Since this JOT pales in comparison to the other news of the past 24 hours, I'm going to have some fun with it.
Memphis Redbirds 2 @ Iowa Cubs 6
The Stranger within my gate,
He may be true or kind
But he does not talk my talk-
I cannot feel his mind.
I see the face and the eyes and the mouth,
But no baserunners left behind.
The men of my own stock
They may do ill, or well,
But they walk the batters I have wanted to,
They are the walks I gave as well;
And we do not need interpreters
When we go to Iowa; hell.
The Stranger within my gates,
He may be evil or good
But I cannot tell where his curveball is going-
What arm slot sways his mood;
Nor, when the Gods of his far-off Baltimore
Shall repossess his blood.
The men of my own stock,
Bitter bad they may be,
But, at least, they hear the things I hear,
And see the things I see;
And whatever I think of them and their likes
They think of the likes of me.
This was my father's belief
And this is also mine:
Let the corn be all one sheaf-
And the grapes be all one vine,
Ere, our children's teeth are set on edge
By Arrieta's bread and wine.
Junior Lake had 2 triples and a double. Logan Watkins had a triple. Donnie Murphy and Brad Nelson each had a 2-run blast. Guillermo Moscoso had a nice start.
Tennessee Smokies 4 @ Montgomery Smokies 3 (13 innings)
I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
and wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And of the pedestal, these words appear:
"My name is Torreyes, 2nd basemen of 2nd basemen:
Look on my hit tool, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
Christian Villanueva had a double and home run. He also struck out thrice. Arismendy Alcantara had his 26th error, his 21st double, and his 20th stolen base. Kyle Hendricks pitched 5 scoreless, walkless innings in which he struck out 5. His ERA is now 2.06. Yeiper Castillo got the win in 3 perfect relief innings.
Chicago Cubs 7 @ Oakland Athletics 8
O Feldman, my Feldman; our fearful trip is done;
The pitcher's weather'd every rack, the "prize" we sought is won;
Des Moines is near, the cows I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
But O heart! heart! heart!
O, the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Feldman lies,
For Baltimore instead.
O Feldman, my Feldman, rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up- for you the L flag is flung – for you the organ trills;
For you beer cups and ribbon'd wreaths – for you the shores' small-crowding;
For you they call, the drunken mass, their blitzed-out faces turning;
O Feldman! Dear Father!
This arm beneath your head;
It is some dream you ply your trade
For Baltimore instead.
My Feldman does not answer, his shoulder is pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will:
Arrieta's anchored safe and sound, his voyage closed and done
From fearful trip, the small trade chip, comes in with object won;
Exult, Des Moines, and ring, O bells!
But I, with mournful head,
Will watch as Feldman pitches,
For Baltimore instead.
The Cubs blew a save in the 8th. At least Soriano hit another home run.
Kane County Cougars 3 @ Wisconsin Timber Rattlers 5
No one on this team was traded yesterday. Albert Almora went 1-4, as did Kevin Encarnacion and Willson Contreras. Jeimer Candelario also went 1-4, but his hit was a 2-run homer in the first. He also stole a base and scored another run.
Tayler Scott went 6.1 innings and allowed 5 runs, 3 earned. He only struck out 2, so bad things were likely to happen.
Boise Hawks 10 @ Salem Witches 5
Everyone but Carlos Penalver and Daniel Lockhart had exactly one hit; Penalver had 0 and Lockhart had 2. David Bote had a home run, as did Jacob Rogers in a pinch-hit role.
Lots of new-toy pitchers saw action in this one. Paul Blackburn had a rough go of it in 3 innings, allowing 3 runs (2 earned) as he struggled to locate his pitches. Trey Masek saw an inning of work and surrendered an unearned run. Tyler Skulina pitched the 7th and allowed no runs. Tyler Bremer pitched the 8th and 9th, allowing a single run for the save.
DSL Cubs 2 @ DSL Mets1 0 (7.5 innings)
Obligatory Juan Paniagua sighting! 4 innings, 1 hit, no walks, 3 strikeouts, no runs.
10 runs scored in this game, 5 of them earned. Dae-Eun Rhee sighting, as well as Starling Peralta, Marcos Mateo, and Erick Leal. All of them allowed no earned runs.
Comments
@ Berselius:
I don’t think you really even understand what a good player is when you’re a kid. I loved Shawon Dunston and I was 10 when he reached the big leagues. Oddibe McDowell was one of my favorite players after seeing him in the Olympics. I don’t know that I ever saw him play after that. Oil Can Boyd was another favorite. I wish I could say it was because he was good. It was probably the name. I also was a huge fan of George Brett, but he was really good at baseball. My 14 year old nephew is a Pirates fan and his favorite players are Andrew McCutchen (good choice) and every one in the Pirates bullpen (not a good choice). I don’t have the heart to tell him that relievers aren’t very good pitchers. He’s a kid.
dmick89Quote Reply
Good stuff, Myles. Well done.
dmick89Quote Reply
(dying laughing)
(dying laughing)
(dying laughing)
BerseliusQuote Reply
http://www.baseballamerica.com/draft/ask-ba-which-draft-picks-will-become-no-1-prospects/
dmick89Quote Reply
dmick89 wrote:
I loved Shawon Dunston too! What the hell!?!
joshQuote Reply
Good stuff above, also.
joshQuote Reply
Jerome Walton was a recent bust I enjoyed
MylesQuote Reply
Can you JOT
In haiku for the next one?
Would be challenging.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
The number of Brewers fan friends I have who idolize Craig Counsell is evidence enough I think that little kids don’t have any clue what a good player is.
sitrick2Quote Reply
Myles wrote:
*looks down at the Geo Soto shirsey that he’s wearing*
BerseliusQuote Reply
@ Myles:
Same here. Kids just have no idea how good most players are. The obvious ones are easy to figure out: Barry Bonds, Ken Griffey, Jr., Clemens, Maddux, etc. Beyond that, it’s pretty difficult.
dmick89Quote Reply
@ josh:
I had (have) a Shawon Dunston glove. What, are you people saying he wasn’t good? I refuse to believe that!
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
I remember being upset over the Bell/Sosa trade (and I wasn’t the only one).
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
@ Rizzo the Rat:
He couldn’t throw accurately or hit. But he had range!
joshQuote Reply
@ Rizzo the Rat:
I was too. Pissed me off.
dmick89Quote Reply
Dunston was the prototypical replacement player. Never any good at anything, yet somehow stuck around for years.
joshQuote Reply
@ josh:
He was OK for a few years actually. His career was too long by half, though.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Assessing Dunston’s value depends greatly on which fielding metric one uses. TZ sees him as terrible, but FRAA has him as about average. Accordingly, he has 20 career WARP, which is quite a decent career.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
What do people here think is a realistic price for Cliff Lee. His contract is 3/75, so if you pay that, what would the Cubs have to give up in addition. He would look great at the top of the rotation with F7, even though he’s old he’s awesome, and they’d only have him for 3 seasons.
NateQuote Reply
Honestly, I don’t know why the Cubs would pay more for Cliff Lee than his contract. Back ends of contracts already pay players more than they’re worth (usually). If the Phillies are perfectly rational (unlikely) they should be more than willing to get the remainder of his contract off their hands.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
@ josh:
Dunston got slowed by injuries and was playing SS when most SSs were terrible with the bat. There was a period where I would have taken a healthy Dunston over any other SS in the National League except for Barry Larkin.
Would I have rather had Dwight Gooden, though? Yeah.
Aisle424Quote Reply
BTW, Lynn McGlothen was my favorite Cub pitcher for a long time because he pitched in my first game at Wrigley.
Aisle424Quote Reply
@ Nate:
I’m still not convinced the phillies are selling, believe it or not. Apparently they have a new tv deal coming up, and Amaro has mentioned that as a reason that they won’t. They were actually one of the teams scouting Matt Garza the other day.
GWQuote Reply
@ Aisle424:
Les Lancaster was my favorite Cub pitcher for a while in my youth because I had his baseball card and thought the fact that he led the league in balks was a cool thing (dying laughing).
BerseliusQuote Reply
Les Lancaster? Wasn’t that the guy from WKRP in Cincinnati?
MuckerQuote Reply
Well done, Aisley. How was New Zealand?
Rice CubeQuote Reply
http://www.baseballnation.com/2013/7/3/4490950/biogenesis-documents-arod-tmz-kickstarter-campaign
BerseliusQuote Reply
@ Berselius:
Big fan of him for awhile. Especially after that long scoreless streak in 1989.
dmick89Quote Reply
I remember having high hopes that Terry Adams would be the Cubs’ closer of the future.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Shawn Boskie had a good first start so I thought he was the next Maddux.
dmick89Quote Reply
http://www.theonion.com/video/new-wearable-computer-also-sucks-your-dick,33017/
dmick89Quote Reply
@ Rizzo the Rat:
Fangraphs is MUCH less forigiving to the Shawon-o-meter. It has him at 7.1 WAR for his career. I remember him being a decent fielder with a very wild arm.
joshQuote Reply
@ josh:
Yeah, Fangraphs uses TZ for years before UZR is available.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
I was a big Maddux fan. By far my favorite player of my youth. Hated rooting for the Braves every 5th day too, and was so glad to see him come back to the Cubs, his was the first and only jersey that I own. When my oldest son is old enough, I’ll give it to him, since I named him Maddux 🙂
mikeakaleroyQuote Reply
I was devastated when they lost Maddox. In retrospect, that was a good call on my part.
joshQuote Reply
@ josh:
Maddux, not http://maddox.xmission.com/
joshQuote Reply
@ mikeakaleroy:
I couldn’t cheer for the Braves. Hated them.
joshQuote Reply
http://deadspin.com/george-zimmerman-trial-interrupted-by-trolls-who-use-sk-658025291
lulz
mikeakaleroyQuote Reply
@ josh:
My grandmother was a big Braves fan, so everytime I’d visit, TBS would be on. That and it was fun rooting for a team that would get to the post season.
mikeakaleroyQuote Reply
@ josh:
I remember when that site was relevant!
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
@ dmick89:
Also for hitting that double in extras against the Giants. 1989 was a fun year.
uncle daveQuote Reply
I think we have to view yesterday’s splurge on IFA talent through the lens of the team’s larger investment in the international/Latin American market.
As the discussion on that investment revealed, this is a pricey (but cheap compared to FA investments) bet that a few MLB regulars could come out of that large pool of talent. That, and keep this in perspective – the $ the team spent yesterday is equivalent to less than 1 win on the FA market. If you can get a cost-controlled star out of that strategy every 5 years or so, you’ve more than made up for the investment. Couple that with the fact that young talent is at an increased premium after the new CBA, and this makes perfect sense as an organizational strategy.
26.2cubfanQuote Reply
that’s interesting, kiley mcd didn’t indicate that he would require a high bonus
GWQuote Reply
@ josh:
Dunston was by far my farovite player. But that was in part because of the name.
shawndgoldmanQuote Reply
@ uncle dave:
Will F. Clark. <— NOT my favorite player as a kid.
shawndgoldmanQuote Reply
I was never that huge on Dunston, to be honest (despite having the glove that he endorsed). I was into numbers even as a kid (I love thumbing through almanacs and Bill James Handbooks), and Shawon’s weren’t very impressive.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
I also didn’t start watching until the early 90s, so many of Dunston’s best years were behind him.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
@ shawndgoldman:
For sure, though the Giants of that era produced one of the two best Harry Caray moments that I can recall: “Now batting for the Giants is Matt Williams, who is 26 years old and nearly completely bald!”
uncle daveQuote Reply
Cubs MVP ———> DFA
BerseliusQuote Reply
@ GW:
I thought he said the Cubs signed Jimenez already.
dmick89Quote Reply
@ dmick89:
not officially. i’ve got a post coming up on that in a few.
GWQuote Reply
@ dmick89:
He did sign apparently, $2.8MM with a college scholarship too.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
@ Rice Cube:
link?
GWQuote Reply
@ Rice Cube:
found it. but that’s very strange…
GWQuote Reply
@ GW:
They completely blew past the 15% overage. I think they have to have a trade in the works and thus they’re waiting to ink the actual contracts while the slots come over, or else it really doesn’t make sense.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
new shit
GWQuote Reply