Minor League Discussion & Boxes 6-24-2007

[Guest]

Daytona lost 7-6 in 11. Boise tied it up at 4 on a 2-run HR by Ty Wright, they're at the 7th inning stretch now.

[Guest]

All boxes are posted!

 

IowaCubs.com[/url]"]Cubs Homer Past Isotopes 4-3

Iowa wins for fourth in five games

By Jeff Lantz / http://www.iowacubs.com

 

The Iowa Cubs launched three home runs en route to a 4-1 win over the Albuquerque Isotopes Sunday afternoon at Principal Park.

Geovany Soto, Buck Coats and Ronny Cedeno each homered for the Cubs to help make a winner out of starter Sean Gallagher, who allowed just one hit over five innings in his first triple-A start.

 

Cubs pitchers held the Isotopes scoreless for the first 16 innings of the series and have outscored the Isotopes 19-1 over the last two days.

 

Soto's homer, his ninth of the year, tied his career high set back in 2004 for double-A West Tenn. Coats was 2-4 on the day and has 10 hits in his last 13 at bats at Principal Park.

 

SmokiesBaseball.com[/url]"]Berg grounds Mudcats 4-1 Sunday

 

ZEBULON, NC- The Tennessee Smokies scored the game's first four runs and never looked back Sunday afternoon in taking the opener of the six-game series against the Carolina Mudcats, 4-1, at Five County Stadium in front of an announced crowd of 5,260.

 

The Smokies' Jake Fox singled in Sam Fuld with two-out in the first, giving Tennessee the early 1-0 lead.

 

The Smokies made it 2-0 in the sixth. Chris Robinson rolled a single to center with two-out in the inning, scoring Fox.

 

Matt Craig crushed his sixth home run of the season in the eighth inning, padding the Smokies' lead to 4-0.

 

Carolina would get to Smokies pitcher Justin Berg in the bottom of the eighth. The Mudcats loaded the bases with one out in the inning to chase Berg. Rocky Roquet then entered the game, and after giving up a run-scoring single to Eric Riggs, he would fan Chase Lambin and Lee Mitchell with the bases loaded to retire the side.

 

Roquet then pitched a scoreless ninth for the save, his first with the Smokies. Berg (4-5) notched the win, going seven and one-third innings, yielding one run on six singles with three strikeouts.

 

DaytonaCubs.com[/url]"]Losing Streak Inflates to Six Games

Cubs Drop One in Extras

 

By: Matt Martinez

 

(DAYTONA BEACH, FL) It took 11 innings but the the Cubs dropped their sixth in a row to eclipse their longest losing streak of the season as they are topped 7-6 by the the visiting Yankees.

 

Jeff Samardzija took the ball for the Cubs on Sunday evening and right off the bat, Samardzija gave up three runs on four base hits in his first two innings of work. Samardzija would end up giving up a total of of five runs (four earned) in five innings of work on eight base hits and only one walk.

 

Samardzija was relieved by left-hander Darin Downs who lasted three full innings where he gave up just one run on one hit while striking out four. Downs exited the ballgame in the ninth inning with the game knotted at 6-6 when Tim "The Duke" Layden took control for the Cubs. Layden worked his way out of small jams in the ninth and tenth innings, respectively before giving up back-to-back-to-back singles in the eleventh to teeter the lead back to Tampa, 7-6.

 

The Cubs (0-4) offense had had its struggles over the past week. They had struggled to drive in runs and compile base hits. But on Sunday, that wasn't the problem. Daytona dug itself a hole early on in the game and fought hard to make the game interesting. In the home half of the sixth, things got very interesting.

 

Daytona was down 6-3 in the sixth as the top of the lineup was due to bat in the frame. Matt Matulia led off the inning with a lazy fly ball to left and Alberto Garcia followed with a strikeout. With two down, Kyle Reynolds yanked a ball over the fence to cut the lead to 6-4, and Brian Dopirak and Chris Amador followed suit with solo jacks of their own to tie the game at 6-6. Unfortunately for the Cubs, those would be the last runs they could produce.

 

A scoreless eighth, ninth, and tenth for the Cubs pitted them one-run down in the eleventh and facing the tough right-hander in Josh Schmidt. Schmidt made quick work of the Cubs in the home half of the eleventh as they were sat down in order to end the game.

 

PeoriaChiefs.com[/url]"]Chiefs Win 11-9 Sunday

 

Beloit, WI – The Peoria Chiefs gave away a 9-2 lead Sunday afternoon against the Beloit Snappers and then rallied for an 11-9 victory. The win splits the four game series and the Chiefs will open an eight game homestand on Monday night 2-2 on the half and 33-40 overall.

 

Both teams committed errors in the first inning but only Beloit was able to capitalize and score a run. The Chiefs had Jonathon Mota at second with one out in the first but Snappers starter Brian Kirwan got out of trouble. Chiefs’ starter Jose Pina hit leadoff man Eli Tintor in the elbow with his first pitch of the game. Tintor stole second and moved to third when catcher Wellington Castillo’s throw bounced into centerfield. Danny Berg gave the Snappers a 1-0 lead with a RBI groundout before Pina got out of the inning.

 

The Chiefs came back to take a lead against Kirwan in the second. Ryan Norwood led off with a walk before Alfred Joseph singled. With one out, Nate Samson reached on an infield single and Matt Camp tied the game 1-1 with a sacrifice fly to left. After Mota walked to reload the bases, Jim Adduci gave the Chiefs a 3-1 lead with a sharp single into right scoring Joseph and Samson. Beloit came back in the second to cut the lead in half. Pina walked Joe Benson with one out and Benson promptly stole second. He then came around to score on a single up the middle off the bat of Allan de San Miguel.

 

The Chiefs added to their lead in a wacky fourth inning. Castillo led off with a double and moved to third on a single by Samson. Camp drove Castillo home for a 4-2 lead with a single to left. Mota laid down a bunt and de San Miguel threw wildly into left field as both Samson and Camp scored for a 6-2 Chiefs lead. Adduci then reached on a wild pitch strike three as Mota moved to third with nobody out. Danny Vais relieved Kirwan and got Lansford to flyout to right field and Mota was thrown out at the plate trying to score on the play.

 

Peoria continued their attack in the fifth against Vais. Norwood and Joseph started with back to back singles before Norwood was out at the plate on a Castillo grounder. Samson’s third hit of the day brought home Joseph for a 7-2 lead and Camp singled home Castillo moments later. The Chiefs loaded the bases against Vais in the sixth inning with one out. Castillo moved the lead to 9-2 with a sac fly to center that brought home Russ Canzler.

 

Pina ran into trouble in the sixth when he walked the first two batters and gave up a single to right. He did get one out before giving way to Jayson Ruhlman. Pinch hitter Garrett Olson greeted Ruhlman with a two-run double down the left field line. De San Miguel made it a 9-5 game with a RBI groundout to third before Ruhlman got out of the inning.

 

The Snappers continued their comeback against Ruhlman in the seventh. Eli Tintor led off with a single and went to second on a single by Matt Betsill. Danny Berg doubled home a pair and Jeremy Papelbon relieved Ruhlman with nobody out. Parmelee singled and Wilson Ramos made it a 9-8 game with a RBI single up the middle. Joe Benson sacrificed and the Chiefs intentionally walked Olson to load the bases for de San Miguel. De San Miguel singled to right as Parmelee scored tying the game 9-9. Papelbon recovered to strike out the next two batters to get out of the inning with the game tied.

 

The Chiefs came right back in the eight to regain the lead. Ryne Malone led off with a single and went to third on a double by Canzler. Norwood put the Chiefs up 10-9 with a single to left and Castillo added an insurance run with a sac fly to center.

 

Pina labored over six innings allowing five runs on five hits over 5 1/3 innings. The righthander struck out four and walked three while also hitting one. Ruhlman allowed three runs in 2/3 of an inning while allowing four hits. Papelbon blew the save but picked up a win with three innings in which he allowed one run on three hits with two strikeouts.

 

Gorman’s Pub Player of the Game: Matt Camp (CF) – Camp drove home a career high three runs with a 2-for-4 performance. He singled twice, hit a sac fly and scored two once.

 

BoiseHawks.com[/url]"]Picket Strikes Twice in Emeralds Win

 

EUGENE,OR - - Eugene catcher Justin Picket hit pair of home runs and held on to the ball during a violent collision at home plate in a key play to lead the Eugene Emeralds to a 5-4 win over the Boise Hawks on Sunday.

 

Picket's second home run of the game and eventual game wining hit came in the seventh inning off Boise reliever Chris Siegfried and broke a 4-4 tie in Eugene's home opening win. It was Picket's third home run of the season.

 

In the sixth inning with the Hawks trailing 4-2 and threatening, Boise's Bill Moss lined a base hit to left field with two runners aboard. Derek Schermerhorn, trying to score from second base on the play, ran in to Picket with the force of a linebacker, but Picket held on the ball to record the final out of the inning and snuff the Hawk's rally.

 

The Hawks tied the game in the seventh inning on a two-run home run by Ty Wright. But Picket's second home run of the game in the bottom of the seventh inning proved to be the game winner.

[imb]

good thing wilken liked samardzija, or i'd be worried about him

 

Colvin, too

[jersey cubs fan]

good thing wilken liked samardzija, or i'd be worried about him

 

Colvin, too

 

Kind of off to a rough start in AA huh. Still don't understand why they promoted him so soon without even coming close to dominating high A.

 

Obviously it's still very early in the process for both these guys, but it's still distressing to see such a big money 22 year old pitcher struggling this much in the FSL. It would be one thing if he was just putting up ho hum blah numbers that aren't impressing anybody, but he's actually looking awful in the stats category. I hope it's just a matter of getting stretched out and used to pitching every 5 days, 30 times a year.

[CubColtPacer]

good thing wilken liked samardzija, or i'd be worried about him

 

Colvin, too

 

Kind of off to a rough start in AA huh. Still don't understand why they promoted him so soon without even coming close to dominating high A.

 

He might not have been dominating, but he had the 13th best OPS in his entire league while playing an excellent CF, so I would say that was close to dominating, especially when you consider that he was closer to 7th as he was to 14th. It's probably a little aggresive, but the things he needs to work on it will probably be better to work on in AA than High A. I imagine he'll struggle in AA for the while-in fact, he'll probably just start to figure it out at the end of this season and the beginning of next season at AA, but that's just fine.

[jersey cubs fan]

He might not have been dominating, but he had the 13th best OPS in his entire league while playing an excellent CF, so I would say that was close to dominating, especially when you consider that he was closer to 7th as he was to 14th.

 

How in the world is that close to dominating? The guy with the best numbers is dominating. The guys ranked 2nd and 3rd are dominating. The guy with the 14th best OPS is not dominating.

[CubColtPacer]

He might not have been dominating, but he had the 13th best OPS in his entire league while playing an excellent CF, so I would say that was close to dominating, especially when you consider that he was closer to 7th as he was to 14th.

 

How in the world is that close to dominating? The guy with the best numbers is dominating. The guys ranked 2nd and 3rd are dominating. The guy with the 14th best OPS is not dominating.

 

Maybe we just have different definitions of dominating then. I'll rephrase-he was one of the best players in his league this year, especially considering the position that he plays.

[jersey cubs fan]

He might not have been dominating, but he had the 13th best OPS in his entire league while playing an excellent CF, so I would say that was close to dominating, especially when you consider that he was closer to 7th as he was to 14th.

 

How in the world is that close to dominating? The guy with the best numbers is dominating. The guys ranked 2nd and 3rd are dominating. The guy with the 14th best OPS is not dominating.

 

Maybe we just have different definitions of dominating then. I'll rephrase-he was one of the best players in his league this year, especially considering the position that he plays.

 

He was one of the better players in a 12 team league, but his numbers were far from outstanding and there was no obvious reason to promote him this early. He's ~ 520 at bats into his pro career and is sitting somewhere around .280/.315/485 with a K/BB of 103/27. He's not yet 22, yet for some reason they've decided to have him skip low A and spend just 2.5 months in high A before shipping him off to AA.

[Guest]

good thing wilken liked samardzija, or i'd be worried about him

 

Colvin, too

 

Kind of off to a rough start in AA huh. Still don't understand why they promoted him so soon without even coming close to dominating high A.

 

He might not have been dominating, but he had the 13th best OPS in his entire league while playing an excellent CF, so I would say that was close to dominating, especially when you consider that he was closer to 7th as he was to 14th. It's probably a little aggresive, but the things he needs to work on it will probably be better to work on in AA than High A. I imagine he'll struggle in AA for the while-in fact, he'll probably just start to figure it out at the end of this season and the beginning of next season at AA, but that's just fine.

 

It's going to be hard to work on things that you're not good at (improving plate discipline, K/BB) while facing better pitching and tougher competition. He should have stayed at high-A for a while longer.

[CubColtPacer]

good thing wilken liked samardzija, or i'd be worried about him

 

Colvin, too

 

Kind of off to a rough start in AA huh. Still don't understand why they promoted him so soon without even coming close to dominating high A.

 

He might not have been dominating, but he had the 13th best OPS in his entire league while playing an excellent CF, so I would say that was close to dominating, especially when you consider that he was closer to 7th as he was to 14th. It's probably a little aggresive, but the things he needs to work on it will probably be better to work on in AA than High A. I imagine he'll struggle in AA for the while-in fact, he'll probably just start to figure it out at the end of this season and the beginning of next season at AA, but that's just fine.

 

It's going to be hard to work on things that you're not good at (improving plate discipline, K/BB) while facing better pitching and tougher competition. He should have stayed at high-A for a while longer.

 

I happen to disagree on that, but that's fine. I just think it's hard to convince a player to be more patient when he's having good success being aggressive. If he continues to struggle in AA, and the coaches tell him to be more patient, I think it will be a lot easier for him to incorporate that into his game, and come out on the other side a better ballplayer for it.

 

Which is right probably depends on Colvin's mindset and mental side that none of us know for sure. Is he easily coachable? Can he bounce back from failure and work through it, or will failure start to make him swing at everything? Those things are hard to tell without knowing him well, so I am not sure that my opinion is the correct one without knowing all the facts.

[jersey cubs fan]

good thing wilken liked samardzija, or i'd be worried about him

 

Colvin, too

 

Kind of off to a rough start in AA huh. Still don't understand why they promoted him so soon without even coming close to dominating high A.

 

He might not have been dominating, but he had the 13th best OPS in his entire league while playing an excellent CF, so I would say that was close to dominating, especially when you consider that he was closer to 7th as he was to 14th. It's probably a little aggresive, but the things he needs to work on it will probably be better to work on in AA than High A. I imagine he'll struggle in AA for the while-in fact, he'll probably just start to figure it out at the end of this season and the beginning of next season at AA, but that's just fine.

 

It's going to be hard to work on things that you're not good at (improving plate discipline, K/BB) while facing better pitching and tougher competition. He should have stayed at high-A for a while longer.

 

Yeah, the the theory that he needed to face better pitchers in order to have an incentive not to swing doesn't make much sense. It's not like he was toying with inferior competition in the FSL. He was barely over .300 with a horrible K/BB ratio.

 

I could see if the guy was doing something like 380/405/595 you might think that he needs to face tougher pitchers so he can have incentive not to swing. But he was barely hitting .300 down there. Colvin appeared to be at an age and skill appropriate level in High A. He was doing well in some regards, but struggling enough in important things so that one could see he wasn't wasting his time down there.

 

I have to wonder if the promotion had other things besides Colvin's need to see better competition. Perhaps baseball decisions makers wanted to show ownership their newest draft picks were progressing well in order to gain authorization for current signings or something.

[jersey cubs fan]

I happen to disagree on that, but that's fine. I just think it's hard to convince a player to be more patient when he's having good success being aggressive.

 

That's the problem, he wasn't having that good of success. He wasn't dominating, or anywhere close. He wasn't toying with the competition. He was barely hitting .300 and had an awful K/BB ratio. If Cubs coaches had a tough time convincing him that his awful K/BB ratio was reason enough to be more patient, then this kid is going to be really tough to coach. You don't promote a guy in order to get him to fix problems he is apparantly ignoring.

[Guest]

From Road to Wrigley about a potential blister problem with Sean Gallagher (at least it doesn't sound serious):

 

All of his strikeouts came in the first three innings and were called third strikes on his sharp, 71 MPH curveball coming off his 90 MPH fastball.

 

He wobbled in the fourth and fifth, walking a batter in each, as his curveball started to cause a blister problem.

 

http://mvn.com/milb-cubs/2007/06/25/i-cubs-find-another-way-to-win/

 

ETA:

 

Des Moines Register[/url]"]The small piece of tape on his middle finger was a symbol that Iowa Cubs pitcher Sean Gallagher had a pretty good day Sunday at Principal Park.

 

His curveball was so good that it ripped skin during a strong 69-pitch performance in a 4-3 win against Albuquerque before an announced gathering of 7,906.

 

"I always have a little skin come off - when I snap off a good curveball," said Gallagher, who was aided by home runs from Ronny Cedeno, Buck Coats and Geovany Soto. "(Sunday) was no different."

 

And some more quotes:

 

"It felt great to get back out there in the starting rotation," Gallagher said. "I'd like to get to a situation where I can go seven innings and throw 100-some pitches."

 

"This is the most pitches I've thrown in 3½ weeks - since I was promoted to Chicago," Gallagher said.

 

"When I went up, I made the mistake of letting the game take me over," he said. "I rushed. I let the situation take over me and I got lost in my own thoughts.

 

"(Sunday), I took deep breaths and slowed the game down to a pace I was comfortable with."

[cubweiser03]

Well...Colvin's only struck out once in 19 AB.

[moorecg]

 

IowaCubs.com[/url]"]Cubs Homer Past Isotopes 4-3

Iowa wins for fourth in five games

By Jeff Lantz / http://www.iowacubs.com

 

 

Was I the only one who really enjoyed the blatant Simpson's reference in the Cubs "Homer" past Isotopes headline...

 

:D

[chattbaseball]

Let's not crucify him after 19 ABs. Double-A is a huge adjustment. I constantly see young guys slammed on forums after little or no time. This kid is only 1 year into professional baseball - he's moving along very fast! Not every kid is Andruw Jones!

[Guest]

Let's not crucify him after 19 ABs. Double-A is a huge adjustment. I constantly see young guys slammed on forums after little or no time. This kid is only 1 year into professional baseball - he's moving along very fast! Not every kid is Andruw Jones!

 

I think the Cubs are rushing him. I definitely know he's not Andruw, that's why I would have liked him to stay at high-A.

 

I certainly don't think I'm slamming him. He's easily one of the 3 top prospects on this team. But he definitely has some red flags and things he needs to fix in his game, and I think it'd be easier to fix at a level he's doing well at.

[Guest]

From Cubs Talk:

 

Q: By all accounts, his (Samardzija's) fastball has been strong velocity-wise, but how about his secondary pitches? We know that during at least one of his starts, his breaking ball wasn’t breaking a whole lot.

 

Jody Davis: His fastball velocities, with the movement that he brings, are exceptional. At times, he tries to overthrow his breaking ball and it flattens out. That’s some of the troubles that he’s gotten into. But that’s why we’re here. He’s working on his slider and his changeup. (Coupled) with his fastball velocities and the movement, we see great things from him. Right now, we’re not too concerned with the numbers.

[jersey cubs fan]

Let's not crucify him after 19 ABs. Double-A is a huge adjustment. I constantly see young guys slammed on forums after little or no time. This kid is only 1 year into professional baseball - he's moving along very fast! Not every kid is Andruw Jones!

 

We're not crucifying him. I'm questioning the reasoning behind the callup to AA given the fact that he hasn't done a whole lot at lower levels. He's only moving along fast because the Cubs are pushing him at what appears to be an unnecessarily quick rate.

[chattbaseball]

Let's not crucify him after 19 ABs. Double-A is a huge adjustment. I constantly see young guys slammed on forums after little or no time. This kid is only 1 year into professional baseball - he's moving along very fast! Not every kid is Andruw Jones!

 

We're not crucifying him. I'm questioning the reasoning behind the callup to AA given the fact that he hasn't done a whole lot at lower levels. He's only moving along fast because the Cubs are pushing him at what appears to be an unnecessarily quick rate.

 

Ok then, point well taken!

[RonnieWooWooSanto]

I recently watched a documentary on the Cape Cod League, Touching the Game. Sam Fuld is one of the players who is featured in the film.

 

Anyways, what can be expected of him? I know he is a 25 year outfielder from Stanford currently at Tennessee. What are his strengths and weaknesses? I looked at his numbers and nothing really stands out.

 

Just curious after seeing the documentary.

 

Note: I wanted this to be a seperate thread, but for what ever reason I screwed up and posted in this thread. :(

Edited June 25, 2007 by RonnieWooWooSanto

[TruffleShuffle]

I recently watched a documentary on the Cape Cod League, Touching the Game. Sam Fuld is one of the players who is featured in the film.

 

Anyways, what can be expected of him? I know he is a 25 year outfielder from Stanford currently at Tennessee. What are his strengths and weaknesses? I looked at his numbers and nothing really stands out.

 

Just curious after seeing the documentary.

 

ceiling is a utility outfielder; more likely, he'll be a career AA or AAA player. At least he's got a Stanford degree to fall back on.