Minor League Discussion & Boxes, 8-18-26

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Scheduled Games (Central Time):

Iowa at Toledo, 5:35 pm
Knoxville at Pensacola, 6:05 pm
South Bend vs. West Michigan 6:05 pm
Myrtle Beach vs. Fayetteville, 6:05 pm
DSL Cubs Blue vs. DSL Tigers 1, 10:00 am - season finale (clinched a playoff spot)
DSL Cubs Red at DSL Pirates Black, 10:00 am - season finale

Probable Starters:

Iowa: LHP Braxton Garrett
Knoxville: RHP Dawson Netz
South Bend: RHP Jostin Florentino
Myrtle Beach: RHP Kevin Camacho

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

Conrad not in the lineup yet 

[Funky-daddy]

Yikes Garrett with another bad game 

[CaliforniaRaisin]

 

[Jason Ross]

1 minute ago, CaliforniaRaisin said:

 

That'll be a fun 1-2 someday. I hope.

[Bertz]

Jostin Florentino had a ROUGH initial go of it at South Bend.  But his last 9 starts covering 2 months:

38.2 IP, 3.02 ERA, 50 K (32.9%), 15 BB (9.9%)

It's not all sunshine, 8 dongs allowed.  But kind of like Mule it feels like we're seeing a lot more good than bad even if I wouldn't consider the level conquered yet.  And like Mule he's still perfectly young, if he was an American college kid he'd have been drafted last month.

[craig]

Cabada a couple more hits today.  

Heh heh, Kepley steals a base and scores TWO runs in the first, with a walk and a HBP.  

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

2 hours ago, Bertz said:

Jostin Florentino had a ROUGH initial go of it at South Bend.  But his last 9 starts covering 2 months:

38.2 IP, 3.02 ERA, 50 K (32.9%), 15 BB (9.9%)

It's not all sunshine, 8 dongs allowed.  But kind of like Mule it feels like we're seeing a lot more good than bad even if I wouldn't consider the level conquered yet.  And like Mule he's still perfectly young, if he was an American college kid he'd have been drafted last month.

Need to see him in AA. Don't see how he's gonna hold up with his velo

[CaliforniaRaisin]

 

[lfg26]

1 hour ago, craig said:

Cabada a couple more hits today.  

Heh heh, Kepley steals a base and scores TWO runs in the first, with a walk and a HBP.  

Kepley scoring runs?? Doubtful... lol

[lfg26]

1 hour ago, Tangled Up in Plaid said:

Need to see him in AA. Don't see how he's gonna hold up with his velo

Kyle Hendricks didn't turn out that bad. If I'm remembering correctly, Hendricks never could quite get above like 9th or 10th in terms of his ranking in terms of Cubs prospects, all because of his low velo. Not saying that Florentino is gonna be Hendricks, but I am saying that it has happened. Low velo pitchers with great deception/pitch shapes/control are not gonna have anything given to them, but if they continue to get guys out as they go up the ranks, that's all that really should matter. 

Edited yesterday at 06:38 AM by lfg26

[muntjack]

I feel like some guys should never be used as comps, because they are essentially unicorns.  

[Jason Ross]

6 hours ago, lfg26 said:

Kyle Hendricks didn't turn out that bad. If I'm remembering correctly, Hendricks never could quite get above like 9th or 10th in terms of his ranking in terms of Cubs prospects, all because of his low velo. Not saying that Florentino is gonna be Hendricks, but I am saying that it has happened. Low velo pitchers with great deception/pitch shapes/control are not gonna have anything given to them, but if they continue to get guys out as they go up the ranks, that's all that really should matter. 

Things have happened, yes, but I think the context about why they happened is important. First, Hendricks had an amazing changeup and was a command artist. He also played 10-15 years ago; right before the velocity wars started. Today, Bailey Ober and Martin Perez are the only two SP who average under 90 mph (with 100 IP). There were 23 in 2016, a decade ago. He also got a massive amount of groundballs; he got 57% groundouts at Double-A and his best years had him overing around 47-50% at MLB! Florintno is a decent groundball guy around 44% on the full season but hasn't shown that level yet.

I think we just need to put Kyle Hendricks in a box. We all know what he did but the likelihood Florintino, or frankly, any SP is going to be such a massive outlier in today's game is just so damn unlikely.

And that isn't to bash Florintino or say he can't succeed. The shape of his fastball gives me some hope that you can mold him into something. I just think we need to retire the "Well Kyle Hendricks did it!" argument I see so often when we talk about someone who doesn't have the velo. There's so much more that went into Hendrick's game. Ultimately, I think using it both makes us overlook some flaws in prospects while diminishing what made Hendricks so damn good that I think it's unfair to all involved. 

[craig]

We know Florentino isn't a power pitcher.  But do you guys have info on where he's at now?  You mention Ober/Perez as under-90 guys.  Is it our understanding that Florentino is still sub-90? 

Also, do we actually know what his injury was this spring?  I ask, because if a guy needs a velo-bump, perhaps being injured all winter interfereds with Zombro's velo optimization training.  So, like, maybe that got stalled for this winter past, but might have a fresh opportunity for full focus this upcoming winter?  

[Jason Ross]

4 minutes ago, craig said:

We know Florentino isn't a power pitcher.  But do you guys have info on where he's at now?  You mention Ober/Perez as under-90 guys.  Is it our understanding that Florentino is still sub-90? 

Also, do we actually know what his injury was this spring?  I ask, because if a guy needs a velo-bump, perhaps being injured all winter interfereds with Zombro's velo optimization training.  So, like, maybe that got stalled for this winter past, but might have a fresh opportunity for full focus this upcoming winter?  

Florintino sits around 90mph and can run to the low 90's. The run is good, but the velo isn't. I used the sub-90 thing to kind of remind us about Hendricks, not about Florintino as much. I just think we need to stop relying on a comp of a player that just isn't a modern comp any more. 

What Hendricks did was awesome. But he's an extreme outlier. 

[Bertz]

I think if you want to dream you're looking at like Logan Webb.  He's a side-armer who sits 92-93.  He basically gets righties out with funk and then lefties out with his stellar changeup.  And Webb's change is like a 70 or 80 grade pitch so that's not to yada yada over Jostin acquiring one but that is the dream scenario.

Ryan Thompson is a side-armer with similar velo, but he's a sinkerballer.  So something like that but more whiff oriented than GB oriented?

Edited 19 hours ago by Bertz

[CaliforniaRaisin]

3 hours ago, craig said:

We know Florentino isn't a power pitcher.  But do you guys have info on where he's at now?  You mention Ober/Perez as under-90 guys.  Is it our understanding that Florentino is still sub-90? 

Also, do we actually know what his injury was this spring?  I ask, because if a guy needs a velo-bump, perhaps being injured all winter interfereds with Zombro's velo optimization training.  So, like, maybe that got stalled for this winter past, but might have a fresh opportunity for full focus this upcoming winter?  

No velo bump this year. Florentino is still 90-92.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

The weird thing about Florentino is his sweeper gets a lot of good results in A-ball but it's so slow (low-to-mid 70s). That's probably not going to work in the majors.