Alberto Cabrera

[Bruce Miles]

He will be promoted to Iowa and will pitch Sunday.

[Little Slide Rooter]

Talk about the last guy who deserved a promotion. Thanks for the info though Bruce.

[toonsterwu]

Surprising. Not sure what else to say about it. I'm too lazy to check rotation schedules right now, but this feels like a timing issue off the top (that is, his turn in the rotation).

[Guest]

I have to imagine toonster is right. Thanks for the scoop, Bruce. Do you know if anyone is coming up to replace him from Daytona (perhaps, Struck)?

[Guest]

Looks like WSR's favorite JR Mathes was released, creating the opening for Cabrera. For now, Marco Carrillo has been promoted to AAA.

 

Mathes is Iowa's all-time win leader with 42.

[craig]

Very surprising, I've been really disappointed in how totally mediocre he's been thus far, he'd been on my list of "could step up fast" guys. ERA is lousy, and all of his peripherals match that picture of mediocrity. (Low K's, high walks, high HR's, high hits allowed.) Nothing is awful, really.

 

Who's left in Tenn's rotation? McNutt, Whitenack, Raley (who's been worse), Rusin (who hasn't been too hot and who's been hurt some, too...). Dolis was originally, and got replaced with Whitenack. I guess the choices are moving somebody from relief (Dolis or Carpenter as former starters, or Chen...) or else bringing somebody up.

 

Doesn't seem like Daytona's rotation is really demanding promotions. Kurcz, Rosscup, and Struck have been their best guys, Struck the least of those three. But they are all young (20, 22, and 21), and two months of A-ball experience seems a little premature for Kurcz or Rosscup. Rosscup hasn't pitched since the 15th, so not sure what's wrong with him. Anybody know?

 

Just a guess: daytona rotation is getting cluttered, so one (Struck?) is getting moved up. Without Struck, they could still formulate a rotation with:

1. Rosscup, if he's back from whatever has kept him out for the last 12 days.

2. Kurcz, obviously he's been good.

3. Wallach, he's been lousy but they may still want to keep trying him.

4. Rhee, if he's healthy enough now to stay in rotation and they take him seriously enough to stay in rotation.

5. Struck would make five, if he stayed.

6. Lorick has been starting, he'd make six.

7. This may be a time when they're ready to promote Kirk.

 

So maybe if they were promoting Kirk and Rosscup was coming back, perhaps that would create enough pressure to push Struck up a level?

[Little Slide Rooter]

Looks like WSR's favorite JR Mathes was released, creating the opening for Cabrera. For now, Marco Carrillo has been promoted to AAA.

 

Mathes is Iowa's all-time win leader with 42.

 

To be fair, he wasnt much worse than the rest of the starters. IMHO, if they were dying to dump someone, it should have been Diamond or Bibens Dierks. Theyve been equally as bad, and havnt devoted their entire adult lives to the Cubs minor league system.

[craig]

..Daytona rotation is getting cluttered, so one (Struck?) is getting moved up. Without Struck, they could still formulate a rotation with:

1. Rosscup, if he's back from whatever has kept him out for the last 12 days.

2. Kurcz, obviously he's been good.

3. Wallach, he's been lousy but they may still want to keep trying him.

4. Rhee, if he's healthy enough now to stay in rotation and they take him seriously enough to stay in rotation.

5. Struck would make five, if he stayed.

6. Lorick has been starting, he'd make six.

7. This may be a time when they're ready to promote Kirk.

...

 

Kirk stayed and started at Peoria tonight, and Lorick started for Daytona.

[Little Slide Rooter]

So wait, are Coleman, Carillo, and Cabrera all going to Iowa? With Cabrera going to Iowa, and Whitenack likely to be gone for god knows how long, someone has to be going to Tenn. Could be Struck and/or Kurcz. I wonder if they'll demote Jay back to Tenn.

[toonsterwu]

I sort of don't see a point in demoting Jay to Tennessee. I feel like the next move for him is to the pen in Iowa first, but that's me. A lot of his flaws could probably be hidden coming out of the pen.

[Guest]

Hung-Wen Chen is no longer on the Smokies:

 

Knoxville News-Sentinel[/url]"]Notebook: Smokies starting pitcher Alberto Cabrera was called up to Class AAA Iowa on Saturday and reliever Hung-Wen Chen's contract was loaned to the Piratas de Campeche in the Mexican League.

[toonsterwu]

probably for the best in regards to Chen. He had reached his ceiling in the organization is a AA/AAA versatile arm that gets moved around. Wouldn't surprise me in the least if he heads back to Asia soon. He had openly talked about the desire to head to Japan if his ceiling was reached in the Cubs organization.

 

As a side comment on Alberto, I still imagine this was a "we need a guy so you go up because it's your turn" move, and if/when Coello is back with us, Alberto might move down, but it has crossed my mind if this might be a "sink or swim" move as it relates to Alberto as a SP.

[Brett]

Given that Cabrera was a semi-surprise early addition to the 40-man, is it possible that the reason his numbers don't look so good in the minors is because the Cubs are having him work on specific pitches? It can't be simply that they thought "this kid's got a live arm, let's put him on the 40-man," right? Unless I'm mis-remembering when he was put on the 40-man, I don't think it was to protect him from the Rule 5.

 

That would also explain the aggressive promotion schedule, despite results that don't quite match. Just shooting from the hip.

[Guest]

Given that Cabrera was a semi-surprise early addition to the 40-man, is it possible that the reason his numbers don't look so good in the minors is because the Cubs are having him work on specific pitches? It can't be simply that they thought "this kid's got a live arm, let's put him on the 40-man," right? Unless I'm mis-remembering when he was put on the 40-man, I don't think it was to protect him from the Rule 5.

 

That would also explain the aggressive promotion schedule, despite results that don't quite match. Just shooting from the hip.

 

No, he had to be protected from the Rule 5 this past offseason. I still think toonsterwu's theory is right and Alberto will be back at AA when Coello passes through waivers. Note that they didn't replace both the disabled Whitenack and Cabrera at AA, just one of them.