Minor League Discussion & Boxes, 5-19-17

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Box Scores:

 

Iowa won 2-1 Box Score

 

CF J. Andreoli 0/3, R, BB, K

1B J. Candelario 1/4, R, 2B (13)

LF M. Zagunis 1/3, RBI

C V. Caratini 0/2, BB

RF B. Rademacher 0/3, 2 K, outfield assist at first base

SP J. Buchanan 7 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K, 10-2 GO-FO, 97-61 pitches-strikes

RP Z. Rosscup 2 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 1 HBP, 0-1 GO-FO

 

Tennessee lost 3-1 Box Score

 

RF Je. Baez 0/3, R, BB, K, SB (5)

SS A. Ely 1/3, BB, 2 K, E (2, throw)

2B D. Bote 0/3, BB, 2 K

3B J. Vosler 1/4, K

C I. Rice 0/4, 3 K

CF J. Hannemann 0/4

SS C. Penalver 0/3

SP T. Clifton 6.2 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 2 HBP,1 WP, 8-6 GO-FO, 92-55 pitches-strikes

RP C. Brooks 1.1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, 1-2 GO-FO - AA debut

 

Myrtle Beach lost 7-6 (10 innings) Box Score

 

3B J. Hodges 0/3, R, BB, 2 K, E (5, throw)

RF E. Martinez 1/5, 2 R, SB (2)

C T. Alamo 1/5, R, 2B (8), K

1B M. Rose 2/5, R, RBI

SP O. de la Cruz 5.1 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 2 HBP, 1 WP. 6-3 GO-FO, 87-55 pitches-strikes

RP M. Rucker 1.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, 2-1 GO-FO

RP D. Maples 1.2 IP, 5 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 2 WP, 1-0 GO-FO

 

South Bend lost 5-4 Box Score

 

SS Z. Short 0/3, R BB, K, SB (11)

2B Y. Peguero 2/5, RBI, K, 2 E (9, throw, fielding)

1B A. Mineo 1/3, R, BB, E (4, missed catch)

3B W. Galindo 0/3, R, BB

LF K. Mitchell 0/4, 3 K

CF DJ Wilson 1/4, R, 2 RBI, K

C J. Pereda 0/4, K

SP J. Paulino 4 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 6 K, 1 WP, 4-0 GO-FO, 87-53 pitches-strikes

RP T. Peyton 3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, 6-0 GO-FO

[Aaron_Kennelly]

I'll be at the South Bend game tonight.

[Jaxbro]

The return of Softball Beer League Hall of Famer Dan Vogelbach in Des Moines

[Thrilho]

De la Cruz's outing seems pretty good to me. HR to the second batter of the game, then only allowed a few ground ball hits. Walks a guy and hits another to start the 6th, next batter bunts, DLC gets lifted and the reliever lets in the two base runners.

 

He got the 5 Ks to 1 walk, 6-3 GO/AO and really not much hard contact other than the HR. Could go for him finishing out the start better and being more economical but I'd put this one in the good side of the ledger.

[davell]

De La Cruz has been pretty damn good this year. He's easily the most exciting pitching prospect we've got outside of Cease and maybe Albertos, depending on what he looks like in real game action. He's still learning to pitch, he's not got that many innings under his belt and he's got excellent scouting reports and size too. The fact he's been consistently over or around the plate, with his stuff, is good enough at this stage. He's more than held his own in High A, despite very limited exposure to full season ball. If he stays healthy and logs innings all year this year, he'll probably see a few starts in Tennessee.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Tom's not impressed when's de la Cruz is economical and gets through 7 because he only has a strikeout. He's not impressed with 5 Ks in 5.1 because he runs out of gas in the 6th. Shrug indeed.

[cubsclapp]

Clifton:

 

6.2 IP / 2 Ks / 2 BBs/ 3 Hs / 2 HBPs and a WP / 8:6 GO/AO

 

That's his deepest start too.

 

But all eight starts he's gone at least 5 IP, and he's only allowed 3 ER once. Now has a 2.42 ERA. Pretty solid season in Double-A for a guy that just turned 22 last week.

[Bear Cub]

Buchanan, with 7 shutout innings if anybody cares.

[toonsterwu]

Tom's not impressed when's de la Cruz is economical and gets through 7 because he only has a strikeout. He's not impressed with 5 Ks in 5.1 because he runs out of gas in the 6th. Shrug indeed.

 

Does it even matter that I've singled out the HR multiple times as what drags down the outing? That makes 4 in 4 IP this year and 5 in 44 High A IP overall. Fine in the majors, meh at the A ball levels, and the competition doesn't get easier.

 

I agree that the home runs are not ideal, but I'm not that worried yet about it. He's still polishing up consistency on his breaking ball and working on his changeup.

 

That said, I haven't been that enthused with de la Cruz's season. I haven't been down on it either, and I'm a huge de la Cruz fan. Sort of in between. He had a run early in the year where guys were tagging him with hits a fair amount. He's had 3 solid starts in a row, though. I want to see how that progresses over the course of the season, and I hope to see more K's from him as the season progresses as there was agreement that the breaking ball had plus potential, and at that level, a big fastball and a potential plus breaking ball should lead to a fair amount of K's.

 

He's basically everything you hope for in a pitching "model". If you are building a pitcher, you want a guy with a frame like his, a good athlete, someone that has a big, plus fastball with late action, a potential plus breaking ball, some belief that the change has projection as well. That said, there's been a lot of guys that look good and it doesn't translate as they don't get polished enough, so we'll see.

[toonsterwu]

Clifton:

 

6.2 IP / 2 Ks / 2 BBs/ 3 Hs / 2 HBPs and a WP / 8:6 GO/AO

 

Now here's a kid that's easy to get excited about, and someone who is a testament to the teaching in the system building and developing an arm, as by most accounts, he's physically matured and gotten better. It's been a fairly exciting start, and much as I love potential like de la Cruz, or even Albertos (although ... I still am not sure how excited I should be on that one), Clifton's getting it done at AA and is off to such a stellar start. I thought mid-late 2019 would be the earliest that Clifton got a crack at the majors, but ... with the way he's going, if he keeps this up, it's not unreasonable to think that he may see Iowa at some point, meaning he could get a possible look late this year. Love the fact that he's getting a healthy amount of K's, the command is holding fairly steady (we've seen plenty of guys falter hitting AA). There were some questions heading into the year if that stuff could hold up that well in AA, and so far so good. Sure, his ceiling isn't huge, but a 22 year old pitching well in AA is something that's going to attract some attention, and he may develop into a quality trade asset at mid-season.

[craig]

The lack of K's is a concern for both de la Cruz and Clifton, in my opinion. For high-stuff prospects, they might be too inconsistent as prospects to do it every time, but I'd expect a guy with a plus big-league arm and plus big-league stuff should dominate minor-league hitters on the occasional game when their stuff is on. Not every game, but I'd expect a 9K/1BB/6IP start now and then. de la Cruz has had only a single start where he out-K'd his innings, a 6K/5IP start.

 

de la Cruz is supposed to have good stuff, but as a high-HR/low-K guy, maybe his stuff isn't all that excellent, or his fastball that notably fast or movement-ish? Lots of minor-leaguers can work at 90-92 and touch an occasional 95-96. And for a guy who's touted for his size, should he be worn out after 5 innings? Not sure that testifies that "big/strong/durable" is necessarily a true asset?

 

But, the guy has only pitched 240 pro innings. Hopefully he'll gain consistency and sharpen up the change and offspeed. Just not sure the results indicate notable life on the fastball, or any high-end breaking stuff. Seems like a solid prospect, but probably not much change to be more than a #4 rotation type?

 

Obviously with the Cubs potential defense and position group, if you have a collection of three #3/4 type rotation guys, a great pen, and find one or two top-end starters, you could win a ton of games.

[craig]

Cease on DL

[davell]

That's kind of the point though, the only 3/4 type future starters in our system are Clifton and De La Cruz. Cease may be that, or possibly better than that. Who knows about Albertos obviously. Realistically, where do you go from there, when talking about Cubs pitching prospects? Hudson? Who's a gigantic question obviously.

 

From there, its a bunch of guys you hope can turn into 5's.....Hedges, Tseng, Alzolay, Steele, Hatch(unless he shows much more at some point)

 

And again, I'm not concerned with De La Cruz' K rate, because of what the pitching coach said. Hell, he didn't throw as great of a percentage of strikes yesterday and his K rate went UP, because he was forced into situations where it made sense to go for the K, just as his PC had said.

 

Clifton and him are both borderline top 100 prospects. That's not super exciting, but its better than we've had in a very long time, especially when you add Cease(and hopefully Albertos) to that.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

The lack of K's is a concern for both de la Cruz and Clifton, in my opinion. For high-stuff prospects, they might be too inconsistent as prospects to do it every time, but I'd expect a guy with a plus big-league arm and plus big-league stuff should dominate minor-league hitters on the occasional game when their stuff is on. Not every game, but I'd expect a 9K/1BB/6IP start now and then. de la Cruz has had only a single start where he out-K'd his innings, a 6K/5IP start

 

Prior to last night, Clifton's last 3 starts were 17 K in 17.2 IP. There's no 9 K/6 IP outing, but he had moved that direction after exceeding 4 K's once in his first 4 starts.

[Donzo]

Prior to last night, Clifton's last 3 starts were 17 K in 17.2 IP. There's no 9 K/6 IP outing, but he had moved that direction after exceeding 4 K's once in his first 4 starts.

 

Good point, lack of K's haven't been issue for Clifton or Cruz; Cruz has a power arm and Clifton is close to having one... To highlight that point, Clifton actually had 19K (7, 7, 5) in 17.2 IP his previous three starts.

 

For their careers, they're both around a K an inning and are better than that when they've figured out a league. Cruz was dominating in South Bend last year (something like 11k/9IP) and Clifton was almost as dominating his last eight starts or so in Myrtle Beach.

[Brickhouse]

Why is his inexperience as a P and lack of IPs purely a plus?

I rarely comment but I read a lot of the comments here. I haven't read anyone calling Delacruz's inexperience as "purely a plus". If he were pitching in the majors it wouldn't be a plus but he's a prospect, so his inexperience means he still has more room left on his learning curve than a typical advanced A pitcher. I'd think that's pretty obvious why it would be used in evaluating him.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Tom's not impressed when's de la Cruz is economical and gets through 7 because he only has a strikeout. He's not impressed with 5 Ks in 5.1 because he runs out of gas in the 6th. Shrug indeed.

 

Does it even matter that I've singled out the HR multiple times as what drags down the outing? That makes 4 in 4 IP this year and 5 in 44 High A IP overall. Fine in the majors, meh at the A ball levels, and the competition doesn't get easier.

 

Honestly, I just thought it was amusing.

[weis21]

so basically you are saying they're not "Kellogg material"?