He doesn't have a slow bat. That's utterly ridiculous.

udderly

Reminds me of Konerko.

Not feeling extremely confident we will be able to compete with the Nats or Braves for the division next year. I guess we have to see what Rube can pull out of his ass.

he'll probably pull out a large amount of money

#15 pick in the draft right now, but they have a shot at passing the Pirates and DBacks for #13

What's the deal with the new CBA? Do we need to finish below anywhere to have a protected pick or is that over?

Only the top 10 are protected now, and if a team with #11-#30 signs a player to a deal that averages about $12.5M/yr (the average of the top 125 players), they forfeit their pick away, but it no longer goes to the team that loses the player. So Texas wouldn't get our pick if we signed Hamilton...it simply disappears.

you just knew biged would swoop in

Chris Branch ‏@ChrisBranchTNJ
Peace out, CBP. Until next year.

Ruf pulled in his hands and pulled a 93 mph fastball deep into the gap and seats. He doesn't have a slow bat. In fact, the thing that most surprised me was his bat speed. It remains to be seen if he can handle ML breaking stuff and make adjustments, but his bat speed won't be a problem. He was very short and quick to the ball he doubled into deep CF yesterday. That was a pea.

they used to say that ryan howard was an old minor leaguer who really wasn't a legit prospect

As far as the "bad athlete" tag is concerned, he's certainly no gazelle. But in his limited games in the OF so far, he hasn't committed an error and had 3 OF assists in Reading in only 29 games. When combined with the fact that he's pitched 3.1 innings in the minors, I think we can conclude he's got a decent arm. There have been many, many "bad athletes" who've enjoyed very successful MLB careers (think Greg Luzinski, John Kruk, etc.) One thing is for certain: You don't have to be a great athlete to be a great hitter. If you combine the hitting with steady, if unspectacular, defensive play, you can play a long time.

I was incredibly disappointed in his "throw" to home on Tuesday night, but I'll chalk that up to first-game nerves for now. That should've been a close play (even with Harper running and two outs), but I think he three-hopped the cutoff man.

RichmondPhilsFan wrote:I was incredibly disappointed in his "throw" to home on Tuesday night, but I'll chalk that up to first-game nerves for now. That should've been a close play (even with Harper running and two outs), but I think he three-hopped the cutoff man.

He has bad OF throwing mechanics, which can be worked on, but the arm is there

The slow bat thing is nonsense

Grotewold wrote:

RichmondPhilsFan wrote:I was incredibly disappointed in his "throw" to home on Tuesday night, but I'll chalk that up to first-game nerves for now. That should've been a close play (even with Harper running and two outs), but I think he three-hopped the cutoff man.

He has bad OF throwing mechanics, which can be worked on, but the arm is there

Yeah that was part of my frustration on the play. I wanted to see his arm strength, even if he ended up airmailing the throw.

I concur that the slow bat speed thing is not true - here's the double off a low Gio Gonzalez 94 mph fastball:

http://philadelphia.phillies.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=25140609&c_id=mlb

You can see his swing best from the side view - looks pretty short to me.

Warszawa wrote:they used to say that ryan howard was an old minor leaguer who really wasn't a legit prospect

did they? Baseball America has him as the Phils' number one prospect in 2005, ahead of Gavin Floyd and Cole Hamels. in '04 he was third behind those two. in '03 he was #8. Ruf has never been considered a top prospect by anyone.

not that i disagree with you guys, but one swing does not a fast bat make

Barry Jive wrote:

Warszawa wrote:they used to say that ryan howard was an old minor leaguer who really wasn't a legit prospect

did they? Baseball America has him as the Phils' number one prospect in 2004, ahead of Gavin Floyd and Cole Hamels

I don't remember people dismissing him as strongly as they are Ruf, but there definitely was a lot of naysaying in old and new media. I didn't expect much from him until the beginning of the year he made it to the bigs