Cub prospects in the news

[Cubswin11]

Kiley McDaniel looks like a [expletive] hipster douche

[Guest]

if there are 18 better prospects in baseball than Baez, then I must not know jack [expletive] about baseball.

 

It's really 15 - Rodon, Hoffman and Tanaka shouldn't make any prospect lists for some time. That said, I agree that Baez is a slam dunk top 10 prospect.

[TruffleShuffle]

rilo kiley mcdaniel

[Hairyducked Idiot]

At this point, I'm absolutely convinced that there's both an anti-power bias in the prospect rankings and a backlash against obsessive Cubs fans.

[Guest]

At this point, I'm absolutely convinced that there's both an anti-power bias in the prospect rankings and a backlash against obsessive Cubs fans.

 

I definitely don't think this list is an example of such a thing.

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

Scouts and middlemen have boners for plus-plus defensive shortstops, especially with an amazing approach at the plate at 19 in AA. Get over it, guys.

[sneakypower]

scouting report on CJ Edwards:

http://baseballinstinct.com/2013/08/16/prospect-instinct-c-j-edwards-rhp-chicago-cubs/

If he can add weight to his overall frame and add serious leg strength we could actually see an uptick into consistent upper 90s velocity. But that will take a lot of work.

 

That work and weight will be the difference to him remaining a starter or becoming a dominant 1 innings short stint RP. He has the premium stuff to be a Major League pitcher. There’s already [no] doubt about that.

[abuck1220]

At this point, I'm absolutely convinced that there's both an anti-power bias in the prospect rankings and a backlash against obsessive Cubs fans.

 

definitely. I mean this clown only has four cubs in his top 21??? get real bro...should be at least 15 with a couple spots reserved for "whoever the cubs draft in 2014."

[Little Slide Rooter]

scouting report on CJ Edwards:

http://baseballinstinct.com/2013/08/16/prospect-instinct-c-j-edwards-rhp-chicago-cubs/

If he can add weight to his overall frame and add serious leg strength we could actually see an uptick into consistent upper 90s velocity. But that will take a lot of work.

 

That work and weight will be the difference to him remaining a starter or becoming a dominant 1 innings short stint RP. He has the premium stuff to be a Major League pitcher. There’s already [no] doubt about that.

 

Sounds like someone could use an exciting and fun filled winter at Camp Colvin.

[abohnhoff]

Why the hell do various prospect rankings bother you all so much? Its just one mans opinion, if you feel Baez is a top 5 talent, then go ahead and keep feeling that way. Its almost as pointless as arguing about politics or religion...you have your opinion, they have their opinion. Is either opinion correct? Nobody knows, thats why its an opinion.

[wekim81]

Why the hell do various prospect rankings bother you all so much? Its just one mans opinion, if you feel Baez is a top 5 talent, then go ahead and keep feeling that way. Its almost as pointless as arguing about politics or religion...you have your opinion, they have their opinion. Is either opinion correct? Nobody knows, thats why its an opinion.

Good talk bud

[Little Slide Rooter]

Why the hell do various prospect rankings bother you all so much? Its just one mans opinion, if you feel Baez is a top 5 talent, then go ahead and keep feeling that way. Its almost as pointless as arguing about politics or religion...you have your opinion, they have their opinion. Is either opinion correct? Nobody knows, thats why its an opinion.

 

More importantly, a lot of it depends on the preference of the writer compiling the list; some are going to prefer pitchers to position players, and lets face it, unless we're talking can's miss studs like Strasburg or Harper, when making these lists, it has to be difficult to rank pitchers vs. hitters on the same list.

 

In the case of Baez vs. Lindor, some are going to prefer a defensive stud over a guy who's known primarily for his bat.

[Guest]

@MWottreng: Lookouts manager Jody Reed compared Javier Baez to Yasiel in several ways offensively. #Cubs

 

@MWottreng: Reed said that the two have the rare combination of bat speed with balance and control. He said Baez has good pitch recognition. #Cubs

[Guest]

More on comparing Baez to Puig: http://smokiesonradio.com/2013/09/01/smokies-and-lookouts-managers-ponder-if-javier-baez-can-be-the-next-yasiel-puig/

 

“Similar in a number of ways actually. They’ve got that violent swing and what I mean is they’ve really got the bat speed to create impact on the ball,” Reed said while still sounding somewhat astonished by both players. “When they do connect, it goes a mile. They have that rare combination of that violent swing with balance and control.”

 

“They have good pitch recognition; good strike zone discipline,” Reed said of both phenoms. “When they pull the trigger that’s when the bat speed and the violence come through. But it’s a controlled violent swing and that swing can do some damage and Yasi’ showed it when he was here. He’s shown it at the big league level.”  Reed said.

 

“Their bodies are somewhat different and they’re different type hitters. Puig hits the ball more up the middle and the other way more than Javy does right now,” Bailey said.

 

“As far as the final type hitters they’re going to be, I don’t think it’s a lot of similarities.”

 

But the two share another common trait in their tendency to argue balls and strikes. Puig’s habit of doing so has been seen on a big league level while Baez – whose arguments tend to be fewer than Puig’s – has shown his displeasure with umpires on several occasions.

 

“Everybody has that. And Puig was worse than Javy is here but they both at times feel like if they don’t swing or they don’t hit it, it shouldn’t be a strike but that’s not the way it is,” Bailey said.

 

“We’ve been working with Javy trying to get better at it. Obviously Puig had some problems here and a little bit at the big leagues but it’s something in time that people grow out of.”

[Little Slide Rooter]

@vftb: Talking Cubs Prospects With John Sickels of http://t.co/5CO2SN0xKV http://t.co/GwILArTbfe #Cubs

 

Here's an informative Q&A on Cubs prospects with Sickels.

 

Enjoyable though disturbed at the very and when asked about the long term prognosis for several Cubs prospects and young players, and for Castro, his response is "some other team."

[RammyFanny]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciaHIbAjISU&sns=tw

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciaHIbAjISU&sns=tw

 

So cool. Never been big on him as a prospect, but hope he makes it.

[Cubswin11]

@vftb: Talking Cubs Prospects With John Sickels of http://t.co/5CO2SN0xKV http://t.co/GwILArTbfe #Cubs

 

Here's an informative Q&A on Cubs prospects with Sickels.

 

Enjoyable though disturbed at the very and when asked about the long term prognosis for several Cubs prospects and young players, and for Castro, his response is "some other team."

Q: For good and bad, which Cubs prospects have surprised you the most this year?

 

Sickels: I thought Christian Villanuevaand Gioskar Amaya would have better years. They haven’t been bad, but I thought they would be breakout guys and they weren’t

.780+OPS and 50 extra base hits (19HR, 41 2B), I mean that's quite good for a first time through a league and he got better as the year went on.

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

Sickels is dumb.

[Guest]

I know Sickels is a bit of a different sort of source for that info than other prospect guys, but that was really light on interesting info, even for him. How many posters here could've given the exact same answers or with the same level of insight? 5? 10?

[TruffleShuffle]

well to be fair, he said he was expecting a breakout year, and villanueva essentially repeated what he did the previous year, albeit with a little less obp and a little more slg.

[Have a seat, Neifi]

On his most recent BP podcast (Fringe Average), Jason Parks talked at length about Baez and the other Cubs prospects headed to the AFL. The long and short of it was that Parks believes Baez has the best bat speed in the minors and easily has the highest ceiling of any of Cubs prospect, but that he swings so "hard" "fast" "violently" whatever that he would get torn up by major league pitching were he to come up now. He specifically noted RHPs with "strike-to-ball" sliders on the outer half that, in his view, would induce violent swing-and-misses, and that it's this factor that keeps Parks from ranking Baez even higher than he already does.

 

Regardless of what various Twitter wars would have you believe, Parks loves Baez's tools. He specifically said that Baez could hit 40 HR in the majors as long as he can make enough contact, and that he "honestly doesn't give a sh___ which position he plays" given how absurd his bat speed and power is. (He also stated that his power tool is at least "comparable" to Sano's.)

 

He also briefly recapped his Twitter spat with whoever it was (might've been Kyle, can't remember). So that was fun, too.

[Cubswin11]

well to be fair, he said he was expecting a breakout year, and villanueva essentially repeated what he did the previous year, albeit with a little less obp and a little more slg.

Well isn't that a good thing, since he was able to replicate really good numbers at a higher level and showed some growth in power? I know it's semantics arguing breakout or whatever.

[davell]

I've said before there is a solid number of posters here that can give out the info Sickels does. Say what you want about Parks, he gives legit info and opinion that we can ALL learn from. Scouty type stuff that Sickels mentions he looks for, yet never mentions, sticking to numbers based stuff we all already know. I honestly don't think Sickels can break down a swing or pitching mechanics. Mike Newman(Scouting the Sally, Fangraphs, etc) has kind of mentioned as much. I understand Parks' personality may get on some nerves, but at least he's giving out stuff we don't already know.

[jersey cubs fan]

Tennessee Smokies ‏@smokiesbaseball 3m

#Cubs top prospect and #Smokies SS @javy23baez led all @MiLB with 111 RBIs and 75 extra-base hits in 2013. He was 2nd with 37 HRs @Cubs