SB Nation User Blog: stelmodad

Cubs looking at Jim Edmonds?

stelmodad — Mon, 12 May 2008 14:10:23 -0000

Unless, it comes with a guaranteed World Series title this year, no thank you.

Edmonds looked done last year and I was surprised the Padres signed him for as much as they did. Edmonds is batting a whopping .178/.265/.233 and is not aging gracefully in CF.

I know our OF has questions, and that Pie needs to hit and to have playing time, but would this seem like a good move to anyone here?

I almost feel sorry for Cincinnati

stelmodad — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 13:31:17 -0000

I wasn't a Dusty hater. I have a hard time being a hater. But Dusty made some strange decisions as manager of the Cubs and it seems he's making some similar one's with the Reds.

In a Cincinatti paper (http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/AB/20080429/SPT04/804290344/) Freel, who's had a pretty good season so far .292/.327/.681, is just a bit frustrated that he's being benched in favor of Cory Patterson (.213/.281/.756). Given current trends and the choice of replacement, I can understand.

Also, it seems that Reds organization has some internal communication issues that precipitated this. One of the jobs as a manager is to listen to your staff and figure out how best they can contribute to the task at hand. At our work, it's assigning the right people for the job based on their workload. If an MLB ball club, which has payroll in the tens of millions with a whopping staff of 40+ can't get on the same page then someone should look more closely at how they got there and make changes fast. Having discord this early for the Reds doesn't help anyone there.

Does our community here believe that at some point we'll have similar turmoil here in CF with Johnson and Pie or do you think that management has prepped the players and themselves well?

Best laid plans

stelmodad — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 12:58:16 -0000

Bought two tickets to every Smokies game this week only to be diagnosed with vertigo the day of the first game - went anyway for about four innings but had to leave because the park kept spinning on me.

Veal pitched last night and I was sorry to miss him. The performance in box score looked good and it would have been good to get some footage of him. Spearman who had a good night the first game this week ended last night's extra inning contest with a 3 run shot in the top of the 12th.

If I feel up to it tonight I'll get back out there and see if Samardzija starts.

Tennessee Smokies: Aug 14th

stelmodad — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 04:03:59 -0000

Caught only five innings of this game but saw Tyler Colvin break a bat for a ground out, fly out and strike out still make first and force a runner home.

Weird inning in the fifth. Bases loaded two out, Tyler strikes out on a pitch hitting six inches in front of the plate the runner from third catches the pass ball/wild pitch and runs home, Tyler makes it to first. Next at bat McGehee reaches first on an error scoring another run from third. BAD Lookouts defense.

Other excitement was Mitch Atkins in his second at bat (walked both) loosing his grip on the bat and sending it over the guest dugout (two feet above my head) and into the stands. Just missed a woman's head and picked up by a college kid. Mitch walks towards the stands and asks for his bat back (likely a modest portion of his annual income) and get booed by the fans. A few of us got it back from the college kid and handed it back down to Mitch (who then proceeded to take a BB).

Jemel Spearman and (Hip Hip) Jorge Cortes had a good night; both going 2-4 with a walk each - making solid contact while doing it.

Kyle Reynolds, who sits so far back in the box that his back foot is over the line, walked in his first at back and in hit a ball two feet foul that's likely now just coming down. Even so, he went 0-4 with a BB and run scored. The rest of the offense was a bit flat.

I think Mitch Atkins started this game with a 14.5 ERA or something in four innings of work at this level. He looked good at times tonight but never seem to put any batter away - often getting to full counts after being up on the batter. It burned him in the forth when he allowed a hit after getting ahead on Michael Griffin, then got two outs, hit Rosales, then gave up a bomb to Drew Anderson... there was no doubt on that one. I thought they were going to pull Atkins that inner or PH for him in the next but they kept him in till the 6th.

In general, The Smokies defence looked sharp with extra credit going to Robinson Chirinos for some very good plays at SS. Jemel Spearman made a highlight grab in RF and over all the kids looked like they handled the defence in good form.

The was no sign of Samardzija. He pitched two nights ago so I hope he'll make it into the rotation sometime this week while they're here.

Asides: caught three balls tonight. Okay two of them were essentially thrown to me, but one was a rip foul that was heading for my face - glad I was both looking and not holding a camera to my face at the time. Gave the first ball to my oldest son with me at the game and the other two to kids around me. I became quite popular by the forth inning.

I shot some video but will wait till tomorrow to resample it and get it online.

85 wins...

stelmodad — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 15:13:07 -0000

Not sure it's worth a diary post in and of itself but I started looking at the rest of the season's schedule and came up with what seemed like a realistic 25 additional wins - putting our boys at 85 by year's end.

Boy, I'd sure like to have had a few more back from this road trip. Moving from 85 to 88 would be a hole lot more comfortable, but again, the 25 I'm hoping for is still many days away.

In looking at the Brewers schedule they could easily have another 24 wins left, putting them at 86.

I'm not a doomsday kind of guy, heck I cheer for the Cubs, but it'd be great to see our boys in blue show me that they've got some fire in them and beat some folks up on this upcoming home stand.

Quick notes: glad to see Ward back, my heart goes out to the Floyd family, very nice defense JJ, and stay away from thin air Rich and Kerry.

Tennesse Smokies

stelmodad — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 18:12:27 -0000

I'll be at every TN Smokies game next week as they're in town to play the Chattanooga Lookouts.

Other than taking special interest in Tyler Colvin, Jeff Samardzija and Donnie Veal is there anyone else you all would like photos of or special attention given to?

I'll post a photo collection each night at http://www.flickr.com/photos/11058250@N04/

Conversation with a scout

stelmodad — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 21:43:39 -0000

Just left my local coffee hang out and spent some unexpected time with a MLB scout from a non-Cubbie club. Good guy and good conversations about the business and his time in it (been in the biz a while).

Out of respect for his job I'll refrain from sharing who he was with but I will relay that when I mentioned my fan affiliation he was quick to mention his liking of Matt Murton. Said he had followed him for years and he's a bit perplexed by his poor transistion to the majors. Hoping it wasn't a "called up too soon" scenario and that his recent stint in AAA would be productive.

Anyway, heading celebrate my son's 4th birthday party and then onto the local AA game tonight (kid's helmets and fireworks). Tonigth's matchup is the Chattanooga Lookouts (Reds) play the Mississippi Braves.

ARod for Cedeno/Fox deal is very close

stelmodad — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 19:52:45 -0000

at least in my EA MVP Baseball game.

Not trying to be a jerk, but this diary is mainly a question about how to respond to rumor posts.

I'm not discounting or supporting any post. The truth of those are irrelevant to the following questions.

When seeing a rumor posted in a forum like this it seems the general consensus is to automatically give it enough merit to talk about the pros and cons of such a trade. True or not, it seems to promote good discussion as to whether or not such a deal would be "worthy." Whether or not it's a "valid rumor" (rather oxymoronic) seems to be of less importance.

Do we tend to just like these kinds of rumors? Giving them more leeway than other types of posts just because we like to debate the theoretical issues?

Snarky's Machine

stelmodad — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 21:11:35 -0000

Tom Snarkey is a diary cop in Chicago who's demoted to lurking after a botched comment. In the depths of this lowly division...

Anyway, I miss baseball already. I'm finding myself reading all these sites talking about signings, trades and rumors of trades.

While we wait for more actual games to be played what do you all plan on doing with this new found free time?

Poll

With the mid-summer break, how will you spend your mini baseball vacation?

Watch the All Star game while holding my breath till Lee and Soriano come home safe

10 votes

Read and comment on every diary in BCB

7 votes

Contriving the best trade scenario that will ensure a playoff berth

1 votes

Watch Golf and come up with a PECOTA ranking system for the sport

0 votes

Watch NASCAR and wonder why

1 votes

Organize my baseball card collection and hunt Ebay for my missing '84 Dave Owen

1 votes

Spend time with these people in my house called "family" - funny I hadn't noticed them since April

5 votes

Watch classic games on MLB.tv

0 votes

Mumble to myself till June 13th

8 votes

33 votes | Poll has closed

Al, you don't know how hot it can get...

stelmodad — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 14:51:09 -0000

It's only the first week of June and the temp's just starting to rise in the South. Wait till mid-July when the air is hot and humid you can feel the air flowing in and out of your lungs like warm milk... ah, the south. That's why I escape it at least three weeks per summer - unfortunately this was the first Cubs v. Braves I missed in ATL. Bummer to hear that you were there in ATL while I was in Chicago of all places.

Back to making a baseball post though. Even with the ugly loss last night - propagated by a frightful start by Marquis - I'm liking how this team has been looking lately.

It was good to see Pinella essentially use last night to figure some things out. Putting Gallagher out there to see what he could do and giving Eyre some rope to see if he made a hangman's noose or a rope bridge.

I'm still not ready to write off this team's season off yet because we're in such a wonderfully mediocre division and I still believe we can become the kings of mediocrity.

Through no effort of our own, our beloved Cubbies are in second place - only five games out of first. It's like we died and went to the NL West of recent years.

So unlike, Al, I'm in the temperate zone of Chicago this week and next. Seeing at least one game on BCB day and hoping to find a way out enough meetings to catch another while I'm here.

Go Cubs.