Josh Vitters arriving soon?

[biittner77]

I like angry Bukie...

 

Let him finish the year out at Iowa and give him Sept to get his feet wet in the majors.

 

This is the optimal plan.

 

I won't mind this approach at all if that's what they decide to do. On the other hand, there may be some benefit to bringing him up now as opposed to waiting until Sept.

 

Last year, the Padres rushed Rizzo and he struggled. Then he went back to AAA and raked. Rizzo is a more patient hitter than Vitters. However, I don't believe it's going to ruin Vitters to bring him up now and send him down when he struggles. In fact that might actually reinforce the idea that he needs to work on pitch recognition, working counts. There's something to be said for doing that against better competition than he'd see as a Sept. call up when he'd be facing some of the same pitchers that he's already had success against.

[MSG T]

I like angry Bukie...

 

Let him finish the year out at Iowa and give him Sept to get his feet wet in the majors.

 

This is the optimal plan.

 

I won't mind this approach at all if that's what they decide to do. On the other hand, there may be some benefit to bringing him up now as opposed to waiting until Sept.

 

Last year, the Padres rushed Rizzo and he struggled. Then he went back to AAA and raked. Rizzo is a more patient hitter than Vitters. However, I don't believe it's going to ruin Vitters to bring him up now and send him down when he struggles. In fact that might actually reinforce the idea that he needs to work on pitch recognition, working counts. There's something to be said for doing that against better competition than he'd see as a Sept. call up when he'd be facing some of the same pitchers that he's already had success against.

 

If the Cubs called him up in time for their Sep 1st game against SF, 19 of 31 Sep/Oct games would be against teams currently in pennant/WC races.

 

2 v SF

4 v Wash

7 v Pitt

3 v Cin

3 v Stl

 

The rest are 6 v Hou, 3 v Col and 3 v AZ. Now the teams involved could very well change, however, even given a couple dropping out by then, AAA scrubs won't be making every start for all of those teams. Out of 31 games he'd probably see 26-28 legitimate (read current) ML pitchers.

[biittner77]

If the Cubs called him up in time for their Sep 1st game against SF, 19 of 31 Sep/Oct games would be against teams currently in pennant/WC races.

 

2 v SF

4 v Wash

7 v Pitt

3 v Cin

3 v Stl

 

The rest are 6 v Hou, 3 v Col and 3 v AZ. Now the teams involved could very well change, however, even given a couple dropping out by then, AAA scrubs won't be making every start for all of those teams. Out of 31 games he'd probably see 26-28 legitimate (read current) ML pitchers.

 

By then, you'd have to figure that one of those 3 NL Central teams would be out of the race. That means that about half the games would be against teams no longer in the race. Either way, numbers as a sept. call up have to be taken with a grain of salt due to sample size whether they're good or bad.

[DiamondMind]

I just don't understand why you wouldn't bring him up the day after his clock extends.

[Elrhino]

Hoyer was pretty vocal that he felt he made a mistake rushing Rizzo to the majors. It's cool it didn't effect him much long term, but it was clear that it wasn't the preferred way Hoyer wants to handle players. I get the impression the new front office isn't going to bring up their valued prospects until they're fairly confident they have nothing left to learn in the minors. Vitters still has a lot to work on in patience and defense. And if the Cubs get an Olt or Castellanos in a Garza trade, Vitters probably has a position change in his future. He shouldn't be "bored" in AAA anytime soon.

[MSG T]

If the Cubs called him up in time for their Sep 1st game against SF, 19 of 31 Sep/Oct games would be against teams currently in pennant/WC races.

 

2 v SF

4 v Wash

7 v Pitt

3 v Cin

3 v Stl

 

The rest are 6 v Hou, 3 v Col and 3 v AZ. Now the teams involved could very well change, however, even given a couple dropping out by then, AAA scrubs won't be making every start for all of those teams. Out of 31 games he'd probably see 26-28 legitimate (read current) ML pitchers.

 

By then, you'd have to figure that one of those 3 NL Central teams would be out of the race. That means that about half the games would be against teams no longer in the race. Either way, numbers as a sept. call up have to be taken with a grain of salt due to sample size whether they're good or bad.

 

Of course it's possible, or even likely, that a couple of those teams are out of it by then. But they still aren't going to be pitching nothing but AAA pitchers the rest of the year. Vitters would still see mostly ML quality pitching during a Sep call up, however.

 

I do agree about reading too much into the Sep numbers, but more for the sample size reason than because of quality of competition.

[dew1679666265]

I won't mind this approach at all if that's what they decide to do. On the other hand, there may be some benefit to bringing him up now as opposed to waiting until Sept.

 

Last year, the Padres rushed Rizzo and he struggled. Then he went back to AAA and raked. Rizzo is a more patient hitter than Vitters. However, I don't believe it's going to ruin Vitters to bring him up now and send him down when he struggles. In fact that might actually reinforce the idea that he needs to work on pitch recognition, working counts. There's something to be said for doing that against better competition than he'd see as a Sept. call up when he'd be facing some of the same pitchers that he's already had success against.

 

Rizzo was also a much more developed player than Vitters. He was rushed, but it was feasible that he could handle ML pitching. I like Vitters a lot, but I don't think there's an argument to be made that he's possibly ML-ready right now as there was with Rizzo. By calling him up in September, you give him the opportunity to see what he needs to work on over the offseason and then hopefully he's ready to compete for a job in 2013.