Who is the Cubs #14 Prospect?

[Bilbo161]

Really liked the conversation on Lake / Vitters. I still think Vitters deserves a shot at MLB playing time to prove his worth, to this point though Lake has earned more time with his performance last Fall. I also get a little worried about Vitters attitude being a bit too laid back. Lake is ready to go anywhere all year long to get playing time. Vitters has not performed well in Winter league action the last two years. Didn't even play at at all this year and no one wanted to play him the year before. I hope when Vitters gets his chance he does well right away because he won't be given too many chances to fail. Lake has earned his second look already.

[Guest]

At who? He looked beyond pitiful in his one major league shot. He's going to have to play ridiculously well in ST or have multiple injuries happen, before he is your Opening Day LF.

 

The people making the decision. We're supposed to be smarter than being dazzled by a great cup of coffee or burying a guy for a bad one.

 

He'll probably pull his hamstring like two weeks from today and make it moot, though.

 

FWIW, it looks like Theo might have him in the OF mix.

 

“With Vitters, it was also a situation where we were trying to learn a little bit more about him,” Epstein said. “He had gotten to a point where exposure to big-league pitching was important to him. But now he’s a leftfielder (and) had a pretty good year swinging the bat when he was healthy at Triple-A last year. He’s going to come to camp with an opportunity to carve a role for himself in the big leagues.”

[Guest]

This is gonna be just like Dave Sappelt (indistinguishable from Soriano!) where I refuse to give up on the AAA slash line until he's like 28.

 

Vitters is a hitter!

[craig]

He's injury prone, he's considered too laid back, he has no true position, .... He's considered to have average game power and his hit tool has declined in reputation …. see him as a guy that doesn't have the power to play a corner OF spot, nor the hit tool or plate discipline to make up for what's a very average package to work around.

 

This gets right to the question. As a bad runner and defender, for him to have major league value it's all a question of bat. (Same kind of story with Vogelbach.)

 

Does he have enough bat to justify the rest of his liabilities? Given your premise of average power and mediocre hitting, he's worthless. I'm not sure we know the answer yet, and am open to giving more time to clarify/confirm the answer.

 

If he's going to have value and sustain a big-league career, he'll need to hit well AND show reasonable HR power. I don't expect that, but I think it remains uncertain.

 

I think the HR power is really at the center here. He's a big enough, strong enough guy that he ought to be able to hit HR's. And if his questionable reputation for being able to hit the ball proved true, decent raw power combined with above-average contact should result in above-average HR output. No, he doesn't have Wow power, and if he's not hitting well what power he has won't hit many HR's. But if he can merge hitting with HR's, he may be productive enough to justify his bad speed/defense, at least in a platoon setting.

 

He looked totally outclassed in his Cub debut, very little solid contact or sign of having any gift for hitting. But, small sample size. His PCL numbers are solid and more encouraging. But they aren't great either, there have been lots of 4A guys, big-league useless, who could do upper-.800's OPS in PCL. His numbers this past summer were too scattered, no reason to trust them.

 

If he spend the summer in Iowa, I'd not be shocked if he produced at a steady .900+ OPS there and builds interest; or if he bounces along nearer the .800 OPS mark and erases what little present interest still remains.