Minor League Discussion & Boxes 8-1-12

[Guest]

release lahair

 

I don't see a point of this. He's a nice platoon option. You can find a use for a cheap guy like that, or another team might. Now, there's no more dreaming of a big trade, but maybe some team offers you a low A gamble this offseason, when teams can sit back and take a deeper breath to assess their needs and assess how guys can fit. If you can get some sort of gamble for LaHair, why not? And maybe they decide, hey, let's keep him around as a cheap bench bat, rather than wasting money on a FA bench bat (if they felt a need to add one).

 

Since April he's been almost completely useless at the plate, and while I can't find month by month L/R splits, he's faced so few of them total that I don't really think they're dragging his numbers down. He's just not a major league hitter unless he can play a capable SS or something.

[toonsterwu]

LaHair was awful in July, but up until June, he was still showing power against righties (I believe all his XBH's were off against righties). I mean, teams are often looking for "specialists" off the bench. I'm not saying you place a priority on making sure LaHair is on a roster, but he can fit a role. Maybe platoon was over-stating it on the initial, but I think he can probably fill a role as a lefty masher off the bench. But who knows, maybe the July collapse continues through the rest of the summer/fall.

[Guest]

Hope Arias is ok. Unlike Whitenack, he was definitely scheduled to start yesterday.

 

The farm went 9-1 yesterday; Iowa with the lone loss.

[C.C.]

I didn't realize that Jackson has 153K's! I knew he had a ton and haven't looked at his season stats in a while. He'll get eaten up by MLB pitching unless that improves. Obviously.

[jersey cubs fan]

So what is everyone's opinion on bringing up Brett and Vitters? My view is probably the exact opposite of everyone elses. But, for me, I'm in favor of bringing Brett up, but not Vitters. My hope is Brett has been pressing all season, trying to do too much. Bringing him up could actually take the weight off his shoulders and allow him to have fun again. Vitters has struggled every time he's been promoted during the middle of a season. Yeah, I want to see him in the majors this year, but bring him up after Iowa's season is over. That said, most of the articles I read made it sound to me like it could happen any day. And don't get me wrong, it'd definitely make things very interesting over the last two months.

 

I don't know how bringing Jackson up will make him feel less pressure.

 

I'm not sure if pressure is the issue, but it's conceivable that a prospect could feel pressure to make it up, and once they do, they might relax a bit and play more to their natural abilities.

If you struggle because you feel pressure in college and you struggle because you feel pressure in the minors then I have no idea how it would be possible to avoid struggling while feeling pressure in the majors. Everybody says it's a lot easier to make the majors than stay in the majors.

[C.C.]

So what is everyone's opinion on bringing up Brett and Vitters? My view is probably the exact opposite of everyone elses. But, for me, I'm in favor of bringing Brett up, but not Vitters. My hope is Brett has been pressing all season, trying to do too much. Bringing him up could actually take the weight off his shoulders and allow him to have fun again. Vitters has struggled every time he's been promoted during the middle of a season. Yeah, I want to see him in the majors this year, but bring him up after Iowa's season is over. That said, most of the articles I read made it sound to me like it could happen any day. And don't get me wrong, it'd definitely make things very interesting over the last two months.

 

I don't know how bringing Jackson up will make him feel less pressure.

 

I'm not sure if pressure is the issue, but it's conceivable that a prospect could feel pressure to make it up, and once they do, they might relax a bit and play more to their natural abilities.

If you struggle because you feel pressure in college and you struggle because you feel pressure in the minors then I have no idea how it would be possible to avoid struggling while feeling pressure in the majors. Everybody says it's a lot easier to make the majors than stay in the majors.

 

This nails it. Why would the MLB be less pressure the minors?

[toonsterwu]

Just to be clear, I don't actually think pressure is the issue, or the main issue. I think I'm leaning towards swing mechanics as the bigger issue for Brett right now, but I'm also not sure there's much more he can do in Iowa, and I also don't think sending him to Arizona to rework his swing makes that much sense (and a demotion to Tennessee makes zero sense).

[Guest]

Tell us more about how Vitters is struggling this year, CC.

[jersey cubs fan]

Just to be clear, I don't actually think pressure is the issue, or the main issue. I think I'm leaning towards swing mechanics as the bigger issue for Brett right now, but I'm also not sure there's much more he can do in Iowa, and I also don't think sending him to Arizona to rework his swing makes that much sense (and a demotion to Tennessee makes zero sense).

 

I think there's more he can do in Iowa. He can become a more productive hitter.

[Elrhino]

Also, with our new FO, you never know who could be traded. Someone made the comparisons to Colvin. Vitters could be moved for pitching, which we also need a lot of.

 

I hope they made the Colvin trade because they highly valued (and ultimately misjudged) Stewart rather than because they just decided they wanted to trade Colvin just because. Otherwise the Colvin trade would be a pretty good example of why that's not a sound philosophy, particularly when it's involving young and cheap palyers. Colvin has value in this league when used in the proper role, and he was cheap. That's ignoring the fact that Colvin was a 26 year old major leaguer, and we had a pretty firm idea what he is and what he isn't. Vitters is 22 years old and is improving his patience by the day. I'm willing to let Vitters hit his ceiling rather than decide it for him. It's not like this organization doesn't have the time to allow it. Yes, we need pitching. We also need someone to play 3B for the next few years until Baez is ready (assuming Baez is moved).

Edited August 2, 2012 by Elrhino

[C.C.]

Tell us more about how Vitters is struggling this year, CC.

 

22 errors at 3rd. 76K's

 

Just two things he needs to improve on. You know this so why are you asking?

[jersey cubs fan]

Also, with our new FO, you never know who could be traded. Someone made the comparisons to Colvin. Vitters could be moved for pitching, which we also need a lot of.

 

I hope they made the Colvin trade because they highly valued (and ultimately misjudged) Stewart rather than because they just decided they wanted to trade Colvin just because. Otherwise the Colvin trade would be a pretty good example of why that's not a sound philosophy, particularly when it's involving young and cheap palyers. That's ignoring the fact that Colvin was a 26 year old major leaguer, and we had a pretty firm idea what he is and what he isn't. Vitters is 22 years old and is improving his patience by the day. I'm willing to let Vitters hit his ceiling rather than decide it for him. It's not like this organization doesn't have the time to allow it. Yes, we need pitching. We also need someone to play 3B for the next few years until Baez is ready (assuming Baez is moved).

 

I hope they made the trade because they thought there was value in Stewart and didn't have longterm hope in Colvin. Similarly, they could hold the same opinion of Vitters (all the talk of going after 3B, plus their insistence on quality defenders and the fact that they actually did acquire a 3B suggests they do have a relatively dim view of Vitters) and there is nothing wrong with putting him on a "we should trade this guy while he still has value" list. You just don't publish that sort of list.

[Elrhino]

Just to be clear, I don't actually think pressure is the issue, or the main issue. I think I'm leaning towards swing mechanics as the bigger issue for Brett right now, but I'm also not sure there's much more he can do in Iowa, and I also don't think sending him to Arizona to rework his swing makes that much sense (and a demotion to Tennessee makes zero sense).

 

If someone has fatal flaw in their swing mechanics, I'm not sure how a call up to face much, much, much pitchers is going to fix it. I know the argument is that the jump to Sveum/Ronsom coaching is the difference. If so the Cubs really need to look for an upgrade over their Iowa hitting coach, if the difference in instruction is that dramatic.

[sneakypower]

release lahair

 

I don't see a point of this. He's a nice platoon option. You can find a use for a cheap guy like that, or another team might. Now, there's no more dreaming of a big trade, but maybe some team offers you a low A gamble this offseason, when teams can sit back and take a deeper breath to assess their needs and assess how guys can fit. If you can get some sort of gamble for LaHair, why not? And maybe they decide, hey, let's keep him around as a cheap bench bat, rather than wasting money on a FA bench bat (if they felt a need to add one).

 

Since April he's been almost completely useless at the plate, and while I can't find month by month L/R splits, he's faced so few of them total that I don't really think they're dragging his numbers down. He's just not a major league hitter unless he can play a capable SS or something.

so, just arbitrarily throwing out his month of 1250 OPS, he's been a (La)hair below MLB average as a hitter

 

and he's put up a .310 OPS vs. lefties, so yes, they're undoubtedly dragging his numbers down

 

it's fine to say he has no role as a starter on the team because of defensive limitations, but there's still no legitimate reason to believe that he's not a capable MLB hitter vs. righties

[jersey cubs fan]

it's fine to say he has no role as a starter on the team because of defensive limitations, but there's still no legitimate reason to believe that he's not a capable MLB hitter vs. righties

 

He has no role as a starter on a team because he can't hit lefties and he's not particularly good against righties, plus the defensive limitations.

[sneakypower]

today i learned that a .914 OPS isn't particularly good

[Guest]

today i learned a .914 OPS isn't particularly good

 

you don't think the idea that he's been figured out since the absurd start is plausible? because it seems like you're doing your best to make it sound like people who do are idiots.

[jersey cubs fan]

today i learned that a .914 OPS isn't particularly good

 

you haven't learned nearly as much as major league pitchers have learned about LaHair to expose his considerable weaknesses.

[Guest]

I'm not randomly throwing out his June, the chronology matters considering his limited exposure to MLB pitching, not to mention the extremely stark contrast in production. MLB.com got rid of their double splits, but considering the majority of LaHair's true every day playing time came in April, I don't think he's had very many of his 51 PA against LHP since he fell off the cliff production wise. Even then, we're going through these gymnastics to get him to like a .750 OPS against RHP since he got figured out, as a guy who's almost 30 and provides no defensive or baserunning value.

[sneakypower]

you're making inferences and drawing conclusions off a small data set and creating narratives from them, which seems...out of character

 

amusingly enough, he had a .914 righty split last year too (55 PA), but maybe pitchers/scouts didn't pay attention to those AB's

[jersey cubs fan]

you're making inferences and drawing conclusions off a small data set and creating narratives from them, which seems...out of character

 

amusingly enough, he had a .914 righty split last year too (55 PA), but maybe pitchers/scouts didn't pay attention to those AB's

 

Yeah, shocking that a 55 PA sample size wouldn't settle everything with how pitchers attack a hitter.

[Guest]

#umpshow in Daytona.

 

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10150997266562781&id=136796367780

 

What a lunatic this umpire is.

 

[Guest]

you're making inferences and drawing conclusions off a small data set and creating narratives from them, which seems...out of character

 

amusingly enough, he had a .914 righty split last year too (55 PA), but maybe pitchers/scouts didn't pay attention to those AB's

 

I have a really hard time looking at his numbers in aggregate when he OPSed 1.289 with a for 5 weeks with a .543 BABIP and then OPSed .662 with a .323 BABIP in the 3 months since. Especially when we have the background of the guy who spent 6 different years(taking 4 years to start producing at a good clip for a PCL 1B) in AAA for 2 organizations before getting this shot. He can't handle major league curveballs, once teams figured this out, he's become a sub-replacement level player.

[Little Slide Rooter]

#umpshow in Daytona.

 

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10150997266562781&id=136796367780

 

What a lunatic this umpire is.

 

 

http://www.sundriesshack.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Nielsen-as-Umpire.jpg

[Schwarber Fan]

good God, I hope those announcers were not on air