Emerging Prospects & Those Living Up To Their Hype

[Tedward]

Chris Huseby

 

Why isn't there much hype with this guy? I seem to recall we gave him a huge bonus a couple of years back as he was coming off of arm surgery. His numbers look pretty darn solid in the pen at Peoria this year. He'll be 22 next year (Daytona?). He seems to be on track. Anyone know about his offerings? Any chance he may revert back to starting or is he destined to stay in the pen?

[Little Slide Rooter]

 

Who's on your list?

 

The usual suspects, Cashner, Vitters, Castro, Lee, both Jacksons, Carpenter, Coleman, Burke, LaMeaiu, Raley, Archer, Watkins as well as Huseby, Blake Parker, and Gaub despite his rough game yesterday. Tyler Colvins also surged his way back up the ladder in my book, and I wouldnt be in the least bit surprised to see him make a big league appearence at some point in 2010, if as mothing else a September call up. Ive also had my eye on Marquez Smith ever since last year. Rebel Ridlings also intriguing to me, but projects as a Hoffpauir/Fox type who probably doesnt see the big leagues until his late 20s and in a limited capacity at that.

[toonsterwu]

Chris Huseby

 

Why isn't there much hype with this guy? I seem to recall we gave him a huge bonus a couple of years back as he was coming off of arm surgery. His numbers look pretty darn solid in the pen at Peoria this year. He'll be 22 next year (Daytona?). He seems to be on track. Anyone know about his offerings? Any chance he may revert back to starting or is he destined to stay in the pen?

 

I think people are cautiously optimistic. After last year's debacle of a season for him, being careful with him was smart, and seeing Chris succeed was nice. Problem for me is, Chris, in the pen, basically projects as a middle reliever with some setup potential. He's more intriguing as a starter, but whether or not he moves back there, only time will tell. I imagine you'll see some folks plop him into the top 10, although I have him in the 11-20 range.

[craig]

Chris Huseby

 

Why isn't there much hype with this guy? I seem to recall we gave him a huge bonus a couple of years back as he was coming off of arm surgery. His numbers look pretty darn solid in the pen at Peoria this year. He'll be 22 next year (Daytona?). He seems to be on track. Anyone know about his offerings? Any chance he may revert back to starting or is he destined to stay in the pen?

 

I think there has been tons of Huseby hype this year. Much more so than for any low-A Cub reliever since the internet was born.

 

I do think the hype has been stronger from the stats side than the stuff side, though. Reports on his stuff have been good but not great. The only standout stuff report has been about his cutter. Scouting reports have confirmed what's obvious from his box scores, that his control has been good. The other somewhat positive scouting has been that perhaps his delivery is somewhat deceptive. Reports have had relatively average velocity.

 

So at present the scouting would suggest that he's excelled in A- as a good-cutter finesse control pitcher.

 

One good pitch, excellent control, and a not-bad fastball can produce a good career. So I'm very hopeful that he'll become an effective major leaguer.

 

I agree with toonster, though, I won't have him in my top-ten unless/until I get some word that the Cubs plan to move him to rotation. The high bonus, that's years ago and that was an unusually high-uncertainty gamble then, I don't see that being particularly relevant anymore. He was projected to become a bigtime power pitcher then, and it hasn't happened, (at least not yet). And he was projected to possibly develop a big-time curveball, and that isn't reality either (although his plus cutter helps).

 

Will be interesting to see how he progresses as a finesse/control pitcher. He's so big, sometimes it doesn't take too much to be off for the finesse/control to get out of whack (as was the case last year.) At 21, it's not inconceivable that he might still add a tick or more velocity-wise. If he was resting 90-94 and touching 97, instead of resting 86-91 and touching 93, that could help and it can happen with pitchers sometimes.

 

I would love to see him get another crack at rotation. Starters who throw strikes, and have one good knockout pitch to put guys away when they get up in the count, that's a recipe for success. And sometimes guys who can throw strikes with fastball and cutter have less trouble working up a change or some other offspeed pitch than do guys who can't control any of their pitches. The rich get richer, typically, as regards the ability to control pitches. There are plenty of successful, invaluable starting pitchers who aren't overwhelmingly fast, so his limited velocity almost seems less limiting in rotation than relief. I hope they try that next season, and see where he goes.

[craig]

This isn't exactly news to the people following this minor league board, but Brett Jackson is not living up to his hype...and thank God for that. ..... He has struckout 25% of the time which could point to some troubles making contact at the higher levels (28% while at Peoria), but his walk totals haven't been terrible giving me hope that his strikeouts come from aggressiveness more so than bad plate discipline......

 

Your take on the K's is different from mine. Your hope is that the strikeouts come from aggressiveness more so than from bad plate discipline.

 

I don't get the impression that either of these is the source. My understanding is that he is very patient and extremely good plate discipline. I don't think that he's hacking too much, or hacking at junk.

 

My hope is that some of the K's are exactly becuase he's as patient as he is. He gets called out on marginal 3rd strikes, because he's patient. He gets struck out on good 2-strike pitches, because he's patient enough to go deep in counts and allow himself to get into 2-strike counts not infrequently. Perhaps his inordinate success (probably unsustainable, but perhaps there's something real going on?) when he does contact the ball reflects that he's very disciplined, and swings selectively at strikes he can mash, but is willing to take some strikes if they aren't ones he can hit hard?

 

My fear is that the K's are because he just can't hit pitches all that well. As Wilken termed it, that he's "a misser". He's not swinging at unhittable bad balls, he's not swinging too aggressively. There are just a lot of pitches that he should be swinging at, but that he misses. As you say, if that's the deal, there will be more and more hard-to-hit pitches as he moves up, and fewer and fewer easy-to-hit pitches. So if he's just a "misser", that could get exposed more fully in time.

 

But I agree with the main points of your post. He's been a wonderful and unexpected surprise. Other than the scary K's, early feedback on all other questions has been uniformly fabulous. Does he really have any power? Favorable results. Is he really a CFer, or will he soon move to corner like so many other amateur CFers? Super favorable feedback. Will he be able to sustain any average with all the K's? So far so good. Will he still be able to be patient and walk in the pros? So far so good.

[Guest]

Chris Huseby

 

Why isn't there much hype with this guy? I seem to recall we gave him a huge bonus a couple of years back as he was coming off of arm surgery. His numbers look pretty darn solid in the pen at Peoria this year. He'll be 22 next year (Daytona?). He seems to be on track. Anyone know about his offerings? Any chance he may revert back to starting or is he destined to stay in the pen?

 

I think there has been tons of Huseby hype this year. Much more so than for any low-A Cub reliever since the internet was born.

 

I do think the hype has been stronger from the stats side than the stuff side, though. Reports on his stuff have been good but not great. The only standout stuff report has been about his cutter. Scouting reports have confirmed what's obvious from his box scores, that his control has been good. The other somewhat positive scouting has been that perhaps his delivery is somewhat deceptive. Reports have had relatively average velocity.

 

So at present the scouting would suggest that he's excelled in A- as a good-cutter finesse control pitcher.

 

One good pitch, excellent control, and a not-bad fastball can produce a good career. So I'm very hopeful that he'll become an effective major leaguer.

 

I agree with toonster, though, I won't have him in my top-ten unless/until I get some word that the Cubs plan to move him to rotation. The high bonus, that's years ago and that was an unusually high-uncertainty gamble then, I don't see that being particularly relevant anymore. He was projected to become a bigtime power pitcher then, and it hasn't happened, (at least not yet). And he was projected to possibly develop a big-time curveball, and that isn't reality either (although his plus cutter helps).

 

Will be interesting to see how he progresses as a finesse/control pitcher. He's so big, sometimes it doesn't take too much to be off for the finesse/control to get out of whack (as was the case last year.) At 21, it's not inconceivable that he might still add a tick or more velocity-wise. If he was resting 90-94 and touching 97, instead of resting 86-91 and touching 93, that could help and it can happen with pitchers sometimes.

 

I would love to see him get another crack at rotation. Starters who throw strikes, and have one good knockout pitch to put guys away when they get up in the count, that's a recipe for success. And sometimes guys who can throw strikes with fastball and cutter have less trouble working up a change or some other offspeed pitch than do guys who can't control any of their pitches. The rich get richer, typically, as regards the ability to control pitches. There are plenty of successful, invaluable starting pitchers who aren't overwhelmingly fast, so his limited velocity almost seems less limiting in rotation than relief. I hope they try that next season, and see where he goes.

 

In regards to your thoughts on only one standout pitch, one scout told Kevin Goldstein of BP that Huseby had a "dominant cutter with a plus slider."

[UK1679666180]

I thought his slider was better than his cutter.

[CubsWin]

This isn't exactly news to the people following this minor league board, but Brett Jackson is not living up to his hype...and thank God for that. ..... He has struckout 25% of the time which could point to some troubles making contact at the higher levels (28% while at Peoria), but his walk totals haven't been terrible giving me hope that his strikeouts come from aggressiveness more so than bad plate discipline......

 

Your take on the K's is different from mine. Your hope is that the strikeouts come from aggressiveness more so than from bad plate discipline.

 

I don't get the impression that either of these is the source. My understanding is that he is very patient and extremely good plate discipline. I don't think that he's hacking too much, or hacking at junk.

 

My hope is that some of the K's are exactly becuase he's as patient as he is. He gets called out on marginal 3rd strikes, because he's patient. He gets struck out on good 2-strike pitches, because he's patient enough to go deep in counts and allow himself to get into 2-strike counts not infrequently. Perhaps his inordinate success (probably unsustainable, but perhaps there's something real going on?) when he does contact the ball reflects that he's very disciplined, and swings selectively at strikes he can mash, but is willing to take some strikes if they aren't ones he can hit hard?

 

My fear is that the K's are because he just can't hit pitches all that well. As Wilken termed it, that he's "a misser". He's not swinging at unhittable bad balls, he's not swinging too aggressively. There are just a lot of pitches that he should be swinging at, but that he misses. As you say, if that's the deal, there will be more and more hard-to-hit pitches as he moves up, and fewer and fewer easy-to-hit pitches. So if he's just a "misser", that could get exposed more fully in time.

 

But I agree with the main points of your post. He's been a wonderful and unexpected surprise. Other than the scary K's, early feedback on all other questions has been uniformly fabulous. Does he really have any power? Favorable results. Is he really a CFer, or will he soon move to corner like so many other amateur CFers? Super favorable feedback. Will he be able to sustain any average with all the K's? So far so good. Will he still be able to be patient and walk in the pros? So far so good.

Thanks, Craig. Yeah, I don't really have a "take" on his strikeouts. It was more of a hope. You're the one (and some others on this board) who have the expertise and access to stats. (I don't know where you got your info on Brett's Ks coming from taken third strikes, but it's great stuff.) I can look at stats and splits and get a feel for a guy and then pepper in other people's scouting reports or opinions and fill out that picture, but you're able to watch a guy's swing and know something about him. I don't have that capability. All I know is I'm grateful for his current success and hopeful for his future.