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Cubswin11 All-Star

Cubswin11

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If everything comes together, he could become the second 30-30 player in club history after Sammy Sosa

 

Theo willing, he is the 4th after Sosa, Lindor, and Baez

Javy’s only topped 30 HRs once and only got to over 20 SBs (21) once. You think he’s gonna be able to do that as a 29+ year old (since he won’t get there this year)?

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Bertz Knoxville Smokies

Bertz

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted

 

More Ethan Roberts

 

One of the fortunate things about this all happening now is that for pitchers at least they can still be pretty productive in their training without stepping onto a real field. I don't think turning into a spin rate god in a warehouse is the same as doing it on the field, but if you told me that pitchers are still able to get ~70% of their development this year because of trackman/rapsodo/etc. I'd believe you.

 

Hitters though, I'd imagine it depends on what level of the minors they were slated for? For a kid in A Ball or Short season spending 5 extra months focused on getting jacked and cleaning up their mechanics is probably not bad. But the higher up in the minors you go the less I imagine that's a substitute for a real season.

 

I hope that we're not stuck in a bad place, given how much of our prospect capital is position players who were slated for High A. That's too young to put most of them on the travel squad, but may be too old to have a lot to do off the field. Probably not, I'd guess AA is where you hit that point of severe diminishing returns, but I'd buy that it occurs earlier. I guess in that case pray that the AFL 2.0 is able to happen, and we send most of the Myrtle Beach Squad there.

craig First Round Pick

craig

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted

Great points, bertz. Pitchers should be able to keep practicing and developing. The plate is the exact same size and distance in a warehouse as on the field, and pitching is entirely initiated by the pitcher. So a guy should be able to keep practicing his pitches just fine in the warehouse. To some degree, perhaps a little better, without the pressure of success. For example, suppose Burl needs to develop his slider; he can throw it a million times in the pitch lab and improve it. As a hyper-competitive guy, if he tried that in games, but it was inconsistent and getting hammered more often than his more established pitches, the competitive instincts makes a guy reluctant to keep practicing it. Likewise I think practicing on a consistent schedule is easier in the pitch lab. You set the schedule, you set the number of pitches that are healthy and appropriate. In a season, there are rainouts; a relief pitcher doesn't always get scheduled usage, depending on how games are going and how other pitchers are doing; maybe you're scheduled for two innings, but hitters are hacking and your first inning only takes 7 pitches? So to some degree, I wonder if the pitch-lab practicing might not almost be BETTER for development, in several ways? Obviously repeating delivery and tunneling in pitch lab is one thing; repeating delivery and tunneling and locating when adrenalin is rushing in a game, when pressure is high, emotions, when it's 90 degrees or 51 with drizzle and wind, when you're on the road and each mound is a little different than the last, it's obviously a lot harder.

 

Pitchers are the initiators, with a fixed plate size and distance. But way worse for batters. They are responders, so how can they practice and improve their ability to recognize and respond to real professional pitching without facing real, professional pitching? I think developmentally this will really be a wasted year for those poor guys.

craig First Round Pick

craig

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted

Wow, that is unbelievable. I also think it's weird that Alzolay is there in the first place. Why isn't he up with the big-league summer camp with an opportunity to impress the new manager, the not-so-long pitching coach, and to compete for a job on the expanded roster where Ross and Hotovy keep talking about how guys might need to be pitching a couple of innings early on? Or competing for a rotation spot in absence of Quintana? It just seemed like a weird thing, I can understand why Alzolay is in complaint mode these days.

 

I think he might be better served to try to become a good pitcher that belongs in the majors than to be whining about things, yes; but it's understandable.

 

I wonder how much the taxi-squad conditions are determined by the Cubs admin, versus mlb agreement? If the Cubs are choosing this, Theo and all of his "take care of players" talk ought to be paying out of his own big salary.

Brian MVP

Brian

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted

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hopefully working it out was more than him being told to delete the original tweets

 

also, on him being in Chicago v. South Bend. This is just a guess but is it possible that it's better (for development and being ready for ML innings) that he's in South Bend? For mound time he'd be pretty far down the line in Wrigley, but in South Bend he'd probably be the number one guy getting live BP and intersquad starts.

Regular Show ACL Cubs

Regular Show

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted
[tweet]
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hopefully working it out was more than him being told to delete the original tweets

 

also, on him being in Chicago v. South Bend. This is just a guess but is it possible that it's better (for development and being ready for ML innings) that he's in South Bend? For mound time he'd be pretty far down the line in Wrigley, but in South Bend he'd probably be the number one guy getting live BP and intersquad starts.

 

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“I do know our players have heard the message loud and clear that we want them to express themselves and be themselves,” Epstein said on a Zoom call Friday afternoon. “And that we see them as people and as citizens, not just as players.”

 

Whether it’s talking about racial injustice, how to conduct oneself in the time of coronavirus or minor-league player rights, Epstein wants an open dialogue.

 

“The concept of shutting up and dribbling, or shutting up and playing baseball, does not apply in this organization,” he said. “It’s important we pass on that message loud and clear.”

Alzolay eventually deleted the tweets and followed up with a simple “we worked it out,” indicating that his previous concerns had been allayed.

 

“I didn’t ask him to delete them at all,” Epstein said. “And I do want our players to speak their mind. Sometimes there are other steps that can be taken first. I’m happy that he felt comfortable enough to tweet that.”

 

Epstein called it a “misunderstanding” and a source indicated that a clubbie had incorrectly sought clubhouse dues. According to Epstein, much of what Alzolay originally tweeted was inaccurate.

 

“Clubhouse dues are not taken out of pay, clubhouse dues are not expected to be paid for the players right now,” Epstein said. “He was off on the amount of meal money players are receiving. At the alternate sites, players are being provided with furnished apartments literally right across the street, right on the grounds of the ballpark itself at no cost to them during (summer camp).”

JudasIscariotTheBird Myrtle Beach Pelicans

JudasIscariotTheBird

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted
There's probably some kind of reptilian Illuminati ritual or symbolism behind DBU's greatest draft pick leaving the Cubs only for probably their best prospect since to get drafted by the Cubs, right? If it only leads to Carraway being some kind of Wagner/Kimbrel hybrid ASAP then yay

Mad libs are fun. This one didn't really come together though.

  • 2 weeks later...
Regular Show ACL Cubs

Regular Show

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted

[tweet]https://twitter.com/keithlaw/status/1287847856133505030[/tweet]

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This will be very painful for people who wanted the Cubs to take Nate Pearson back in 2017. I wanted Pearson and I thought he wouldn't last and be available with our 2 picks at the back of the 1st round... we should always remember we took Brendon Little over this guy.

 

tumblr_msc7w2bd6V1rcy99do1_500.gif

 

Probably the top rated pitching prospect in MLB now and he should've broke with the big league team, but he needed to "work on his defense" or some dumb shitty reason.

Hrubes20 Draft Eligible

Hrubes20

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted
[tweet]https://twitter.com/keithlaw/status/1287847856133505030[/tweet]

[tweet]

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[tweet]

[/tweet]

[tweet]

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This will be very painful for people who wanted the Cubs to take Nate Pearson back in 2017. I wanted Pearson and I thought he wouldn't last and be available with our 2 picks at the back of the 1st round... we should always remember we took Brendon Little over this guy.

 

tumblr_msc7w2bd6V1rcy99do1_500.gif

 

Probably the top rated pitching prospect in MLB now and he should've broke with the big league team, but he needed to "work on his defense" or some dumb horsefeathers reason.

 

I hated that damn draft at the time and it looks even worse in retrospect.

  • 2 weeks later...
Regular Show ACL Cubs

Regular Show

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted

 

I hated that damn draft at the time and it looks even worse in retrospect.

 

There is still some hope for Jeremiah Estrada...

 

He's the only possible impact prospect left from that draft. Yeah, I know the chances are pretty low of that happening. I'm not high on Cory Abbott (still useful and we need pitching depth).

 

I didn't like how pitching-centric that 2017 draft class was either. Not a great job by the Cubs, but to be fair and fully accountable here, I really liked Brendon Little and wasn't upset we took him. I wanted Nate Pearson and that's what I wrote in the draft thread, but I didn't think it was a mistake taking Little there. I didn't really care for the selection of Alex Lange.

 

If it were up to me I would've taken Nate Pearson and a position player (like Nick Allen or Mark Vientos) with our two picks in the 1st round. I liked Jeter Downs too.

Regular Show ACL Cubs

Regular Show

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted

[tweet]

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Cubs: Brennen Davis, OF (No. 3/MLB No. 86)

Davis already has the highest ceiling in the Cubs system as a possible center fielder with 30-30 potential and a more polished bat than realized. A 2018 second-round pick who also starred on the basketball court as an Arizona high schooler, he was hampered by a pair of injuries to his right index finger in his first full pro season yet still batted .305/.381/.525 as a 19-year-old in the Class A and pitcher-friendly Midwest League.

 

So this list is for the rankings at the midseason mark in 2022 and I think the Cubs top prospect will be one of Brennen Davis, Cristian Hernandez or Ed Howard. All should be top 100 prospects by that point. It's hard to make a prediction that far out because prospects fail and/or get injured all the time. I'll probably go with Cristian Hernandez as the top prospect in our system (assuming good health and a full minor league season next year) in 2022.

Cubswin11 All-Star

Cubswin11

Old-Timey Member
Posted
Posted

 

One flaw I've noticed is that all his power is to the pull side in an all fields power world :shrugs:

The flaw I notice is he has a horrible body and is 5”11” 230 already. He’s gonna be a 1B/DH sooner than later, certainly can’t see him lasting at SS/2B being that big and probably will struggle at 3B.

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