It’s been a light week for me at ESPN, by design, but I did write one follow-up draft post about which teams drafted their new #1 prospects, and conducted a Klawchat on Thursday. If you missed my draft recaps, you can find my AL and NL posts from last week.
I’ll be at Lakewood tonight for their game against Hickory, and at the Carolina-California Leagues’ All-star Game here in Wilmington on Tuesday, the 17th.
If you live in the area, I’m going to be a “guest bartender” at a charity event at Ulysses Gastropub in north Wilmington, at the intersection of Marsh Road and Silverside, on June 26th. More details to follow as I get them.
And now the links…
- Learning a second language can slow brain aging. Das ist sehr gut, ja?
- Dow Chemical is pushing to expand use of a 2,4-D, a potentially harmful herbicide. They want to sell crops genetically modified to resist 2,4-D, then have farmers use more of the herbicide to kill weeds – but this approach just creates stronger weeds and the development of even more dangerous chemicals to fight them.
- Doctors used a DNA test to identify an illness, the first time this method had been used successfully to treat a patient with an unknown pathogen.
- The FDA is at it again, overregulating the American cheese-making industry.
- Score one for consumers, though: SCOTUS ruled that POM can pursue its lawsuit against Coca-Cola. POM alleges that Coca-Cola misled consumers by labelled a drink as “blueberry-pomegranate juice” even though those two ingredients constitute just 0.5% of the total product.
First I realize this comment is most likely going to be too long for you to read but I wanted to explain my thoughts completely. I had wish to write an email but realize that making an email public would cause chaos for you.
I listen to you on Olney’s podcast (wish you got your chat back by the way), read your ESPN chats, posts, and this blog. I enjoy the snarky attitude and retorts – so felt that without an explanation I would appear to be just another Cub fan drunk on the cool aid or some self proclaimed foodie sneaking into an Olive’s Garden.
As a Cubs fan I am intrigued with their decision to stock pile athletic power hitting position players. In Chicago we have heard repeatedly how many great baseball players were at some time in their development a shortstop. I have always valued your eye and honesty involving your philosophy to scouting. I realize young pitching is at a premium – but I was curious if in fact pitching has a smaller window than other positions. Everyone seems to agree these players are more volatile.
Can you help identify a pitcher who has been truly elite for more than 4-5 years? It appears to me that after this window pitchers breakdown due to injury.
If this first thought is true I am curious to why a team would ever try to build around this ace themselves. As I look at your top prospect list it appears to me that nearly every top pitching prospect (besides Gray) has had an arm injury/surgery. As I know too many people quote it takes 10 pitching prospects to find one MLBer.
Due to this building a team and an organization around pieces like Russell, Baez, Byrant, Rizzo, Castro, Almora, Soler, Schwarber, McKinney seems to be minimizing risk because while you will not hit on 100% not even 70% you will have a great core of 4-5 if you hit 50%. If then done correctly you can package prospects in your system to acquire a pitcher in their 4-5 year window of being elite. OR with a core of controllable assets you can overpay for pitching. Again – I am confused as to why a team would not go to a pitcher and over pay in the yearly salary to achieve a shorter length of contract.
I look around the majors and most top pitching rotations are built from outside the farm system: Dodgers have Kershaw but others were obtained other ways. Detroit has Verlander but Scherzer was obtained in a trade – Porcello was in their system but has taken a long time to develop. Other examples could be provided.
Curious to continue reading your point of view on food, cooking, Top Chef, and prospects.