Minor League Discussion & Boxes 8-10-2009

[Guest]

Robert Whitenack has been disappointing. Ditto Larry Suarez.

[Wrigley Rat]

Recently signed LHP Daley Cox has been released.

[Guest]

Dwayne Kemp is playing his first game in over a month.

[Outshined_One]

Aaaaaaaaand I'm back. I was hoping to post a lot more stuff from the game, but unfortunately my phone battery died on me about 4 innings into the game. Sadly, Keener couldn't make it out, but we're going to try and do this another time in the near future. Frankly, I'm glad I went considering how bad today's Cubs game looked from the box score.

 

Onto my report...

 

-As usual, I had a great time at O'Brien Field. I paid $5 for tickets four rows behind home plate. The ivy out in CF was coming in terrifically, the field looked excellent as always, and it was just a fantastic night for baseball, with weather in the low 80s and a bit of humidity. Seriously, if you ever get a chance to make it out to see the Chiefs in Peoria, take the opportunity!

 

-Defensively, the only person who had a difficult play on the night for the Chiefs was LeMahieu on a ground ball to his right which juuuuuust skipped past him. Otherwise, I didn't see any plays which really put the Chiefs' (or Rattlers' for that matter) defensive mettle to the test. Everyone handled the routine stuff relatively well. This wasn't a great night to see if Flaherty could stick at 3B, LeMahieu at SS, etc.

 

-Not a whole lot had changed offensively from when I'd last seen a number of the Chiefs. Flaherty still looks solid, although he was asked to bunt in the 9th when Jackson reached...which struck me as odd because he was terrible at bunting and halfway decent at hitting. He quickly found himself down two strikes thanks to that experiment. Burke looked pretty good at the plate. Ridling, Rosa, Lake, and Perez all had a lot of trouble with Scarpetta and Fiers, which led to some really awkward swings at some questionable pitches.

 

-On the pitching side of things, the scoreboard gun was never turned on, so I can't report much in the way of velocity. The ump had a generous zone for both teams tonight. There were plenty of eye rolls, glares, and words exchanged throughout the night from both teams. When Flaherty was called on a check swing for strike three, a heated argument ensued, including some words from Pevey (who was coaching 3B, I believe). No one was ejected despite a few of the magic words being dropped.

 

-UK's report for Shafer was pretty much spot-on. He settled down after a really rough first inning (including two very loud outs) and actually began locating his pitches much better. But, as a prospect, eh.

 

-Michael Brenly caught my eye. He had excellent instincts at catcher and showcased a surprisingly accurate and effective arm. I believe he threw Lawrie out on a pitch in the dirt that bounced awkwardly in front of him. Plus, he seemed to be quite chatty with the HP umpire, which may or may not have worked in his favor. At the plate, he wasn't too memorable, but I think he has a shot of becoming a decent backup catcher down the line.

 

-I can see why people love and hate Brett Jackson. On the upside, it's easy to dream on him. He's got room to add muscle to his frame, he's aggressive (but not stupid and not guessing) at the plate, and he already has good power and speed. His double was to the LF gap and he easily could have taken third, but was held up. Leading off the 9th, Pevey had some words with him and it was pretty clear he was being asked to set the table rather than tie the game. He went up to the plate and hit a solid single up the middle. "Gamer" and "Spark" are terms that come to mind. He's clearly not a Tyler Colvin or a Ryan Harvey type. But, on the downside, watching him at the plate, I have to wonder how he'll handle better pitching down the line.

 

-I'm back and forth on LeMahieu. With the exception of the play mentioned above, pretty much every defensive play involving him was routine. My gut is that he'll end up at 2B down the line, but I'd have to see a bit more of him to make that judgment call. He looked okay at the plate, but his swing and his frame didn't seem tailored to a whole lot of power down the line. I could see him as a gap to gap kind of hitter, but a HR threat might be asking a bit too much.

 

-The two Rattlers who stuck out were Lawrie and Scarpetta. I can easily see why the Brewers took Lawrie in the first round last year. He's well-built for a 19 year old and has plenty of power in his swing. He looked very comfortable at the plate. He still has plenty of work left to do, but he could be a solid asset for the Brewers down the road. Scarpetta stuck out because he had a quality breaking ball (curveball from what I read) and a solid sinker. He was pounding the lower half of the zone all night long and got double play balls when he needed them. I've read reports that he works 90-94, but it seemed like he was maybe a tick or so lower than that; perhaps around 88-92? Still, he got a ton of awkward swings with his curveball on the outer half of the plate.

[sandbergcubs]

why are they wasting Jericho Jones by having him in daytona?

 

wouldnt you think that he should have a chance to be somewhere where he can play everyday?

 

look at his numbers last year when he was getting regular at bats

 

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?pos=&sid=milb&t=p_pbp&pid=543372

[Outshined_One]

I didn't there would be many scouts anymore as that's mostly done. That's a player, probably a Peoria guy as they usually chart solo and most other teams chart with two to three guys.

 

He's only using the radar on Shafer. That normal for players to be working on their own teammates?

 

Yep, that's a Chief.

 

Further inspection on Google Image Search reveals it was Justin Bristow.

[falcon]

why are they wasting Jericho Jones by having him in daytona?

 

wouldnt you think that he should have a chance to be somewhere where he can play everyday?

 

look at his numbers last year when he was getting regular at bats

 

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?pos=&sid=milb&t=p_pbp&pid=543372

You're right ......Jones led the Arizona rookie league in batting average ( up to the last 3 weeks ) last summer and was named to the all star team. He was not assigned to a team coming out of spring training and didn't get assigned to Daytona until May 31st. Buddy Bailey had his starting lineup carved in stone by then. Buddy has the major league managing mentality when it comes to his lineup and pretty much sticks with his starting 8 defensive players every day, every game. The starting outfielders in Daytona are all speedy singles & gap hitters (and they're the heart of that team) Jones has average speed but when playing everyday will hit for power and average. He doesn't seem to fit the Cubs prototype for an outfielder ( 6'5" 225 lbs ). I agree that he should've been assigned to a team where he could use his skills and it's a real puzzle to me what the Cubs plans are for him. It might be better for him if he were released so he could sign with another club that is looking for a power corner outfielder. This has to be a very frustrating summer for Jericho being limited to cameo DH appearances. I don't care what level a player is at.....if you get an average of 7 plate appearances per week, you're not going to be successful at the plate. Even a worse situation if you're only a DH because you can't get into the flow of the game, you can't get into any rythym at the plate, and you can't prepare mentally for the game not knowing if your in the starting lineup from day to day.

[craig]

You probably know better than. But Daytona has a really feeble offense. Most managers, if there was a guy who could hit, he'd get a chance. My guess is that Jones the hitter looks pretty hopeless. Can't hit breaking balls, I assume?

 

IIRC, Jones was viewed as a good prospect as a pitcher, and was thought to perhaps merit selection in the first 5-6 rounds as a pitcher.

 

Hopefully he'll be willing to take a shot at pitching after the season.

 

But as with harvey, if a guy doesn't want to pitch you can't make him.

[toonsterwu]

why are they wasting Jericho Jones by having him in daytona?

 

wouldnt you think that he should have a chance to be somewhere where he can play everyday?

 

look at his numbers last year when he was getting regular at bats

 

http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?pos=&sid=milb&t=p_pbp&pid=543372

 

I didn't really quite get the move up to Daytona for Jones either. He needs AB's if he's going to make it as a hitter. Part of me wonders (conspiracy theory alert) if the Cubs don't believe in his bat anyways, and thus forced him up to Daytona in the hopes of trying to convince him to become a pitcher sooner than later.

 

Okay, that's not likely, but yeah, I 2nd that. I think the most likely explanation is that there really wasn't a good fit for Jericho at Peoria (Ridling at first, enough OF bats needing AB's), and between Boise/Daytona, they opted for the other.

[toonsterwu]

Robert Whitenack has been disappointing. Ditto Larry Suarez.

 

I'm not sure what's up with Suarez, but I wonder if the end of the line is closer than many anticipated at the start of the year. Only so much leeway you can give ... he's been bombing in AZL. He's still young, and he'll probably get another year, but he's got to step it up.

 

As for Whitenack, I'm okay giving him some rope for this year. College season, adjusting to pros, coming from a low level, it might take some time. That said, yeah, considering the pre-draft reports, disappointing so far.

[toonsterwu]

How and when did David Cales make his way to Iowa?

 

I think this was a case of an opening there and needing an arm, and not a Cales deserves the promotion bump (considering he struggled at Tennessee).

[toonsterwu]

Alright is Jay done with timeout now? Send him back to Tennessee.

 

My guess is that he'll get another start in Daytona. It's good to see that the control problems he showed in Tennessee in that last month there hasn't come up in Daytona. Certainly, lower caliber of hitters plays a role, but it seems like that bad month was ... a bad month. If he's pitching like he was earlier in the year, I still personally think he's a better prospect than Cashner. But that's me.

[Guest]

Robert Whitenack has been disappointing. Ditto Larry Suarez.

 

I'm not sure what's up with Suarez, but I wonder if the end of the line is closer than many anticipated at the start of the year. Only so much leeway you can give ... he's been bombing in AZL. He's still young, and he'll probably get another year, but he's got to step it up.

 

As for Whitenack, I'm okay giving him some rope for this year. College season, adjusting to pros, coming from a low level, it might take some time. That said, yeah, considering the pre-draft reports, disappointing so far.

 

It was odd but in an ITI interview last week, Mark Riggins thought well of Suarez and felt like he would probably open 2010 in Peoria. Riggins isn't like Oneri Fleita; he's much more honest and less likely to gush unnecessarily.

 

I don't mind the runs Suarez surrendered the last two times out (and honestly, a couple of last night's runs could easily have been unearned in my amateur scorekeeping assessment) as much as I'm just glad his control has returned down in the AZL.

[wvcbxl]

Dwayne Kemp is playing his first game in over a month.

 

About time too - I was getting worried.

I guess he'll be a bit rusty though.