Minor League Discussion & Boxes 5-5-11

[Outshined_One]

Box Scores

 

Iowa lost 9-2 Box Score

 

CF T. Campana 1/3, BB, 2 K, SB (5)

RF L. Montanez 1/4, RBI, K

LF B. Snyder 1/4, 2 K

2B M. Smith 1/3, BB, 3B (1)

DH B. LaHair 0/3, BB, RBI

C W. Castillo 1/4, K

1B S. Moore 0/4, K

3B B. Scales 0/3, 2 K

SS M. Camp 0/3, E (4, fielding)

SP T. Wellemeyer 3.2 IP, 8 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 5-2 GO-FO

RP J. Stevens .1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K, 1-0 GO-FO

RP T. Diamond 5 IP, 6 H, 5 ER, 3 BB, 3 K, 4-4 GO-FO

 

Tennessee won 7-6 Box Score

 

CF B. Jackson 2/4, BB, R, RBI, 2 2B (7), SB (10)

2B/3B DJ LeMahieu 3/5, 2 R, 3 RBI, 2B (9), HR (2), K

SS R. Flaherty 0/5, RBI, 2 K

RF M. Spencer 1/4, R, 2 RBI, HR (5)

1B R. Ridling 0/3

PH/SS M. Gonzalez 0/1

C S. Clevenger 1/3, BB, R, K, PB (4)

3B/1B J. Vitters 1/2, R

SP C. Rusin 5 IP, 5 H, 4 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, 2 HR, HBP, 5-2 GO-FO

RP R. Buchter .1 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 0 K, 1-0 GO-FO

RP K. Smit 2.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K, HBP, 2-1 GO-FO

RP M. Carrillo 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K, 0-2 GO-FO

 

Daytona won 5-0 Box Score

 

SS J. Lake 3/5, 2 R, 3 RBI, 3B (3), HR (2)

RF JH Ha 0/5

1B J. Bour 2/3, BB, RBI

DH M. Brenly 2/5, RBI

CF E. Crawford 1/4, K, HBP, SB (8)

3B M. Cerda 1/4, BB

SP D. Davis 6.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 7 K, 4-6 GO-FO

RP J. Beliveau 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K, 2-1 GO-FO

RP B. Ebinger 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0-3 GO-FO

 

Peoria won 4-1 Box Score

 

2B P. LePage 2/3, BB, R, E (2, throw)

DH E. Soto 1/4, R, 2 K

CF R. Silva 1/4, R, 3 RBI, 2 K

1B R. Jones 2/4, 2 2B (4), K

C M. Gibbs 1/4, RBI, 2 K

SS A. Alcantara 0/3, K

SP H. Simpson 4.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 1 K, 9-2 GO-FO

RP E. Jokisch 4.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 BB, 5 K, 4-3 GO-FO

 

OVERALL: 3-1

[Guest]

Probable Starters

 

Iowa: RHP Todd Wellemeyer (rehab)

Tennessee: LHP Chris Rusin (1-0, 5.40 ERA, 25 IP, 20 K, 4 BB)

Daytona: LHP Doug Davis (rehab)

Peoria: RHP Hayden Simpson (0-1, 5.06 ERA, 21.1 IP, 20 K, 6 BB)

[JockJones]

Doug Davis has had a great outing so far in Daytona. 5 in, 1 hit, 6 K's. Hope he is good enough that he can replace Russell if Ca$h or Wells are out much longer.

[Guest]

Davis ended up going 6.2: 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 7 K. I believe he's got a rehab start at Iowa next.

 

Junior Lake is a double away from the cycle.

[Little Slide Rooter]

Doug Davis has had a great outing so far in Daytona. 5 in, 1 hit, 6 K's. Hope he is good enough that he can replace Russell if Ca$h or Wells are out much longer.

Unless his arm falls off, he is.

[CubsWin]

LeMaheiu having a good power night thus far. 2-for-3 with a 2B, his 9th, and a HR, his 2nd. He currently has 101 ABs. That's on pace, not that he will necessarily keep this up all year, but that's on pace for 10 HRs and 45 2B over 500 ABs as a 22-year-old in AA. There's hope for him yet. Plus, he continues to hit over .300 (as he has every year of his career thus far) with a good BB/K ratio. Can he stick at 2B?

 

Justin Bour continues his hot hitting raising his season numbers to .270/.362/.520. After a very slow start, he's hit safely in 9 of his last ten games going .371/.465/.771 with 4 HRs and a 7:5 BB/K ratio over that span. He'll turn 23 at the end of May, but if he keeps hitting like this, he'll see AA before the end of the season and remain the Cubs only viable prospect at 1B.

 

And, finally, Hayden Simpson had a decent outing tossing 4.2 scoreless innings giving up 4 hits, walking 2, striking out 1 while getting 9 ground outs against 2 fly ball outs.

[TruffleShuffle]

brett jackson doubled twice and drew a 7 pitch bases loaded walk in the 9th inning of their game... just following along on gamecast. vitters preceded him with 2 outs in the 9th inning, runners on 1st and 3rd, and according to gamecast "singled to catcher" on the first pitch - meaning that he probably hit a well-placed dribbler with the runner on 3rd holding. anyway, lemahieu hit a two-run single to give the smokies a 1 run lead in the top of the 9th.

 

yes i'm bored at work.

[CUBZ99]

Doug Davis has had a great outing so far in Daytona. 5 in, 1 hit, 6 K's. Hope he is good enough that he can replace Russell if Ca$h or Wells are out much longer.

 

Apparently Davis gets $900K guaranteed if he makes the club. I doubt they would call him up, pay him $900K for a couple of weeks and then send him down when Cashner and Wells are ready to go.

[CubsWin]

Jae-Hoon Ha looks like Shin-Soo Choo without the walks and with less strikeouts. Choo always had the ability to be selective. Ha never has. Why is it that the Cubs struggle so much teaching their young talented hitters to have plate discipline? Or is it that they are simply two different players and plate discipline is something that you either have or you don't and isn't very easy to teach?

[TruffleShuffle]

Jae-Hoon Ha looks like Shin-Soo Choo without the walks and with less strikeouts. Choo always had the ability to be selective. Ha never has. Why is it that the Cubs struggle so much teaching their young talented hitters to have plate discipline? Or is it that they are simply two different players and plate discipline is something that you either have or you don't and isn't very easy to teach?

 

hopefully without the DUIs as well.

 

fyi, it's ok to compare players to guys of different races/nationalities.

[Guest]

Jae-Hoon Ha looks like Shin-Soo Choo without the walks and with less strikeouts. Choo always had the ability to be selective. Ha never has. Why is it that the Cubs struggle so much teaching their young talented hitters to have plate discipline? Or is it that they are simply two different players and plate discipline is something that you either have or you don't and isn't very easy to teach?

 

hopefully without the DUIs as well.

 

fyi, it's ok to compare players to guys of different races/nationalities.

Actually, he did unless you're just going with "asian"

 

I'm stupid. Thought Choo was Taiwanese for some reason.

[Guest]

http://www.thecubreporter.com/2011/05/04/sosa-deja-view-center-street

 

From the comments:

 

How did Colin Richardson look? What are your thoughts on him? Any Ryan Hartman or Brian Smith sightings? What are your thoughts on them?

 

=========================================

 

K BANSAW: Colin Richardson looked OK (especially compared to the other pitchers who threw on Field #3). He threw a high percentage of strikes, although he had trouble keeping his pitches down and so some of them were a bit too hittable.

 

Ryan Hartman last threw on Monday in a sim game (along with five other pitchers). He has really struggled. He threw in an EXST game versus the Rockies a couple of weeks ago that I did not cover (I was at the other game that day), but I got back to Fitch Park just in time to see his outing (he was the last pitcher), and it wasn't pretty. So I've seen him throw in at least three EXST games during the first couple of weeks, and he hasn't shown much to this point. His curve ball is normally his "out" pitch, but not so far. And he doesn't have the stamina to throw more than two innings, either.

 

I haven't seen Brian Smith.

[StarlinOnYou]

Why isn't Simpson striking out anyone?

[toonsterwu]

Why isn't Simpson striking out anyone?

 

Prior to last night, he had a decent 8+ K/9 rate. Not as great as one would hope, but combined with a solid bb rate, overall, it's been fine, particularly considering that he's probably no where near his peak form yet. That said, here's hoping he picks it up a bit.

[toonsterwu]

http://www.thecubreporter.com/2011/05/04/sosa-deja-view-center-street

 

From the comments:

 

How did Colin Richardson look? What are your thoughts on him? Any Ryan Hartman or Brian Smith sightings? What are your thoughts on them?

 

=========================================

 

K BANSAW: Colin Richardson looked OK (especially compared to the other pitchers who threw on Field #3). He threw a high percentage of strikes, although he had trouble keeping his pitches down and so some of them were a bit too hittable.

 

Ryan Hartman last threw on Monday in a sim game (along with five other pitchers). He has really struggled. He threw in an EXST game versus the Rockies a couple of weeks ago that I did not cover (I was at the other game that day), but I got back to Fitch Park just in time to see his outing (he was the last pitcher), and it wasn't pretty. So I've seen him throw in at least three EXST games during the first couple of weeks, and he hasn't shown much to this point. His curve ball is normally his "out" pitch, but not so far. And he doesn't have the stamina to throw more than two innings, either.

 

I haven't seen Brian Smith.

 

That sure doesn't sound too good on Hartman, who seemed fairly intriguing as a prep arm. It's early, but I'm curious if he heads to Boise or if he'll be at XST .

[CubsWin]

Jae-Hoon Ha looks like Shin-Soo Choo without the walks and with less strikeouts. Choo always had the ability to be selective. Ha never has. Why is it that the Cubs struggle so much teaching their young talented hitters to have plate discipline? Or is it that they are simply two different players and plate discipline is something that you either have or you don't and isn't very easy to teach?

 

hopefully without the DUIs as well.

 

fyi, it's ok to compare players to guys of different races/nationalities.

No, no it's not. I refuse.

 

Actually, I didn't even think about that. I was looking at Choo's minor league numbers and noticed the similarities. They were both 19 in Low-A and 20 in High-A. At age 19, Choo hit .303 with a SLG of .451, Ha hit .317 and slugged .468. At age 20, Choo had a .286 AVG with a .459 SLG. So far, Ha is bettering that with a .330 AVG and a .548 SLG. The area in which they differ most is in walks and strikeouts. I don't know what that means for Ha's development going forward, but I am intrigued with similarities to Choo. That said, Ha drew another walk Friday night, so maybe he's improving in that area as well. In any case, I'm intrigued with his possibilities as a prospect.