1-2 with 2 BB tonight...

.294/.348/.503 is his line now. He's definitely starting to make a case for himself after many people wrote him off in the past couple of years....

Vitters or Ian Stewart?
Might as well try Vitters, at least he'll not strike out and put the ball in play at this point.

If he's a flop and he can't hit 20 bombs a year, and makes a ton of errors. You should have Baez or Jeimer Candelario in the minors. Both with power potential. Candelario seems to have even more power potential I believe.

It's good to see some corner infielders and outfielders with bat speed. Instead of drafting these long shot 5 toolers or slap hitting middle infielders/outfielders.

However SS Castro is a stud who puts the ball into play, keep him.

hahaha! "wish he would walk more."

A guy by the name of Starlin Castro needs to take that advice.

Its comical how so many people expect young kids to come up seasoned and ready to rake at a .330 clip in the majors. Its no wonder fans get their "hopes crushed" so many times. There were some fools that were wanting to write Vitters off as a 19/20 year old for cryin' out loud.

And lets also not forget that he never played college baseball. And lets also forget that he never even used a wooden bat until he was sent to rookie ball w/ the cubs.

Vitters should be up now for sure

"He's definitely starting to make a case for himself after many people wrote him off in the past couple of years"

Only people who did that are ones who don't have a clue. Anyone who writes a kid off by 22 years old has no idea what they are talking about. He could make it in 2 years and still be a on good time table age wise

Finished June with a .324avg, .387 OBP, .583 SLG for a .970 OPS. I was on record as saying that he should stay down until september callups, but if his July numbers look anything like this, I say bring him up at the start of August and play him everyday.

Vitters named to PCL All Star team.

nice!

yet we'll roll with a 2b that has a ML avg of .224 instead of going with our talented 3b of the future?

if they wait until Sept, it will be disgusting. . . .

a .387 OBP is tremendous for him. Improving every month. get him up while his confidence is high

I agree. I think he should be called up after trade deadline when we get rid of the veterans.

Barney gets traded, Valbuena to 2nd, Vitters to 3rd?

I am not sold on Valbuena as a starter. I think he is better suited as a utility man. I really don't mind Barney. I just hope the Ian Stewart experiment is over.

Btw, Vitters is 2-4 tonight so far with 2 doubles and an RBI. Game is in the 7th.

kid just continues to rake. OPS on the rise yet even more tonight.

enough is enough, get him up.

Valbuana and his .223 career avg (and current avg) should not be accepted at the ML level.

Realistically, in September, when we shut down Soriano for the season, Jackson and Vitters will be called up when the roster expands and SHOULD get playing time everyday. I really hope that Sveum doesn't "play the veterans to help them get their numbers" like Quade did last year. ::smh::

With that being said, I think we're going to have a solid sample size of Valbuena before September. We all know that his natural position is at 2B. So, it will be about the offensive production, because Vitters and Valbuena are "around" par with each other at 3B defensively.

The thing about Valbuena is he has 17% SO rate for his minor league career, 22% at the majors.
This year with the Cubs, he is at 15%. Vitters has a 16% SO rate this year in the minors. Career is 16%.

I think Barney is above average on defense and he is pretty good as an 8th hitter.

Vitters should be called up soon his splits are pretty even between lefties and righties.

Vitters line tonight 3-6, two doubles, 2 runs scores and an rbi.

"Pretty good as an 8th hitter"--that's a dubious compliment if I've ever heard one. Maybe we could add to it, "And REALLY good as a 9th hitter."

Vitters goes 2 for 4 tonight with a double and rbi. His average is now over .300 on the year.

anyone that knows anything about baseball understands that hitting 8th is actually 1 of the hardest places to hit in the entire line-up.

Why? Because with the pitcher behind you, you hardly EVER get good pitches to hit, and typically only see off-speed stuff in the event you are walked, they face the pitcher...

This is also why its an absolutely HORRIBLE position to bat a rookie.

if/WHEN Vitters comes up (and hopefully its soon), he definitely should be hitting 6th/7th . . .

Great to see him over .300. I predict he finishes at .315+

Valbuena has already shown more potential than Barney.

No he hasn't. Barney is more athletic, better defender, and better baserunner.