TruffleShuffle

that was definitely all him? seems odd to have a high school draftee face throw that many pitches in the season opener.

nice report. i think i remember reading in baseball america that his arm is his weakest tool, which would mesh with your evaluation of him. as for TL guys, i'll take a look through the league rosters. arkansas: not much else there. watch loek van mil, just because you'll be watching the tallest pitcher in baseball history. corpus christi: astros' system is lousy but some of their prospects are here. probably the most interesting guy to me is 2B jose altuve, who's like 5'5" and is hated by scouts, but he's been destroying the ball this year (.398/.438/.613/1.051 at two levels). even with poor physical appearance, you have to take notice when a 21 year old guy puts up those numbers at high A and AA. j. villar (ss) was one of their better prospects coming into this year; just based on stats he's been overmatched since his promotion to AA, but he's only 20. j.d. martinez (of) was one of their top 10 prospects according to BP; he's hit for a pretty empty good average so far this year. frisco: martin perez (sp) is regarded as one of the best pitching prospects in baseball. engel beltre (of) is supposed to have great tools, but hasn't hit since reaching AA. tommy mendonca (3b) has put up good numbers; don't know much about him. robbie erlin (sp) had video game numbers (54 ip, 5 bb, 62 k) at high A; he's been more hittable since reaching AA but still shows great command and is young for the level. midland: grant green (ss) was a high draft pick but has been mediocre this year. steven parker (3b) was #10 prospect coming into this year. jeremy barfield isn't much of a prospect, but he's another one of the barfield clan. will get to the rest another time.

i'd probably agree with the names though maybe i'd have a different order. taillon it's so hard to say because he's only pitched a small handful of games as a high school draftee. i'd probably put moore ahead of taillon and maybe ahead of miller. teheran was most people's #1 coming into this year and aside from a couple of mediocre big league starts, he hasn't done anything to lose that evaluation. jacob turner has also been very good at AA, putting up a 2.94 ERA so far at age 20. he hasn't been as dominant as miller but just as effective.

szczur didn't do anything, but i really like his contact skills... only k'ing in about 10% of his plate appearances since signing with the cubs. for a guy who played football at a high level through high school and college, i think that augurs well... you'd expect him to be a bit more raw with the bat since he lacks the experience of playing year-round and focusing solely on baseball.

As a team, they drew 12 walks yesterday. Is that normal in this league? one would assume that is not normal for any league. many young latin american players are fairly raw, meaning that pitchers lack command but hitters lack patience. it's been nice watching our big-bonus guys from latin america performing well so far. i miss carlos henry, who made an error a game after signing a decent-sized bonus. whatever happened to that catcher/3b (contreras) we signed for 750k? I never saw anything more than 1 tweet on July 2 regarding Contreras' bonus. If he did sign for $750k, I bet we would have heard much more. He probably signed for a big bonus but it was probably in the $250k range and the $750k was just a product of rumors flying everywhere. This happened with Francisco Sanchez who was reported to have signed for around $600k on July 2 but when the dust had settled, he had signed for $350k. the guy from espn deportes said he signed for 850k. would be nice to know how much they dropped on him. chances are they're not too thrilled with their investment so far, considering the steroid suspension and poor defense.

su-min jung has been pretty lousy this year... we haven't really gotten much out of the far east pitchers we've been signing.

boise's starting lineup: pin-chieh chen, cf (age 19) vismeldy bieneme, 2b (age 21) willson contreras, 3b (age 19) paul hoilman, 1b (age 22) yaniel cabeza, c (age 22) reggie golden, rf (age 18) wes darvill, ss (age 19) dj fitzgerald, dh (age 22 - why is he still around?) ben klafczynski, lf (age 22) ben wells, sp

some guy hit his 4th hr in just 12 games for DSL cubs 1, but he's 19 and his K rate was appalling the last two years, so it's probably nothing. it's always a bummer to see a guy hitting really well and showing some power, then clicking on his name and finding out he's a 24 year old from cuba. rusin got knocked around in his first inning and was pulled. not sure if it's something physical; it doesn't seem like his first inning was so bad that he should've been removed.

he had a game in may where he threw 120 pitches. i have him as a keeper in a fantasy league and was not at all happy about that.

(a) nobody gives a [expletive] that your sports teams lose (b) your [expletive] nfl team just won the super bowl shut up you dumb douche

two guys i acquired in the halladay trade were in the top 3 of the BA prospect hot sheet this week (shelby miller, kipnis) while the prospect i sent back was #6. so far i'd think that trade has been a win for both sides.

the weird part about his numbers is that he strikes out a TON of guys (12.38 K/9 IP) but he is sort of hittable (155 H in 172 IP). most guys who miss that many bats have really low hit rates (like matt moore). i guess it's probably just a command thing; his walk rate is only okay and maybe he just misses his spot in the strike zone too frequently. could also be a sample size thing, or maybe he has bad defenses behind him. either way, i'd sure as hell take a guy who is dominating AA at age 20. he's gotta be in the discussion for best pitching prospect in the minors (others - matt moore, julio teheran, who am i missing?)

general discussion thread for prospects who aren't in the cubs' system and have never been in the cubs' system. some guys i like: -bryce harper (duh... d-bag but going to be a beast) -mike trout (again, duh... question to me is whether he's an above-average player or a superstar. can see him being a superstar because he doesn't have elite power but secondary skills are more important in the post-everyone-is-on-steroids era). -shelby miller (not looking forward to him beating up on the cubs for the next 5-10 years) -matt moore (should be fun watching him miss a lot of bats... also has sliced BB/9 IP rate from 5.1 to 3.8 to 2.8 the last 3 years) -just about every prospect in the royals' system. -billy hamilton - i'm not all that high on him, i just think it's awesome that he tries to steal every time he reaches base. he has 50 SB in 60 games this year, with a .291 OBP. -dee gordon - again, i'm not all that high on him... was at a phillies-dodgers game and he pinch ran for a guy who singled in the 9th inning. it was 3-0 and the phillies were not really concerned about him, but i swear he would've had a decent chance of scoring on a routine single to cf. extremely fast but needs to improve rest of his game.

It looks like it. One thing is sure, his fastball has a couple ticks more MPH on it this year, and the good tailing action he lost two years ago appears to be back. Control/command has been the only real issue this year. I try not to be encouraged by all things Samardzija... but... I am. that has always been the issue. the ball ends up a foot from where he's aiming, so it's often outside the strike zone where it's taken for a ball, or right down the middle where it gets hammered.

we don't have a thread that talks about other teams' prospects, but this one is at least prospects that don't play for the cubs. anyway, rays' lefty matt moore threw a no-hitter yesterday, walking 2 and striking out 11. his numbers on the year: 77.2 ip, 52 h, 21 er, 23 bb, 103 k, 2.43 era. he's a beast.

=D>

I feel like that's been the story of his career since leaving the White Sox the first time. He's become Livan Hernandez. in girth as well as pitching ability.

carpenter has a legitimate big-league arm, which makes him better than the usual dregs that we trot out there (berg, stevens, etc). he may lack command right now, but he can miss bats.

i'm pretty sure a significant percentage of chicago sportswriters get a semi when a scrappy white guy bunts for a hit.

probably mostly yankee fans incredulous that their team is being shut out by [expletive] doug davis

I am sure they have some great battles that we will never see and it will only make each of them better. Cael is just hitting his prime as a wrestler and could easily go 2012 and 16 olympics. I didn't know the World Trials are in OKC this weekend. Hmmm, wife will be gone kids have a sleep over, I may have t tell my wife I am going to OKC (4 hours) to look for a new pick-up for her business. you'd lie to your wife like that? guess those kids you teach can't trust you either.

jeez. either i haven't been paying attention or michigan hasn't mattered for a while. probably a little of both.

This is addressed in the rules thread. A player is minor league eligible until the first time he has more than 200 at bats (not plate appearances) in a season. Ramos will likely lose minor league eligibility within the next few weeks but he still has it for now. ah okay. so if, say, anthony rizzo bats 199 times this season then can i keep him in the offseason as a minor league keeper?

btw if anyone has lousy OF/util or RP, i'd still like to trade ichiro/markakis and papelbon/valverde. not elite production but can help make the playoffs. prefer to acquire draft picks unless a prospect were included who represented an upgrade from my current prospects (who are very good) also would trade either of my decent SP (mcclellan, pavano) for a mid-round pick.

what are the rules about keepers for next year? if a guy uses up his rookie status, does that mean he needs to be kept as a major league keeper? (and counts against your allotted 10) also, someone in our league has wilson ramos in the minor leagues, which really shouldn't be allowed since he hasn't been in the minor leagues all year and has almost 200 PA's in the majors.