Minor League Discussion & Boxes 4-5-12

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Nice to see the strikeouts from Struck. 3 IP, 1 H, 4/0 K/BB

 

5 IP, 8 K, 0 BB, 0 HR, 0 R, 2 H, 70 pitches

[Guest]

What is Brian Schlitter doing in Daytona?

[toonsterwu]

I've been asking the same question myself. In a rebuilding year, you've got to think that there's more intriguing long term talent that could go there than Schlitter.

[TruffleShuffle]

What is Brian Schlitter doing in Daytona?

 

wasting a roster spot.

 

aj morris pitched his first inning as a cub - gave up a hit and an unearned run with one K. sat out last year recovering from shoulder surgery after being acquired in the gorzo deal.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Struck's 7th: single, bunt single+throwing error, HBP, RBI groundout, IBB, K, K

 

So he finishes with 10 K in six innings, and only an intentional walk (assuming he's done).

 

I kinda like this whole "keeping guys down a level" organizational philosophy. Should make for some fun minor league numbers to drool over.

[Guancous]

Has anyone heard anything about Whitenack's recovery?

[toonsterwu]

I'd be interested to know how Struck got his strikeouts. If he is getting it with his breaking ball (or change-up), then that's a nice step forward in progress for him. He did fine in AA last year, and held his own in AAA, so much as I like Struck, I'm not going to get too excited over him dominating what, on paper, does look like a weak Chattanooga lineup in the first game of the year.

[Guest]

The 10 Ks are a career high for Struck.

[Guest]

What is Brian Schlitter doing in Daytona?

 

TJS rehab.

[toonsterwu]

One mild thing that interested me was who would get the closer's nod for Tennessee. Batista got the nod. With Rhoderick, Hatley, Cabrera, Batista, heck, even Searle and Weathers, there were enough candidates for the final 3 outs.

[craig]

Great to see the Jensen and Struck starts. Would be fun if Jensen turned out to be a prospect. He was consistently good against top California JC competition, so I assume he's got something, and his consistency hints to a degree of coordination and control. And USC normally recruits pretty high-level talent, so a USC scholarship, especially for a smaller guy, hints that he's perhaps not totally under-talented. IIRC, there was little scouting that he had any great breaking pitch. So I'm assuming that his progress will depend on how his slider comes along, whether or not he can develop a change, how fast he is, and how much deception/movement goes with his normal fastball.

[craig]

I'd be interested to know how Struck got his strikeouts. If he is getting it with his breaking ball (or change-up), then that's a nice step forward in progress for him. He did fine in AA last year, and held his own in AAA, so much as I like Struck, I'm not going to get too excited over him dominating what, on paper, does look like a weak Chattanooga lineup in the first game of the year.

 

toonster, how much do you know about struck? My recall of what I've heard scouting-wise is that he throws a lot of fastballs, and hasn't had any consistent or high quality breaking pitch. Lots of fastballs with some so-so sliders mixed in. Which could fit his crummy results at Iowa.

 

I don't think it's necessarily wise to focus too much on the Iowa numbers. It was premature for Fleita to rush him up to AAA already last year, at age 21 in only his 2nd year as a pro. Hardly astonishing that he was bad there.

 

At Daytona/Tennessee, he was 2.96 ERA / 73K/22BB/85IP/2 HR. Those are very good numbers for a 21-year-old, and normally suggest at least some degree of prospect-hood. But he's gotten little buzz, and for a system as weak as the Cubs, he didn't seem to even sniff BA's top-30 despite numbers like that as a 21-year-old. However he's doing it, it didn't appeal to scouts that much.

 

So some things don't really seem to add up. As important as any characteristic for a pitcher is a low-HR profile, and Struck seems to have that. Which seems unusual if a guy is throwing too many fastballs and hitters can often sit on those, even in the A+/AA levels. My sense is that his velocity is good, but it's not like he's Cashner or Carpenter or overpoweringly fast. Perhaps either his location or his fastball movement are pretty good, or both?

 

Maybe the brilliant Fleita figured he threw too many fastballs, and pushed him up to Iowa just to force him to fail and to learn for himself that doing it that was wasn't going to work. So maybe his slider will be a little sharper and more consistent, he'll throw more of them, maybe he's taking to an effective cutter, and you'll have a new and improved man this year? It's spring, always fun to hope.

[Guest]

Interesting that Burke was brought in for an inning. I'm assuming it's just to get in some work, but nothing is set in stone yet, so who knows.

 

Yeah, sounds like that was the plan:

 

Peoria Journal Star[/url]"]Kyler Burke made his first appearance as a pitcher for the Chiefs and worked the seventh inning. He’ll pitch again as the piggyback pitcher with starter Ben Wells in Monday’s home opener with Quad Cities.

[ChiefsVoice]

Interesting that Burke was brought in for an inning. I'm assuming it's just to get in some work, but nothing is set in stone yet, so who knows.

 

He is piggybacking Wells on Monday but with a Sunday off day for Easter he couldnt go without throwing. I think Cruz, our Tuesday starter, is going to do the same tonight.

[Named After Maddux]

Interesting that Burke was brought in for an inning. I'm assuming it's just to get in some work, but nothing is set in stone yet, so who knows.

 

He is piggybacking Wells on Monday but with a Sunday off day for Easter he couldnt go without throwing. I think Cruz, our Tuesday starter, is going to do the same tonight.

 

Ok so the Peoria Rotation looks like this to start the season: Michael Jensen, PJ Francescon, Jose Rosario, Ben Wells, and Willington Cruz with some piggybacking going on. Interesting group.

 

Also, really nice to see Jensen pitch so well last night. I know he's been viewed as a sleeper.

[toonsterwu]

Interesting that Burke was brought in for an inning. I'm assuming it's just to get in some work, but nothing is set in stone yet, so who knows.

 

He is piggybacking Wells on Monday but with a Sunday off day for Easter he couldnt go without throwing. I think Cruz, our Tuesday starter, is going to do the same tonight.

 

Thanks Nate. As a side note, is someone piggybacking off Cruz (assuming Liria or Wang, but I guess Reed could be in the mix)?

[toonsterwu]

Great to see the Jensen and Struck starts. Would be fun if Jensen turned out to be a prospect. He was consistently good against top California JC competition, so I assume he's got something, and his consistency hints to a degree of coordination and control. And USC normally recruits pretty high-level talent, so a USC scholarship, especially for a smaller guy, hints that he's perhaps not totally under-talented. IIRC, there was little scouting that he had any great breaking pitch. So I'm assuming that his progress will depend on how his slider comes along, whether or not he can develop a change, how fast he is, and how much deception/movement goes with his normal fastball.

 

It's been awhile since I searched around for the pre-draft reports, but I'm almost certain that he was reported as having a solid-good breaking ball (curve, I think) with a 4-seamer/2-seamer. I don't recall anything, off the top, about a slider or a changeup, though.

 

Edit: Had a couple minutes, so did some googling -

73. MICHAEL JENSEN, rhp, Hartnell JC (Fr.)

Salinas HS teammate of Grim (No. 61); FB up to 95 in fall/92-93 this spring, ++ CU; 6-3, 2.00, 81 IP/76 SO.

 

http://www.perfectgame.org/articles/View.aspx?article=5687

[toonsterwu]

I'd be interested to know how Struck got his strikeouts. If he is getting it with his breaking ball (or change-up), then that's a nice step forward in progress for him. He did fine in AA last year, and held his own in AAA, so much as I like Struck, I'm not going to get too excited over him dominating what, on paper, does look like a weak Chattanooga lineup in the first game of the year.

 

toonster, how much do you know about struck? My recall of what I've heard scouting-wise is that he throws a lot of fastballs, and hasn't had any consistent or high quality breaking pitch. Lots of fastballs with some so-so sliders mixed in. Which could fit his crummy results at Iowa.

 

I don't think it's necessarily wise to focus too much on the Iowa numbers. It was premature for Fleita to rush him up to AAA already last year, at age 21 in only his 2nd year as a pro. Hardly astonishing that he was bad there.

 

At Daytona/Tennessee, he was 2.96 ERA / 73K/22BB/85IP/2 HR. Those are very good numbers for a 21-year-old, and normally suggest at least some degree of prospect-hood. But he's gotten little buzz, and for a system as weak as the Cubs, he didn't seem to even sniff BA's top-30 despite numbers like that as a 21-year-old. However he's doing it, it didn't appeal to scouts that much.

 

So some things don't really seem to add up. As important as any characteristic for a pitcher is a low-HR profile, and Struck seems to have that. Which seems unusual if a guy is throwing too many fastballs and hitters can often sit on those, even in the A+/AA levels. My sense is that his velocity is good, but it's not like he's Cashner or Carpenter or overpoweringly fast. Perhaps either his location or his fastball movement are pretty good, or both?

 

Maybe the brilliant Fleita figured he threw too many fastballs, and pushed him up to Iowa just to force him to fail and to learn for himself that doing it that was wasn't going to work. So maybe his slider will be a little sharper and more consistent, he'll throw more of them, maybe he's taking to an effective cutter, and you'll have a new and improved man this year? It's spring, always fun to hope.

 

Maybe my wording is at fault there. By saying "hold his own", I wasn't suggesting that he was good in AAA. He had 11 starts in AAA, 4 really bad ones (his last 2 starts seemed like he was worn down, IIRC, as the stuff wasn't as good as before). I simply meant, for his age and how he was rushed, he did okay in AAA. My other point was that he did fine in AA, so unless he bombs in AA this year (so far so good), I'm more interested in his development than general numbers , and in particular, how his slider and changeup grow.

 

Saw him pitch a few times last year, and saw him on MiLB a few times as well. He's low 90's, but can hit 93/94. He tries to go to a sinker, but neither the sinker nor his fastball, from what I've seen and heard, have superb movement on it. I felt like the slider showed okay the times I saw him, but most reports suggest it's a below-average pitch with average potential. The changeup is decidedly, by most accounts, a "work-in-progress" pitch. I don't love his arm action, but that's my amateur take. It's not the end of the world, and guys have made it to the bigs with that type of action, but it's not great (somewhat similar to Maples, and I think Tommy Hanson shows similarly in the bigs).

 

He's an odd duck in some respects. On age and performance, along with a decent fastball, he should get some attention. Numerous reports suggest that he has a good mental approach, attacks and challenges hitters, and guys in the low levels sometimes can be beat by the obvious. The secondary pitches, though, both need work. The command is capable, but perhaps not at the level for him to get by and succeed with average secondary stuff. If the slider/breaking ball sharpens, I think he'll have a shot.

 

Edit: Speaking of lack of attention for Struck, BA sends out their daily prospect reports in email on how certain guys performed the night before, and the Cubs pitchers mentioned are ... Scott Maine and AJ Morris.

[ChiefsVoice]

Interesting that Burke was brought in for an inning. I'm assuming it's just to get in some work, but nothing is set in stone yet, so who knows.

 

He is piggybacking Wells on Monday but with a Sunday off day for Easter he couldnt go without throwing. I think Cruz, our Tuesday starter, is going to do the same tonight.

 

Thanks Nate. As a side note, is someone piggybacking off Cruz (assuming Liria or Wang, but I guess Reed could be in the mix)?

 

Havent been told officially but I know Wang is in that mix ahead of Liria who is more likely at the end of games with Shafer, Lorick & McKirahan.

[toonsterwu]

Thanks Nate. A bit disappointing to hear that Liria is in the pen mix, although not unexpected. I really liked his raw stuff when I saw him - what's your take on his command issues? Fixable?