Minor League Discussion & Boxes, 8-6-18

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Box Scores:

 

Iowa lost 6-1 Box Score

 

Tennessee won 2-1 Box Score

 

Myrtle Beach lost 6-3 Box Score

 

South Bend won 5-4 Box Score

 

Eugene had the day off

 

AZL Cubs 1 won 4-2 Box Score

 

AZL Cubs 2 won 3-1 Box Score

 

DSL Cubs 1 won 4-1 Box Score

 

DSL Cubs 2 lost 7-4 Box Score

[CaliforniaRaisin]

18-year old RHP Yovanny Cruz for the AZL Cubs 2: 5 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 10 K

 

Danny Hultzen with a scoreless inning with 3 Ks for the AZL Cubs 1. Allen Webster is continuing his rehab too in the AZL with 2 Ks in a scoreless inning.

[CubsWin]

18-year old RHP Yovanny Cruz for the AZL Cubs 2: 5 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 10 K

 

Danny Hultzen with a scoreless inning with 3 Ks for the AZL Cubs 1. Allen Webster is continuing his rehab too in the AZL with 2 Ks in a scoreless inning.

Yeah, some cool stuff tonight for Cubs minor leaguers.

 

16-year-old Reivaj Garcia went 2-for-3 notching his 13th multi-hit game and keeping his average around .300. Very little power (only 7 XBH, all doubles) but that's to be expected at 16 (he'll finally turn 17 next week). That he's hitting this well in the AZL at this age is fun, but the fact that he's been consistently hitting well all year is even more encouraging. Lots of times, a player starts the season hot and then lives off of those numbers until he finishes the year with a mediocre line making the hot start look more like luck than skill. But hitting consistently well is a great sign that the hit tool is for real. He's hit safely in 16 of his last 17 games.

 

20-year-old C Jonathan Soto, whom AZ Phil wrote glowing reports about during ExST and estimated he was a top 15 prospect in the organization, got off to a terrible start in Eugene. Since his demotion to the AZL, however, he's gotten on base in every game but one (Orion Nunez was a defensive replacement at 1B after the 4th inning on July 22nd) leading to his current OBP of .407.

 

Soto's fellow Eugene demotee (not a word), Christopher Morel (who many of us thought would emerge this year) was hitting .165/.172/.220 with 0 BB and 29 K when he was sent down. He seems to have received the message as he's gotten on base in every game since returning to Mesa. His slash in the AZL is .346/.444/.500 with 9 BB/9 K in just over 60 PAs. He started the season as an 18-year-old and turned 19 a month and a half ago. It doesn't discount Soto's and Morel's poor showing in the NWL, but it's funny. If both hadn't been aggressively promoted and hit like this from the get go for the Cubs AZL team, we'd likely all be pushing for them to get moved up right now. It begs the question. If the sequence had been reversed, would they do any better? Basebal is a communal game. They say hitting is contagious. You see your buddy who was just raking in ExST struggle and perhaps you begin to think that you too aren't ready for this level. I don't know...

 

The aforementioned Yovanny Cruz had a great game. The 18-year-old righty who was throwing a 91-93 FB in ExST might've taken a step forward in his last two games in which he's pitched 10 innings giving up 8 hits (7 singles, 1 double), 1 ER, 2 BB and 17 K. I look forward to see what his next outing brings.

 

Duncan Robinson had a fine start (6IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 K). I'm not a huge fan because he's got a small margin for error and has been quite hittable but it shows that, like Tseng, when he's commanding it (or on some days getting a little lucky), he is more than capable of getting the job done.

 

James Norwood bounced back from giving up his first earned runs since being promoted to Iowa with 1.1 scoreless last night. It wasn't his greatest outing, but he's had a nice breakout season allowing a BAA of .209, a WHIP of 1.14 with 51 K/17 BB in 44 IP this year. Along with Maples and Mekkes (and to a lesser extent Craig Brooks), he forms a nice, home grown corps of relievers in Iowa.

 

Speaking of, both Mekkes and Maples had solid, scoreless outings the day before. Mekkes gave up a hit, didn't walk anybody and struck out one, while Maples didn't give up a hit, walked one but struck out the side, the last two looking to end the game. Dakota has been incredibly consistent throughout his minor league career with BAA's of .174, .155 and .179 so far this season. Over his last 7 outings, he's held PCL hitters to a .143 average. Maples' struggles with the strike zone have been well chronicled, but over his last 9 appearances (including one in the majors) his line reads: 8.2 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 19 K allowing a slash of .133/.257/.133.

 

Some effective, inexpensive relievers might be on the horizon for the Cubs.

[Hrubes20]

D.J. Artis notched his first professional hit and stolen base.

[Hrubes20]

 

16-year-old Reivaj Garcia went 2-for-3 notching his 13th multi-hit game and keeping his average around .300. Very little power (only 7 XBH, all doubles) but that's to be expected at 16 (he'll finally turn 17 next week). That he's hitting this well in the AZL at this age is fun, but the fact that he's been consistently hitting well all year is even more encouraging. Lots of times, a player starts the season hot and then lives off of those numbers until he finishes the year with a mediocre line making the hot start look more like luck than skill. But hitting consistently well is a great sign that the hit tool is for real. He's hit safely in 16 of his last 17 games.

 

The aforementioned Yovanny Cruz had a great game. The 18-year-old righty who was throwing a 91-93 FB in ExST might've taken a step forward in his last two games in which he's pitched 10 innings giving up 8 hits (7 singles, 1 double), 1 ER, 2 BB and 17 K. I look forward to see what his next outing brings.

 

Yeah, Garcia has been impressive. He's not a tiny guy like a Roni Torreyes, so there is hope that he can fill out and add some power.

 

Cruz is the one with the heavy fastball and the good changeup, right?

[CubsWin]

 

16-year-old Reivaj Garcia went 2-for-3 notching his 13th multi-hit game and keeping his average around .300. Very little power (only 7 XBH, all doubles) but that's to be expected at 16 (he'll finally turn 17 next week). That he's hitting this well in the AZL at this age is fun, but the fact that he's been consistently hitting well all year is even more encouraging. Lots of times, a player starts the season hot and then lives off of those numbers until he finishes the year with a mediocre line making the hot start look more like luck than skill. But hitting consistently well is a great sign that the hit tool is for real. He's hit safely in 16 of his last 17 games.

 

The aforementioned Yovanny Cruz had a great game. The 18-year-old righty who was throwing a 91-93 FB in ExST might've taken a step forward in his last two games in which he's pitched 10 innings giving up 8 hits (7 singles, 1 double), 1 ER, 2 BB and 17 K. I look forward to see what his next outing brings.

 

Yeah, Garcia has been impressive. He's not a tiny guy like a Roni Torreyes, so there is hope that he can fill out and add some power.

 

Cruz is the one with the heavy fastball and the good changeup, right?

Yup. This from Longenhagen on July 2nd:

The Cubs also have an interesting teenage arm in Yovanny Cruz. He sat 90-93 with natural sink, which pairs well with his diving, plus-flashing changeup. The shape and quality of the movement on Cruz’s pitches vary significantly, but there’s workable stuff here, and pitchers like Cruz, whose stuff dictates they work down in the zone instead of up, are becoming an endangered species.

 

There were also comments on Garcia and Verdugo in the same article:

There are lots of interesting players in the AZL right now despite the current inactivity of several early-round draftees. The Cubs have two impressive Mexican middle infielders on one of their two AZL teams. One, Reivaj Garcia (Reivaj is a palindrome of Javier), is still just 16 and will be until mid-August. He has advanced bat-to-ball skills for an AZL hitter, let alone for a 16-year-old, and has been fine at second base and shortstop in my looks. He shares middle-infield duties with 17-year-old SS Luis Verdugo, who is the best defensive shortstop I’ve seen at a complex since extended began. Smooth, rangy, and acrobatic, he projects a plus defender pretty comfortably. Verdugo’s bat is light, though he has added lots of good weight just over the last several weeks, which scouts and I have eyeballed at about 8-10 pounds. He was tied up by a ball inside last night and I noticed him shaking his hand in pain several times throughout the rest of the night while taking weaker swings than he had earlier in the game, so if there’s more power on contact thanks to the added weight, it wasn’t on display last night for circumstantial reasons.

Man, if Verdugo's bat develops they might have something there, but his numbers have been really bad thus far. If it does develop, he's got a long way to go.

 

He also described Marquez as having advanced FB command and arm-side command of his curve.