craig

6'3" lefty Angel Mejias made his debut, with two perfect innings. He was on BA's list of bonused Latins from last year. Didn't specify how much he received, so as cal has listed "low 6-figures". Of the guys that had been listed as 6-figures players, he was the only one who hadn't played yet this summer. So being a pitcher, I'd wondered if he wasn't injured. So I'm delighted to see him pop up in a box score and pitching effectively. Scouted as a slender 6'3", he's 17, lefty, by report as of last summer touched up to 90. I sometimes remind myself that these Latin reports, when a kid signs when he's 16 as Mejias did, the scouting data is really based on the equivalence of an American junior high/JV guy. Very premature. But I'd think if there was a freshman lefty at my HS who touched 90 and was tall, I'd figure the chance was there that he'd project into a big-league power arm.

Cubs: IF Pin-Chieh Chen, Taiwan - $300,000 bonus Cal has set up an international signing bonus thread on this board, so you can always check.

Rhee bounces back from one of his rare good games with a pasting. 6 runs in the first three innings, although he ended up going 5 and allowing only 10 runners.

cal, thanks for the Liria article. I must say, that's one of the best articles by a local paper that I can remember, more scouting info and input from coach/manager on his stuff than you almost ever find in the local papers. I loved the stuff: the hard consistent 90-95 fastball with sneaky movement, and an out slider. I'm not sure I read it right, I kind of took Rosario's comments to suggest that, while he "can be a starter or a reliever", I almost took his comments to suggest he really projects him to end up as a reliever. But maybe he really did mean he might be a starter or he has enough power to make it as a reliever as well. But the "getting innings" think kind of hinted at the view that they might see him long-term as a two-pitch reliever. I thought the note that he'd only switched to pitching a year before we signed him was also informative. The bit about the stretch problems, hopefully fixable. Or not real; he gave up most of his runs I thought in one bad inning, and that possibly at the end of an outing? Might be that stretch propagated trouble and led to all of that. But could just be coincidence. And the part that all five of his runs were allowed with runners on base, well, duh, other than a solo HR what other chances are there to allow runs without runners on base?

Fantastic. Nice to Malava confirmed, a great-throwing catcher with serious power from both sides is fun. (Obviously throwing and power works only if you can also catch and hit, but fun to imagine how useful that could be if he can do both...) And fun to add another guy who projects as a possible true hitter, a guy who projects to possibly hit and hit with power. Between the draft and the Latin picks, there's a volume of new names who have a chance to develop into middle-of-the-order bats. With Castro and with the focus on CF types, the ability to be a little more corner-willing is refreshing.

Marwin Gonzalez is 22 now, is having a pretty easy time in the PCL. He's hitting .560 at present. He's not a power hitter, but neither is he Darwin Barney. Slightly over 1/3 of his hits this season have been for extra bases, and he's slugging over .450 on the year. .830's type OPS. I think he's going to be a major leaguer. Pugliese three no-hit innings thus far. Not bad early run for an 18-year-old.

One thing that probably had at least a little to do with Peralta's 3 year DSL stint was serving a 50 game suspension for PED's. Granted, Contreras did as well, but Peralta wasn't a bonus baby, so maybe they waited on him as a kind of punishment?..... Thanks, dave. I'd remember Contreras, of course, because he was a known name. I hadn't realized on peralta, since at the time he was just a no-name teen coming off a poor rookie year. That might explain it. Anyway, nice to have him start out well.

Other than Whitenack, Rosscup was daytona's best pitcher. Even when Struck was there. He was good, then he missed most of a month, then he pitched a couple of outings, now he's gone again. Does anybody know what's up with him?

Interesting that Peralta skipped past Liria and got the Peoria spot. 18K/2BB at Mesa is one thing, we'll see how that plays in full-season. He was 67K/19BB last year (67IP), and 22K/4BB two years ago (26IP). I'm kind of curious about his story. His K/BB have always looked nice, but he's always been highly hittable and hasn't had notably good ERA's. Second, the Cubs kept him in DSL for three summers before finally bringing him over. Usually the more favorably-perceived guys come over sooner. So maybe he's a late bloomer, or had some health issues, or wasn't advancing well in his English classes, or something. Or maybe he just wasn't viewed as being that gifted. That was then, it will be interesting to see what he's got now.

Man, lots of crazy jumping around. We'll see with Loosen. This seems to be the kind of thing they do with a guy who happens to be performing well but who they don't really view as much of a prospect. Put him wherever somebody needs him. So if I'm guessing this right, Peoria is left with: Kirk, Jokish, Hicks, Peralta, and del Valle? I won't be surprised if Struck get demolished in the PCL. But, sometimes when you're kind of confident and on a roll, it takes a while to get exposed. Beeler looked pretty decent at Tenn for a bit before getting kind of exposed. Kind of a change for the Mesa team. They'd been using a 4-man rotation, so to lose both Peralta and del Valle will change their look quite a bit.

Thanks much, pitch. INteresting that you note many changes and few curves. In the Peoria newspaper (http://www.pjstar.com/sports/chiefs/x1722639758/Chiefs-Kirk-pitches-no-hitter), Kirk said he was better yesterday because his curve was working, unlike the last several games in which he's been poor. Maybe the the off-speed pitch he's calling a curve and you're calling a change, but it's really the same thing? Just wondering, because sometimes guys have slow curve and harder curve. If he was mostly around 90, that's not overpowering of course but that seems decent. Granted, this was the best night of his life. So maybe on an ordinary day what was 90 yesterday is 87... Perhaps the 96 was sun, perhaps it was a flukey radar mistake. But I wonder if it's also possible that he does let rip a fast 4-seamer once in a while, but because it just isn't a very useful pitch he just ends up working with the 90-mph cutter instead, which locates and moves much better? Anyway, thanks a ton for the report.

Im pretty sure the gun hasn't worked at Peoria all year. I know it wasn't working at the 3 games I've been to this year. Here is an article about Kirk's no hitter, and they talk about his "stuff" a little in it. http://www.chicagonow.com/cubs-den/2011/07/cubs-farmhand-austin-kirk-throws-no-hitter/ I wonder how informed whoever's writing that really is? But it certainly seems fair enough. Although how often he's reached 95 since HS, I wonder. My understanding is that his fast stuff is straight and not that good of a pitch. So even if he could reproduce the occasional 95 that he threw in HS, that he doesn't try much because his 4-seamer isn't worth much. But that instead he lives on his cutter, which has good movement versus both lefties and righties. And his curve.

pitch, thanks for game report. One of the things we've wondered about is whether Kirk is all a location guy, or whether he has a capable fastball. Do they have a stadium gun, and if so can you share what kinds of velocity he might have been reaching? If they do and you can share that, thanks in advance.

OO, is it a lock that he'll play CF as opposed to the Cubs perhaps trying him at 2B? Just curious. 59 walks in 61 games, and 230-some AB. That's a pretty high walk-ratio. A Juan Pierre who walked like Brett Jackson or Matt Cerda could be a useful guy, even if he didn't steal a lot.

May be that they wanted both Wilson Contreras and Geiger to have the ability to play 3B every day. The normal principal is that the lesser prospect defers to the better. Assuming that Contreras was viewed as the better, Contreras got Boise and that meant Geiger got Mesa? The perception of "better" and "lesser" is of course fluid, so Geiger's power hitting and projected size might move him past Contreras, who's power seems projected rather than present. Contreras is really only half a year younger, so age isn't that much of a difference. I do have the sense that what's now is now, but that some perceptions were built during fall instrux and then carried over into XST. I suspect that Geiger didn't hit well earlier, and it wasn't until late in XST that he started to kick in. During many of the XST box scores, it seemed like Contreras was routinely batting 3rd while Geiger was batting 7th, 8th, or 9th, and Contreras was getting more hits while Geiger was K'ing more. But that doesn't seem to be how it's going currently, obviously.

Thanks, dave, I too have been wondering if they had really signed him, or if the report that Toronto had done so would be confirmed. This report twice says the Cubs, the latter time "confirmed", so I'm hoping the Toronto report was bogus (they seem to be signing scads of other guys....), and that indeed the Cubs have gotten him. $1.5, that's a pretty big ticket. Lets hope A that it's true, and B that their valuation is justified and he turns out to be a good player. I've got to give Hendry and Ricketts some credit. You've got a new owner who probably wants to get some traction and success. And a lame-duck GM. You'd think both would understandably wants some NOW success. So to be spending resources on 16-year-old Latin kids who are 8 years away from helping even if they ever do help is showing some nice discipline and long-term wisdom.

Rafael Lopez off to a quick start, hitting .400+ and with a HR already. Most noteworthy to me is only 1 K, 4BB/1K in his 24 AB. I think the draft reports suggested he was fairly gifted defensively, so there's a chance that if he does hit enough, that his defense won't hold him back. He's going to turn 24 this fall, so obviously his start is more necessary than surprising. And he hasn't been getting rusty for real long, since FSY was in the college playoffs for a while. And he's only 5'9", so the kind of HR power that often is needed to float both a good batting average and a good OPS seems somewhat doubtful. But I'm guessing that if he'd started slow, as an approaching-24-year-old, we'd have buried him pretty fast. The fact that he is hitting and making contact right out of the box keeps him on the map at least for now. My guess is that if he keeps producing, he'll get bumped up early enough to experience at least a full month of full-season ball. If he does and keeps hitting, then he might justify some interest. Two other hopeful points. The Cubs were seemingly drafting for talent, for big-league prospects without great concern with signing prices, before and after his selection. So I suspect they did see him as a big-league prospect, not just as an organizational roster-fill player. Second, the fact that he's so old must most certainly have worked against his draft value. Perhaps had he been 21 with no more physical projection left than he has now, he'd have been an 8th round pick and we'd be buzzed about his start and his prospects? But it was because he was so old that people kept passing on him, not because of his talents? We'll see. Would be fun if he's just a capable hitter. Heh, I'm a Cubs fan, so I'm an optimist, why not hope?

Smith was a 40th rounder last year and got a $75,000 signing bonus. The scouting report on him last year was that he works primarily 87-90, along with a solid change and an above-average curve. Thanks, cal. 87-90 is nothing exciting, and usually velocity readings tend to be on the exaggerate side anyway. But he was only 17 last draft spring. Not at all unusual to improve some strength and improve some delivery/mechanics issues after age 17. A lot of lefties with solid change and excellent curve who could be quite useful if they threw mainly in the 89-92 range. So I'll hope that in due time, Smith will end up a couple mph faster than the 87-90 report and will have the potential to end up as a complete pitcher with a decent fastball. Obviously Mesa isn't crawling with great pitchers. But I admit I was surprised when Smith was in the rotation and has stayed in the rotation. Heh, especially since it's like a 4-man rotation. In some past summers, they largely rotated the rotation starts, and there would be 8 or 10 guys starting. I'm possibly over-interpreting, but it's possible that Smith has been consistently starting because he's separated himself some from the other pool of arms that are being used in Mesa relief? Heh, my recall is that Phil reported on an appearance of him last fall, and he gave up about 6 runs in one inning or something at Instrux. So he wasn't even a name I'd had even in the furthest back part of my mind entering this summer. Interesting that Rosario hit 97, that's encouraging. Yesterday was his best outing in a few years, so I assume that's not very consistent. But he's still not quite 21. Very inconsistent, though, and no K's. So I assume that command, movement, and breaking stuff is still wishful thinking rather than progressing favorably.

Cal or others, what do we know about Brian Smith? I know he's 18, Canadian, lefty, not tall, was a 35th rounder or so, so I assume a standard $120-200 guy but I never actually heard. I don't recall any scouting on him either, anybody have anything? I assume standard 80's lefty curveballer.

Man, Texas is all in down there. Amazing. Cubs in past have been faulted for focusing on pitchers, runners, and would-be defenders at the expense of bats and powers. What a difference this month has been. Baez, Vogelbach, now Acosta. Candelerio. Golden. Flaherty. Gretzky. The 8th or 9th rounder from near St. Louis. Vitters. Lemahieu. One certainly can no longer complain under Wilken that they aren't even trying for real bats, power bats, possible middle-of-the-order bats. We'll see if any of these ever work out. But the last guy who was originally signed by the Cubs who started more than 100 games in the 3-4-5 middle of the order spots was Mark Grace. They obviously hope to change that with all of the might-hit-with-power guys they've gone after lately.

It could well be that Wilken and company were wholly justified in picking Simpson where they did. However, there probably will come a point in Simpson's struggles where I have to wonder whether he will ever get back to 100%. Simpson may never get back to that point. As I've said before, I'm willing to give him a pass on this season. He will have the entire offseason to work out, get back into playing shape, and prove himself next season. However, I am concerned. The going assumption has been that he lost all of his stuff because he lost all his strength with mono last year. If so, there's the thought that he will rebuild his strength and will regain his velocity. I guess I have a concern that he'll be able to regain his strength and size, but I wonder if he'll ever regain his velocity, and that their might be something other than mono at issue with his arm. By BA account he was throwing 94 or whatever in his first start in cold Peoria. A couple starts later he came out with a tight shoulder. Young pitchers have arm problems all the time, whether they had mono last year or not. I don't know anything, but I do admit I have a fear that it's an injured arm rather than mono that is killing him. I also admit that the session that sold Wilken on him last year, IIRC he pitched a winning game throwing in the mid/upper 90's on friday or Saturday, and then came back and did that in relief again on Monday. Not normal rest. It's possible that pitching short-rest and high-pitch-counts like that in the playoffs damaged his arm, and the mono has not so much to do with it. Hope it really is all the mono. In any case, by next season I don't think we'll be able to keep blaming it on mono anymore.

I hope so. From Tspain's comment, plus a picture I saw, he looks like he could have some strength and could hit for some power, although of course he didn't actually do so in college. Nor did he steal much. Of course, Szczur was 2 years younger (Easterling is 22, Szczur was 20), and Szczur was picked 20+ rounds sooner. And Szczur we know has basestealing speed/acumen. Most importantly, Szczur has a knack for hitting the ball. Easterling didn't hit much in college. Maybe he'll just show up and be a hitter as a pro. But at FSU his numbers suggest a high-K guy. There are lots of football players who are fast, strong, and coordinated, so they always seem like promising baseball prospects where those same attributes would seem to work. But it's very rare that they can hit. Szczur seems to be unusual in that he can. Hopefully Easterling will be another, in due time.

Kim apparently taken out after his one inning. Sick? INjured? Discipline? I've kind of suspected he wasn't really healthy for some time. Phil reported some arm problems last year, and I haven't gotten the impression that he's thrown with the arm that the Cubs liked enough to spend a million on. Koreans who have had arm problems, usually including surgery: Lee (TJ), Dong, Rhee, Jung. No problems: little Na. Didn't Ha have some arm trouble, back when they had him catching? If Kim has arm problem, it would seem to be the Korean normal, rather than anything surprising.

I believe that since Jackson's hot April, that he's hitting .204 or something like that since. Ugly.