Next Year's Minor League Rosters

[CubsWin]

I know it's a bit early, but my mind is already going there and I know your's are too. So let's have at it.

[Guest]

These things can be really tough. You don't know what AAA vets will return. You don't know who will be acquired or traded. Peoria's rotation always has a surprise or two. I went with no 4A guys and that forced me to plug in guys who might not be ready a la Crawford at AA. It's tough to fit all the bats with no DH at AA and AAA.

 

Iowa:

 

C Robinson Chirinos

1B Russ Canzler/Matt Spencer

2B Tony Thomas

SS Nate Samson

3B Marquez Smith

LF Jim Adduci/Tony Campana

CF Brett Jackson/Campana

RF Brandon Guyer/Spencer

SP Jay Jackson

SP Casey Coleman

SP Chris Carpenter

SP Chris Archer

SP Hung-Wen Chen (other possibility: Mitch Atkins)

CL David Cales

 

Tennessee:

 

C Mike Brenly

1B Rebel Ridling

2B DJ LeMahieu/Ryan Flaherty

SS Junior Lake/LeMahieu

3B Josh Vitters/Flaherty

LF Ty Wright - organizational guy

CF Evan Crawford

RF Kyler Burke

SP Chris Rusin

SP Trey McNutt

SP Craig Muschko

SP Alberto Cabrera

SP Brooks Raley

CL Rafael Dolis/Aaron Shafer

 

Daytona:

 

C Luis Flores

1B Justin Bour

2B Logan Watkins

SS Hak-Ju Lee

3B Matt Cerda

LF DJ Fitzgerald

CF Alvaro Ramirez

RF Jae-Hoon Ha

DH Greg Rohan

SP Dae-Eun Rhee

SP Robert Whitenack

SP Nick Struck

SP Brett Wallach

SP Su-Min Jung (other candidates: Ryan Searle, Marcus Hatley, Jeffry Antigua, Justin Bristow)

CL Aaron Kurcz

 

Peoria:

 

C Micah Gibbs

1B Bobby Wagner

2B Pierre LePage

SS Arismendy Alcantara/Elliot Soto

3B Dustin Harrington/Alcantara

LF Jesus Morelli

CF Matt Szczur/Kyung-Min Na

RF Reggie Golden

DH Brandon May

SP Robinson Lopez

SP Austin Kirk

SP Hayden Simpson

SP Casey Harman

SP Cam Greathouse (other possibilities: Juan Yasser Serrano or Jon Nagel)

CL Kevin Rhoderick

 

Extended Spring Training Squad A:

 

C Sergio Burruel

1B Ryan Cuneo

2B Wes Darvill/Pin-Chieh Chen

SS Marco Hernandez

3B Dustin Geiger

LF Blair Springfield

CF Cody Shields

RF Dong-Yub Kim

DH Richard Jones

SP Austin Reed (all SPs here are options to round out Peoria's rotation)

SP Ben Wells

SP Jin-Yeong Kim

SP Hunter Ackerman

SP Yao-Lin Wang (other options: Eduardo Figueroa, Luis Liria, Marcos Perez, Colin Richardson)

 

The Dolis to the pen move is going to happen sooner or later. Assumed Austin-Bibens Dirkx wouldn't be back. The Tenn outfield is weak now but org AAAA fillers should fill up Iowa at 1B and OF and let guys drop down to Tennessee who I have at Iowa now.

[ScrubMD]

The Dolis to the pen move is going to happen sooner or later. Assumed Austin-Bibens Dirkx wouldn't be back. The Tenn outfield is weak now but org AAAA fillers should fill up Iowa at 1B and OF and let guys drop down to Tennessee who I have at Iowa now.

 

Are you assuming a spot in the major league pen or that he won't be a Cub?

[Rob]

A promotion for Kyler Burke, Raisin? I'd think it's more likely he's working on his conversion to pitching than playing OF in Tennessee to start next year.

[Guest]

Not that he deserves it but I was really stumped with what to do with Tennessee's outfield. Someone's got to repeat at Tennessee next year because it doesn't seem like Burke, Crawford or Rohan are ready.

[Cubs Fan Dan]

If you are rigiht about Iowa that will be a fun rotation to follow. Ditto with Tennessee.

[CubsInNC]

Jonathan Mota? The Cubs seem to like his bat, and his lack of position ability is a hinderance, but you don't see them making room for him to get everyday at bats somewhere?

[CubsWin]

Of course, a lot of this will depend on how guys perform in minor league spring training, instructs, winter ball and the AFL. Ages are what they would be at the start of the '11 season.

 

Iowa

 

C - W. Castillo (23) (Let Chirinos be the back-up in Chicago, please.)

1B - Canzler (24)

2B - Thomas (24)

SS - Camp (26), Samson (23)

3B - M. Smith (26)

LF - Wright (26), Adduci (25)

CF - B. Jackson (22)

RF - Spencer (25) (Only if Guyer breaks with the Cubs)

 

Iowa's rotation is completely dependent on who goes north, so here goes...

 

SP - Archer (22)

SP - J. Jackson (23)

SP - Carpenter (25)

SP - Samardzija (26)

SP - Coleman (23)

 

Others include Atkins, Cales, Smit, Carrillo, Chen, Russell, Schlitter.

 

Tennessee

 

C - Clevenger (25), Reed (25)

1B - Ridling (24)

2B - LeMahieu (22)

SS - Lake (21), M. Gonzalez (22)

3B - Vitters (21), Flaherty (24)

LF - Borges (27)

CF - Campana (24)

RF - Could be Spencer if Guyer doesn't make the Cubs

 

SP - McNutt (21)

SP - Dolis (23)

SP - Rusin (24)

SP - Cabrera (22)

SP - Raley (22)

 

Others include Beliveau, T. Harris, Leverton, Buchter, Shafer, Lambert.

 

Daytona

 

C - Brenly (24)

1B - Bour (22)

2B - Watkins (21)

SS - Lee (20)

3B - Cerda (20)

LF - Fitzgerald (22)

CF - Ha (20), Crawford (22)

RF - Burke (23), Perez (23)

 

SP - Whitenack (22)

SP - Struck (21)

SP - Searle (21)

SP - Jung (21)

SP - Antigua (20)

 

Others include Rhee, Batista, Wallach, Y. Gonzalez, Lorick, Morla, Keefe, Latham.

 

Peoria

 

C - Gibbs (22)

1B - R. Jones (23), Cuneo (22)

2B - LePage (22)

SS - Alcantara (19), Soto (21)

3B - Harrington (22), B. May (23)

LF - Morelli (20)

CF - Giansanti (22)

RF - Szczur (21)

 

SP - Simpson (21)

SP - Kirk (20)

SP - Greathouse (20)

SP - Ebinger (22)

SP - R. Lopez (20)

 

Others include Kurcz (20), Beeler (21), Loosen (22), Suarez (21), Serrano (23).

 

Boise

 

C - Burruel (19)

1B - McAloose (23)

2B - P.C. Chen (19)

SS - Darvill (19)

3B - Geiger (19)

LF - R. Davis (22)

CF - Na (19)

RF - Batista (19)

 

SP - B. Wells (18)

SP - A. Reed (19)

SP - W.L. Wang (20)

SP - T.A. Wang (20)

SP - Hartman (18)

SP - M. Perez (21)

 

And many more...

[toonsterwu]

My guess is that Clevenger will go to AAA to split time with the loser of Chirinos/Castillo/? for the backup catcher job, with Brenly perhaps getting the bump to Tennessee. If Luis Flores is back, he could be the guy in A+, although my guess would be that the main catcher in Daytona might be Jonathon Mota, with perhaps an old hand like Mark Reed around to help work with the young arms.

[Guest]

Fyi, Runey Davis was released a few months ago. Dong-Yub Kim in Boise maybe? I also agree with toonsterwu re: Brenly. No Alvaro Ramirez?

 

I hope the Cubs keep Dae-Eun Rhee in the rotation at least one more season. I think Wallach is a lock for Daytona's rotation. I also think Dallas Beeler or Casey Harman are more likely in Peoria's rotation than Brent Ebinger but you really can go so many ways with Peoria's rotation.

[CubsWin]

True that to both Toonster and CR. And thanks for the heads up on Runey Davis. I was grasping at straws there. When you get down to Boise and the guesses at the rotations, it's hard for me to come by the necessary info to make an informed choice.

 

Clevenger splitting time with whomever is in AAA between Chirinos and Castillo makes perfect sense. And Brenly totally deserves to be in AA. Don't know what I was thinking there.

 

Whew, those lists are a lot...

[CubsWin]

Ramirez will likely be in Peoria. Morelli, Giansanti and Szczur are younger and better prospects so I listed them. I didn't bother with benches. And there's so much piggy-backing in Peoria and even some at Daytona from time to time that who makes the listed rotation is certainly not within my scope of knowledge. But I appreciate (and need) all of your (and anyone else's) input. :-)

[davell]

There's definitely going to be some logjams for some of the squads pitching-wise next year, but the main thing to keep an eye on, is who has to move off a position at Tennessee next year between Vitters, Flaherty, LeMahieu, and Lake. My guess is we'll see some combo of Lake and LeMahieu at 2B/SS and Flaherty being moved to either LF or possibly just a flatout utility guy who finds a way to be in the lineup almost every game.

[Wrigley Rat]

True that to both Toonster and CR. And thanks for the heads up on Runey Davis. I was grasping at straws there. When you get down to Boise and the guesses at the rotations, it's hard for me to come by the necessary info to make an informed choice.

 

Clevenger splitting time with whomever is in AAA between Chirinos and Castillo makes perfect sense. And Brenly totally deserves to be in AA. Don't know what I was thinking there.

 

Whew, those lists are a lot...

Geovany Soto kills left-handed pitching. Steve Clevenger kills right-handed pitching. I'd like to see that tandem sooner rather than later. He could go in the Rule 5 Draft though. Just saying.

[toonsterwu]

Definitely possible that someone plucks Clevenger, and it's hard to imagine Clevenger being protected. His hot streak once he got regular AB's didn't really help matters (in terms of keeping him). That said, I thought there was a chance that we might lose Chirinos or Clevenger last year, and that didn't happen. Chirinos will definitely be protected, but it's possible that teams view Clevenger as a backup backstop and decide against it. Here's hoping. I'd like to keep him in the system.

[SouthSideRyan]

True that to both Toonster and CR. And thanks for the heads up on Runey Davis. I was grasping at straws there. When you get down to Boise and the guesses at the rotations, it's hard for me to come by the necessary info to make an informed choice.

 

Clevenger splitting time with whomever is in AAA between Chirinos and Castillo makes perfect sense. And Brenly totally deserves to be in AA. Don't know what I was thinking there.

 

Whew, those lists are a lot...

Geovany Soto kills left-handed pitching. Steve Clevenger kills right-handed pitching. I'd like to see that tandem sooner rather than later. He could go in the Rule 5 Draft though. Just saying.

 

What? Like a platoon with one of the best catchers in baseball?

[TruffleShuffle]

clevenger versus rhp: .317/.378/.416/.794

soto versus major league rhp: .253/.344/.458/.802

 

so yeah, clevenger has been a little better but he's also been facing minor league pitchers.

 

it'd be nice to have a backup catcher who hits righties well since our starter kills lefties. you play clevenger spot starts against RHP and give soto all of the starts against LHP. hopefully that's what he was getting at (not a strict platoon, which would be lunacy)

[Wrigley Rat]

True that to both Toonster and CR. And thanks for the heads up on Runey Davis. I was grasping at straws there. When you get down to Boise and the guesses at the rotations, it's hard for me to come by the necessary info to make an informed choice.

 

Clevenger splitting time with whomever is in AAA between Chirinos and Castillo makes perfect sense. And Brenly totally deserves to be in AA. Don't know what I was thinking there.

 

Whew, those lists are a lot...

Geovany Soto kills left-handed pitching. Steve Clevenger kills right-handed pitching. I'd like to see that tandem sooner rather than later. He could go in the Rule 5 Draft though. Just saying.

 

What? Like a platoon with one of the best catchers in baseball?

I was very careful not to say platoon. Obviously Soto gets the majority of the ABs but giving Soto a day off against righties that he hasn't hit against seems like good strategy to me.

[Guest]

True that to both Toonster and CR. And thanks for the heads up on Runey Davis. I was grasping at straws there. When you get down to Boise and the guesses at the rotations, it's hard for me to come by the necessary info to make an informed choice.

 

Clevenger splitting time with whomever is in AAA between Chirinos and Castillo makes perfect sense. And Brenly totally deserves to be in AA. Don't know what I was thinking there.

 

Whew, those lists are a lot...

Geovany Soto kills left-handed pitching. Steve Clevenger kills right-handed pitching. I'd like to see that tandem sooner rather than later. He could go in the Rule 5 Draft though. Just saying.

 

What? Like a platoon with one of the best catchers in baseball?

I was very careful not to say platoon. Obviously Soto gets the majority of the ABs but giving Soto a day off against righties that he hasn't hit against seems like good strategy to me.

Sitting a guy because he's 2-15 against a particular pitcher is a bad idea. You run into all kinds of small sample size issues there.

 

Now, if you are up against a pitcher who murders right handed batters but is a cupcake versus lefties (say, Matt Clement in his prime), then it would be a good idea to time Soto's rest days for those pitchers.

 

But I think we're 98% in agreement here. :)

[Wrigley Rat]

True that to both Toonster and CR. And thanks for the heads up on Runey Davis. I was grasping at straws there. When you get down to Boise and the guesses at the rotations, it's hard for me to come by the necessary info to make an informed choice.

 

Clevenger splitting time with whomever is in AAA between Chirinos and Castillo makes perfect sense. And Brenly totally deserves to be in AA. Don't know what I was thinking there.

 

Whew, those lists are a lot...

Geovany Soto kills left-handed pitching. Steve Clevenger kills right-handed pitching. I'd like to see that tandem sooner rather than later. He could go in the Rule 5 Draft though. Just saying.

 

What? Like a platoon with one of the best catchers in baseball?

I was very careful not to say platoon. Obviously Soto gets the majority of the ABs but giving Soto a day off against righties that he hasn't hit against seems like good strategy to me.

Sitting a guy because he's 2-15 against a particular pitcher is a bad idea. You run into all kinds of small sample size issues there.

 

Now, if you are up against a pitcher who murders right handed batters but is a cupcake versus lefties (say, Matt Clement in his prime), then it would be a good idea to time Soto's rest days for those pitchers.

 

But I think we're 98% in agreement here. :)

Fair enough. :)

[toonsterwu]

I figured with a lot of pieces in place, it might be nice to call this thread up again for discussion. Granted, we'll probably add some NRI's and other minor league vets, so the picture isn't set.

 

Here's my current positional guesses at the I-Cubs

 

C - Robinson Chirinos, Welington Castillo, Chris Robinson (Could see Chirinos or Castillo start the year with the bigs, if they have a big spring or if Soto isn't 100% ready for behind the plate duty)

 

IF - Scott Moore, Marquez Smith, Tony Thomas, Matt Camp, ? (or Barney)

 

OF - Brandon Guyer, Brett Jackson, Tony Campana, Bryan LaHair, Brad Snyder

 

Thoughts: My hunch is that if Brett Jackson has a strong spring, the Cubs may let him break with the I-Cubs. I put a question mark in the IF column because I anticipate the Cubs going after a FA MI to compete for the backup utility infielder job with Barney, with the loser going to AAA. I'd guess that Snyder/LaHair would split time at first, along with the catchers. Feels like they could perhaps add another righty bat to the mix, but was targeting 13 positional, 11 pitchers, but it's possible they go 14/10. Overall, the I-Cubs should once again be a competitive squad in the PCL (as the pitching staff looks good, but I'm too lazy to go through that right now). Most likely to be sent to AA? My guess is probably Scott Moore (or if my guess is wrong on Brett). I think guys like LaHair, if they don't make the squad, likely get cut.

 

Here's my current positional guess at the Smokies -

 

C - Steve Clevenger, Michael Brenly

 

IF - Josh Vitters, DJ LeMahieu, Junior Lake, Blake Lalli, Nate Samson, Jake Opitz or David Macias type

 

OF - James Adduci, Matt Spencer, Ty Wright, Ryan Flaherty, Marwin Gonzalez

 

Thoughts: Was targeting 13/11 again. Left Ridling off the list, as it seems like Vitters will get time at first, and there are also guys like Matt Spencer, Blake Lalli, and Ryan Flaherty that could grab some time. If we sign some more minor league vets, I could see guys like Adduci and Wright be on thin ice, so to speak. There's enough versatile utility options.