Again, I'm opening this up to anyone who wants to post something here.

Sean Marshall, pulling his weight (but starting to succumb to bullpen-itis)

Say what? Marshall has 14 K, 1 BB (intentional), 0 HR in 10 innings. RHB have a 610 OPS against him -- he is getting smacked around a bit by LHB. So unless "bullpen-itis" means "had a bad game last week", I don't see how this doesn't get filed under great.

Well, he's allowed a hit in his last five appearances, even though none have lasted more than an inning, and only two of those have lasted more than one out. In that time, he's only struck out two batters against one walk in 3 IP, which isn't bad, but isn't "great" either, against 8 hits and 3 runs allowed (plus allowing both runners he inherited to score).

Let's face it - he was extremely dominant his first few times out, but since then, he's been pretty unspectacular.

Geovany Soto, with his Bondsian OBP
Kosuke Fukudome, alas
Tyler Colvin, possibly the first Cubs highly-touted rookie position player ever to have a hot start in the bigs

I might actually start to consider the possibility of these three having an above average season, but I'm not there yet, I have to think about it some more.

I might actually start to consider the possibility of these three having an above average season, but I'm not there yet, I have to think about it some more.

I don't know what to think about Soto or Colvin, but it's not a surprise that Fukudome is starting hot again. April has easily been his best month his entire career here.

Which list of the 4 above should Bill Murray be placed on? He likes Zambrano in the pen but is not part of the organization.

It's interesting they've won 10 games despite their 3-4 hitters batting under .200 and Aramis looking the right-handed version of David Ortiz.

I'm there with Soto; I expected him to have a bounceback year this year. Jury's still out with Colvin, although I wouldn't count on him. I expect that Fukudome will start to decline as soon as pitchers start remembering to throw him inside breaking balls in the dirt.

Soto had an absurdly low BABIP for his LD% last year. A bounce back was inevitable as long as the Cubs didn't #### with his swing.

I understand the editor's note was only talking about Z's move to the pen, but Larry Rothschild continues to impress me. Randy Wells, Tom Gorzellany, and Carlos Silva make up 3/5 of one of the best performing (through 22 games) rotations in baseball.

Colvin's performing well beyond the most optimistic projections for him (of course, tiny sample size disclaimer applies).

The question is whether there's a reason to get excited about this or just enjoy the fluke. Scouting reports I've read have remarked that he's had holes in his wing, that he started to get it together the 2nd half last year, yadda yadda.

So what's the deal? Is he an example of a toolsy guy who is successfully figuring the game out, or what?

Tyler Colvin, possibly the first Cubs highly-touted rookie position player ever to have a hot start in the bigs

The first one since Brant Brown!

I wrote this in the Byrd article:

So far my impression of Tyler Colvin is that he is a AAAA player. If he is facing a decent pitcher and that pitcher needs the out it appears that Colvin is overmatched. When the pitcher is struggling and not doing well that is when it appears that Colvin is chewing them up.

The first one since Brant Brown!

If Colvin nets a John Lieber quality player in trade then I'm ready to call it a success.

I don't know, how many bad-toothed hillbillies are out there and playing baseball at any given time?

My memory must be fading. Was Brant Brown really so highly-touted? I mean, he was no Gary Scott.

Brant wasn't highly touted but I would say Tyler isn't highly touted either. He was drafted high because the Cubs had no other draft picks until the 5th and would sign cheaply. Didn't do much in the minors. Put on some weight and had a good spring to get the job.

I'd say he wasn't on anyone's radar but I'm sure I'd get literaled to death by someone pointing out that so and so had him as the Cubs 6th best player or 12th best or whatever. The point being that nobody thought this guy would be in the majors now back in January.

Was Brant Brown really so highly-touted?

No. They didn't bring him up until he was 25. Part of that was that they had Mark Grace, but it was also because he really didn't do a whole helluva lot in the minors.

Did Brant Brown play any 1b in the minors? Are you confusing him with Roosevelt Brown, Andere? But wasn't he also an OF (maybe miscast, but out there)? Or Julio Zuleta? (who's made a nice career for himself in Japan, where I saw him play once)


Huh...going to bb-ref I see Brown did play some 1b with the Cubs. I honestly didn't remember that at all. Nevermind.

Roosevelt Brown had a nice career in Japan as well. I've always thought that the Alou signing killed his drive to be a major leaguer. Once they signed Alou it just looked like his heart wasn't in it anymore.

Brown was pretty much exclusively a 1B in the minors. Maybe he moved to the OF part-time as he got close to the majors due to Grace's presence.

In my pride at starting a Brant Brown thread, I will explain that I thought he was a highly touted prospect, and then had that confirmed when I saw he was a third-round pick, and he obviously had a lot of trade value when he was traded. Also: "Top Prospect 1993 Chc (#9),1994 Chc (#2)" by Baseball America

I'm willing to bet prospects #s1-8 in 1993 had about 50 major league ABs.

he obviously had a lot of trade value when he was traded

No, I'm pretty sure the Pirates were just morons.

I'm willing to bet prospects #s1-8 in 1993 had about 50 major league ABs.

Number one was Jessie Hollins, who by that point had (naturally) already made all 4 appearances he would make in his Major League career.

EDIT: And who also died last year when he drowned in a lake in Texas. RIP.

Steve Trachsel was #2, who of course pitched over 2500 innings in the majors. So that worked out OK.

Derek Wallace was #3. He appeared in 27 major league games, all in relief and none with the Cubs, as they traded him to the Royals in 1995 for Brian McRae.

Kevin Roberson was #4 (apparently). He would hit 17 homers over parts of three seasons with the Cubs, before the Cubs appeared to decide he was a AAAA hitter and dumped him mid-season in 1995. He'd get a handful of PAs from the Mets in 1996 before he was done in the bigs, although he was still playing in the Northern League in 2004.

Dave Stevens was #5. He appeared in 183 games, mostly in relief, although none of them would be with the Cubs until 1997, three years after his ML debut with the Twins. He went with Matt Walbeck (see below) to the Twins for Willie Banks (hooray!), and then claimed off of waivers from those same Twins in mid-season 1997. His career ERA: 6.02

Doug Glanville was #6, the second of 4 straight years in which he would make the Cubs' Top 10 prospect list. I don't think there's really much to be said here. He hung around to log over 4000 PA while occasionally approaching adequacy. And he's really smart!

Jose Viera was #7. Who, you ask? He was a corner infielder who made the list by virtue of hitting 18 homers for Winston-Salem in 1992, but must have gotten hurt because he only played 15 more games in the affiliated minors after that season and never made the majors. According to the Reference, he was bouncing around the indie leagues as recently as 2002.

Matt Walbeck was #8, who had a surprisingly long but nonetheless fairly terrible career as a backup catcher. Though he only had 31 PA as a Cub, he would bounce around the majors for 11 seasons, racking up nearly 2300 PA and posting a career OPS+ of 54.

Just to round things out, Ozzie Timmons was #10, who had 441 PA in the majors over 5 seasons, 342 of which were for the Cubs. He hit 15 homers in that time, and to be honest I have no recollection of this happening whatsoever.

Cool stuff, Brian. Thanks.