All posts by giventofly41

Jim Callis chat hits today

ESPN/BA/BP Mentions

I meant to post this, but I was distracted with the Rule 5 writeup and a few other things. Thanks to “Pat Burrell” for posting it and reminding me

Zac (Philadelphia): How do you grade out the Phillies farm system? It seems like it is rapidly improving with the likes of Carrasco, Marson, Donald, D’Arnaud, Drabek, Taylor, Brown, and Happ? Am I dreaming, or is the Phillies farm legit for the first time in years? Thanks.

SportsNation Jim Callis: It is improving, not yet overwhelming.

Zac (Philadelphia): Lightning Round! In five years, D’Arnaud or Marson?

SportsNation Jim Callis: Marson.

Kyle(Philadelphia): Drabek or Savery?

SportsNation Jim Callis: Drabek

Musings, thoughts on the site

Maintenance

This post has been in my head for the better part of two months, I was going to hold off on writing it for a while, but I’ve gotten quite a few emails in the last few weeks about the site in general, and specifically about my involvement in the discussions here, so I felt it was time to write this up. This will be wordy, and though I haven’t decided yet, I think I’m going to lock the comments on this post, because I have no intention of this being a back and forth shouting match, I’d just like to clear the air and then move on. But by the time I’m done, I might change my mind. So anyway, for aesthetics purposes, I’ll add the divider here and then get going…

Continue reading Musings, thoughts on the site →

Weekly trade talk discussion

Trade Discussion

For those of you who can’t resist talking about potential trades and the big league club, use this post for the rest of the week and keep the chatter out of the Top 30 voting posts. Also a note on the Top 30 voting. I thought that I wouldn’t need to babysit, and that people would just vote once. But apparently that’s not the case, so from #8 forward, I’ll have to restrict voting based on IP addresses. Thus, once your IP address votes, that’s it. If you are using broadband and a static IP, that shouldn’t cause a problem. If you use a dialup service, it might, or it might not. Sorry for the trouble, but its not my doing.

Reader Top 30; #8

2009 Reader Top 30

#7 went to JA Happ, who edged Travis D’Arnaud by 16 votes. As I mentioned 2 days ago, I’ve now changed the voting method, so that it registers votes based on IP address as well as cookies, meaning you can only vote once, and if your IP address is shared with someone else, and that someone else already voted, you won’t be able to vote. Its unlikely this will cause an issue. And just to get this out of the way, if there is any trade talk posted in this post, I’m just going to delete it. Also, one more note on voting. If you write in a vote please post it in the comments of the post so others can see. I’m the only one able to see the answers, so it might be helpful. Thanks.

Check below for more…

Continue reading Reader Top 30; #8 →

Reader Top 30; #7

2009 Reader Top 30

Dominic Brown took slot number 6 in a walk (something he does well) racking up 73 votes, with JA Happ coming in a distant second with 21 tallies. I’ll give the full totals here, and then I have some more info to pass on before we get to number 7.

Brown – 73
Happ – 21
D’Arnaud – 10
Mayberry – 2
Cisco and Savery – 1

Check below for more…

[Update 9:10 PM] Looks like I have to limit voting by IP addresses now. That will take effect starting with #8.

If that affects you, sorry. Some people can’t just leave well enough alone and have to ruin it for everyone else.

Continue reading Reader Top 30; #7 →

WordPress has added polls

Maintenance

I was going to use the poll feature for Top 30 #6, but I figured it might be better to test it out first. So I’m going to add a poll to this post just using a generic question. Vote and we’ll test the process. Also, it allows write-in votes, which will be important if we use it for the Reader Top 30 voting. Could a few people please use the “Other” option and write in your answer, then post in the comments what you wrote in? Thanks.

[Update] It looks like 7 people have voted “Other”, and 4 choices have shown up. So if 3 people voted “Other” and forgot to write their answer in the box, that would explain it, or it could possibly be a delay in updating the data. Either way, it looks like the method should work.

Reader Top 30; #6

2009 Reader Top 30

Michael Taylor was the big winner for the #5 spot, taking 49% of the vote, while Dominic Brown and JA Happ battled for second, and will likely battle for the #6 slot. The voting breakdown

Taylor — 53
Brown — 28
Happ — 18
Mayberry — 4
D’Arnaud — 4
Savery — 1

Continue reading Reader Top 30; #6 →

Jim Callis quick hits

ESPN/BA/BP Mentions

From today’s chat at ESPN

dan ( philly): Big Mike Taylor or Dom Brown?

SportsNation Jim Callis: Brown.

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Dave (Philly): Carrasco or Drabek in 5 years?

SportsNation Jim Callis: Drabek.

Update, 12/4: Keith Law did a chat today

Phil (PA): Who are your top 3 Phillies prospects, relative to age and level?

SportsNation Keith Law: (2:28 PM ET ) Did I answer this above? Donald, Brown, Carrasco, probably Taylor next. I’m a little down on Marson, whose swing is going to generate a ton of groundballs.

Jason Donald ranked #17 in AFL

Other Stuff

Can’t say I agree with him ranking this low, but I’m not all that surprised. Scouting excerpt

He can do it all as Donald split his AFL days playing second, third and short. He doesn’t have a dynamic tool, but one scout raved, “When you look at this list five years from now, he’s going to be a good ball player.” He squares the ball up, makes hard contact and shows power.

Reader Top 30; #5

2009 Reader Top 30

The voting thread for spot #4 confirmed to me my decision to stop participating in the discussions here. Its done wonders for my sanity. Kyle Drabek won a close vote for the #4 spot over Michael Taylor, with 10 different prospects getting votes. Complete breakdown:

Drabek — 52
Taylor — 45
Happ — 15
Brown — 6
Mayberry — 3
D’Arnaud — 2
Mathieson, Collier, Savery, Knapp — 1

Today we round out the top 5.

01. Carlos Carrasco, RHP
02. Lou Marson, C
03. Jason Donald, SS
04. Kyle Drabek, RHP
05.