Cub prospects in the news

[Guest]

Jason Parks ‏@ProfessorParks 2m

Very strong reports on #Cubs 3B Christian Villanueva. I've always been a fan, especially of the glove. He will rank #9 on the team top 10.

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

Hope those are strong reports on his approach at the plate. Wonder where he's going to put Edwards given his relative dislike of him on twitter last year.

[Guest]

haha this rangers blogger is in lament mode

 

Peter Ellwood ‏@FutureGM 1m

@ProfessorParks It wouldn't be quite so frustrating if Dempster and Garza had done what they were supposed to do.

 

Peter Ellwood ‏@FutureGM 4m

Sounds like according to @ProfessorParks, Cubs have #2 farm system and ex-Ranger prospects Edwards and Villanueva will be in their top 10.

[Guest]

Did Candelario really only get 1 AB in the DWL this year?

 

http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=milb&t=p_pbp&pid=600869

[Guest]

Did Candelario really only get 1 AB in the DWL this year?

 

http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=milb&t=p_pbp&pid=600869

 

That's not at all surprising for a kid his age who played in A-ball last year.

[Warpticon]

I'm having a hard time imagining a scenario in which 1 AB would be unsurprising. I mean, at that point, why even show up?

[Guest]

I'm having a hard time imagining a scenario in which 1 AB would be unsurprising. I mean, at that point, why even show up?

 

He probably played in the DWL minor leagues but was only called up for 1 AB with the actual DWL.

[davell]

http://www.bleachernation.com/2014/01/23/mike-olts-eyes-his-2013-season-and-his-future-with-the-cubs/

 

Sharma with a Mike Olt article that gives me genuine hope for him and will affect my ranking of him.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

http://www.bleachernation.com/2014/01/23/mike-olts-eyes-his-2013-season-and-his-future-with-the-cubs/

 

Sharma with a Mike Olt article that gives me genuine hope for him and will affect my ranking of him.

 

Olt is gold! 25 HRs, minimum.

[davell]

http://www.bleachernation.com/2014/01/23/mike-olts-eyes-his-2013-season-and-his-future-with-the-cubs/

 

Sharma with a Mike Olt article that gives me genuine hope for him and will affect my ranking of him.

 

Olt is gold! 25 HRs, minimum.

 

Come on, I know you read what North said and it gave you legit hope as well....

[MWV]

Come on, I know you read what North said and it gave you legit hope as well....

Pardon my ignorance, but I'm unfamiliar with what North said of Olt. And I'm a big fan of legit hope.

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

Mike Olt "eyes" future with Cubs.

 

http://i.imgur.com/xFFWE56.gif

Edited January 23, 2014 by Tangled Up in Plaid

[davell]

Come on, I know you read what North said and it gave you legit hope as well....

Pardon my ignorance, but I'm unfamiliar with what North said of Olt. And I'm a big fan of legit hope.

 

 

Here's the entirety of what North mentioned on PSD.

I've been more optimistic about Olt, a cautious optimism, that he can be an average player. He struggled a lot in AAA with Texas, but he didn't struggle as much in Iowa. In Round Rock, his contact % was 61.8% (yikes). In Iowa, it was a much better 73%. I'll take a 73% contact with above average power. In that sample size, although small, it was .3% less than what it has in AA when he had his success. Olt also struck out swinging 25% of the time in RR; he struck out 15.8% of the time in Iowa swinging. Again, this is similar to his success prior to a known eye condition.

 

He made more contact, he struck out less swinging, and these were all significant differences, not subtle ones.

 

As far as the power goes, he basically hit the same amount of outfield fly balls as he did in RR (where he had moderate power even with the eye problems). There's hesitancy in this recorded data (a lot of hesitancy), remember, but the amount of balls hit in the air in total are similar (LD+FB). The HR/FB%, if I had to guess, would've eventually normalized in Iowa.

 

So, as far as Olt's projection, I'm not convinced he sucks yet. I love his glove; I always have. And, if anything, I think something like this could be feasible:

 

.220 BA, 22 HRs, 29 2Bs, 1 3B, 61 BB (11% BB), 5 ROE, 4 HBP in 550 PAs. This qualifies for a .324 wOBA with a 107 wRC+. I used a desired league wOBA of .315. You can use whatever fielding scoring system you want, but I'm confident he'll save runs at 3rd base. That's going to make him a really valuable player if he can hit .220.

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

Pardon my ignorance, but who the hell is North?

[davell]

Pardon my ignorance, but who the hell is North?

 

The excellent poster at PSD, that comes here on occasion. He's the guy that proved Junior Lake sucks.

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

Has he made any other discoveries?

[Clem Fandango]

I think it shouldn't be a problem for Olt to hit .220. If he fulfills his potential I kind of see him as being comparable to Aramis, value wise. He won't hit for average even remotely close to Aramis, but the power numbers should be similar, and he'll draw more walks and play better defense, and probably play more games each season, too.

[MWV]

Here's the entirety of what North mentioned on PSD.

Thanks. Good stuff.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Overly glib Kyle translation of that Olt argument:

 

So the high-K, high-power AA guy had similar contact in a hitter-friendly AAA, without the power, and this is supposed to be reason for optimism?

[Guest]

Pardon my ignorance, but who the hell is North?

 

The excellent poster at PSD, that comes here on occasion. He's the guy that proved Junior Lake sucks.

He also didn't prove Jnior Lake sucks.

[Guest]

Overly glib Kyle translation of that Olt argument:

 

So the high-K, high-power AA guy had similar contact in a hitter-friendly AAA, without the power, and this is supposed to be reason for optimism?

 

Yes? He was a monster in AA(with Texas league caveat) but with the warning sign that his K rate might lead to struggles against more advanced pitching. If he's not struggling with more advanced pitching in terms of making contact, that's a good thing for his potential bounceback. He's not pulled a Brett Jackson thus far, in other words, and that was the biggest worry about him before the eye stuff obscured his production at a macro level.

[davell]

Pardon my ignorance, but who the hell is North?

 

The excellent poster at PSD, that comes here on occasion. He's the guy that proved Junior Lake sucks.

He also didn't prove Jnior Lake sucks.

 

Correct. He proved Junior Lake does.

[davell]

Has he made any other discoveries?

 

Check the Rizzo thread, David posted his thoughts on him somewhere in it. Maybe even re-posted it recently, if I remember correctly.

[Guest]

Pardon my ignorance, but who the hell is North?

 

The excellent poster at PSD, that comes here on occasion. He's the guy that proved Junior Lake sucks.

He also didn't prove Jnior Lake sucks.

 

Correct. He proved Junior Lake does.

No he did not. Junior lake did not suck last year. He has all of the same read flags he had before Norh graced us with his presence and presented a tautology of Junior Lake's ability to hit for power.

[Sammy Sofa]

CubinNY's vendetta against him is pretty great, too.