With a day off today, we can all sit back and enjoy the lovely post-McGriff glow. If Baylor actually lets Matt Stairs play left field while Rondell White is hurt, that makes the lineup significantly better than if he decides to keep playing Delino DeShields out there. With The Franchise (finally) being sent down to make room for McGriff, that means one less outfielder out there, which means Stairs might actually get some playing time. He's not much with his glove, but he's the second-best offensive player on the team and he should be playing nearly every day.
The Cubs made a minor deal today, acquiring David Weathers and minor league pitcher Roberto Miniel from the Brewers for Ruben Quevedo and minor league outfielder Peter Zoccolillo. Rotonews calls Miniel a good prospect, and his K/BB ratio, a good indicator of future success, is a sterling 117/27. I hope John Sickels will write a few words about Miniel -- if he is a hot prospect, then this looks like a very good trade for the Cubs. Quevedo has some promise but is not ready to help the team this year, and Weathers is a solid middle reliever who should shift Van Poppel and Fyhrie down a seat in the bullpen. Zoccolillo is a non-prospect, so getting someone good on the back end of the deal is a major bonus.
I still love TCR, please don't hate me.
---
Garbage song, I Hate Love.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOcVhBu0YjE
scrubbies lose...18-28
as an aside...though jim d. hasn't been awful in the booth, it's a bit disappointing he didn't/doesn't do the amount of "homework" getting to know the team or critiquing things being done like bob did.
so far, when i hear jim d. calling a game it feels like he's a national "game of the week" generic type announcer that doesn't know the team well.
he's a full-on 100% replacement for "bad joke bob" type humor, though.
link is fine
MLB.com's error page
http://www.sbnation.com/lookit/2013/5/23/4359426/mlb-error-page-gifs
Now pitching for the Pirates --- Jose Contreras?!
welly gets his 2nd walk of the season in his 141st PA.
I imagine that things will pick up a bit with the draft, promotions, and trades. It seems that most of the remaining posters are on board with the rebuilding process so the discussions have been slim.
all kidding aside, this team really has been running on a single bright spot (the starting rotation) and rizzo pounding the ball hard when he's not slumping (and his extension)
welly's doing as expected (though a few more homers/doubles would be nice)...valbuena is helping people forget about i.stewart, though he's not doing anything extraordinary...kevin gregg has been a nice surprise as the new closer...castro is being castro, though a few more walks or hits would be nice since he's performing slightly below expectations...
It's definitely hard to get excited about this team. When they suck like this it feels like a huge part of my summer is just completely missing, so I want to come here and get a little bit of a Cubs fix, but lately it's 100% split squad games at Fitch Park. I can't stand any of the major newspapers' coverage, and I really don't like BCB or any of the other Cubs blogs. I guess I just miss the good old days with 200+ comment threads, even if 90% of it was just The Real Neal arguing with himself.
The people demand more free entertainment, Rob G!
broken link...probably cuz MLB protects their rights on the innerweb on a scale music + film industries should be jealous of.
click this... http://mlb.com/ajkls
refresh for different lulz.
official Cubs MLB squad post for april/may - everyone sucks except for the starting pitching (sans e.jackson) and when a.rizzo isn't on a no-hit, major-K streak
save to cut/paste for june-september
So I haven't commented much lately, and I don't want to be that guy, but is this site now exclusively dedicated to Extended Spring Training? I absolutely love everything AZ Phil brings to the table, but could we maybe get a few posts about the big league squad?
I still love TCR, please don't hate me.
Nice start for Almora -- 3-4 with a double for Kane County.
Baez has picked it up lately, hits in 13 of his last 14 games..something like 19/56 with 3 BB and 9 K over that span.
That Liberace movie is on HBO this week end.
/just saying
wow...that rizzo K in the 8th was a swing even sammy sosa would rag on.