PCA to Iowa

[ILMindState]

 

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Figured this was important enough for its own thread so I split it away.

[UMFan83]

Woo hoo, one more stop to go

 

 

 

Edited July 31, 2023 by UMFan83

[We Got The Whole 9]

[JBears79]

Bout time!

[SOFNR]

Great to see him move up. Will be exciting to watch his progress.

[JD94]

Heck yeah!

[We Got The Whole 9]

7 minutes ago, TomtheBombadil said:

Feels good to have an obviously good Top Prospect again. He's hitting 56% flyballs through 342 very productive PAs, good stuff

 

It's like the organization is so far behind in this respect and generally feels like they are not adequate in developing swings for this, but then you have PCA. He was a total overhaul and they probably deserve a ton of credit there. Although his aptitude for adjustments is obviously really high to begin with. 

 

When he gets stronger, look out. 

[Post Count Padder]

I don't wanna rush him but if he hits in Iowa and we don't make any offensive additions, does he get a look in September?

[Tim]

24 minutes ago, TomtheBombadil said:

Feels good to have an obviously good Top Prospect again. He's hitting 56% flyballs through 342 very productive PAs, good stuff

 

You ranked him 10th in the system last month. Behind such luminaries as Ethan Hearn.

[UMFan83]

1 minute ago, Post Count Padder said:

I don't wanna rush him but if he hits in Iowa and we don't make any offensive additions, does he get a look in September?

My uneducated guess is that they are not planning on promoting him to Chicago this year.  He'll need a 40 man spot and if the Cubs are in the race, they can't afford to have him working out any kinks here.

Feels more to me like setting up a battle for a roster spot in Spring Training and then sending him down to "work on things" before bringing him up at some point if he continues playing well.

[Outshined_One]

4 minutes ago, UMFan83 said:

Feels more to me like setting up a battle for a roster spot in Spring Training and then sending him down to "work on things" before bringing him up at some point if he continues playing well.

With the Prospect Promotion Incentive in place, the Cubs could easily pencil PCA in as their opening day CF in 2024 in the hopes that he can score them extra draft capital.

I think AAA is huge for him.  If he meets the challenge, this team will have a legitimate star in the making on its hands.

[We Got The Whole 9]

13 minutes ago, Outshined_One said:

With the Prospect Promotion Incentive in place, the Cubs could easily pencil PCA in as their opening day CF in 2024 in the hopes that he can score them extra draft capital.

I think AAA is huge for him.  If he meets the challenge, this team will have a legitimate star in the making on its hands.

I feel like they should go this route. His floor is high enough to still be valuable and if he hits above average you have a decent shot at ROY.

[We Got The Whole 9]

19 minutes ago, TomtheBombadil said:

Mid-May was 2 and a half months ago! He had something like a 2% BB rate and .330 OBP back then, whaddayou want me to doooo with that? I thought he'd be gone for Ohtani by now with those da numbas tbh

There's noone else in the universe that would make that ranking even if PCA was shelved with a torn achilles.

[Brock Beauchamp]

1 hour ago, CaliforniaRaisin said:

Figured this was important enough for its own thread so I split it away.

Yes it is, thank you! I would have missed it entirely if not for it being split into its own thread!

[CaliforniaRaisin]

 

[CaliforniaRaisin]

49 minutes ago, Outshined_One said:

With the Prospect Promotion Incentive in place, the Cubs could easily pencil PCA in as their opening day CF in 2024 in the hopes that he can score them extra draft capital.

I think AAA is huge for him.  If he meets the challenge, this team will have a legitimate star in the making on its hands.

He can also come up mid-September and the Cubs would still be eligible for the incentive pick.

[We Got The Whole 9]

14 minutes ago, TomtheBombadil said:

I was wondering just this. Nice, thanks for relaying the EVs too...I swear these guys use 90th percentile just because it's more exclusive/harder to find for free, but the jump from 87 avg last year to 90 is excellent

Yeah that's a big surprise to me, although he has been racking up a lot of XBH. In the first 150 PA of the season (through May 31) he had 13, and in the next 200 he had 26.

 

FWIW I don't recall if it was Tango or James, but one of them said they throw AEV out completely and focus on 90th% instead. Said there's just too much noise in AEV. 

[CubinNY]

1 hour ago, Outshined_One said:

With the Prospect Promotion Incentive in place, the Cubs could easily pencil PCA in as their opening day CF in 2024 in the hopes that he can score them extra draft capital.

I think AAA is huge for him.  If he meets the challenge, this team will have a legitimate star in the making on its hands.

I don't think the jump from AA to AAA is as big a climb as it is from A to AA. There is a lot of filler in AAA. I'm looking for good things from him. The Cubs are generally very, almost extremely conservative in their promotions. It would be outstanding if he was doing enough to warrant a starting job next year. 

[CaliforniaRaisin]

1 hour ago, TomtheBombadil said:

I was wondering just this. Nice, thanks for relaying the EVs too...I swear these guys use 90th percentile just because it's more exclusive/harder to find for free, but the jump from 87 avg last year to 90 is excellent

He just needs to maintain his Rookie of the Year eligibility and September doesn't count for service time, so he just needs to maintain fewer than 130 at bats in the majors in 2023.

[Outshined_One]

31 minutes ago, CubinNY said:

I don't think the jump from AA to AAA is as big a climb as it is from A to AA. There is a lot of filler in AAA. I'm looking for good things from him. The Cubs are generally very, almost extremely conservative in their promotions. It would be outstanding if he was doing enough to warrant a starting job next year. 

I tend to appreciate AAA as a challenge for players of PCA's type since he'll be facing pitchers with ML experience and also pitchers with more advanced secondary offerings and more advanced pitch sequencing than he might see at lower levels.  It's one thing if you're facing a fastball/slider guy who flashes the occasional changeup, but AAA is where you see guys who actually have sharpened their secondary/tertiary offerings that can keep hitters off balance and be more than just a get-me-over pitch.  Yeah, those pitchers tend to be filler guys and junk ballers, but I think there's still value in that.

[CubinNY]

10 minutes ago, Outshined_One said:

I tend to appreciate AAA as a challenge for players of PCA's type since he'll be facing pitchers with ML experience and also pitchers with more advanced secondary offerings and more advanced pitch sequencing than he might see at lower levels.  It's one thing if you're facing a fastball/slider guy who flashes the occasional changeup, but AAA is where you see guys who actually have sharpened their secondary/tertiary offerings that can keep hitters off balance and be more than just a get-me-over pitch.  Yeah, those pitchers tend to be filler guys and junk ballers, but I think there's still value in that.

Especially with his uber-aggressive profile. It will be a good challenge. Like finishing sanding on a nice piece of furniture. 

Edited July 31, 2023 by CubinNY