Minor League Discussion & Boxes, 4-13-22

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Scheduled Game (All Times Central):

 

Iowa vs Toledo, 6:38 pm

Tennessee at Montgomery, 6:35 pm

South Bend at Ft Wayne, 6:05 pm

Myrtle Beach vs Augusta, 5:35 pm

 

South Bend: LHP Jordan Wicks

Myrtle Beach: RHP Luis Devers

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Brennen went 2/4 with a double but 2 more Ks. The double just missed going out in dead center:

 

 

Anderson Espinoza at AA: 2.2 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 4 K

Luis Devers at A: 3.1 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 5 K

[Bertz]

I'm curious how far the story of our farm extends league wide currently. For us just about every pitcher is whooping ass and just about every hitter is getting worked over. Does that extend outside our walls? Is pitching just generally ahead of hitting right now?

 

One pretty quiet bit of good news on the hitting front is Bryce Ball. The strikeouts are down, which is nice, but my guess is that's because the walks are also down. Given that it's happening together they'll probably both drift back to normal levels. What's not normal is his ground all rate, which is down 10 points. As a hulking left handed 1B, keeping all else equal but cutting the groundbal rate would probably be worth bumping him up a grade. Definitely something to keep an eye on to see if it's more than a 5 game thing.

[Hrubes20]

I'm curious how far the story of our farm extends league wide currently. For us just about every pitcher is whooping ass and just about every hitter is getting worked over. Does that extend outside our walls? Is pitching just generally ahead of hitting right now?

 

One pretty quiet bit of good news on the hitting front is Bryce Ball. The strikeouts are down, which is nice, but my guess is that's because the walks are also down. Given that it's happening together they'll probably both drift back to normal levels. What's not normal is his ground all rate, which is down 10 points. As a hulking left handed 1B, keeping all else equal but cutting the groundbal rate would probably be worth bumping him up a grade. Definitely something to keep an eye on to see if it's more than a 5 game thing.

 

I was wondering this as well, so I checked on a bunch of other good hitting prospects around the league. Crazy small sample size of course, but the vast majority of them came out of the gates hitting much better than the Cubs' guys. K rates look to be pretty high across the board though.

[Bertz]

I'm curious how far the story of our farm extends league wide currently. For us just about every pitcher is whooping ass and just about every hitter is getting worked over. Does that extend outside our walls? Is pitching just generally ahead of hitting right now?

 

One pretty quiet bit of good news on the hitting front is Bryce Ball. The strikeouts are down, which is nice, but my guess is that's because the walks are also down. Given that it's happening together they'll probably both drift back to normal levels. What's not normal is his ground all rate, which is down 10 points. As a hulking left handed 1B, keeping all else equal but cutting the groundbal rate would probably be worth bumping him up a grade. Definitely something to keep an eye on to see if it's more than a 5 game thing.

 

I was wondering this as well, so I checked on a bunch of other good hitting prospects around the league. Crazy small sample size of course, but the vast majority of them came out of the gates hitting much better than the Cubs' guys. K rates look to be pretty high across the board though.

 

That's disappointing to hear. That said just about all of the guys of consequence are well in the black for ARL. Even the Tennessee guys who I was annoyed with repeating the level are (except for Strumpf) among the 25 youngest in the Southern League. I'm not going to get beyond a little annoyed unless we get more than a month in without guys being able to pull themselves off the mat.

[CaliforniaRaisin]