Minor League Discussion & Boxes 8-3-2008

[Guest]

With Colvin's monster 11 total base effort yesterday, he gets himself all the way up to a .696 OPS on the season. :|

[jersey cubs fan]

With Colvin's monster 11 total base effort yesterday, he gets himself all the way up to a .696 OPS on the season. :|

 

I think the interesting thing is that day brought his August OPS up to only 1333, because he was 1-7 the first two days.

[Guest]

BA's Daily Dish[/url]"]Prospect of The Day

 

Tennessee left fielder Tyler Colvin (Cubs) also went 3-for-5, also hit two home runs, also had six RBIs, but added a triple and three runs scored.

 

BA's Daily Dish[/url]"]Prospect Of The Day

 

There are a great deal of hitting prospects playing for Boise, the Northwest League’s short-season affiliate of the Chicago Cubs. We have noted many of them on occasion in the past, but today we will note hitters 2-7 in the order as the POTD, as each had a noteworthy performance yesterday. Left fielder Andrew Rundle has not done well at two other levels this season, but he is hitting .352 for Boise after a 4-for-5 day yesterday that included two doubles. Third baseman Josh Vitters capped a solid weekend at the plate, including a home run on Saturday, with a 1-for-6 day. His lone hit was a double. Shortstop Ryan Flaherty helped the cause with two doubles in a 2-for-4 effort. Designated hitter Sean Hoorelbeke waited until an opportune time to go deep for the first time this season. He was 1-for-5 with a grand slam. Ryan Keedy merited some Hot Sheet consideration last week. He is now hitting .571 (20-for-35) over his last eight games after a 2-for-5 day, that included a double, yesterday. After obtaining Kyler Burke in the Michael Barrett deal last year, the Cubs had him start the season in low Class A. But after hitting .206 at that stop, Burke was exiled to Boise, where he also started slow. He is getting hot now and hit a double and a home run, his second in three games. Finally, catcher Michael Brenly chipped in with a 2-for-4 day that included his seventh double and raised his average to .356. Add it all up and these hitters combined for 14 of the Hawks’ 15 hits, helping Boise score 13 runs in yesterday’s game.

 

Prospect Nuggets

 

Chris Carpenter (Cubs) came out of the bullpen and pitched three shutout innings for the win for Boise. He got into a bit of trouble, allowing two hits and walking three, but Carpenter struck out three in the effort. . .

[Shilzzz]

So I don't check this forum much deeper than simply skimming the box scores for the previous day's games, but I need to know why you guys bold Michael Brenly's name. I understand he's Bob's kid, but is there some kind of inside joke to this?

[vance_the_cubs_fan]

So I don't check this forum much deeper than simply skimming the box scores for the previous day's games, but I need to know why you guys bold Michael Brenly's name. I understand he's Bob's kid, but is there some kind of inside joke to this?

 

Because I demand my Michael Brenly updates.

[TruffleShuffle]

WTF??? cashner didn't have control issues like this in college.

 

Hopefully it's an issue of getting the rust off combined with their bus breaking down and them getting to the game late. But 2 straight horrid control games is not good.

 

Sigh.

 

well he'd better get his act together soon... he's on his way to being the fastest #1 draft pick bust since len bias.

[NCCubFan]

WTF??? cashner didn't have control issues like this in college.

 

Hopefully it's an issue of getting the rust off combined with their bus breaking down and them getting to the game late. But 2 straight horrid control games is not good.

 

Sigh.

 

well he'd better get his act together soon... he's on his way to being the fastest #1 draft pick bust since len bias.

Not even close. Regardless of how much he struggles you don't declare a #1 draft pick to be a bust before even completing a full season of professional baseball.

[sethuel1]

WTF??? cashner didn't have control issues like this in college.

 

Hopefully it's an issue of getting the rust off combined with their bus breaking down and them getting to the game late. But 2 straight horrid control games is not good.

 

Sigh.

 

well he'd better get his act together soon... he's on his way to being the fastest #1 draft pick bust since len bias.

You have to be effing kidding me.

[TruffleShuffle]

WTF??? cashner didn't have control issues like this in college.

 

Hopefully it's an issue of getting the rust off combined with their bus breaking down and them getting to the game late. But 2 straight horrid control games is not good.

 

Sigh.

 

well he'd better get his act together soon... he's on his way to being the fastest #1 draft pick bust since len bias.

You have to be effing kidding me.

 

sorry, i'll use green font next time.

[craig]

MiLB.com[/url]"] "I was throwing a lot of cutters and getting them over for strikes. And I got good run support."

 

IIRC, Atkins didn't throw the cutter till last year, he started working on that late in the year at Tennessee.

 

So that might be critical value pitch for him.

 

I recall when Rich Hill was coming up, when he turned things on his cutter was working. There were lengthy discussions: one side said he's just a two-pitch guy, big-leaguers will sit on his fastball-curve and it won't work, that's why it worked in minors and for a while didn't in majors. But the use of the cutter gave him variety on his fastball, so when his cutter was good, they couldn't really just sit and mash.

 

Hart had been a journeyman with a decent arm and decent strike-control. But last year when he developed a cutter and had it working, he transformed into a good pitcher. This year when his cutter isn't working, he gets ripped pretty good. When it is, he's got a shot.

 

Samardz, the splitter starts being used a lot, and suddenly he became hard to hit. That extra wrinkle (well, combined with perhaps also hiding the ball better) combined a guy who was easy to read or to sit on into a guy who you couldn't so easily guess/read what was coming, and he became hard to hit. Adding one extra pitch, one extra wrinkle, can keep guys off balance better.

 

Perhaps if Atkins has regular fastball (2-seam plus perhaps also 4-seam?), cutter, and slider, none are exceptional and none have great velocity or movement on their own, probably all somewhat average. But if he's mixing 3 pitches that all come out somewhat looking the same, but the cutter and fastball and slider all have somewhat different speeds and somewhat different movement, maybe that's enough to work with. And with strikes, maybe he can get enough 2-strike counts to have them fishing and K his share on a day when the cutter and slider are moving pretty well?

[NCCubFan]

WTF??? cashner didn't have control issues like this in college.

 

Hopefully it's an issue of getting the rust off combined with their bus breaking down and them getting to the game late. But 2 straight horrid control games is not good.

 

Sigh.

 

well he'd better get his act together soon... he's on his way to being the fastest #1 draft pick bust since len bias.

You have to be effing kidding me.

 

sorry, i'll use green font next time.

You've been critical of enough prospects (I'm not saying it isn't justified) that it's hard to tell you were being sarcastic.

[imb]

if we had just drafted wieters, he would have calmed down cashner and none of this would have happened WTG WILKEN