Minor League Discussion & Boxes 4-13-12

[Guest]

Baez has played 3 EXST games. He's 5-10 in those 3 games. With 2 400 foot homers, 2 triples, and a double. This is NOT counting him taking Maholm deep last week in an intrasquad game either.

 

That's 400+ foot HRs. Today's was a monster shot.

[XZero771679666304]

Javier Baez hit a 400 foot homer today and just like the first one, stood and admired it. The Angels bench told him to run the bases, he did, then got to home plate and yelled "I'll do whatever the [expletive] I want."

 

I think I have a new favorite prospect.

 

He may end up being one of those "I love him, but if he wasn't on my team I'd hate his guts" guys.

[bcl412]

Having a showboating [expletive] on the team would be fun. Hopefully he lives up to the hype.

[davell]

The national media seems down on him, Vogelbach and all the others we left down in EXST. I can't wait until they start seeing Baez play actual games. He's definitely going to generate a lot of buzz.

[TruffleShuffle]

Rizzo. Again.

 

Rizz in my pants

[XZero771679666304]

So what's the extreme "best case" ETA for Baez? Second half of 2014? 2015?

 

The idea of a core of Castro, Rizzo, Baez and Jackson makes me feel warm and fuzzy.

[davell]

If he's flat out killing it, I guess I could see him going through Boise and Peoria this season. Starting at Daytona next year and seeing Tennessee midway through. Spending 2014 at Iowa and making a September cup of coffee in Chicago. Of course, a run thru our system like that would entail him becoming a top 10ish type prospect very quickly, in all likelihood.

[toonsterwu]

I guess I remain alone on the Adrian Cardenas bandwagon. 1-3 and a BB.

 

J Jax had a not awful outing going 5 giving up 5 H 2 ER 1 BB 2 K

I'm thinking that he's at the point where his ceiling is a 6 starter/swing man.

 

Well, the thing is, can Jay ever find a breaking ball? Because if he can, he becomes interesting. Now, his starter ceiling is probably a 5th/6th guy, but say he he moves to the pen and finds a breaking ball. Then, he can ramp up the fastball to the mid-90's (and unless his arm gets hurt, he can easily do that, as he has ramped it up before and still had him in the low 90's last year as a starter), and then his pen ceiling becomes a borderline setup type guy.

[Outshined_One]

If he's flat out killing it, I guess I could see him going through Boise and Peoria this season. Starting at Daytona next year and seeing Tennessee midway through. Spending 2014 at Iowa and making a September cup of coffee in Chicago. Of course, a run thru our system like that would entail him becoming a top 10ish type prospect very quickly, in all likelihood.

 

I honestly only see him making that kind of progress if the Cubs move him to 3B or the OF. If the Cubs have any intention of keeping him at SS, I think that sort of thing will require a good amount of time and patience in order for him to become an acceptable defender at the major league level.

 

It's possible, but I think 2015 is best case scenario for Baez at SS at this point, unless he's a hell of a lot better defensively than the pre-draft reports led me to believe.

[Guest]

What would be an optimistic ETA for Baez? September 2014?

 

Well, the issue that goes along with that is how long do the Cubs keep him at short? Along with that is how Marco Hernandez progresses, as if he's showing well, then he carries potential starting shortstop ability. But roughly speaking, yeah, late 2014 is probably as optimistic as I can envision (rough guesstimate path - summer call-up to Peoria and stay there for this year, in 2013, do some combination of Daytona/Tennessee, and maybe a Tennessee/Iowa combination in 2014).

 

He would have to roar his way up, and we still don't know how he'll deal with tougher pitching. But it's hard to envision a scenario FASTER than late 2014.

 

I think this is the ideal fastest path for Baez. I do hope he ends up at Peoria rather than Boise this summer.

[Guest]

Also, Taiwan Easterling is sporting a lovely .048/.167/.048/.214 line at Peoria.

[PriortoTheoIhadWood]

How did Cates look/do?

 

I think Baez is late 2014 if all goes well and he actually becomes an elite bat prospect.

[Bear Cub]

Evan Crawford had shoulder surgery and is out for the season.

[Little Slide Rooter]

Also, Taiwan Easterling is sporting a lovely .048/.167/.048/.214 line at Peoria.

 

But the question is how sexy did he look putting up that not so sexy line?

[jumbo]

Baez has played 3 EXST games. He's 5-10 in those 3 games. With 2 400 foot homers, 2 triples, and a double. This is NOT counting him taking Maholm deep last week in an intrasquad game either.

 

I don't mean to be a jerk, but if you're going to copy/paste AZ Phil's posts and comments you should acknowledge that he is the source. If I'm out of line on this I'll show myself out.

[Little Slide Rooter]

Baez has played 3 EXST games. He's 5-10 in those 3 games. With 2 400 foot homers, 2 triples, and a double. This is NOT counting him taking Maholm deep last week in an intrasquad game either.

 

I don't mean to be a jerk, but if you're going to copy/paste AZ Phil's posts and comments you should acknowledge that he is the source. If I'm out of line on this I'll show myself out.

 

It's not like he's taking credit for someone elses intellectual property for personal gain. He's passing on some stats. I didn't realize we needed a bibliography.

[toonsterwu]

If he's flat out killing it, I guess I could see him going through Boise and Peoria this season. Starting at Daytona next year and seeing Tennessee midway through. Spending 2014 at Iowa and making a September cup of coffee in Chicago. Of course, a run thru our system like that would entail him becoming a top 10ish type prospect very quickly, in all likelihood.

 

I honestly only see him making that kind of progress if the Cubs move him to 3B or the OF. If the Cubs have any intention of keeping him at SS, I think that sort of thing will require a good amount of time and patience in order for him to become an acceptable defender at the major league level.

 

It's possible, but I think 2015 is best case scenario for Baez at SS at this point, unless he's a hell of a lot better defensively than the pre-draft reports led me to believe.

 

The one x-factor with the whole Baez sticking at short thing, IMO, is still the development of Marco Hernandez, since by most accounts, Marco has a better shot of staying there and being a quality defender. If Marco excels, it could force Baez, assuming they keep him at short, to work his way up the ladder one rung at a time. That said, with how the Bogaerts development has gone (and having seen Bogaerts, I'd be floored if he made it up as a shortstop), I expect them to Baez at short for at least this year, and perhaps next.

 

Personally, I think you keep Baez at short this year, all year. If Marco's offense picks up and is consistent, I think you consider dabbling Baez at 3rd in Peoria, and to start 2013, you dabble Baez at short and 3rd, either in Peoria or Daytona, and wait to see how Marco does. If Marco is doing well/excelling, then I think you transition Baez to full-time third at some point in 2013.

[toonsterwu]

Baez has played 3 EXST games. He's 5-10 in those 3 games. With 2 400 foot homers, 2 triples, and a double. This is NOT counting him taking Maholm deep last week in an intrasquad game either.

 

I don't mean to be a jerk, but if you're going to copy/paste AZ Phil's posts and comments you should acknowledge that he is the source. If I'm out of line on this I'll show myself out.

 

It's not like he's taking credit for someone elses intellectual property for personal gain. He's passing on some stats. I didn't realize we needed a bibliography.

 

I really don't care either way, but honestly, I don't think jumbo is wrong on this. Whatever one may thinks of AzPhil's "scouting" (referring to the dialogue earlier), he provides a service to Cubs fans and should probably be acknowledged for it. I think, though, most of us here generally accept that the majority of XST/Rookie League (spring/instructs/fall league as well) news comes from AzPhil (I'm also not sure if Rob G has any copyright things listed on his TCR site).

[Little Slide Rooter]

As much as we're to take the slow starts of Szczur, Torryes, and Hernandez with a grain of salt, how about the smoking hot start of Rubi Silva? He was off to a good start last year, and then struggled when promoted. He did get a hefty $1MM bonus out of Cuba a few years ago. However, I refuse to believe that this guys 22.

 

http://www.milb.com/images/players/mugshot/ph_600975.jpg

[Guest]

Baez has played 3 EXST games. He's 5-10 in those 3 games. With 2 400 foot homers, 2 triples, and a double. This is NOT counting him taking Maholm deep last week in an intrasquad game either.

 

I don't mean to be a jerk, but if you're going to copy/paste AZ Phil's posts and comments you should acknowledge that he is the source. If I'm out of line on this I'll show myself out.

 

It's not like he's taking credit for someone elses intellectual property for personal gain. He's passing on some stats. I didn't realize we needed a bibliography.

 

I really don't care either way, but honestly, I don't think jumbo is wrong on this. Whatever one may thinks of AzPhil's "scouting" (referring to the dialogue earlier), he provides a service to Cubs fans and should probably be acknowledged for it. I think, though, most of us here generally accept that the majority of XST/Rookie League (spring/instructs/fall league as well) news comes from AzPhil (I'm also not sure if Rob G has any copyright things listed on his TCR site).

 

Agreed. I always provide a link when I post something from Arizona Phil. He has more than just stuff about Baez in yesterday's recap.

 

http://www.thecubreporter.com/2012/04/13/baez-can-do-whatever

[Guest]

Yeah, pretty much every time someone blurbs an Arizona Phil update, there's a link attached. And anyone who follows these threads with any regularity knows that he's the only source for that type of info. It's one thing if a huge post got copy/pasted and stole a page view from TCR, but blurbing that stuff for discussion is the entirety of the minor league forum(since so few of us see many games in person). There's no issue there.

[toonsterwu]

As much as we're to take the slow starts of Szczur, Torryes, and Hernandez with a grain of salt, how about the smoking hot start of Rubi Silva? He was off to a good start last year, and then struggled when promoted. He did get a hefty $1MM bonus out of Cuba a few years ago. However, I refuse to believe that this guys 22.

 

http://www.milb.com/images/players/mugshot/ph_600975.jpg

 

His defense, IIRC, at 2nd was at best, average (someone noted this somewhere, don't recall right now, will look around). Another issue people had last year was his poor walk rate.

 

That said, someone was noting the development of the BB rates of Vitters/Ha/Szczur in the early going. He walked 18 times in 495 AB's last year ... he already has 2 in his first 24 AB's. Let's see if that can hold up, because if it does, he's got a shot to do something.

[davell]

Yeah, I mention AZPhil quite a bit, but usually am posting from my cell, so can't provide links. Mainly though, I've considered it a "given" that anyone reading thru the minor league threads already know that EXST stuff comes from him. We're very lucky to have access to stats that we wouldn't have otherwise. Edited April 14, 2012 by davell

[Hairyducked Idiot]

so can't provide kinks.

 

C.C. has that locked down.

[davell]

so can't provide kinks.

 

C.C. has that locked down.

damn, that was quick dude lol. I reread it, saw that and you got in THAT quick. Damn. Hats off, my friend.