James Triantos

[Stratos]

4 hours ago, Jason Ross said:

According to the Cubs' transaction logs:
- James Triantos has been recalled to the Cubs
- Kevin Alcantara has been optioned to Iowa
- Drew Pomeranz has been assigned to Iowa

That should clear this up.

Interesting.  I wonder if they just want to display Triantos for trade bait, or they genuinely like Triantos better than Alcantara right now.  I'm not sure a week of very limited playing time would change anything in trades through.  They might like Triantos better for pinch-runner purposes.  The bat might be more suitable for pinch-hitting as well with the bat-on-ball skills.  Not easy to maintain a swing with long levers on the bench.

 

[Papa Cub]

18 hours ago, Jason Ross said:

I know people think it's an Alcantara swap, but it doesn't really make sense. Alcantara has been used as the RHH compliment in the OF off the bench. Pedro Ramirez is a good deal better against RHP and this year Triantos has a sub .300 wOBA against lefties, too. Maybe they just want to get him work in Iowa and don't mind if Triantos is here to be here and hang out, but it'd be a weird swap on paper in terms of why Alcantara was here to begin with.

I'd guess Ramirez injury or trade, with a lean towards the former. He had that awkward swing and we haven't seen him since.

That’s what I heard too - to be honest, I originally thought this call up had to do with a potential trade as well.

An injury would make the most sense - but do we know for sure why Triantos got the call up? 

[Jason Ross]

3 minutes ago, Papa Cub said:

That’s what I heard too - to be honest, I originally thought this call up had to do with a potential trade as well.

An injury would make the most sense - but do we know for sure why Triantos got the call up? 

Transactions page on the official site lists it as Kevin headed to Iowa. Which surprised me a bit! But I guess he's a better runner and a bit more versatile. So small quibbles.

[Papa Cub]

1 hour ago, Jason Ross said:

Transactions page on the official site lists it as Kevin headed to Iowa. Which surprised me a bit! But I guess he's a better runner and a bit more versatile. So small quibbles.

Hmm - interesting for sure. Maybe they feel they’ve seen enough from Alcantara and they have Conforto as the best option for RF/DH.

Plus they can give Triantos some AB for n the bigs - I do wonder if they’re using this as an “audition” for potential trade deal(s)? 
So to your knowledge, Pedro isn’t headed to IL? That was the other question I had. Thanks 🙏 for the reply 

[CubUgly]

21 hours ago, We Got The Whole 9 said:

He swings too much and makes contact with a lot of pitches that he shouldn't. Extremely low walk rate. 

 

You really should start delving into fangraphs someday. 

Nico with less speed and defensive prowess?

[squally1313]

24 minutes ago, CubUgly said:

Nico with less speed and defensive prowess?

and less hitting ability. 

[Jason Ross]

 

[Bertz]

4 minutes ago, Jason Ross said:

 

I mentioned this in the minor league forum, but there was an article last year talking about this.

Basically the team would like to get in the habit of calling these guys up for a week or two at a time and just let them hang out and get comfortable.  They didn't do it last year because the bench was such a god damn disaster it made it difficult.  But they're clearly following through this year.

I'll be interested to see if it helps.  It'd be nice to find ways to not need ~300 PAs to get rookies over the hump.

[Bertz]

I guess too the fact that Triantos is getting one of these type callups tells me he's either about to be traded or they're less disappointed in him internally than we are on the outside.

[chibears55]

16 hours ago, Stratos said:

Interesting.  I wonder if they just want to display Triantos for trade bait, or they genuinely like Triantos better than Alcantara right now.  I'm not sure a week of very limited playing time would change anything in trades through.  They might like Triantos better for pinch-runner purposes.  The bat might be more suitable for pinch-hitting as well with the bat-on-ball skills.  Not easy to maintain a swing with long levers on the bench.

 

Part of me think it could be that teams might be interested in Alcantara, so theyre letting him go back to Iowa to get steady ABs, and/or also maybe yes one of Ramirez and Shaw will likely be traded and Triantos could be their replacement on the roster.

[chibears55]

8 hours ago, Papa Cub said:

That’s what I heard too - to be honest, I originally thought this call up had to do with a potential trade as well.

An injury would make the most sense - but do we know for sure why Triantos got the call up? 

Ramirez is in lineup tonight so hes not injured

[Backtobanks]

1 hour ago, Bertz said:

I guess too the fact that Triantos is getting one of these type callups tells me he's either about to be traded or they're less disappointed in him internally than we are on the outside.

Shaw and Rodiguez have a lot more trade value than Triantos.

[Stratos]

8 hours ago, Bertz said:

I mentioned this in the minor league forum, but there was an article last year talking about this.

Basically the team would like to get in the habit of calling these guys up for a week or two at a time and just let them hang out and get comfortable.  They didn't do it last year because the bench was such a god damn disaster it made it difficult.  But they're clearly following through this year.

I'll be interested to see if it helps.  It'd be nice to find ways to not need ~300 PAs to get rookies over the hump.

I think it's probably as simple as the Cubs just like Triantos better off the bench.  Alcantara doesn't profile well off the bench except for the glove, which isn't really needed much on this team.

Triantos is apparently a solid baserunner who can swipe a bag and can put the ball in play if they need a PH.  Could be a decent bench guy for us going forward if he's not traded.  Has some positional versatility also.

Depends what happens this deadline but I could see Shaw mostly in the OF next year with Pedro and Triantos on the bench.   They could sign a Conforto type and mix and match at the other corner OF/DH, with Mo in the mix at DH.

I think they should trade Alcantara, there's not enough playing time for him here, he needs to play every day on some mediocre team.  He's just a PCA backup really.