Reached out the Jeff Sackmann to find out what's up with www.minorleaguesplits.com yesterday.  Asked him if it was gone for good, if MLBAM asked him to take it down, etc.

Got a reply today.

[quote]It will probably be back in some form next season.  It's no longer a
very high priority of mine, so I don't know much more than that.[/quote]

This would seem to indicate that there are no Imperial entanglements to deal with, and he'll continue to support this (invaluable) site in the future.  I thanked him for everybody in the stats community for creating and maintaining the site over the years.

Looking at his twitter feed, it looks like he has other stuff going on in his life, and he's drifting away from the stats/prospects world for now.  It happens.

SPIBL (www.spibl.com) will be interviewing candidates for prospective ownership in the coming days.

The SPIBL is a 26 team salary/contract league that is wrapping up its 9th season.

Besides a great group of owners, we are in the forefront of the Strat league community when it comes to innovative ideas, such as our Ebay-style free agent website (which I designed and share with other leagues) and minor league play.

If interested, please PM me or e-mail me at admin@spibl.com.

Thanks for your consideration.

Mike

Long-time readers of the site and John's books know that he is a dyed in the wool Trek geek.

Having seen the various short and long-form trailers for the new J.J. Abrams "Star Trek" film, I'm curious to get John's thoughts on the "re-imagining" of the Original Series characters.

Is he deliriously excited?  Cautiously optimistic?  Disturbed that Paramount may retroactively destroy his childhood memories?

The public needs to know.

Pirates optioned McCutchen, Pearce, Bullington, and others yesterday.  While expected, I'm wondering if McCutchen will develop into the impact player that many people are expecting of him.

Or, will he simply be a right handed hitting version of Mark Kotsay?

This is now Dustin McGowan's third very good start in a row.  

Is this progress sustainable, or has he simply run into some good luck?  

Does anybody know if he's made any mechanical changes recently, or is this simply a case of him settling down once Toronto stopped changing his roles?

He is a former #1 Blue Jay prospect, but has been downgraded the past two years due to ineffectiveness.

Stewart's other numbers look okay.  .305 batting average, .374 OBP...however, he has just 3 home runs in 187 at-bats.  By all accounts, his defense at third is acceptable, and with Atkins' struggles, there is finally some opportunity.

Where did Stewart's power go?  Have the Rockies' screwed with him by trying to get him to hit the ball the other way?  At this point, I can't see him becoming a future regular third baseman or corner outfielder given the lack of home run power.

In 33 games, he's now .333/.469/.623 with 9 homers and an impressive 28/15 walk/strikeout ratio, including 14/2 in his last 10 games.

Does Dayton Moore really think anybody is going to give him anything greater than a C level prospect for Emil Brown at this point?  Butler needs to be challenged by big-league pitching.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/baseball/289073_gyroball18.html                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

Hi everybody, I've checked the usual suspects (www.minorleaguesplits, Baseball Cube, USA Today, Baseball America, www.milb.com, etc.) and cannot find minor league fielding stats anywhere. I'm not looking for anything all-encompassing...I'd even be happy with "error" totals. Does anybody have any ideas?

I suspect most of us haven't been following along, but the USA has qualified for the 2008 Olympics in baseball.  Of course, the US did not qualify for the 2004 Games.

The qualifying team is managed by Davey Johnson, and features Brandon Wood, Billy Butler, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Bryan LeHair, Mark Reynolds, Skip Schumaker, and Kurt Suzuki

The top two teams from the tournament qualify for the Olympics, and the USA and Cuba have already claimed these two spots.  USA and Cuba play tonight for the tournament championship.

Congrats to USA Baseball.

Upton currently has 5 errors in 21 games, for a .919 fielding percentage.  He continually shows that he can make the spectacular play, and has all of the tools, but struggles with consistency.  This has been going on for 3+ years now.

What now?  Perhaps he was always destined to be a centerfielder, but the D-Rays already have Baldelli/Crawford/Delmon/Dukes(maybe) in the OF.  If he is going to be a crappy fielder, should he be a crappy fielder at SS, where at least his bat makes him an above average regular?

The Rockies are apparently going to keep Atkins and try to convert Stewart to the OF.  With Matt Holliday firmly entrenched in LF, I'm curious as to where Stewart will end up.

http://www.denverpost.com/rockies/ci_4264819

Moving off 3B, combined with his less than dominant performance at AA this year, would seem to indicate that his prospect status is taking a significant hit.

Stewart is currently at .281|.354|.477 after a horrible May/June.

He has 33 doubles, 7 triples, and 8 home runs.

Is he back in the mix as one of the top third base prospects?

The home run totals are a bit disappointing, given the fact that Koshansky doesn't seem to be having any trouble hitting them in Tulsa.  

Josh Hamilton made his return to professional baseball yesterday, going 1 for 3 for the Hudson Valley Renegades in the NY Penn League.

I'm really pulling for this guy to get his life and career back in order.  

If he can conquer his demons, I can see this guy pulling a Jim Eisenreich renaissance.  Except Josh is still only 25.

http://tampabay.devilrays.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/news/article.jsp?ymd=20060705&content_id=1540199&am p;vkey=news_tb&fext=.jsp&c_id=tb

Does anybody know what the current plans are with regards to Dustin McGowan and Brandon League?  Both struggled in limited time in Toronto last year, and could probably use a bit more time in AAA.  Are both still thought of as eventual starting rotation candidates?  Have either of them been surpassed by anybody in the system (such as Rosario?)