Free Tyler Colvin!

[Little Slide Rooter]

Seriously, make room. At 24 years old, he is rapidly approaching his expiration date as a "prospect". I know the past 2 years, weve seen spring training phenoms in Hoffpauir and Fox, but Tyler Colvin is not Micah Hoffpauir or Jake Fox. Hes actually serviceble in the outfield. And unlike the other 2, hes not some guy who decided to wait until his late 20's to come into his own. he was on his way to a successful professional career before being sidelined by Tommy John.

 

There is room for him on the bench, especially with Nady likely to start the season on the DL. Hill has 1 bench spot. Font/Baker have another. Other than that, Tracy and Millar are abttling it out for a utility role. While Millar is having a better spring, Id prefer Tracy because of his age and the fact that he could be useful past this year if he does well. Back to Tyler, theres little reason not to give him a bench spot other than he has oprions. If we have Tracy or Millar as backup 1B, theres little reason to keep Hoff around. Fuld is fun to watch fly around the outfield, but hes a very one dimensional player. Colvin has a bright future, and it would be nice to see it start now.

[TruffleShuffle]

i know you normally fall in love with a prospect after about 5 good games, but a handful of spring training ABs is crazy even for you.

[E.J.]

So Colvin is your prospect this season, huh?

[Little Slide Rooter]

OK, Ill admit that ever since the disaster that was Corey Patterson, who I was SURE would be the next Rickey Henderson, Ive been waiting for something great to come out of our system, and gotten over excited over a lot of them. However, Tyler isnt some random guy having a good spring. Hes a former 1st round pick and top prospect coming off what looks to have been a succesful TJS, and I say give him a chance.

[Guest]

OK, Ill admit that ever since the disaster that was Corey Patterson, who I was SURE would be the next Rickey Henderson, Ive been waiting for something great to come out of our system, and gotten over excited over a lot of them. However, Tyler isnt some random guy having a good spring. Hes a former 1st round pick and top prospect coming off what looks to have been a succesful TJS, and I say give him a chance.

 

Unfortunately, being a former 1st round pick and a top prospect don't necessarily mean that the player was ever deserving of either moniker. We can only hope that his future will be much brighter than his results so far.

[TruffleShuffle]

So Colvin is your prospect this season, huh?

 

ironically, he has colvin replacing a former crush (hoffpauir)

[17 Seconds]

this will be followed by WSR blasting Hendry to get rid of colvin after his first 0-4

[Sammy Sofa]

Maybe WSR is the kiss of death for these prospects. Colvin's days are numbered.

[Old Style]

Optimism has no place on NSBB, sir.

[Sammy Sofa]

You're mixing up optimism with the hand of death.

[CubbieBum]

At least his new avatar is good. Archer is hilarious.

[E.J.]

Optimism has no place on NSBB, sir.

 

You should just put this in your signature so you don't have to keep repeating yourself.

[CubColtPacer]

Giving Colvin a chance would be leaving him down in AAA. If you bring him up now, he's likely never going to get to play enough to shed the label of a backup OF. He'd need some major injuries in order to be able to get enough of a shot to impress. Plus, he could use some more minor league at-bats. The TJS set him back a little bit, and now he just made a major change to his weight over the offseason. He needs at-bats to get comfortable playing at the new weight.

 

He will likely stay in the realm of good 4th OF/possible average starting OF. But if he has any chance of breaking out beyond that, then he needs at-bats that are only going to come in the minors.

[Cubs Fan Dan]

I would approach Colvin in a similar manner to Castro, let him start in AAA and if he tears the cover off the ball than work him in as a 4th outfield in favorable situations. Fuld will be fine to begin the season and it sounds as if Nady could possibly begin on the 15 day DL because he cannot throw.

 

Hopefully Fonty can handle backing up SS and out bench opens up like this(nady on dl): Baker/Fonty, Hill, Fuld, Tracy.... Millar if you carry 13 hitters.

[fiver]

There is little evidence that Colvin has changed his approach at the plate. He is hitting the ball well when pitchers throw him strikes thus far this spring, but he still has zero walks in 30 PA.

[jersey cubs fan]

I would approach Colvin in a similar manner to Castro, let him start in AAA and if he tears the cover off the ball than work him in as a 4th outfield in favorable situations.

 

I wouldn't come close to approaching him like Castro. If Castro tears the cover off the ball, he's the starting SS. If Colvin tears the cover off the ball, there's no good reason to make him the 4th OF when this team is already stocked with 4th OFers. Let him take the full year, unless Soriano goes down again, then think about playing him. But if Colvin is going to reestablish himself as somebody worth hoping for, he needs to play everyday.

[Sammy Sofa]

There is little evidence that Colvin has changed his approach at the plate. He is hitting the ball well when pitchers throw him strikes thus far this spring, but he still has zero walks in 30 PA.

 

SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

[CubColtPacer]

There is little evidence that Colvin has changed his approach at the plate. He is hitting the ball well when pitchers throw him strikes thus far this spring, but he still has zero walks in 30 PA.

 

I don't think you're going to see an approach change from Colvin very quickly. He's very likely to be an extreme low walks guy early in his career (although there still is a small possibility for him adding walks as he has shown he can draw walks when he isn't as aggressive but he doesn't hit as well either).

 

So you have to look at the other two areas. Can Colvin add even more power to the good power he already has? And can he cut down on the number of K's? He was successful at Tennessee last year because he showed good power without a huge number of strikeouts. Then he went in the offseason and hopefully added to his power potential. If he can make further improvements in both those areas, he could be a pretty good starter at the major league level even without the walks. And the walks would likely come eventually for him as teams started respecting his power because Colvin has shown that he doesn't have a terrible eye.

 

Colvin's a strange player because he has a huge deficiency without any great areas to complement it. But he's making it up for it by being good in just about every other area. He's good at hitting for average, he's a good power hitter, he has good speed to get those doubles and triples when hitting into the gap, and he plays good defense.

 

The only issue is how he'll translate to the major league level. It is harder to project than it would be for a guy who walks a little more. He's a little more likely than most to get overwhelmed against advanced pitching, but he also might adjust and show his skills like he has done at lower levels.

[fromthestretch]

There is little evidence that Colvin has changed his approach at the plate. He is hitting the ball well when pitchers throw him strikes thus far this spring, but he still has zero walks in 30 PA.

 

I don't think you're going to see an approach change from Colvin very quickly. He's very likely to be an extreme low walks guy early in his career (although there still is a small possibility for him adding walks as he has shown he can draw walks when he isn't as aggressive but he doesn't hit as well either).

 

So you have to look at the other two areas. Can Colvin add even more power to the good power he already has? And can he cut down on the number of K's? He was successful at Tennessee last year because he showed good power without a huge number of strikeouts. Then he went in the offseason and hopefully added to his power potential. If he can make further improvements in both those areas, he could be a pretty good starter at the major league level even without the walks. And the walks would likely come eventually for him as teams started respecting his power because Colvin has shown that he doesn't have a terrible eye.

 

Colvin's a strange player because he has a huge deficiency without any great areas to complement it. But he's making it up for it by being good in just about every other area. He's good at hitting for average, he's a good power hitter, he has good speed to get those doubles and triples when hitting into the gap, and he plays good defense.

 

The only issue is how he'll translate to the major league level. It is harder to project than it would be for a guy who walks a little more. He's a little more likely than most to get overwhelmed against advanced pitching, but he also might adjust and show his skills like he has done at lower levels.

 

Would Garret Anderson be a good comp?

[jersey cubs fan]

The only issue is how he'll translate to the major league level. It is harder to project than it would be for a guy who walks a little more. He's a little more likely than most to get overwhelmed against advanced pitching, but he also might adjust and show his skills like he has done at lower levels.

 

He hasn't shown his skills at lower levels, he's pretty much stunk as a minor league player. And it's hardly accurate to say the only issue is how he'll translate to the major league level. The issue is will he actually be better at the major league level than he has been in the lower levels, because he's got to do a heck of a lot more than translate. He's got to improve.

 

.277 .320 .465

[jersey cubs fan]

Would Garret Anderson be a good comp?

 

He's probably the best case scenario. Although that probably also would mean the Cubs would get a couple good years out of him and then vastly overpay him.

[CubColtPacer]

The only issue is how he'll translate to the major league level. It is harder to project than it would be for a guy who walks a little more. He's a little more likely than most to get overwhelmed against advanced pitching, but he also might adjust and show his skills like he has done at lower levels.

 

He hasn't shown his skills at lower levels, he's pretty much stunk as a minor league player. And it's hardly accurate to say the only issue is how he'll translate to the major league level. The issue is will he actually be better at the major league level than he has been in the lower levels, because he's got to do a heck of a lot more than translate. He's got to improve.

 

.277 .320 .465

 

I would argue that some of his minor league numbers should be thrown out the window. Colvin hasn't exactly had the smoothest minor league career. First, you have the fact that twice Colvin has changed into a dramatically different player presumably at the request of the coaching staff. His strikeout rate went way down, his walk rate went way up, and he stopped hitting for a month or two. And then twice he has been exactly the opposite player once again. If I went back I could find you the exact dates that these turnarounds happened. Dramatic shifts of your entire game over months at at time don't happen naturally.

 

Then you add in that when he started last season he was coming off TJS and then quickly got into a nasty collision in the OF that he was also bouncing back from.

 

So if you're really going to look at him, Boise in 06, his whole 2007 season, parts of 2008 (specifically April where he wan't good at all and August where he was excellent), and Tennessee 2009 are the times that should get the most weight. Some of those stops were very good and others were not so good but those are the places where the aggressive Tyler Colvin showed up. He's not going to walk as much going foward as those career numbers would even indicate but I would argue that it is very likely that he is a better hitter than that.

[SouthSideRyan]

Would Garret Anderson be a good comp?

 

He's probably the best case scenario. Although that probably also would mean the Cubs would get a couple good years out of him and then vastly overpay him.

 

Garrett Anderson + good defense is pretty damn good

[jersey cubs fan]

I would argue that some of his minor league numbers should be thrown out the window. Colvin hasn't exactly had the smoothest minor league career.

 

You'd have to make the argument, but it's completely bogus.

 

He was overdrafted and has played almost exactly as expected for a physically good player with a horrible approach at the plate.

[jersey cubs fan]

Would Garret Anderson be a good comp?

 

He's probably the best case scenario. Although that probably also would mean the Cubs would get a couple good years out of him and then vastly overpay him.

 

Garrett Anderson + good defense is pretty damn good

 

For a couple years.