BA's Cubs Top 30

[RichHillIsABeast]

what did it say on

 

21. Baez

26. Roquet

28. Taylor

29. Atkins

 

Jessica Alba is the hottest woman alive.

[craig]

what did it say on

 

21. Baez

26. Roquet

28. Taylor

29. Atkins

 

This is by memory.

 

Baez: Said he's got the arm, range, actions to play a quality SS. Said that if he gets stronger and learns to hit, that he could be good. He's 6'3", so you'd think he might have potential to hit with more power than he did these past two years. It mentioned what an unusually old signing he was for a Dominican (was at least 20 when signed). Did not acknowledge his horrible anti-walk profile thus far.

 

Roquet: Said he throws 91-97, and that both fastball and slider have chance to be plus pitches. Said he has a solid, durable pitcher's body. Suggested that he could throw strikes. Much of short blurb was about his background, originally signed Florida State as an outfielder, switched to pitcher his redshirt spring, then popped to a couple of JC's, before his two years at Cal Poly or whatever it was he and Lansford were at, then signed as a 5th year senior. Said he tripped on a ball and missed several weeks this past year to injury. And since he's so old, said they'd probably try to fast-track him, maybe start him right off at Daytona this year.

 

FWIW, I checked his college numbers. At Cal Poly (?), he pitched in relief, not many innings. He was lousy his first year there, so went undrafted, not many K's. Then last spring his numbers totally changed, tons of K's, ERA in low 2's when team ERA was around 5.

 

Taylor and Atkins: They got basically the same reviews, more or less. Chunky builds, in taylor's case he's athletic but he may need to watch the weight. Taylor best control in the system, 90-92 boring sinker. Pitched a 9-inning complete game in only 99 pitches. Control pitcher, not power, at present doesn't have any notable offspeed stuff.

 

Atkins, similar cunky build, similar fastball, 91-92 boring sinker type. Suggested that the 3/4 arm slot which is good for his sinker is not well suited to his slider, which often hangs. Had good stats, yada yada.

 

Callis wasn't real buzzed about Taylor or Atkins, not about their breaking pitches at all, and not really that fired up about their fastballs. I admit I was somewhat disappointed that they were so little buzzed that they came in behind all these backup catcher wannabe's (Reed, Soto, Robinson, Fox).

 

Personally, I'm somewhat hopeful about Taylor and Atkins. People sometimes think only tall lanky guys get faster, but sometimes solid chunky guys get faster at 20-21-22-23, too. And, it's not like 91-92 sinker is exactly worthless. Add another 2-3 mph and suddenly they look like they have real asset fastballs. Come up with a slider, and suddenly maybe Taylor is a control good-stuff serious prospect. Who knows.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Taylor and Atkins get a better offspeed pitch and there you go.

[Outshined_One]

Considering their youth and relative inexperience, I think we'll find out a lot more about these guys next season.

 

As we all know, the Cubs love having guys scrap certain pitches so that they can focus on developing other pitches (Gallagher's slider, Pawelek's slider & splitter, etc) and also to keep them healthy. Both Atkins and Taylor managed to pitch roughly 140 innings apiece, which shows that they can at least withstand the grind of the season. Next season will be much better indicators of how their secondary pitches look.

[Rob]

Q: Dan Williams from Sutton, MA asks:

I see Sean Marshall didn't make your Cubs' future rotation. What's your outlook on him?

A:

 

Jim Callis: I like Sean Marshall and think he'll have a decent to solid big league career. There just wasn't room after I put Zambrano, Prior, Veal, Lilly and Gallagher on there. I actually screwed up and left Rich Hill off the rotation--he should have been on there.

 

Hopefully at the expense of Lilly.

 

Zambrano

Hill

Prior

Veal

Gallagher

 

would be an insane rotation.

[radarluv1]

where's marquis in 2010?

[C.C.]

Q: Dan Williams from Sutton, MA asks:

I see Sean Marshall didn't make your Cubs' future rotation. What's your outlook on him?

A:

 

Jim Callis: I like Sean Marshall and think he'll have a decent to solid big league career. There just wasn't room after I put Zambrano, Prior, Veal, Lilly and Gallagher on there. I actually screwed up and left Rich Hill off the rotation--he should have been on there.

 

Hopefully at the expense of Lilly.

 

Zambrano

Hill

Prior

Veal

Gallagher

 

would be an insane rotation.

 

That would be a very unproven rotation. Hopefully Veal and Gallagher pan out on the ML level.

[don_kessinger_was_good]

I am very pleased to hear about Billy Petrick's returning health! I always liked him, maybe he can still have a shot. Just stay healthy, dude!

 

Two years ago, it looked like Petrick and Blasko would be rocketing up through the system, damn injuries.....

[BigbadB]

Is Blasko done, or is he still in the system?

[CoolHandLuke]

Is Blasko done, or is he still in the system?

 

http://cubs.scout.com/2/543477.html

 

This is the latest article I can find on him, so it sounds like he still might be in the system. After missing the last two years though, he is a real long shot to ever do anything I would think.

[BigbadB]

I don't remember anymore what his ailments were. Was it elbow or shoulder related?

[CaliforniaRaisin]

I don't remember anymore what his ailments were. Was it elbow or shoulder related?

 

Shoulder...and he's definitely still in the system.