Minor League Discussion & Boxes 7-17-14

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

Black is 94-95 as a starter, correct? At the very least we could have a late-inning beast on our hands.

[craig]

I can't imagine he's really 94-95 as his rest velocity as a starter. How many starters in mlb average 94-95 on their fastball? I think he probably hits 9-95 every start, though.

 

Black has very good stuff, no question there. And his recent good-control games are super encouraging. With good control, he's a really good prospect. We'll see how the control shakes out going forward. But we might have something pretty good here.

 

Duane Underwood has also been on a good run. He's been inconsistent; some days he K's, some days he doesn't. Early on some days he walked too many, but many days he doesn't. Most days he's a fly ball guy, but yesterday he was 12/0 GB/FB.

 

To me that suggests that he's got some good stuff, but again it's a question of control/command. What is and isn't working well probably varies from game to game. But if he someday gets consistency on all of his stuff, it could be pretty good package. I'd heard a couple starts ago, for example, that his delivery on the breaking ball was easily distinguishable from the fastball, arm slot or arm speed or something like that. Perhaps that's been improved the last several games.

 

A friend was at Underwood's game at Lansing last night, and said that on the stadium gun Underwood was 94-92 for most of the night, with some 95-97 early. Said he looked great, threw mostly fastballs.

[minnesotacubsfan]

Josh Vitters is still a thing?

[XZero771679666304]

Javy bomb - http://www.milb.com/multimedia/vpp.jsp?content_id=34589137

 

 

Bryant - http://www.milb.com/multimedia/vpp.jsp?content_id=34589141

 

 

jesus christ...javy's was just DESTROYED

 

Bryant didn't get that on the sweet spot at all. I don't think Javy has hit one under 420 this year, unless it's been opposite field.

 

Yeah, I know no one keeps track of these things for milb, but I'd be surprised if any player in the minors has a higher average HR distance than Baez. Of course that not surprising given his natural ability and "atomize the baseball" approach.

 

If the video highlights are any indication, he certainly leads the minors in percentage of home runs on which the OF gives up immediately.

[Guest]

Who were the I-Cubs playing, the Bentonville Rednecks? Those uniforms, ugh.

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

I love the announcer's reaction to Javy's HR.

[Vinestal]

Are there videos up anywhere for the smokies HRs last night?

[imb]

Are there videos up anywhere for the smokies HRs last night?

 

they're still recording Soler's

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Are there videos up anywhere for the smokies HRs last night?

 

Appears not, they weren't on MILB.tv

[Thed Hoyerstein]

Are there videos up anywhere for the smokies HRs last night?

 

pornhub

[TruffleShuffle]

from baseball prospectus' minor league update:

 

Hitter(s) of the Night

The Cubs, Multiple Positions, Wrigleyville (All Levels): It’s a good time to be a Cubs prospect, and Thursday may have been the climax of the hype machine. It’s not going to be easy to tell Cubs fans to calm down after what happened last night.

 

In Triple-A, Javier Baez, who was making his regular season debut at second base in order to give himself and the organization more options for the future, continued his rise out of his early-season doldrums with a 2-for-4 night that included a double and a homer. Not to be outdone, his teammate Kris Bryant went 3-for-5 with a double and a home run of his own.

 

Not wanting to let their Triple-A teammates have all the fun, Double-A prospects Addison Russell and Jorge Soler both homered as well, with Russell’s coming in a multi-hit effort. Even further down the farm, Dan Vogelbach added a 2-for-3 effort with a home run of his own.