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.