craig

Think Theo said it was up to Joe what coaches would return. And it was earlier in the week, or perhaps last week, that Joe said he expected to bring all his coaches back. So, within 10 days or less, something changed.

1. I think the question of whether or not the Cubs "guess-hit" more than is optimal, or usual, is a good and fascinating question. 2. As Tim followed up, it would be interesting, and difficult, to try to quantify that. 3. I agree that I'm fine with what management decides, whether to keep Mallee or make a switch. 4. I hypothesize that guess-hitting might be less effective against better pitchers? The more good pitches that a pitcher has to choose from, probably the less chance to guess correctly? Might be a lot easier to guess correctly from a Reds pitcher than from a Dodger? 5. I think Baez is a major guess-hitter. 6. Agree with point that we tend to remember the "bad guesses". 7. Cubs have invested their developmental draft picks and resources into players, not pitchers. When the team philosophy has prioritized players, then if the team is going to be the best in baseball, it might depend on the hitting being the best in baseball.

I wouldn't. Thinks Cubs can and should be VERY patient with their prospects. They've got so few of them that have any potential significant value, those few they have they need to develop as patiently and optimally as possible. If he's got any possible capacity to end up as a serviceable 3rd starter, I'd rather take the time for that even if it takes a little longer than bringing him up faster as a reliever. Need to produce some capable starting players, and as modest as that chance may be with de la Cruz, I think it's still less unlikely for him than it is for most of the other guys in the system. Not like Myrtle or Tennessee are going to both have 5 better long-term starting-pitcher candidates, I don't think. For similar reasons I'll still keep him in top-10.

Agree with that perception. His walks are low, but doesn't appear be spotting the ball. Some of the "misses" seem to miss variably badly.

Brailyn shutout through 5.

Agree with the "no one has separated" point. This isn't like Eloy versus the rest. Hatch, Rucker, Alzolay, Albertos, Tseng, Lange, not at all clear which of those RHP will be the best, or which will actually make it as a rotation guy. Hopefully from quantity comes quality. And hopefully from quantity will come quantity. One thing I always appreciate from Tom's posts on pitchers is his attention to the HR-rates. That's a real and such an important thing.

Two things: 1. My point 2 was wrong. He mentioned Rucker, yes. But he ALSO mentioned Hatch, as a sinker/slider guy. 2. Cubswin: You watched Tseng pitch a couple of starts ago, when he had a good outing. Does MacLeod's reference to Tseng with a 90-93 fastball seem representative from what you saw/recall? Or is that a little scouting-director exaggeration/hype? Or maybe "90-93" is really more what he tops at most starts, as opposed to where he typically throws his fastball most starts? Or does that 90-93 seem in line with what you saw? Or is it just not even hardly relevant? If he's throwing 90 pitches, and 35 are curveballs, 25 are cutters, 15 are changes, and only 15 are regular fastballs, do you even notice them and does it matter much if they are coming in at 90 versus 92 or 93? Or if there are 25 cutters, 10 2-seamers, and five 4-seam fastballs, how can you even notice or remember?

Think most successful pitchers have one excellent pitch. Not sure is Tseng has any. Maybe his change is. But I think if you can locate/spot your fastball when needed, and then mix that in with three other pitches (change/curve/cutter), that gives a diversity of pitches to work with and mix up. If you can control, you can win a lot of starts with that. Having something like that as your 6th starter in Iowa next year could be useful. Or, using a guy like that as 5th starter to replace Lackey's $32/2 contract, while focusing your Lackey/Arrieta/Montero/Koji/Anderson money on one one above-average starter, might make some value too.

From friend on other board: McCloud was on the Score. When questioned about the pitching in the lower minors, he singled out Tseng as a guy at AAA. He mentioned that Tseng was 90-93 with a cutter and excellent change up. At AA he mentioned Alzozay and that he threw harder than Tseng. McLoud when he got to lower minors mentioned Rucker. Things I found interesting: 1. May be that Cubs like Tseng better than the board does, and take him seriously. Not sure whether Jason would bother to detail Tseng's stuff if he's perceived as just an AAAA no-stuff guy who's not going to fit into our pitching top-ten. I didn't know he was a cutter guy, myself. Obviously 90-93 fastball isn't very fast, and he's a soft-toss finesse guy. But the ability to locate/command a 90-93 fastball as needed, and use that as a change-up relative to cutter/change/curve, that's an arsenal of different speeds and movements that a guy can perhaps pitch with. Think we've tended to write Tseng off as a no-stuff guy; but maybe his recent and season-composite success is telling us that his stuff is enough and diverse enough to work? 2. Thought it interesting that he mentioned Rucker from Myrtle, rather than Hatch or Steele.

I don't much care about ranking top 2 or top 5. That seems very much the collection of guys who are rotation candidates overall, other than rookie-league and DSL Latins. That's not a great pool, but there is some volume of interesting guys. And I'm optimistic that we've got a development group that can handle them well. Those are 14 names, and health permitting there's a chance that 13 of them, all but Estrada, will be in full-season next year. You've got some guys to draw from for injury-replacement; roster-yo-yo; and potential back-of-rotation guy. I think it's fun, and hope we get lucky with that pool. Very optimistic.

Thanks, win. For Rucker report especially, comfortable 94 with location, that sets up a lot of good counts and would be a fastball you can throw for a lot of strikes, and sometimes outs. A lot of breaking balls and changes are also a lot better when guys expect fastball, or when you've used fastball to get them into defensive 2-strike chase counts. Sounds like a guy. Seems to me also that sometimes stats can tell you something about stuff. If a guy is consistently getting outs, that maybe says it's not luck and that there's a stuff-based reason? So, Camargo has no fastball, is that what you're saying? Basically living on the change? Or is the fastball average with control, even if you don't see much curve? Just to be a wildly optimistic guy, I'm often a believe that a guy who can command a fastball, sometimes those guys have a capacity to develop breaking pitches over time and as need arrises. Guys who start out wild with the fastball, tougher fight, I think.

All the power and XBH has been really an unexpected delight. Very fun.

Hudson with perfect game through 5. Ryan Kelley didn't have a perfect game, gave up 5 runs in the first and got knocked out. The poor guy has allowed 39 hits in his last 14 innings over his last 5 starts!

CubsWin, thanks for Tseng scouting report. The curious thing with him is that his walks are so low. The fastball is the easiest pitch to throw for strikes, the curve and the change the hardest. Pretty weird to have an all-offspeed-all-the-time guy walk so few. As you say, a lot of curveballers can look pretty good on curveball-is-on days. But how badly do you die on days when the curveball is off? And how many of those days are there? Will be interesting to see where he goes future. Could easily imagine bouncing around as a long-term 4A guy. But could also imagine just being a pitcher, a good enough pitcher to make it to the majors and stick in some capacity.

Wow. Weird. That would be cool if he could magically fix that problem.

Anderson gives up a 5-run 3rd. Jose Paulino, after starting year on DL and then pitching poorly when he was eventually activated, has now sequenced several good starts together. Would be fun to imagine him becoming a useful prospect, and that perhaps the early bad outings were his "spring training", and this is the real guy.

1. Paredes has really been looking good as a hitter. I wondered about the power pre-season; we age-assumed some power would come, but would it actually? It has, just as age-based normal. 2. Defense: I know it's not modern and fashionable to give any consideration defensively to errors. Sophisticated people kind of laugh at people who act as if errors are a measure of defensive effectiveness. Still, every error made is a lost out, And 10 extra errors can kind of neutralize the value of 10 extra highlight-reel plays. No idea how his range is, but Paredes has made only 6 errors. Their really is value in a guy who can consistently make the routine play. And I think a guy who doesn't make errors probably has innate hands and coordination that doesn't need to be taught; that kind of guy will probably have an easier time being reliable as a multi-position player, or in adapting to a switch to 2B or 3B. *Zach short, the college veteran, has 17. *Gleyber had 26 his year in Midwest, in not quite 3/2 as many games. *Baez, 19 in the Midwest league, had 15 errors in about 2/3 as many games. 3. Size/build: "stout middle infielder" is what article said. There have been multiple references to Paredes being "thickly built", etc. Obviously he's not Carl Edwards or Ademan, and he won't have as much future "filling out" added strength. But after seeing the occassional game clip and stuff this summer, he isn't nearly as "stout" or "thick" as I was expecting. he seems just fine to me. is he going to be fast or transition to CF, obviously no. Is he going to physically grow into way more future BP power, no. But he certainly doesn't "eyeball" as "stout" or as having a weight problem. Not nearly as big as Baez, for example. I'm not saying he's going to be an asset defensive big-league SS; the bar there is extraordinarily high. But I'm thinking the "stout" stuff as the standard part of the narrative is overblown.

16K/1BB over last 10 innings. Is this the short stocky Mexican guy who supposedly has a decent fastball and sometimes curve? Was used and decent in a Mexcian league at 18, then kind of went backwards last year? Did he cost anything? Wondering if he's JAG who's happening to put up some numbers against short-season. Or if he might be a big-league prospect. Anybody have any insights or thoughts on him? Cubswin, thanks for notes on Morel the other day. Might be a good hitting prospect, if he adds strength. Hmm, 11 errors in 23 games isn't super encouraging defensively.

Same.

Think I'd rather get a good 1st rounder. O well.

Agree with Dave. The only other "conspiracy theory" option, other than injury, would be that the Cubs don't want to tell Estrada. If they announce/leak what Lange gets, Estrada'a advisor might then be free to demand every dollar left. But if Estrada comes to terms and agrees and signs, and Lange is further under than Estrada could count on, that might free a few extra bucks for whatever use they might have.

Yes, thanks also. win, I believe Az Phil has noted in past that Maples delivery doesn't have much deception, and his take (this may have been a 2016 comment) was that his fastball (at that time) didn't have much movement? So, the sense was that while the fastball had velocity, it still was pretty hittable. Not as excellent or valuable a weapon as one might assume based on velocity. Does that makes sense, or seem to jive with what you've seen? I may be misremembering, so forgive me in advance, I don't want to be attributing observations to Phil that weren't actually his, and that I've misremembered and twisted/fabricated in my own fuzzy memory. And even if I am kinda remembering sorta accurately, even then a post from over 12 months ago based on observations that precede that may not represent current realities, so who knows. Even this year, in Maples breakout year at age 25, he's still got bad walk-rates. Not sure whether his command issues will prevent him from ever having any lasting success in the majors. Would really be a cool story if he did end up having lasting success. Maybe a chance to be a wilder version of Grimm?

Obviously in Estrada case, he can't sign till Lange does. That would be the mistake that Houston made couple summers back.

Yeah, no way he pitches again this summer. I'd figure him for A+ next spring, assuming he looks healthy and OK in camp.

Lange 8K/4BB/2hits over 7.1. Walked in a run in the 3rd, that was it, and was apparently cruising down the stretch, I believe got last 8 guys and 12 of last 13. Kendall Rogers said he K'd the last guy in the 7th with a 93 mph fastball.