Minor League Musings

[Cubswin11]

God damn

 

[Hrubes20]

horsefeathers

 

 

It was horsefeathering pancreatic cancer. A 17 year old had late-stage pancreatic cancer. That horsefeathers should be reserved for 70 year old alcoholics who drank their lives away, not 17 year olds. Just terrible.

[javy knows my name]

horsefeathers

 

 

It was horsefeathering pancreatic cancer. A 17 year old had late-stage pancreatic cancer. That horsefeathers should be reserved for 70 year old alcoholics who drank their lives away, not 17 year olds. Just terrible.

 

Ugh oh my god I want to throw up

[CaliforniaRaisin]

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Felt like the Cubs minor league arms were making some nice progress the last year or two, so this can't be considered great news. Second minor league pitching coordinator raided by another team since 2016.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Stan: Albertos or De la Cruz? (Or neither…)

Keith Law: Albertos. Alzolay is their best pitching prospect. De la Cruz has no track record of health.

[JeffH]

If Alzolay is our best pitching prospect, we're doomed. Guy looks like a reliever. Strop-ish. There's nothing wrong with that, but as your top guy? Ouch.

[davell]

If Alzolay is our best pitching prospect, we're doomed. Guy looks like a reliever. Strop-ish. There's nothing wrong with that, but as your top guy? Ouch.

 

He's a top 100 guy for Law and Longenhagen. I don't think he's looked at as a Strop type at this stage at all by anyone.

 

Don't get me wrong, I'd trade him while his value is where it is currently, but he's got nice upside.

[toonsterwu]

If Alzolay is our best pitching prospect, we're doomed. Guy looks like a reliever. Strop-ish. There's nothing wrong with that, but as your top guy? Ouch.

 

The optimistic outlook on Alzolay is basically to buy in what the Cubs are selling and that his secondaries both are borderline plus, thus, you'd have a guy with three quality pitches that has decent/solid command, with a small sample of successful production in AA. Considering the age, it's really fine.

 

Not saying I buy the optimistic outlook, but Alzolay as the top guy isn't bad. I mean, it's not like people are saying he's the Cubs pitching prospect with the highest ceiling. The phrasing in Keith Law's comments seems to suggest a blend of ceiling and polish, and so placing Alzolay as the top guy in the system is fair, as de la Cruz hasn't stayed healthy and Albertos is a couple years behind.

[Cubswin11]

If Alzolay is our best pitching prospect, we're doomed. Guy looks like a reliever. Strop-ish. There's nothing wrong with that, but as your top guy? Ouch.

Pedro Strop is a pretty damn good relief pitcher, if most of our pitching prospects can turn in to that I’m completely fine with it with the nature of their suckage. I know there’s a want for more and would be nice develop some middle rotation guys at least but middle-high end RPs aren’t bad outcomes for most minor league pitching prospect.

[Regular Show]

If Alzolay is our best pitching prospect, we're doomed. Guy looks like a reliever. Strop-ish. There's nothing wrong with that, but as your top guy? Ouch.

Pedro Strop is a pretty damn good relief pitcher, if most of our pitching prospects can turn in to that I’m completely fine with it with the nature of their suckage. I know there’s a want for more and would be nice develop some middle rotation guys at least but middle-high end RPs aren’t bad outcomes for most minor league pitching prospect.

 

Yeah. I agree with that sentiment completely. If many, not even most, of the pitching prospects in your system can at least become useful middle-high end relief pitchers -- you should be damn happy. I consider P. Strop to be a fine outcome for many of our pitching prospects. You do hope one or two will develop into a #3 or #4 starter.

 

That said, elite bullpens are expensive and hard to build. Having elite RPs in your bullpen is especially important come playoff time. The Cubs need some young pitchers to come up and have an impact either in the bullpen or the starting rotation.

[Tim]

This doesn't really deserve its own thread; from MLBTR:

 

The Mariners have also inked former Cubs farmhand John Andreoli to a minor league pact, Johns tweets, adding that the 27-year-old outfielder hit 14 homers for Triple-A Iowa last season to go along with a .244/.348/.435 slash line. Andreoli was the Cubs’ 17th-round selection in the 2011 draft. He’s walked at least 12% of the time in each of his three seasons with the Iowa Cubs, though his strikeout rate has risen noticeably in each of those seasons. Andreoli has yet to reach the MLB level.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Kiley McDaniel is back with Fangraphs. Thanks for being a [expletive], Braves.

[Hrubes20]

Kiley McDaniel is back with Fangraphs. Thanks for being a [expletive], Braves.

 

I saw that. Very happy. Kiley really did a great job with his lists and databases before joining the Braves.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Marco Hernandez came in at 10 on BA's top 10 list for Boston. That's another system that's really fallen off.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Taylor Davis is back! In pog form.

 

(He returned to the organization on a minor league deal.)

[UK]

Marco Hernandez came in at 10 on BA's top 10 list for Boston. That's another system that's really fallen off.

 

Dombrowski strikes again. He'll bloat your team with bad contracts and drain the farm.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/carriemuskat/status/951927640583221250[/tweet]

[Bear Cub]

Trey Martin has re-signed to a minor league contract per AZ Phil.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

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Lange starting in South Bend would be disappointing.

[Regular Show]

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Lange starting in South Bend would be disappointing.

 

I don't mind it too much. As long as he doesn't spend too much time down there. Tell him to shelve his CB for a little bit and work on his other pitches/FB command. That CB (when it's working) will be too much for low-A hitters to handle.

 

 

[CaliforniaRaisin]

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It was already posted in the Willson thread but Contreras tweeted his excitement about Adbert earlier this week.

[Post Count Padder]

Jon Singleton just received a 100-game suspension for another failed drug test. 'member him?

[Jaxbro]

FOrmer Tiger and Angel 1B Efren Navarro signed to minor league deal with spring training invite

[Cubswin11]

That is a strikingly similar comp seeing those 2 GIFS matched up

[Regular Show]

That is a strikingly similar comp seeing those 2 GIFS matched up

 

Actually, I disagree that they are that similar. Both are examples of curveballs, but I would say the one thrown by Carrasco is better. The one Lange throws actually has a "hump" to it -- ball traveling up before breaking down -- which sometimes tips off the pitch to the batter and allows them to adjust to it.

 

The one thrown by Carrasco is a downer-curveball that is thrown very hard (88 mph) and breaks straight down. More of a slider than a true curveball. Reminds me of Mark Prior's curveball from back in the day.

 

I would say Carrasco's CB is superior to Lange's for the two CBs shown here. Lange does have a great CB and will be really effective when he can command it.