 2 hits. I would be all over giving him a AAA contract and spring training invite. It magically he were to refind his stroke, that's a legit 2 or 3 hitter