Links for Wednesday night, as Kyle Drabek takes a loss in his first major league start….
- MLB.com's Todd Zolecki reminds us that Jimmy Rollins earned ten-and-five rights last week.
- Xavier Nady isn't sure whether he'll be back in Chicago next year, but he loves the organization and the fans, according to Carrie Muskat of MLB.com.
- One person who definitely won't be wearing a Cubs uniform in 2011? Tony La Russa. The Cardinals' skipper ruled out the possibility of managing the Cubs next season, writes Matthew Leach of MLB.com.
- Paul Konerko "deserves to be back here and paid the right way" next year, Gordon Beckham tells MLB.com's Scott Merkin.
I’d love for Nady to come back to the Pirates, but he’d have to come back cheap.
I like that idea. He hasn’t played much this year, but has played reasonably well when he has. His next team ought to go ahead and keep him at first base; then they don’t have to worry about his arm going sproing again.
Pirates ought to have some payroll room since they are paying almost no one any amount of serious money. That is unless they want to keep their luxury tax money for profit instead of invest it in the franchise.
you have no idea what your talking about do you lol. check how much the pirates have spent in the draft the past few years. their definitely investing the luxury tax money for sure.
also internationally.
I think he might sign with another team to rebuild his value. He was great in 08 and I have no doubt that he can put together a similar season next year with a team in need of an outfielder.
As a Yankee fan I would love to have him back as an extra outfielder/bench guy for 2011.
Pirates have to overpay everyone for them to even consider playing in pittsburgh
so do the yanks.
the yankees pay more because players know they have the resources, the pirates have to overpay because no one wants to play there.
regardless of the justification, they both have to overpay.
Well the Cards need to get rid of LaRussa, and whats sad is that StL makes him seem like God, and quite frankly its getting old because LaRussa has totally lost control of the team and here lately it seems like he doesnt even care to be there. They need a manager that brings energy to the team and LaRussa is just not that guy anymore. If the front office wants to keep just staying around 10 over .500 with a talented team then LaRussa is the man, but if they want to finally get the full potential out of guys then they need a change. Also, all this talk about if Tony goes then Pujols will go is BS, Pujols is more in love with the fans and the city than he is with playing for Tony. But to say Pujols will only play for Tony is dumb.
St Louis fans I work with are like members of a cult. It’s creepy.
if larussa really wanted the cardinals to be successful, he would go manage the cubs.
🙂
So are you for or against getting rid of LaRussa?
He’s for releasing TLR.
If Kenny Williams won’t shell out a premium contract to Konerko, I don’t think he should sign for peanuts. He’s one of the most underrated but talented first basemen in baseball. They should be many suitors and the White Sox are lucky to have him & should be more than willing to pay him what he deserves.
DRIZZY DRABEK!!!!
It was a pretty good start IMO. I was impressed by his stuff. Curve is as good as they say, fastball was solid and he threw it pretty hard most of the time and I thought he sat around low 90’s most of the time but he was popping it at mid-90’s most of the time. Very impressed by his cutter, it had good movement and he was using it often but he needs more control with that pitch and it’s still a work-in progress. Change-up was his weakest pitch which he needs to improve to perhaps just average. He could really start racking up the K’s if he does.
I see ace potential in him.
so he is low 90s most of the time and mid 90s most of the time….?
He was like 91-95
When he throws strikes and doesn’t try to aim it, he’s 92-94.
I’m very curious to see how he performs next time out with the first start jitters gone (he says he wasn’t nervous, but I find that a bit difficult to believe). As you said, his stuff is tremendous. Everything he throws darts one way or another and is very hard. If he can learn to command that slutter (I can’t call a pitch that moves that much a cutter, but it’s too hard to be a slider) he’ll be dominant.
he was very streaky in the minors this season. I saw him throw a no-hitter and then the same Kyle Drabek walked 5 and gave up 6 earned runs a few starts later. He’ll be fine though.
But be honest with me, I was right. A little bit.
needless to say he’s a huge upgrade as a 5th starter going in to next year..
He definitely has a chance to be an ace but he has a lot of work ahead of him. His 4 seam fastball is just average right now and project prospect said during spring training it was one of straightest fastballs he had seen there. He has a great curve ball though. And his change, like you said, is below average right now. No info on his cutter but I assume it is his 2 seamer or a new pitch. But that is a good pitch. One thing I love about project prospect is their knowledge of pitching and hitting mechanics. They do see problems ahead for Drabek though. He gets his command by starting his arm late. This adds stress to his shoulder though and could be a problem. He has a long way ahead of him but it would be exciting as a Jays fan to watch a young guy learn how to pitch and make changes to become a better pitcher.
i think the cubs should sign nady to play 1st next year. the 1b market will be a lot better in 2012, assuming the world doesn’t come to an end.
Never fear baseball fans that Mayan prophecy predicts the world to end in December of 2012. So we can all look forward to the 2012 season before God smites us all off the earth.
There are ok options at 1B next year, no one spectacular, but lots of 2-3 WAR stopgap type guys, which should hold the spot for any team that wants to goes after Pujols, Gonzalez, or Fielder for 2012.
Nady is a waste of a roster spot.. Hendry better not give him 6-8 mil for next year.. for another mediocre season
TLR hasn’t lost control of the team. Some key injuries has damaged the team but that has nothing to do with his control of the team. He uses his bench alot and changes his line up to try to get the best match ups possible. As for his problems with certains players. His main problem is with players that don’t perform at the level they should be. He will take playing time away from players that frequently make mental errors, are in a bad slump, can’t play the position at a professional level because of injury or some other reason, or for acting like a spoiled brat. He seems to be able to deal with the majority of his players with little effort. If they come to the game on time, play hard, and limit stupid mistakes; there is never a problem. But if a player comes to the park with an attitude, can’t focus for the whole game, plays just for personal glory, or keeps making the same mistake over and over then he will have words with that player. And so far, he has always gotten his way in those situations. If the player doesn’t change, then the player is moved to some other team.
Rolen was unable to play 3rd his last couple of years for the Cardinals. There were other players that did a better job. It wasn’t Rolens fault, he just needed more time to build up strength in his shoulder. But he took it as a slap in the face that TLR wasn’t playing him but he wasn’t seeing that he was hurting the team with his play.
Rasmus has a tendency to forget that baseball is a team sport. He almost always bats in an important position in the lineup (either 2-5-6) and there are things that he needs to do. There has been way too many times he has come up with a player on 2nd base with no outs and he doesn’t move the runner over to 3rd. There has been way too many times he has come up with the bases loaded with less than 2 outs and is unable to get a run in. He doesn’t play the game like a person that has played his whole life. He has all the skills to play the game at a very high level but tends to play at a very low level. For the most part, it seems that everytime he is at bat, he only wants a homerun even when all the team needs is a sac fly or a grounder to the right side of the infield. He just doesn’t play smart. So TLR gave him less playing time in favor of a player that will do those things that a team needs to win. I think he finally got the message over the last couple of months. He has to play smart baseball and play hard every play. He has to be a team mate and stop being the outsider. He can’t keep giving awat at bats and he has to cut down on his cheap outs or he will not be around for very long. Potential is great but if he can’t live up to that potential, then he will end up with the Pirates or Royals as a 4th outfielder at best. Or he could end up back in the minors or completely out of baseball at worst. He has to change, not the rest of the team.
But I don’t think there is any way that Rasmus or TLR will not be with The Cardinals next season. So all of you La Russa bashers that want him to leave The Cardinals so he can manage your team, dream on. By the way, he would retire before he managed the Cubs. He was with the White Sox and The Cardinals, so he probably dislikes the Cubs as much as anybody in the game (I don’t know this for a fact but logic would say it’s so).
How can you say LaRussa hasnt lost control of the team when the team has gone 10-21 since the sweep in Cincy. In my opinion that is a total loss of control. You bring up all the injuries and not one injury has happened since the Cards were in first and since their spiral down. Face it, everything went downhill when they traded away Ludwick because Tony didnt like him, he plays favorites so bad. Obviously you are one of oblivious Tony lovers that doesn’t think he does wrong, because he ran Rolen out of town and everybody regrets this but Tony because he hated him and would rather have a weaker team than have Rolen
Ludwick was going to be traded anyhow. Westbrook has been fairly solid since coming over with an ERA of 3.78 in 8 starts and a k/bb of 3.00. His xFIP during that frame has been 3.39.
I tend to agree however that Tony does in fact need to go.
My bad. I forgot that he didn’t like Ludwick so he shipped him San Diego. Then he played a sorry rookie. So your right, he’s lost the clubhouse completely because Ludwick was the clubhouse.
No I’m not a TLR lover. I don’t swing that way. I do like having TLR managing the team over a revolving door manager position. I like having the stability that very few teams in the game have. I like being in the position to win every year with a mid-level payroll. I don’t like some of the weird things he does but the funny thing is, he has the track record that I and, I’m pretty sure, you don’t have. So in my view, he gets the benefit of the doubt where baseball tactics are concerned.
As far as the injuries are concerned, they have a tendency to deplete the reserves. 3rd base was kick in the head. No matter who was put there to take Freese’s place, there was a down side to that player. Either they couldn’t hit or couldn’t field the position. The injuries to Loshe, Penny and Octavio led to the bullpen being extremely over worked (ofcourse TLR didn’t help things with the way he used the bullpen but that is how he has always done it). Rasmus being hurt a couple of times already this season didn’t help. Yadi playing every game hurt has really effected his offense. Pujols is playing hurt as usual but with the lack of production from some of the other players, he plays just about every game. Holliday, Pujols, and Rasmus pressing at the plate because of the lack of production from the rest of the team and the over worked pitching staff is doing more harm than good. There are so many things that have led up to this bad stretch but they all go back to those key injuries to the pitchers for the biggest part of the season. So I guess I’m for TLR. But I can see that you don’t like TLR and no matter what anybody says, you will still be a TLR hater. Go ahead and blame him. It’s the way things go, there is always somebody to blame for anything/everything, and he’s an easy target.
I get what your saying but their injuries should not have had that much affect on their record, they should not be losing series to Pitts, Chicago, Mil, Wash, and Hou every time they play them. Basically those teams are throwing out their rookies and we can’t beat them. Baseball is like every other business, when things are going wrong you start and rebuild from the top and the top is Tony in this case. It should have started with Mo but unfortunately we have 3 more years of him and bringing in guys like Miles, Suppan, Winn, and Feliz…Great
I would really like for Kenny Williams to right the wrong he made with Frank Thomas, and do what he can to keep Paul Konerko on the South Side. The guy has never been a problem in the media or club house, and has rarely had extended problems on field or at the plate. I would really like for him to remain on sox for his career.
That being said, baseball is sadly more a business than a sport as ever, and he will probably move on.
we should all be paid well for whatever hard work one does.What do you have against ball players getting paid well? they bring us enjoyment. If you cant afford to go to some games and buy the jerseys and pennants ten dont do it anymore.