TheCrew07

Biddle is already 225 lbs? How much projection would he have left? I realize he's 6' 6", but looking at the various videos of him out there he's a pretty solid young man. As he's already topping out at 92, is it feasible he reaches 95?

Not just one of the best basketball coaches, one of the best coaches period. Rest in peace sir, I've read all your books and you've made a positive impact on my life even though I never had the opportunity to meet you. Thank you.

I think we've set the bar pretty low when 5 ER in any amount of IP isn't considered bad... between Milwaukee and T-Rats I'm not participating in much winning baseball this season.

The T-Rats lose another 1 run game, this time in extras, the are now 0-6 on the season in extra innings. My "beat the streak" streak ended as well... boo.

He didn't pitch well either.

Good thing Escobar sucks so much at defense.

<table class="dataTableClass" id="table_3" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr class="headerRow"><td style="text-align: center;">Player</td><td style="text-align: center;">IP</td><td style="text-align: center;">H</td><td style="text-align: center;">R</td><td style="text-align: center;">ER</td><td style="text-align: center;">BB</td><td style="text-align: center;">SO</td><td style="text-align: center;">HR</td><td style="text-align: center;">ERA</td></tr><tr class="dataRow even"> <td id="cell_2" class="dataCell" style="width: 250px;" align="left">[url=http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?pos=P&sid=t556&t=p_pbp&pid=455111]Lofgren [/url]</td><td id="cell_2" class="dataCell" style="width: 18px;" align="center">2.2</td><td id="cell_2" class="dataCell" style="width: 18px;" align="center">9</td><td id="cell_2" class="dataCell" style="width: 18px;" align="center">7</td><td id="cell_2" class="dataCell" style="width: 18px;" align="center">7</td><td id="cell_2" class="dataCell" style="width: 18px;" align="center">1</td><td id="cell_2" class="dataCell" style="width: 18px;" align="center">0</td><td id="cell_2" class="dataCell" style="width: 18px;" align="center">1</td><td id="cell_2" class="dataCell" style="width: 26px;" align="center">5.49</td></tr></tbody></table> I really wanted Lofgren to do well but it's just not happening thus far.

I guess maybe Lucroy wasn't the problem...

I wouldn't be opposed to Krieger and Davis switching spots.

*crickets*

Ha Chris! I quote, "You know Haley is wild when Romero takes the first pitch." Romero is a free swinger, and Haley just walked him for his 7th walk of the game. If the T-Rats wouldn't have cost themselves 3 outs on the bases so far they might have broken this open already.

That commercial is way better than a commercial for a restaurant that used to be on the Huntsville broadcast, the dude sounded like he had mouth full food samples while talking during the commercial, it drove me nuts. Anyway, Garfield guns another on a Strike em Out Throw em Out to end the Lake County 3rd, still 0-0 to the 4th.

No, technically that would be Madison Bumgarner, a Giants prospect. Hellickson is the Rays best prospect, rated number 18 overall, but you're pretty much splitting hairs between pitching prospects when discussing Perez, Bumgarner, and Hellickson. The Rays rotation is already loaded, one of those pitchers would have to go make room for Hellickson the way it is, right now he's blocked and stuck in AAA unless they would promote to him the bullpen, but I don't think that would happen till later in the season. If the Rays were going to move a pitcher out of the rotation I would guess Matt Garza maybe as he's not homegrown and they are going year to year with him in Arby. James Shields has the most service time, just over 3 years coming into the season, but he's got that wonderful contract. If the Rays wanted to trade him I'd take him in a heartbeat. James Shields rhp 4 years/$11.25M (2008-11), plus 2012-14 club options 4 years/$11.25M (2008-11), plus 2012-14 club options signed extension with Tampa Bay 1/23/0808:$1M, 09:$1.5M, 10:$2.5M, 11:$4.25M, 12:$7M club option ($2M buyout), 13:$9M club option ($1.5M buyout), 14:$12M club option ($1M buyout) value of 2012-14 club options may increase package to $38Mperformance bonuses based on innings pitched, starts, and Cy Young voting may increase package to $44M 1 year/$0.3949M (2007)re-signed 3/07 1 year (2006)contract purchased 11/05 ML service: 3.125

Wisconsin Timber Rattlers Pre Game Audio Chris interviews Lake County radio announcer Craig Deas. I normally don't link the non player related interviews, and Chris does quite a few, but I thought this was pretty insightful. For example I didn't realize that the Indians have 4 affiliates in the state of Ohio. They also discuss that Lake County is only about 25 minutes from Progressive Field, the Indians skipping prospects past Lake County, and OF prospect Bo Greenwell. The T-Rats will also see rehabbing Cleveland 1B Andy Marte this weekend.

Jake only pitched 47 innings last year not counting EST, I wouldn't expect his innings to exceed 100 by very much and he's already pitched more than 46 for the T-Rats this season He's on the back end of the tandem for a bit to limit his innings, it will happen a couple of more times throughout the season I would think.

Dennis will get all of this series off, he's not expected back until Tuesday.

Is everyone having problems with the board just randomly freezing while loading pages and trying to make posts this morning or is there something wrong on my end?

lol apparently I'm never going to live that moment of frustration down *sigh*

I'm not sure how he's responsible for how poorly the majority of their young pitchers have performed as thus far in their careers, but admittedly I haven't seen the Orioles play a single game this season. I've mostly just followed their prospect pitching and their MLB results. I'd expect a couple of them to struggle, but not all of them they way they have... maybe it's pitching philosophy type thing that's backfired horribly?

I've always been high on Cain, and I'm pretty high on Schafer, so I didn't and still don't view acquiring Gomez as a position of organizational need or smart move in general. Of course I like toolsy players, who doesn't? However I would have much rather signed a stop gap to Cain. Granted our OF defense will be pretty good with Gomez and Cain, but offensively either one of those 2 guys is pretty weak in a corner OF spot. Lawrie and Gamel are potentially better fits in RF if they don't stick in the IF. Actually, McGehee in LF would be ideal, but I really despise the idea of Braun playing RF.

The only chance he's really had to make this move was the package that brought in Sabathia. Nobody wanted to trade pitching for Hardy or Hart and we haven't really had another trade chip since the team is still in the middle of rebuilding. I don't disagree with you that the problem is with the pitching, I just think your expectations of how to acquire that pitching are off.That's fine, but how about offering a different solution? We clearly didn't develop enough impact pitching. We clearly have never had enough impact pitching at MLB., Finally, we clearly are not able to compete with the big boys for impact pitching in FA. So since we didn't start with enough, have only developed Yo, and aren't able to buy impact pitching, how do we acquire said pitching if not through trades? If you agree that trading is the answer, then the question becomes what are you willing to give up for that pitching? I've been willing to trade anyone not named Ryan Braun for that pitching because I believe cost controlled impact pitching is that important. If I recall you've never been in favor of trading Fielder until right before FA, you didn't want to trade Hardy, you think Melvin got good value for O and Carlos Lee, and I don't recall your opinion renting Sabathia or trading Hart when Atlanta and San Fran were rumored to be sniffing around. The problem as I see it is that this issue should have been addressed at least twice since 2005, but now Melvin has backed himself into such a corner that he's dealing from a position of extreme weakness. His best hope is that a couple of teams get into a bidding war for Fielder (if he's even willing to trade him), if that doesn't happen my gut feeling is that we're pretty much screwed hoping for our young pitching to pan out wonderfully.

First, that's a pretty superficial evaluation of Heether which I don't agree with. Second, Cruz has a career .660 OPS, of the 2 players, he was the least likely player to be claimed based on his career. Third, see the paragraph in my previous post about the pitching... do we really need a 40 man full of all the same type of pitching?

I don't think that is the case at all, he's a utility guy with much greater position versatility than Cruz, he can legitimately play every position but C, SS, and CF. Cruz has spent limited in the time in the OF in the minors, but he's more of a utility IF. Adam also has the much higher career OPS, .788 vs .660, I think they DFA'd the wrong player. It's not that Cruz wasn't performing well this season, it's just he's a right handed Counsell. Suppan's talent is completely replaceable, I'm not sure I understand the fascination with pitching depth around here sometimes. A bad pitcher, aka a warm body, doesn't make someone worth keeping around. Depth for depth's sake really hasn't done anything for the team. We now have a 40 man roster full of the same type of pitching... surely the younger pitchers are a better option than Suppan at this point, not to mention what's the difference if we lose 2 of those excess pitchers? Are the results for the big club going to be demonstrably worse if we were to cut ties with 2 of them? For the most part they are all the same. I called my shot on this when Stern was DFA'd, I didn't like where this DFA thing was heading, I do not want Cain called up in the midst of his best season to sit the bench for any length of time. Is his time in Milwaukee going to be the difference for this team? Let him stay down and keep playing, if the youngsters aren't starting, I don't want them accumulating service time on the bench during another losing season. I didn't like extending Gamel's service time by dropping him on the 60 day DL, I was fine DFAing Heether with Stern still on the 40 man even though I kind of like him, but with Stern gone from the 40 man, Heether was the only player between Cain and the bench. Katin isn't on the 40 man roster, he's not a viable option at this point. The team still has to clear 2 more roster spots when Riske and Gamel come off the 60 DL.

That's what it happens when you succumb to the Dark Side.

Well that stinks, but not unexpected.