"Geo Tagging" with Geovany Soto


For you and me, "geo tagging" means putting geographical information on things like a video or a photo, so when people see it online they know where it was taken.
But for Geovany Soto, "Geo Tagging" has nothing to do with a camera or a computer, and it doesn't happen in the digital world.
Because when Geo tags something, it'll feel some pain even if it's a baseball.

In Sunday's loss to the Pirates, I bet Jason Jaramillo won't ever forget getting Geo Tagged in the chin when he tried to score from third in front of Tyler Colvin's astonishing one-hop toss from right.

And yesterday when the Cubs needed a little insurance, Kam Mickolio watched one of his pitches get Geo Tagged into the left field wall at Wrigley Field for a nice little insurance run as the Cubs went on to beat the Dbacks 4-1.

That hit from Geo yesterday, plus Alfonso Soriano's homer earlier and the ones from these first 4 games - this team isn't great by a long stretch but it feels like I've already seen more clutch hitting than they managed all of last June.
Even with the pain of Sunday's loss, the games have been pretty fun to watch, and the guys are all... likable I guess is the word.

Like Geo. 
The sophomore slump and pot things are way in the past, he got his arm fixed, he looks comfortable.
I never really believed the rookie season All-Star Geo - I thought he was lucky to be the guy on that team in that year with the not so stellar competition around the NL.
But this season, I'm looking forward to lots of Geo Tags.

And today marks the first Major League start for young Andrew Cashner.
Remember, he's just a kid, he's nervous, and his mother probably thinks he needs a haircut.
So cut him some slack and try to enjoy another one of the talented Cubs kids trying to make it in The Bigs. 


Today-Colvin in at first, and everyone's favorite is catching-

Fuku RF

Castro SS

Byrd CF

Ramirez 3B

Colvin 1B

Soriano LF

Barney 2B

Hill C

Cashner P

Looks like Pena is dusting off DLee excuse for sucking this year with his sprained thumb.


This better be the best called game ever.

No wood or marmol today.

Barney, Hill, Cashner batting 7-9!!!!!!

Cashner better have his gem throwing shoes on today.

Byrd turd


I'm gonna go out on a limb and predict two hits from Castro today, and one misadventure from him in the infield.

Because I'm nothing if not gutsy in my predictions.

I haven't had a chance to see much yet but it does seem like there's a little more spring in their steps. Must be that 24 hour batting order.

I wonder how common posting the lineup 24 hours in advance is. Millar made it sound like it's the norm, which seems odd.

Hak Ju Lee to Single-A DL with chicken pox

Don't they have bathtubs in Korea?

Only public bathtubs. That should be worse, right?

Where is Junior Lake starting this season at?

Funny bit on Cubs pre-game on Comcast...

Reporters gathered around Carlos Pena in locker room, getting updates on his thumb, he said he could play in an emergency today but they are just being cautious and hoping a little rest will heal it quickly.

Then a reporter asked Pena, "You're not worried about Colvin going 4 for 4 and you being Wally Pipp'ed today?"

and Pena replied, "I hope that happens...(Laughter)... Not the Wally Pipp part, but Colvin going 4 for 4."

Two cool things about that quote.

With Cashner and Garza both dialing it up at 95 or better, it's nice to have some heat in the rotation again.

Very nice first inning for Cashner, 3 ground ball outs.

Boo Fukudome for not making to the third on Byrd's single

Parachat is where all the cool kids hang out

Parachat is where all the cool kids can't sign in.

what browser and OS?

and did you try another browser?

Firefox 4 (never worked for me with 3.5 or 3.6 either)

OS X 10.6

I also can't sign in with Chrome or Safari, the last time I tried. I haven't been able to sign into Parachat for 2 seasons.

you need to update your java

firefox 4 has been a problem for me, but safari works

-edit- it should have been installed in a security update, but you can try this


then try it in firefox or safari

if it still doesn't work, I'll contact parachat

Software Update shows I'm up to date on Java. I installed Java for 10.6 update 4 last month.

lovely, to parachat customer support I go

I haven't been able to either.

Gameday says Kosuke walked, and Barney scored from third, with Hill moving over to third... Was there a wild pitch?

Catcher tried to pick K Hill off second base. Throw went into CF...

From the Fun Fact Dept.: According to ESPN, entering today's game Castro had yet to swing and miss.

He's going to be such a good hitter, especially if he figures out the relationship between taking close pitches and getting fat ones. Thank God (aka Tim Wilken) for him this year.

Thank Tim Wilken????

You remember him -- "Teflon Tim"!

What just happened with Cashner and the trainer?

Update: Len says "undisclosed injury."

I wasn't watching, did he grab anything?


Now all we need is Castro to blow out a knee and there's zero reasons to watch the rest of the year. Uggh.

Stiffness/tightness in shoulder, per team says Wittenmyer.

That can't be good.

Update II on Cashner:

"Tightness in right shoulder" according to Len.

Does Riggins believe in towel drills?

yay, bullpen today.

The more Samardjia implodes, the more liklihood that Hendry will dump him. A failed conversion.

So, a silver lining there.

I have been saying the guy is a bust for two years now.

Prove me wrong, Wide-Out!

This would have been a perfect spot for Wellemeyer. Sigh...

Anyone have any insight into this NF number that gets assigned to each pitch in Gameday?

It's something called a Nasty Factor. For real.

What is the Nasty Factor?

The Nasty Factor evaluates several properties of each pitch, and rates the “nastiness” of the pitch on a scale from 0-100, based in part on the success or failure of opposing hitters against previous similar pitches. The Nasty Factor incorporates several different factors for each pitch, including:

Velocity — The greater the pitch’s velocity — as compared to that pitcher’s and the league’s range of speed for that pitch type — the greater the nastiness;
Sequence — The more the pitcher mixes up his pitches, the greater the nastiness… and certain pitch sequences are nastier than others, too;
Location — The closer to the edges of the strike zone is, the greater the nastiness, while pitches closer to the middle of the plate, and farther away outside the strike zone, decrease in nastiness;
Movement — The more movement the pitcher applies to the pitch — as compared to that pitcher’s and the league’s range of movement for that pitch type — the greater the nastiness.
The Nasty Factor also adjusts for how often the pitcher has faced the current batter during the game, as well as how often he has used the same pitch type against the same batter in the current at-bat and previously in the game.


Wow, I'm kind of sorry I asked. I'm afraid that is a stat that I will be ignoring from now on. Thanks for digging that up, though, PN.

Wow. I was yelling "eat it!" at Castro.

Man, QUADE, you sure go with your "gut" alot so far...

Nice final pitch by Marshall.

it's a win, they all can't be pretty

chris rose and kevin millar are horrible on MLB's "Intentional Talk"...they should "Best Damn Sports Show" the whole thing and add a couple more guys to eat mic time and play banter off each other.

twitter speak says expect an MRI for Cashner tomorrow

I assume Casey Coleman is the fallback plan

otherwise I say make a run at Kevin Slowey

This article says he already received one, with the results expected tomorrow:


off day Thursday, so Dempster can go on Monday against Astros

they'll need someone next Tuesday it looks like @ Houston assuming Cashner misses time.

I have tickets Tuesday... if I get Coleman instead of Cashner, I may ask for a refund.

I ask for refunds regularly when I leave Wrigley. Like on Opening Day, for example.

Doesn't work, though.

Bring a toy gun, or The Rock.

Maybe CUBSTER can elaborate, but I always got MRI's done and interpreted pretty fast. Like, within a couple hours.

Wheres the Coleman love,

I get to watch Wells pitch and would much rather see Garza or Coleman.

Just show up early and watch the opposition take batting practice if you want to see Coleman pitch - essentially the same thing.


Eh...he had 8 starts last year..5 were quality starts. As a stopgap 5th starter? The Cubs could do worse....hell, they have done worse.

That being said....man, I hope Cashner is healthy....

Carlos Silva was our ace for more than 8 starts last year. The guy was really really really lucky.

Again...for a stopgap 5th starter..they could do worse.
Also, again, I hope Cashner is ok...

Who would be worse than a guy who only strikes out 4/9 in AAA? Assuming you and I are not options on the table.

Neal.....he was in the battle for 5th starter in ST. HE was a starter at AAA last year...He pitched reasonably well in 5 of 8 starts last season.
Carlos Silva isn't here. Coleman is the best available option to step into the rotation until Cashner returns.

I'm not thrilled...or naming Coleman ROY. I'm saying, at least he's been starting pitcher in AA and AAA, with some success at each level, and with a few good starts last season in the bigs.

If some mystery option is available...I'm all ears.

My point is that Siva is, always was and probably for the next five years always wil be a better option that Coleman, and he cost less money, so he should be on the team. End of story.

I'd actually prefer Diamond over Coleman, but it looks like we're going to get both.

If you are trading away prospects for 3rd starters, your sixth starter should not be a guy who can't strike out 5 PCL hitters over the course of 9 innings.

Going into the off-season the Cubs had Carpenter, and Silva, who both should be ahead of this loser, and now they're all options who are off the table. Why? Who knows.

I realize that Coleman is the 6th starter, what I am pointing out is that is a woeful posisiton for any organziation to unecessarily be in.

He deserves to be a starter a little less than Samardijza should have been the closer in '09.

Point taken....
Let's say the Cubs kept Silva..which Silva shows up? The one who pitched great for half a season, or the one who pitched awfully to mediocre over his career?

How did Silva cost less money than Coleman?

Also to consider...they don't have to worry about starting Carpenter's service clock, as I'm pretty sure no one will come running to sign Coleman to big bucks in a couple years.

I don't know which Silva shows up, but he, unlike Coleman wasn't doing it with smoke and mirrors last year.

Last March Silva gave up 3 HR's against 2 BB's in 16.1 innings. This March he gave up 4 HR's and 2 BB's in 17.1 innings.

Now all of the sudden he's useless. It's just a continuation of the Cubs not understanding how not to make decisions based on small sample sizes (like Wells and his three bad innings last year).

"How did Silva cost less money than Coleman?"

Unless I am mistaken, Coleman doesn't get the MLB minimum unless he gets called up, whereas Silva was getting his guaranteed money regardless, so by releasing Silva the Cubs also wind up increasing their payroll by about $330K (minus whatever Silva DL time works out to).

Silva didn't help things by coming into ST out of shape...and he got shellacked until his final appearance.
Last year, he was suddenly striking out 2 more batters per nine than he ever had, at age 31...did he learn a new pitch? He's a career .500 pitcher, with an ERA of 4.68...

I'm sure that the Cubs are very, very upset about the extra $330K

You know, I couldn't believe it either, and I watched his first ST start when he looked like he was pitching the HR derby, but for whatever reason, he was K'ing batters last year, and he also seemed to be pitching flyballs in big parks and when the wind was blowing in, and groundballs when it wasn't.

He was hurt in '08 and '09.

We may never understand the mystery, that is Carlos Silva's 2010 season...

Welington Castillo has been assigned to Daytona where he can DH on a regular basis until the physical problem that is keeping him from catching (reported during Spring Training to be a thumb injury) is resolved.

The Cubs did the same thing with Tyler Colvin a couple of years ago when he was rehabing from TJS, since Daytona and Peoria are the only full-season Cubs minor league affiliates that use a DH every game. (Iowa and Tennessee only use the DH when they play a road game at an A. L. affiliate).

I did see W. Castillo DH for Daytona vs Inland Empire on Sunday at Fitch Park, so apparently it wasn't just for that day.

wow...attendance is getting 1980s-level pretty early on in 2011.

from some of today's games.

bos@cle - 9,025
was@fla - 10,482
hou@cin - 11,821
cws@kc - 12,641
laa@tb - 13,173

arz@chc was 27,039...looked like less actually showed up, though.

You haven't heard? We've deluded ourselves into thinking it's the weather's fault.

But it isn't just at Wrigley. Attendance was even down at Yankee Stadium.

I assume when Wrigley Field Premium (the team-sanctioned scalping company) purchases tickets, that counts in the 'paid attendance', even if they don't re-sell the ticket at the inflated ticket price?

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