Moisés Ballesteros & James Triantos to AA

[CaliforniaRaisin]

South Bend’s season is over and Tennessee is heading to the playoffs. This is fun.

[Hrubes20]

Love watching this kid hit.  He has such a good feel of the zone.  

[We Got The Whole 9]

I believe Starlin is the last Cubs to reach AA at 19. Hoping to see a bit more power/loft from Mo next year. 

[CubinNY]

according to twitter there are apparently a lot of moves that are going to be made today

[WhyCantWeWin]

I hope he can stick at Catcher. I'm not sold on Amaya staying healthy over a full season 

[Jason Ross]

2 hours ago, CubinNY said:

according to twitter there are apparently a lot of moves that are going to be made today

Yes.  South Bend is eliminated, and they have no more regular season games, so probably a handful of people will go up.

[craig]

5 hours ago, WhyCantWeWin said:

I hope he can stick at Catcher. I'm not sold on Amaya staying healthy over a full season 

Anybody watching any South Bend games with any perspective on his catching?  Show-stopper bad, so that if he has a major-league career, it's DH or nothing?  Or is his catching perhaps decent enough so that *IF* he works at it and improves, he might have a shot to be usable as a big-league catcher?  It's obviously the career hinge.  3 options:

1. DH only.  
2. Could improve enough to become a possibility even as a primary catcher.
3. Might improve enough to be accepted as a #2 catcher, but can never be a primary guy.

It may be too soon to tell.  Sometimes catcher defense improves a lot with time and work.  And sometimes opinions vary a lot, might get different scouts who project his future defense very differently.  

 

[CaliforniaRaisin]

James Triantos also going up to AA. Source: His Instagram.

[Rex Buckingham]

5 hours ago, craig said:

Anybody watching any South Bend games with any perspective on his catching?  Show-stopper bad, so that if he has a major-league career, it's DH or nothing?  Or is his catching perhaps decent enough so that *IF* he works at it and improves, he might have a shot to be usable as a big-league catcher?  It's obviously the career hinge.  3 options:

1. DH only.  
2. Could improve enough to become a possibility even as a primary catcher.
3. Might improve enough to be accepted as a #2 catcher, but can never be a primary guy.

It may be too soon to tell.  Sometimes catcher defense improves a lot with time and work.  And sometimes opinions vary a lot, might get different scouts who project his future defense very differently.  

 

My hope for Ballesteros is a bat that's so good they don't want him to catch anymore. 

[CaliforniaRaisin]

2 hours ago, TomtheBombadil said:

Note that both Triantos and Ballesteros ran solid GB and FB rates in SB with Ballesteros showing some power too. My guess is approach is a factor in their readiness for AA. Maybe I'm speaking too soon but Alcantara did run a way too high 50% GB rate on the season

You’re speaking too soon.

[Jason Ross]

12 hours ago, craig said:

Anybody watching any South Bend games with any perspective on his catching?  Show-stopper bad, so that if he has a major-league career, it's DH or nothing?  Or is his catching perhaps decent enough so that *IF* he works at it and improves, he might have a shot to be usable as a big-league catcher?  It's obviously the career hinge.  3 options:

1. DH only.  
2. Could improve enough to become a possibility even as a primary catcher.
3. Might improve enough to be accepted as a #2 catcher, but can never be a primary guy.

It may be too soon to tell.  Sometimes catcher defense improves a lot with time and work.  And sometimes opinions vary a lot, might get different scouts who project his future defense very differently.  

 

I've watched a bunch of SB. I'll also say this; it's really hard to gauge catching defense from MiLB streams if you're sitting at home. If you're lucky they're actually showing a behind-the-pitcher POV, and even then, you're lucky if the stream quality is above "guy with an outdated iPhone and a hotspot". I'll also say it's way too soon to tell for a handful of factors: the first being that in the next few years, I expect some form of automated ball-strike calling system to make its way to the MLB (probably similar to the MiLB "challenge" system we're seeing) which should change the math on pitch framing.

The second is that there seems to be a bit of a "catcher revolution" going on defensively league wide, some teams are just...better at it than others. Milwaukee has been a hotbed for basically taking horsefeathers defensive catchers and turning them into pitch framing mavens; they've done it time and time again recently. Eventually, those techniques are going to make their way out into the bigger world.

We've seen guys with awkward body types, like Alejandro Kirk, succeed, and I wonder how much of Ballesteros' being a good/bad catcher are people just saying "someone who looks like that can't do that". Defensive scouting of the MiLB is pretty hit and miss. Albert Almora was considered a 60-65 grade fielder and he was blow average. Javy Baez was considered to have to move off SS and he was great. With baseball savant and all of the amazing statcast data we get, MLB defensive metrics are jumping leaps and bounds. Catching has always been behind even the other advanced defensive metrics as a position (UZR, DRS. etc) so I wonder if that's going to change things as well.

Long way to go on Big Mo. I'm really excited overall, though. Turn some of those doubles into home runs as he adds strength and experience, and he may hit so well that anything he does behind the plate is just a bonus.