adverb, nonstandard

having or showing no regard; heedless; unmindful (often fol. by of).

Usage note:
Irregardless is considered nonstandard because of the two negative elements ir- and -less. It was probably formed on the analogy of such words as irrespective, irrelevant, and irreparable. Those who use it, including on occasion educated speakers, may do so from a desire to add emphasis. Irregardless first appeared in the early 20th century and was perhaps popularized by its use in a comic radio program of the 1930s.

What are Pie’s holes? He got the most ABs this year and ,not surprisingly, had his best year offensively.

I think it’s incredibly laughable to close the book on just about any prospect from the 2007 prospect handbook. Gee, people from Chicago like their hometown teams’ prospects? Will wonders never cease. That never happens anywhere else, right? Nobody in Oakland never got excited about someone like Travis Buck, correct? Yankee fans don’t hyperventilate over every GCL all-star, really?

There have been very few Cubs’ prospects that were hyped all over. And if you really wanted to play this game, they can’t compare to the depth and breadth of “failed” Oakland hype monsters.

Let’s go through your list of “failures”. Samardzija was a raw college pitcher who still is a raw college pitcher with 62 IP in the majors. He’s but 24 years old. Hill had a great year and was league average in two others before losing it. EPatt is only 26 and just 260 PA at the major league level. I can’t ever remember him getting much hype nationally. He’s also had two consecutive pretty good seasons in AAA. He hasn’t had much of a chance to fail in the majors yet. Tyler Colvin is 24 and just had a good year in AA. He was a top 20 prospect in the country, right? Hmm, unless my memory is faulty, no, that wasn’t the case either. Donald Veal is a lefty who can throw 96 MPH but has little to no control. His prospect status was predicated on him developing some modicum of control. No other prospect in the world was ever given that latitude, right? Oh yeah, he’s 25 and should be put out to pasture, right? No prospect ever does anything good when they hit that ripe old age, right? He was never a top 50 prospect either. Ryan Harvey was a top 5 pick and had slugged 24 home runs in a difficult hitting environment at Low A. While he was highly regarded, most if not all, prospect mavens noted his high strikeout totals and said they could become a problem at higher levels. Well, they proved to be right so far. And yet, he’s still only 25 and has plenty of time to turn things around. Kinda like Brian Dopirak did this year. He crushed the ball at the highest levels this year and is still only 26 years old. His walk rate is up and his strikeout rate is about the same even at the higher levels. Is it really out of the realm of possibility that he won’t become an above average player?

I also love how you completely disregard the successes from that 2007 top 30 to support your argument. There was a ROY at #17, Jake Fox came in at #24 and proved that he can be an above average hitter in the majors and finally sneaking in at #30 is Mike Fontenot who had a great year last year then slumped along with most everyone else this year. Which year is the real Fontenot? I don’t know.

I’m sure if I was a Cubs’ fan living in Oakland, I’d probably have the same perceptions of A’s prospects as you do of Cubs’ youngsters. Your view is no doubt clouded by the meathead Cubs fans you hear on the radio and talk to in sports bars here in the Windy City.

Now let’s take a looky at the A’s top 10 from 2007. Travis Buck is just as much a bust as any of the Cubs players you mention. Barton had a .675 OPS in his only healthy year in the majors. Suzuki is barely an average hitter and throws out under 1/3 basestealers. His walk rate is going down every year too. Sulentic had a bad year in AA. Jermaine Mitchell slugged 3 HR in the Cal league. Javier Herrera had 2 ABs this year and had a bad year in AA last year. Jason Windsor didn’t even pitch this year and had a FIP of 6.22 at AA the previous year. Marcus McBeth is 12th man on the pitching staff guy with a high walk rate. Justin Sellers is now with the Dodgers and has spent the last two years in AA and has 8 HR in almost 1000 PA at that level. His SLG is barely above his OBA and he doesn’t steal many bases. Finally at #10 comes the only player who could be considered a good player, Trevor Cahill. He’ll need to cut down on the walks & homers and raise his K rate though.

The much maligned farm system of the Cubs has been preductive. Soto, Fontenot, Theriot, Fuld, Fox, Guzman, Zambrano, Wells, Marmol, Marshall, Stevens, Patton & Samardzija all contributed to the team this year. Plus they used some of the prospects to trade for DLee, ARam, Gorzelanny, Gregg, Harden and Grabow too. That’s the other way a team benefits from their minor league system.

Well, all that said, I already knew you were a Cub hater but I was bored and needed something to do to pass the time between trick or treaters. It’s been a while since the last one so I’m out of here.

…hmm, maybe i can do some sort of color specification and how the colors relate can kind of indicate more relationship than groups of numbers.

lol.

Heyward is green.

westmoreland is yellow, and smoak is blue, together the strengths of west and smoak = heyward…

that could be fun, but it would take a while to develop a system. haha

People see one guy at 25 and one guy at 30 and that appears to be a huge separation…

That’s why I like how Sickels gives the letter grades along with ranking (and stresses that grades are more important).

how did I screw that up.

anyway, my main point is that there always seems to be more hype for the boys on the Boston farm, NYY farm, etc.

Major league pitchers figure out fairly quickly that when someone has no power, they can just throw it down the middle of the plate and get you out. People thought Reggie Willits would hold up with the same skill set. He didn’t.

Gardner is showing to be a good defensive center fielder, but that’s it.

Is based entirely on a single year’s worth (less than that actually) of UZR data, which should obviously be taken with a huge grain of salt. His hitting is barely over replacement level, and for his career it his offense has been worth -3 RAR. If Gardner is indeed a +20-30 defensive center fielder, as his stats over his half year of playing time in CF would imply, then he will obviously be a valuable commodity. But we don’t have near enough evidence to conclude that.

For instance, last year Ellsbury was at +16 UZR, and this year he fell to -16. Single year, and especially partial year, UZR is not all that informative.