Minor League Musings

[Bear Cub]

AZ Phil is a treasure.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

 

Assuming the Cubs will play a similar amount of alt site games.

[Bertz]

 

Assuming the Cubs will play a similar amount of alt site games.

 

That's great news, and alleviates my main hurdle on the Nico decision. 3-4 games a week plus some intra-squad stuff likely isn't *that* far off from a month in AAA.

[We Got The Whole 9]

Oh wow, a former SS showed capability at 2B! Why is that a surprise to anybody?

[Named After Maddux]

Duncan Robinson is retiring

 

[CaliforniaRaisin]

[CubsWin]

It's not an overwhelmingly exciting "AAA" roster by any stretch, but there's a nice mix of MLB depth and some upside.

 

Abbott, Thompson and Shelby (Don't Call Me Tyson) Miller look like the 6,7 and 8 starters (not necessarily in that order) with Miller probably getting the 1st call up that's already scheduled to prevent him opting out.

 

Some pretty nice bullpen depth there. Steele looks ready. Strop looked like... Strop, which is a good thing. Megill had great, heavy velocity in ST, but seems like he has some rough edges to smooth out. The same could said for Manny Rodriguez. Brad Wieck didn't look bad in Mesa, but he didn't seem quite where the Cubs want him to be. The sleeper of this group, and the guy that would be most fun to see get the call, is indy ball reclamation project Tommy Nance.

 

The upside pitching exists mostly in a guy like Megill, but Kohl Stewart is a guy to hope on. Miguel Amaya and Nico Hoerner really bring the upside aspect to this roster. Alfonso Rivas and Andy Weber are the most realistic bench prospects.

 

All in all, it's a serviceable group. I'll be interested to see the real AAA roster (as well as all the other minor league levels) when they drop towards the end of this month.

[JeffH]

Notable that the list is one shy of the roster limit.

 

Space for Norwood if he clears waivers?

[CubsWin]

Notable that the list is one shy of the roster limit.

 

Space for Norwood if he clears waivers?

Makes sense.

[JeffH]

Andy Weber! Pretty cool, nice to have S and LHH depth up the middle

 

I don’t know the rules but I can’t imagine that roster stays the same long

 

Well, in a month, it'll be a High-A roster!

[CaliforniaRaisin]

[CaliforniaRaisin]

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Minor League Camp game in Mesa between high-A opponents: https://www.thecubreporter.com/04142021/ramos-heat-damages-emeralds-sloan-park

 

Ed Howard doubled. Eury Ramos struck out 5 in 2 perfect innings, topping out at 99.

 

Ryan Jensen: 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 2 K, 1 HBP

Jose Albertos: 1.1 IP, 2 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 1 K

[Bertz]

Minor League Camp game in Mesa between high-A opponents: https://www.thecubreporter.com/04142021/ramos-heat-damages-emeralds-sloan-park

 

Ed Howard doubled. Eury Ramos struck out 5 in 2 perfect innings, topping out at 99.

 

Ryan Jensen: 1.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 2 K, 1 HBP

Jose Albertos: 1.1 IP, 2 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 1 K

 

Do we know if there's a Minor League Camp AAA roster, or if that's just the alternate site crew? Because that'd tell us a whole lot about how real Howard starting at High A would be.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

[Post Count Padder]

Four catchers in that lineup. Impressive.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Yesterday: Looks like Andy Weber left South Bend for Arizona and is hitting well: https://www.thecubreporter.com/04162021/rockhounds-uncover-victory-sloan-park

 

Today: Luis Vázquez and Luis Verdugo homered: https://www.thecubreporter.com/04172021/cubs-loosen-lugnuts-sloan-park

[Bertz]

Yesterday: Looks like Andy Weber left South Bend for Arizona and is hitting well: https://www.thecubreporter.com/04162021/rockhounds-uncover-victory-sloan-park

 

Today: Luis Vázquez and Luis Verdugo homered: https://www.thecubreporter.com/04172021/cubs-loosen-lugnuts-sloan-park

 

Looks like Ed Howard being at High A was just temporary

 

Infielders Ed Howard IV, Fabian Pertuz, Ryan Reynolds, and Yeison Santana, 1B Grayson Byrd, and OF Darius Hill have been moved down to the Myrtle Beach (Lo-A) squad from the South Bend (Hi-A) squad at Minor League Camp.

 

Also sucks to see Strumpf settled in at South Bend. It sounded like he might be at Tenn. It's not that there's anything wrong with him being at High A at this stage of his development, but more what him getting the bump to AA would have implied about how advanced he is.

[Cubswin11]

[CaliforniaRaisin]

 

https://www.thecubreporter.com/04192021/max-bain-inland-empires-existence-sloan-park

 

Glad to see the offseason Max Bain hype was warranted.

 

Also Ed Howard with 2 singles and Richard Gallardo in a box score: 1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K, 0/1 GO/AO, 18 pitches (11 strikes)

[Bertz]

That's huge. While they're worth keeping an eye on, I try not to get too crazy worked up about Driveline videos. Too often the gains mostly go poof in real games. But Spring Training? Radar readings in ST mostly stick. Even if the gun was a little hot, sitting 95-97 as a starter is a game changer.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

The Cubs have released LHP Ryan Kellogg, RHP Alex Moore, 3B Fidel Mejia, OF Jose Gutierrez, OF Eddy Julio Martinez, and OF Zac Taylor from Minor League Camp.

 

https://www.thecubreporter.com/comment/269372#comment-269372

[CubsWin]

That's huge. While they're worth keeping an eye on, I try not to get too crazy worked up about Driveline videos. Too often the gains mostly go poof in real games. But Spring Training? Radar readings in ST mostly stick. Even if the gun was a little hot, sitting 95-97 as a starter is a game changer.

Per AZ Phil, it was NOT a hot stadium gun. He was legit sitting 98-99 bottoming out at 97 throughout his 6 innings. Phil's been known to get a little exuberant about some Cubs prospects in the past that don't ever really pan out, but he said Bain has emerged as one of the Cubs top pitching prospects and expects him to be the opening day starter in Low-A and likely move to High-A shortly thereafter. And, heck, if he keeps this up, he may be right, but this is just one minor league spring training start.

[CubsWin]

The baseball gods giveth and taketh away. As Max Bain is showing his potential, AZ Phil reports that Richard Gallardo has labored as a starter and has been moved to the pen. At least for now...

[CubsWin]

The development of RHRP Eury Ramos has been mentioned earlier in this thread as he transformed himself physically and pushed his velocity 93-96, T97 in 2018 to consistently upper-90s this spring. Bain was the headline story yesterday, but Ramos threw a perfect inning with 2 Ks on 9 pitches (7 strikes).

 

UDFA Ben Leeper, who has also been clocked in the upper-90s but sits more mid-90s, closed out the game with a scoreless inning, 1 hit, no walks, 2 Ks on 13 pitches (11 strikes).

 

Myrtle Beach may have themselves a pen this year, though both of them are 23 years old.