SB Nation User Blog: WayneCampbell08

Az Fall League Cubs

WayneCampbell08 — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 01:14:48 -0000

Well, I went the first of at least a half dozen games I'll be watching here until next Monday. Luckily, I got to see virtually the entire Cubs' contingent today. Unluckily, the only Cub who didn't play was Josh Vitters, the guy I wanted to scout the most. Maybe tomorrow, so here's what happened today :

Starlin Castro - hit a couple of sharp singles through the infield, drove in a run with a sac fly and made a great play on a bad hop ground ball in the ninth inning and showed a strong arm to throw out Truinfel. On the bad side, he chased a couple pitches outside the zone preventing him from taking a walk in his third AB and striking out in his last.

Andrew Cashner - had another excellent outing today. Pitched ahead in the count to almost every batter, no walks and 4 Ks in the same number of innings. 49 pitches of which 35 were strikes shows the dominance of a #1. The scout I talked to had him at 93-96 for the game. The majority of the hits were of the seeing eye grounder variety. Only Brent Morel squared up a fastball and laced a line drive to left.

James Russell, Jon Gaub & Blake Parker all came in and pitched an inning each after Cashner left. Only Parker gave up a run and that was due solely to the CF losing a ball in the sun and letting a fly ball drop 5 feet away at the warning track. Nothing there to get really excited about really.

The player of the game had to be PJ Phillips of the Angels. He crushed a homer and a double and made a diving catch in center field. Tosoni had the hardest hit ball though. He obliterated a fastball about 440 to straightaway center field that nailed that 50' tall batters eye for a double. It hit at least 15' above the rest of the fence.

That's about it. The Solar Sox play in Surprise tomorrow and I'll make the hour long drive to try to catch Vitters in action. Fortunately, he made the All-Star game Saturday so there's a good chance I'll catch him then as well. Though the player I'm dieing to see then is Strasburg. I'll just keep replying to this post instead of making new ones every day.

Steven Strasburg Update

WayneCampbell08 — Sat, 30 May 2009 15:41:41 -0000

I didn't see it mentioned in the minor league daily update so I figured I'd start up a new thread. In his first start in the NCAA regionals, he flat out dominated ACC champion Virginia, ranked #7 in the country. He allowed only 8 hits and 2 ER in 7 IP while walking none and striking out 15. He gave up a HR in the first and threw two wild pitches that helped Virginia score another run in the second. He got stuck with the loss as the Aztecs failed to score until the 8th and the bullpen let the game get out of reach in the bottom half of the inning. It'll probably be his last start until the Draft because their next game is against UC Irvine who's ranked #1 by many. Here's his final stats for the year :

109 IP, 65 H, 17 R, 16 ER, 19 BB, 195 K, 4 HR, 11 WP, 4 HBP

1.32 ERA, 0.771 WHIP, 1.57 BB/9IP, 16.1 K/9IP, 0.33 HR/9IP, 10.3 K:BB

If there was any doubt in anyone's mind that he should be the first pick in the draft, there shouldn't be anymore. There is nobody close to his talent level and his production backs it up. It'd be like passing on Justin Upton to draft Jay Bruce.

Undrafted Free Agents

WayneCampbell08 — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 23:39:09 -0000

Who do you want to see the Bears sign? Southerland, a FB, got some love in the 7th round thread. There were about a half dozen QBs on Kiper's 10 Best Remaining list that could develop into a decent backup to Cutler. A Georgia LB was #1 on his list though, Daniel Ellerbee. He could contribute to the ST at least. There were a couple of RBs on that list I wouldn't mind to see try out for the team either. Jeremiah Johnson, Kory Sheets & PJ Hill would be nice to see trying out for the team.

OT : Pedro Alvarez and How It's Hard to be a Pirates' Fan

WayneCampbell08 — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 23:10:42 -0000

Well, Scott Boras is at it again. Now he's trying to get Pedro's contract voided because it was signed after the midnight August 15th deadline. In essence, he's trying to shake down the Pirates for more money. In the process, he might take down another one of his clients, Eric Hosmer, who Pittsburgh believes submitted his contract after Pedro. Here's a link to the ESPN story :

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3556133

I think it'd be hilarious if he took down another one of his clients with this move. I'd love to see Hosmer win a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Boras. Though this makes me wonder if Vitters really signed by midnight. I'm sure there have been other deals made after the deadline but nobody was slimy enough to agree to a contract then renege a couple of weeks later.

The Kershaw Decree

WayneCampbell08 — Thu, 08 May 2008 21:10:44 -0000

I just read about it yesterday on CBS Sportsline maybe someone closer to LA or Jacksonville can tell me more. I'm surprised nobody has posted anything about it yet. Looks like Clayton is going to pitch out of the bullpen for the next week or so to keep his innings down. They also want to limit his innings to just 25 per month while in the minors. So what do you guys think? Good idea, bad idea, don't care?