Cub prospects in the news

[Guest]

The point is that nobody's depending on him, so "struggling because he can't see ball, which might be correctable" is a lot better than "can't hit breaking balls, which is almost certainly not correctable."

Given his strikeout rates before the eye issues, I'm not sure he can hit breaking balls even if his vision is 100%.

[Sammy Sofa]

I don't know how we'll find room for him at 3b now that we have Ian Stewart, who turned out just fine after his wrist was fixed.

If this is your attempt to bring a new negative shtick, try again. It was awful.

 

It was simply an expression of my skepticism that players who suck and have something wrong with them are likely to get better, either because sometimes what's wrong can't be fixed, and sometimes because that's not really the reason why they suck.

 

Then it was a really dense and terrible generalization. Poor trolling, even for you.

[Guest]

@sahadevsharma: Yeah, so after his last two starts, those Alex Cobb comps I got on Paul Blackburn probably has Cubs prospect nerds drooling

[Guest]

Bill (Chicago)

 

Thank you for providing your opinions online for the casual fan. I don’t care if you are wrong or right…it is fun to read. Do you think the Cubs could or should try to trade for Stanton? Would Baez and Almora be a good offer, too little or too much?

Klaw (2:09 PM)

 

I’m glad you don’t care if I’m wrong or right since I’m wrong a lot. I think that’s too much – could easily see that being two players who both end up about as valuable as Stanton is.

[ctcf]

Bill (Chicago)

 

Thank you for providing your opinions online for the casual fan. I don’t care if you are wrong or right…it is fun to read. Do you think the Cubs could or should try to trade for Stanton? Would Baez and Almora be a good offer, too little or too much?

Klaw (2:09 PM)

 

I’m glad you don’t care if I’m wrong or right since I’m wrong a lot. I think that’s too much – could easily see that being two players who both end up about as valuable as Stanton is.

 

holy [expletive] that's high praise

[SouthSideRyan]

I was more shocked by the humility from Klaw

[The-Kris-Bryant]

Now if only Parks can learn it...

[Sammy Sofa]

Now if only it can come true.

[Guest]

It's Mayo, but...

 

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/chc/hindsight-says-cubs-kris-bryant-should-have-been-no-1-draft-pick?ymd=20131007&content_id=62642278&vkey=news_chc

 

No, my rationale for changing my pick now has nothing to do with what Appel didn't accomplish. Rather, it's all about what someone else did do with his summer debut and what he could be in the near future.

 

Sure, Appel will probably get to the big leagues quickly, perhaps at some point in 2014. But even if he steps in right away as a solid rotation contributor, he only gets the ball every five days. Kris Bryant, on the other hand, will be in the Cubs lineup every day very soon.

 

The San Diego product, who went just one selection after Appel in the first round, played at three levels. After a very brief stop in the rookie-level Arizona League, he went to the more advanced short-season Northwest League. His opening in that circuit is one he'd rather forget: 0-for-5, five strikeouts. But after 18 games, the third baseman was hitting .354/.416/.692. The Cubs believed he was ready for a challenge.

 

But they didn't send him to the Midwest League. Much to his surprise, Bryant was double-jumped to the Advanced Class A Florida State League. All he did there was hit .333/.387/.719 with five homers and 14 RBIs in 16 games, then helped Daytona win the FSL title. His overall line of .336/.390/.688 is the main reason why I chose him as the 2013 draftee, among position players, with the most impressive pro debut.

 

That leap up to Daytona really put Bryant on the fast track and he has the chance to be the true epitome of a run-producing corner infielder. Look around Major League Baseball. How many third basemen really fit that mold these days? Bryant has the chance to hit for average and a whole lot of power. And I think he'll stick at third. Even if he doesn't, he's going to hit more than well enough to play first and he showed at the University of San Diego that he's plenty athletic enough, with a plus arm, to man right field.

 

Bryant is in the Arizona Fall League. That should be a springboard to the upper levels of the Cubs system, perhaps with a start in Double-A to begin the 2014 season. Once he shows an ability to handle the pitching at that level, there's no reason he can't make a beeline to Wrigley Field.

 

There's really no one blocking his way, nor should the Cubs put anyone in his path to hold up his arrival. It's not often an organization can draft, sign and quickly develop the type of hitter who could and should hit in the middle of a big league lineup, the kind of hitter you build a lineup around. And that's why, using the clarity of a little hindsight, I'd take Bryant over Appel with that top pick.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

I want to draft another hitter at No. 4 next year and just put up 1000 runs a year and never have to care about pitching.

[Guest]

I want to draft another hitter at No. 4 next year and just put up 1000 runs a year and never have to care about pitching.

Same.

[jersey cubs fan]

I want to draft another hitter at No. 4 next year and just put up 1000 runs a year and never have to care about pitching.

Same.

 

Hells yes.

[Guest]

[SABR Gamer]

 

 

 

Don't tease me like that, Keith.

[Sammy Sofa]

 

 

 

http://gifs.gifbin.com/g600317795.gif

[A New Era]

stop it with the excitement. Soler better than Puig, Baez insane year, Bryant a monster.

 

http://stream1.gifsoup.com/view8/4779813/da-bears-o.gif

[Rex Buckingham]

it's not Law calling Soler more talented than Puig, but there's a nice write-up on Grantland from BP's editor-in-chief that mentions Amaya.

 

Over our first few days at the fields, we filed reports on several players whose ceilings put them at the back of a major league bench or bullpen. There was the fringy catcher who might make for an acceptable emergency option; the scrappy middle infielder who could grow up to be the next utility player you wouldn’t want to see at the plate; the starters, with more pitchability than pure stuff, who could compete for the back of a rotation if everything breaks right and nothing breaks. As a group, we dispensed a lot of overall grades in the low- to mid-40s on the 20-80 scale. Those aren’t non-prospect numbers — 40 is the grade the Bureau gives organizational guys, a nice name for the warm bodies who serve as foils for more promising players — but they belong to below-average backups who might make the majors but won’t leave much of a mark.

 

Focusing on that much mediocrity made me long to see someone flash a plus tool (a 60 or above). I’d learned what I was looking for; now I wanted to get a glimpse. And I got that when we went to Papago and watched Gioskar Amaya, a 20-year-old second baseman in the Cubs’ system.

 

Our assignment in Papago was to write up a throwback third baseman with no batting gloves and a uniform that was torn after his first plate appearance. The third baseman wasn’t bad, but Amaya stood out. In infield, he showed off a decent arm for second with an incredibly quick transfer, redirecting feeds from the shortstop in an eyeblink and finishing with a Jose Iglesias–like flip from his shoetops. In the game, the clinic continued with two diving plays in the field, but Amaya also impressed us with his appearance at the plate — even before he homered.

 

I left the park with my first true prospect crush, the kind that’s based not on stats but on something I saw in person. We’d seen some prospects before Amaya — Cleveland’s Clint Frazier, the fifth overall pick in this year’s draft, made a quick cameo at the end of one game — but this was our first extended look at upper-level athleticism.

 

 

When I returned to the hotel, I looked up Amaya’s stats, which would’ve been my first move before Scout School. And based on those stats, I never would have pegged him as a player of interest. In 117 games and 500-plus plate appearances for Kane County, Chicago’s Class A affiliate, Amaya batted .252/.329/.369. He hit only five homers, and he made 22 errors at second. Those don’t sound like a prospect’s stats.

 

The disconnect could tell us one of two things, both of which are important lessons to learn. It could be that Amaya’s stats are misleading: Maybe the talent is real and he’s about to break out. But it’s also possible that we happened to see him have the game of his life, or that his tools don’t play against tougher competition.

 

So which is it? I asked a couple pro scouting execs if I was right to fall for Amaya. “You did well,” said one, who sees him as a future everyday player. “Awesome,” said the other, upon hearing how I felt. “Me too.”

 

http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/77542/baseball-scout-school-part-2-rating-beers-falling-in-love-with-a-cub-and-imagining-another-a-rod

 

Lindbergh is going through MLB's scout school. This seems like promising news on Amaya.

[Ding Dong Johnson]

Sometimes when I'm sad I read this thread and all seems right again.

[davell]

Sometimes when I'm sad I read this thread and all seems right again.

Deep, deep, deep system. Love it.

[Clem Fandango]

http://i.imgur.com/3VGmN.gif

[imb]

 

i dont know how to feel about this

[bukie]

Soler always has been the better prospect.

[Guest]

Soler always has been the better prospect.

 

not necessarily after soler was solid but not eye poppingly spectacular in high A while puig made MLB his bitch for 3 months in swaggerific fashion

[XZero771679666304]

Soler always has been the better prospect.

 

not necessarily after soler was solid but not eye poppingly spectacular in high A while puig made MLB his bitch for 3 months in swaggerific fashion

 

To be fair, he "made MLB his bitch" for about one month, and was merely pretty good after that.

[Guest]

Soler always has been the better prospect.

 

not necessarily after soler was solid but not eye poppingly spectacular in high A while puig made MLB his bitch for 3 months in swaggerific fashion

 

To be fair, he "made MLB his bitch" for about one month, and was merely pretty good after that.

 

Arbitrary endpoints. 4 WAR in 100 games is plenty for me.