Minor League Discussion & Boxes, 4-15-25

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Scheduled Games (Central Time):

Iowa vs. St. Paul, 6:38 pm
Knoxville vs. Chattanooga, 6:30 pm
South Bend at West Michigan, 5:35 pm
Myrtle Beach at Augusta, 10:05 am

Probable Starting Pitchers:

Iowa: RHP Javier Assad (rehab)
Knoxville: RHP Grant Kipp (5 IP, 0.00 ERA, 1.90 FIP, 7 K, 1 BB)
South Bend: RHP Tyler Schlaffer (5.1 IP, 3.38 ERA, 3.29 FIP, 5 K, 3 BB)
Myrtle Beach: LHP Hayden Frank (3.1 IP, 21.60 ERA, 4.86 FIP, 0 K, 1 BB)

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Florentino was a DSL all-star last year. Seems intriguing.

Ronny Cruz with another good game.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

 

[CaliforniaRaisin]

 

[Outshined_One]

1 hour ago, CaliforniaRaisin said:

 

Between this and the Rojas news, things are about to get very, very interesting around these parts.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

 Matt Shaw is going to Iowa too, sadly.

(per Klaw on Blue Sky)

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Fun top of the lineup for South Bend:

 

[Bertz]

2 minutes ago, CaliforniaRaisin said:

Fun top of the lineup for South Bend:

 

It's certainly not as good as Iowa, but because of the shiny-new-toys of it all I am finding myself going to SB first now when I check scores.  Really fun development.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Tyler Schlaffer has 6 Ks through 2.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Assad topped out at 95.5 in the first inning.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Schlaffer's final line: 5 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, 1 HR

[CaliforniaRaisin]

 

[Bertz]

The Velo was definitely more 2023-y than 2024-y which is good to see.

[JBears79]

10 hours ago, TomtheBombadil said:

BJ Murray with 3 HRs in the past 5 games,  up to ~ .260/.420/.600 with a 7/9 BB:K…3B is still wide open! Onea the gang has to believe in themself, step up, and tell payroll that it will be less inefficient under their watch or whatever 

Prospect or not, Grant Kipp’s a giant, healthy, ultra cheap arm throwing decent upper minors innings. He and Armstrong have a shot to be tdl contributors this year either by trade or being part of the post esp SP and P deal/s depth. A Yale man too so gotta think a certain quality of math, science, business are going into maxing here

Valdez keeps hitting HRs too, AZPhil:

 

Hope Valdez and all those fly balls he hits continue to translate to home runs after his inevitable promotion. He's an exciting player if he can stick at SS.

[Jason Ross]

6 minutes ago, JBears79 said:

Hope Valdez and all those fly balls he hits continue to translate to home runs after his inevitable promotion. He's an exciting player if he can stick at SS.

Sadly, part of AZ Phil's report was that Valdez was seen playing other positions than SS. Might just be for versatilities sake, though, so we'll see.

[JBears79]

16 minutes ago, Jason Ross said:

Sadly, part of AZ Phil's report was that Valdez was seen playing other positions than SS. Might just be for versatilities sake, though, so we'll see.

I saw that. I'm gonna chalk it up to the Cubs wanting positional versatility for now. One of these 10 SS the past 3 IFA classes the Cubs took has to pan out as a star, right? haha

[mul21]

14 hours ago, CaliforniaRaisin said:

 

The start of that tweet was very ominous and I was expecting to read he re-aggravated something.  Very glad it was just pitch count.

[JBears79]

28 minutes ago, TomtheBombadil said:

Tbf I don’t think, in an increasingly positionless sports world where playing time is extremely competitive even as wages fall (wonder if we see that model anywhere else in this self declared great society), “sticking” at SS in a traditional sense is all that important. McDaniel and Longenhagen also put 2B, a position we see SS capable first division players like Gimenez, Stott, and Hoerner nowadays, at the top of an updated D spectrum in Future Value. Reports on Valdez at signing is that he has defensive aptitude/instincts and tools

Id agree with you, but sticking at SS is always gonna be a strong indicator of future value imo. Valdez hasnt shown that he can't play SS at all yet but sticking up the middle will probably be an important factor in his development just due to his current/future hitting profile. 

[CaliforniaRaisin]

 

[JBears79]

Love the movement on that slider.