Owen Ayers & Jace Beck Promoted to AAA

[CaliforniaRaisin]

I’ve heard there are more promotions coming this week.

[CubinNY]

Nice for Ayers. It would really be something if he turned out to be a 1st division catcher for a few years. 

[Bertz]

Sooooooo FWIW I would take guys who ought to be promoted and whether or not they actually get promoted as decently strong signal for who the team is trying to spend in trade. 

[mul21]

6 minutes ago, Bertz said:

Sooooooo FWIW I would take guys who ought to be promoted and whether or not they actually get promoted as decently strong signal for who the team is trying to spend in trade. 

As in guys who should probably get promoted and don't are the guys on the block to keep their production in a positive light?

[NorthsideAvenger]

I wonder if Beck can be a weapon for the bullpen in the second half. 

[Outshined_One]

Ayers to AAA was not on my bingo card for this year.

LFG!

[Bertz]

6 minutes ago, mul21 said:

As in guys who should probably get promoted and don't are the guys on the block to keep their production in a positive light?

Exactly.  Like there were multiple points last year where Owen Caissie probably could have come up and simply got passed over.  It felt like they wanted to keep him down at Iowa raking and preserve trade value.  They finally called him up post TDL when it was clear that ship had sailed and it would have been conspicuous to hold him down longer.

Kepley is who I most have in mind when I wrote that if I'm being honest.  

[CaliforniaRaisin]

I 100% believe the Cubs have kept Kepley down because they’re afraid he’ll struggle at AA and confirm some concerns.

That said, we're getting close enough to the TDL that I could see him getting promoted now and any scuffles might be explained as SSS. Cubs took forever to promote Ryan Gallagher last year for what I assume was the same reason but finally did it right before the TDL.

[mul21]

18 minutes ago, Bertz said:

Exactly.  Like there were multiple points last year where Owen Caissie probably could have come up and simply got passed over.  It felt like they wanted to keep him down at Iowa raking and preserve trade value.  They finally called him up post TDL when it was clear that ship had sailed and it would have been conspicuous to hold him down longer.

Kepley is who I most have in mind when I wrote that if I'm being honest.  

That was going to be my next question.

[craig]

Think Beck will keep starting for Iowa?  Or return to bullpen, figuring that's his most plausible big-league roll?  Guessing it doesn't matter much, and they'll probably keep starting him for now.  

[mul21]

17 minutes ago, craig said:

Think Beck will keep starting for Iowa?  Or return to bullpen, figuring that's his most plausible big-league roll?  Guessing it doesn't matter much, and they'll probably keep starting him for now.  

I'd bet he keeps starting because the control is still a little suspect and more repetition is probably a good thing.  He walked 4 guys in one of his recent starts so he hasn't cleaned up all the issues and as someone else said, it'll be interesting to see what more advanced hitters do against him to see if he's just too good for the current level or if there's enough deception that he'll still miss the number of bats he has been.

[mk49]

How is Ayers as a catcher?  At least, as good as Mo, or better?

[Bertz]

3 minutes ago, mk49 said:

How is Ayers as a catcher?  At least, as good as Mo, or better?

The tools, especially the arm, are very good.  But he's only been a catcher for a few years so he's rough around the edges.

[mk49]

2 minutes ago, Bertz said:

The tools, especially the arm, are very good.  But he's only been a catcher for a few years so he's rough around the edges.

OK.  Thanks.

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

even given his age, being promoted to your third different level mid-season is crazy. what a story