2013 Instructional League

[Guest]

Final instructs stats: http://www.thecubreporter.com/10202013/cubs-2013-arizona-instructional-league-final-stats

[Guest]

Arizona Phil[/url]"]No question Jose Arias was the most impressive Cub pitcher at Instructs. The 6'5 Dominican was virtually unhittable, mixing a 94 MPH 4-seam fastball, a slider, and a change-up, AND throwing all of his pitches for strikes (he threw the highest-percentage of strikes among Cub pitchers in AZIL games). He could begin the 2014 season in the Daytona starting rotation.

 

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At the other end of the spectrum is RHP Paul Blackburn, who just could not throw strikes consistently (only 51% strikes in AZIL games--only Trey Lang was worse), relegating him to mostly intrasquad & sim games. Blackburn has really good stuff, but he walked 27 in his last 31 IP at Boise (prior to pitching a gem in the NWL playoffs), so there are definite red flags with Blackburn going into 2014.

 

Gioskar Amaya was the most impressive position-player at Instructs, showing HR power and making several outstanding plays at 2B. I read somewhere that the Cubs were thinking of moving him to catcher, but he played & worked-out only 2B at Instructs. He should be the starting 2B at Daytona in 2014 (with Amaya-Almora hitting 1-2 in the order).

 

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The biggest mystery to me is 2013 3rd round pick Jacob Hannemann. He had surgery on his non-throwing elbow in August and then missed the next two months, but he returned to action just in time to win the Instructs "Home Run Derby" contest. As former football players often do, Hannemann plays baseball with a high-energy hyper-aggressive style in all phases of the game. In most ways he remind me a lot of Brett Jackson ("crash & burn" defense in CF, outstanding baserunner and base-stealer, plus-XBH power). but he sits first-ball fastball and rarely takes a walk (the exact opposite of Brett Jackson). But then like B-Jax, Hannemann also has a very well below-average arm (one of the worst I've seen) that might relegate him to LF (although Juan Pierre did play CF with a rag arm). Because he went on a two-year LDS mission after HS, Hannemann played only one year of college ball at BYU (he was also a defensive back on the football team). But he is already 22, so I suspect he could begin 2014 at Daytona where he would play LF (with Albert Almora in CF and Reggie Golden or Yasiel Balaguert in RF), or he could start the season at Extended Spring Training to work on his "approach" at the plate and arm-strength. Just like Matt Szczur did before him, Hannemann really needs to develop OBP skills and be willing to be more selective as a hitter. Other than the OBP issues, though, Hannemann in every other way reminds me a lot of a young Johnny Damon.

 

Arizona Phil also had a paragraph each on Tyler Skulina, Rob Zastryzny, Juan Carlos Paniagua, Trey Martin, Jesse Hodges and Shawon Dunston in that link.

[TruffleShuffle]

johnny damon without the obp skills is not a good baseball player.

[Guest]

What in the holy hell happened to blackburn that turned him into duane underwood instead of paul blackburn?

[Hairyducked Idiot]

What in the holy hell happened to blackburn that turned him into duane underwood instead of paul blackburn?

 

They've always been pretty interchangeable.

[Guest]

What in the holy hell happened to blackburn that turned him into duane underwood instead of paul blackburn?

 

They've always been pretty interchangeable.

 

How many people will get that?