A round of applause for Arizona Phil and his Cubs ST coverage!

I thought I knew a little about baseball til I started reading your posts here at TCR, Arizona Phil.
The depth of your knowledge and your frank, watchful eye have kept us all deeply in the loop of our favorite team.
Thanks.

And now...2012!
Whatever the hell it turns out to be. 

Submitted by CubbyBlue on Wed, 04/04/2012 - 8:34am

Comments

Submitted by matthewcooksie
on Wed, 04/04/2012 - 8:41am

Here here. Thanks, Az Phil

Submitted by jacos
on Wed, 04/04/2012 - 8:53am

Thanks, Phil.
Always appreciate the in depth information.
Head over to the Woodshed in Mesa and have some wings on me.

Submitted by tim815
on Wed, 04/04/2012 - 9:03am

I love your spring coverage. I love your coverage when the rest of the media returns to Chicago even more. Then we get XST coverage we'd get nowehere else.

Submitted by Hrubes20
on Wed, 04/04/2012 - 10:33am

I can't agree with this enough. Every day I check the site, hoping to see an AZ Phil recap about a game at Fitch Park that I couldn't follow elsewhere. Other teams might get a tweet or two about EXST or Fall Instructs, but the Cub fans get full box scores. Thank you, and I will most definately have to buy you a beer (or other beverage if you do not consume alcohol) when I finally am able to convince my wife to let me attend ST.

Submitted by JoePepitone
on Wed, 04/04/2012 - 9:20pm

You could buy him a beer at Dwight Patterson Field -- no alcohol is allowed at Fitch Park (and it's strictly a BYOB situation there).

Submitted by ced landrum
on Wed, 04/04/2012 - 9:34am

Yep keep up the good work AZ Phil.

Submitted by Charlie
on Wed, 04/04/2012 - 10:12am

Absolutely. Thank you, AZ Phil!

Thanks to all those who keep TCR alive and engaging! Thanks for the work and energy you put into this blog!

Submitted by Hagsag
on Wed, 04/04/2012 - 10:32am

I have learned more from Phil than any baseball expert.

Submitted by SheffieldCornelia
on Fri, 04/06/2012 - 7:31am

Agree--not only about how the Cubs' minor leaguers are doing, but also about good roster management and even batting and pitching tidbits. Thank you!

Submitted by Simba63
on Wed, 04/04/2012 - 10:33am

I seldom post, but often read. I too wanted to thank you for your coverage and insight!

Submitted by The E-Man
on Wed, 04/04/2012 - 10:47am

Ditto from me, AZ PHIL. I never would have had the full appreciaton of how badly the Hendry regime mis-managed the 40-man without your thoughtful and detailed explanations. Thanks so much!

And, of course, your attendance reports frlom EXST and AFL. ;)

May the Cubs finally win a World Series in our lifetimes and when we can still enjoy it.

Submitted by chuck
on Wed, 04/04/2012 - 11:02am

Ditto Ditto Ditto

Submitted by Tito
on Wed, 04/04/2012 - 11:12am

Careful with the praise, someone is gonna make a "massaging his balls" comment soon.

Submitted by Old and Blue
on Wed, 04/04/2012 - 11:25am

There really are no other sources for the kind of stuff Phil writes.

It was also somewhat refreshing to see you express some opinions (not always favorable) on TheoCorp's early moves, particularly regarding the rule 5 stuff. And your excitement about Rizzo carries a lot of weight for me, too. Let's hope you find some more guys to give us some hope and that some of the lesser knowns that seem to have promise keep growing.

Submitted by George Altman
on Wed, 04/04/2012 - 11:26am

For me, what Phil brings most is his first hand evaluations and opinions on Cubs minor league 'prospects' in actual game situations (i.e. ST Exhibitions, EXT Spring games, AZ Rookie league, Fall Instructional, etc.). It's also obvious he has access to certain Cubs player development people as well as other organizations scouts/player development people. From this base, he puts his evaluations in print.

For me, Law, Sickels, Callis, Goldstein,et al do way more talking/texting MLB scouts/minor league people than actually viewing prospects 2, 3, 4 times a year. Since they're all national writers, I understand they have to do that to 'cover' 30 major league teams. Again for me, I take all of that type of evaluation with a major grain of salt.

At the end of the day (and to use an analogy from the intelligence community), I prefer boots on the ground intel to aerial/satellite recon.

Last point, at the end of the day all 'scouting' reports on Top 10/15/25/30 prospects is future predictions written in Jello. If/until they reach the majors (or even AA), adjust when the league adjusts to them, then adjust again, no one knows how any of them are going to turn out.

So, based on that, please keep the reports coming AZ Phil and I would love to take our families out to Vito's in Mesa for pizza (if it's still there) the next time we're in the Valley.

Submitted by Jim Hickmans Bat
on Wed, 04/04/2012 - 1:56pm

Ditto. Phil provides updates throughout the season from the Cubs activities in Mesa, we'd get that info nowhere else without him. Thanks AZP......

Submitted by George Altman
on Wed, 04/04/2012 - 11:31am

n

Submitted by George Altman
on Wed, 04/04/2012 - 11:31am

n.

Submitted by The E-Man
on Wed, 04/04/2012 - 11:34am

Geez GEORGE! So enthralled you had to post it three times?

Submitted by George Altman
on Wed, 04/04/2012 - 11:51am

Still figuring out how to use this computer.

Submitted by The E-Man
on Wed, 04/04/2012 - 12:00pm

try hitting the save button once.

Submitted by Tony S.
on Wed, 04/04/2012 - 2:00pm

Here here

Submitted by Mike Wellman
on Wed, 04/04/2012 - 2:10pm

The Wizard of Az...

Submitted by John Beasley
on Thu, 04/05/2012 - 7:47am

Yes!

Thanks for another great spring, Phil.

Submitted by artskoe
on Wed, 04/04/2012 - 2:12pm

Right on AZ Phil!

Submitted by QuietMan
on Wed, 04/04/2012 - 2:45pm

Thanks AZ Phil! Thanks Rob G.!

And thank you to everyone for making this such an enjoyable place.

Submitted by dc60124
on Wed, 04/04/2012 - 6:13pm

thank you phil!!

Submitted by Wrigley Rat
on Wed, 04/04/2012 - 10:00pm

Thank you Phil!!!!!!!!

Submitted by Arizona Phil
on Wed, 04/04/2012 - 6:13pm

Thanks, everybody.

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