Minor League Discussion & Boxes, 6-25-24

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Scheduled Games (Central Time):

Iowa vs. St. Paul, 6:38 pm
Tennessee at Birmingham, 7:00 pm
South Bend at Wisconsin, 6:40 pm
Myrtle Beach vs. Fayetteville, 6:05 pm
ACL Cubs at ACL Rockies, 8:35 pm
DSL Cubs Blue vs. DSL Cubs Blue Jays, 10:00 am
DSL Cubs Red at DSL Rojos, 10:00 am

Probable Starters:

Iowa: RHP Kyle McGowin (14 IP, 5.79 ERA, 5.82 FIP, 14 K, 6 BB)
Tennessee: RHP Chris Kachmar (38.1 IP, 3.99 ERA, 4.49 FIP, 45 K, 21 BB)
South Bend: RHP Ty Johnson (9.1 IP, 8.68 ERA, 4.28 FIP, 12 K, 6 BB)
Myrtle Beach: RHP Kenton Egbert (51 IP, 2.29 ERA, 3.97 FIP, 49 K, 20 BB)

[CaliforniaRaisin]

 

[Outshined_One]

I just realized something: Owen Caissie is Carrot Ironfoundersson.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Marino Santy to South Bend. JP Wheat to Myrtle Beach. Luis Vázquez and Ezequiel Págan to the IL.

[Jason Ross]

19 minutes ago, CaliforniaRaisin said:

Marino Santy to South Bend. JP Wheat to Myrtle Beach. Luis Vázquez and Ezequiel Págan to the IL.

Wheat has apparently been lighting up guns on the backfields. MB is starting to get exciting.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

 

[Rcal10]

1 hour ago, CaliforniaRaisin said:

 

So much for those who hoped he would be in the pen this year.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Ballesteros with two doubles already

[CaliforniaRaisin]

2 hours ago, CaliforniaRaisin said:

 

 

[CaliforniaRaisin]

 

[Tryptamine]

1 hour ago, CaliforniaRaisin said:

Ballesteros with two doubles already

I know he just got to AAA, but given the Cubs dire need for offense, if he continues this I wonder if we seem him by the end of July.

[Cubs420psd]

I might have missed it but is the Shaw playing 3B dream over? I'm just checking box scores but lately he's either been at 2b or DH.

 

Either way, nice to see him hitting again. Would be huge for the org if he was a hit.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

5 minutes ago, Cubs420psd said:

I might have missed it but is the Shaw playing 3B dream over? I'm just checking box scores but lately he's either been at 2b or DH.

 

Either way, nice to see him hitting again. Would be huge for the org if he was a hit.

I don’t believe it’s dead, just a part of the Triantos in center experiment.

[Jason Ross]

8 hours ago, CaliforniaRaisin said:

I don’t believe it’s dead, just a part of the Triantos in center experiment.

Yeah, it seems to have coincideded with Triantos playing CF more that Alcantara hit the IL. Reports from Mooney and Sharma on Shaw's defense like, two weeks ago was super positive and that the Cubs liked his progress. Feels more like Tennessee doing what it can with the players they have right now, and less to do with Shaw.

[CubinNY]

I'm going to go way, way out on a limb here and say that they are showcasing Ballesteros. He's not a promotion away from becoming a MLB catcher. He's about three years young for his league. 

[Jason Ross]

3 minutes ago, CubinNY said:

I'm going to go way, way out on a limb here and say that they are showcasing Ballesteros. He's not a promotion away from becoming a MLB catcher. He's about three years young for his league. 

I wouldn't be surprised if the Cubs were okay with the idea of trading Moises Ballesteros. He is almost assuredly going to hit himself out of playing catcher; his bat is too advanced. While the bat is real, real good for many reasons, his overall long term value at DH is going to be limited in a sense. As a team the Cubs are obsessed with value and the concept that the Cubs would like to parlay a DH-only into something else is, at least, in line with their thinking, so it's not a crazy thing to think.

With that said, I wouldn't say they're showcasing him, either. He was destroying Double-A, and without hyperbole, at historical levels for his age. He was ready for Iowa (offensively). He's hit his way to Iowa on merit. 

[CubinNY]

1 minute ago, 1908_Cubs said:

I wouldn't be surprised if the Cubs were okay with the idea of trading Moises Ballesteros. He is almost assuredly going to hit himself out of playing catcher; his bat is too advanced. While the bat is real, real good for many reasons, his overall long term value at DH is going to be limited in a sense. As a team the Cubs are obsessed with value and the concept that the Cubs would like to parlay a DH-only into something else is, at least, in line with their thinking, so it's not a crazy thing to think.

With that said, I wouldn't say they're showcasing him, either. He was destroying Double-A, and without hyperbole, at historical levels for his age. He was ready for Iowa (offensively). He's hit his way to Iowa on merit. 

I agree, mostly. But AAA is not that much of a step up from AA these days. It's a holding pen for the 40 man and a safe environment for retreads or guys giving it one more go to see if they still have something left. Look at who he hit the doubles off of. 

[Jason Ross]

45 minutes ago, CubinNY said:

I agree, mostly. But AAA is not that much of a step up from AA these days. It's a holding pen for the 40 man and a safe environment for retreads or guys giving it one more go to see if they still have something left. Look at who he hit the doubles off of. 

Eh. Not sure I agree with that. The baseballs are very different from double to triple-A. Look at how BJ Murray and Cade Horton have struggled in initial time. PCA as well. The jump from Triple-A to the MLB is larger, today, than Double-to-Triple-A. But there's still a real step up. 

[Transmogrified Tiger]

To play devil's avocado on the value front, I think you could also make the argument that

1) Ballesteros hasn't proven he can't be a functional 1B, though I'd expect it to almost be the inverse of Busch where he'd add the most value as a receiver and have limited range 

2) In the current game there's a surprising amount of value in having a plus bat that could catch even 20 games a year given shorter benches and the demands on the position.

3) His bat is doing something so impressive at such a young age that the possibility remains of him being an elite bat, even by 1B/DH standards, is still there

[Bertz]

If AA and AAA are mostly interchangeable why would AAA be a showcase?  Wouldn't you want him to stick at AA and destroy that league.  As a catcher it doesn't look suspicious to slowplay his promotion schedule.  For the public there's a meaningful difference because of the availability of Statcast data, but that's not a barrier within the league.

I'd guess there's a real consideration of calling him up to MLB.  Give him one pitcher to caddy, maybe start with Brown or Wicks during their rehab, and have him do the Mitch Garver catcher/DH thing.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

1 hour ago, 1908_Cubs said:

Eh. Not sure I agree with that. The baseballs are very different from double to triple-A. Look at how BJ Murray and Cade Horton have struggled in initial time. PCA as well. The jump from Triple-A to the MLB is larger, today, than Double-to-Triple-A. But there's still a real step up. 

Yep. AAA uses major league balls. Who knows what they’ve done with the ball in AA

[We Got The Whole 9]

Imagine having a 5'7" 1B. This strikes me as quite a bad idea. 

 

I guess there's almost precedent for it, although this list is 15 years old. 

 

https://www.baseball-reference.com/blog/archives/1200.html

[CubinNY]

TBH, I don't know what they think of him as a catcher in AA. Like. was he getting it done well enough? I know I saw him throw a guy out in the limited time I watched him. 

 

[Jason Ross]

6 minutes ago, CubinNY said:

TBH, I don't know what they think of him as a catcher in AA. Like. was he getting it done well enough? I know I saw him throw a guy out in the limited time I watched him. 

 

Being fair to Ballesteros, I'd guess his defense is more on par with being in South Bend. So his bat is probably two levels above that of his defense. It's the good and the bad of being so advanced as a hitter; as a hitter he's going to force his way to Iowa well before he's ready defensively there. Hopefully the Cubs can crash course him. Realistically, he's probably going to hit well enough that his defensive ability may never catch up and he'll just go the DH route because of it.

[Bertz]

1 hour ago, We Got The Whole 9 said:

Imagine having a 5'7" 1B. This strikes me as quite a bad idea. 

 

I guess there's almost precedent for it, although this list is 15 years old. 

 

https://www.baseball-reference.com/blog/archives/1200.html

Do we think he's still 5'7"?  I haven't seen a ton of pictures of him standing next to other guys (he's usually alone in the batters box), but he seems 5'7" in the same way Morel is 135 lbs.

Edited June 26, 2024 by Bertz