toonsterwu

Same here. I think we all debated it earlier in the year, why he was the number 1 lefty, and most reasonable response seemed to be that Antigua as a starter wasn't significantly better than the others, and he might be a better lefty pen arm. Not the best argument to me, but it was the most logical one, it seemed. I mean ... we've got the poor man's Antigua (I think AzPhil phrased it that way once, or something similar) starting in Daytona (Del Valle), and 4 soft-tossing lefties from A+-AAA that don't have Antigua's velo. You'd figure with a solid 3 pitch mix, he'd get a longer look. (that said, my bet is that MiLB made a mistake. I have a hard time buying that Raley would get benched now ... unless he was getting sent to Iowa?) I had him pegged as the minor league pitcher of the year last year if not for Beliveau. I really liked the peripherals he put up as a 21 year old in A+. I'm wondering if they wanted to limit the amount of innings he threw this year. If he gets about 18 starts through the end of the year, he would finish up approaching 130 IP which is a pretty good escalation from last year's 97 IP. Hmm ... that does make sense from a timing perspective. Here's hoping. Harman is up in AA and can be the main lefty, and if they need another one, they could bump up Jokisch and thus, clear any issues about the A+ rotation as well. Interesting. Hadn't really pondered that.

Speaking of AJ Morris, whatever happened to Graham Hicks the other arm in the Gorzellany trade? He disappeared last year with an elbow injury, but I haven't heard anything since. TJ surgery? Last I heard, still rehabbing. Maybe someone should pop over and ask AzPhil. Really liked what I saw out of Hicks a few years ago.

dang, had to check the damn score before i leave. Guess they got to Francescon in the 7th. Looks like 7 ip, 6 h, 2 bb, 5 r, 1 unearned, 5 K's, 1 HR. Not a bad start when you consider he was rolling through 6. edit: nvm ... looks like MiLB screwed up and the 7th was Hayden Simpson's doing. Nice start for Francescon.

Total aside, but no need to feel so chippy (saw the comment you deleted about vaguely specific scouting reports). We're on a site talking about baseball. Not exactly the most important thing in the world. I type fast, and I type a lot ... every sports site that I've been on knows that I don't type like kids do these days, with shorthand of some sort. I mean, you can go on Sickels and see my insanely long Cubs write-up for an insanely long post I made sports related (although I actually started that at the end of the season, so it really wasn't like I sat down and did that in one writing). I apologize if you find my length of typing to be offensive ... but seriously, relax. It isn't you ... I just picked up CR's discussion on Raley/Rosario. I'd do that on a number of other topics as well. It's people talking about baseball. I don't find it offensive, keep doing it. Ita fun to chip (what's that?) at but this place is better for it. Why even bring up the deletion? I took that out because I thought it was smarmy and really all scouting reports end up being more vague and generic than wanted/expected. Plus, don't you notice that I type many words as well? I've been on Sickels forever (I created the first successful/tasteful thread about religion on the Internet there back when it was newish) and I was SenorGato on BCB last year. Words are fun and I like good debate (which those [expletive] at BCB don't offer, it's a gang mentality in there), especially baseball. I figured you were SenorGato ... just wasn't a big enough issue for me to ask (largely because your comments on Archer seemed very similar in wording to your comments on Archer over at Sickels).

A better Cubs related comp might be someone like Mike Fontenot. I think he's better than Fontenot, but again, I have bias (as a UVA fan) (and looking at Fontenot's career numbers, they were better than I thought ... ). Did pretty well in one of the summer leagues, forget which one right now. Anyhow, totally my bias talking there. Most sites have Chris Taylor as the better UVA infield prospect and a possible top 3 round pick (wouldn't mind if the Cubs picked him in the 3rd/4th as a hopefully cheaper college sign).

Nice start for Francescon. Love that he's still getting groundball outs (9:2 GO/FO ... guess we gotta wait to see what the percentage is, as I haven't been following, but I figure it's been good). 3 h, 1 bb in 6, 5 K's, 2 R's (1 solo shot, 1 unearned due to another Alcantara error). He's been one of the bright spots in the system this year, that's for sure. Here's hoping he can keep it up.

I assume it was the Tennessee recap? Anyhow, interesting. Despite the Raley conversation of late, I see no reason why they would bump Raley from the rotation right now (unless he got bumped up to Iowa) if they thought Antigua didn't deserve a rotation spot out of spring. It'd be interesting, that's for sure.

Same here. I think we all debated it earlier in the year, why he was the number 1 lefty, and most reasonable response seemed to be that Antigua as a starter wasn't significantly better than the others, and he might be a better lefty pen arm. Not the best argument to me, but it was the most logical one, it seemed. I mean ... we've got the poor man's Antigua (I think AzPhil phrased it that way once, or something similar) starting in Daytona (Del Valle), and 4 soft-tossing lefties from A+-AAA that don't have Antigua's velo. You'd figure with a solid 3 pitch mix, he'd get a longer look. (that said, my bet is that MiLB made a mistake. I have a hard time buying that Raley would get benched now ... unless he was getting sent to Iowa?)

It's usually one of the more accurate stats when translating collegiate/HS hitters to pro-ball. If they have high Ks there, more than likely it's going to carry over. Sure ... I mean, even the most optimistic of us out there probably pegged him as a 25-30% K guy. I just don't think anyone thought it would get as bad as it's getting right now (44% in the last 10). I am hoping/expecting that he'll get hot again, K's will drop a bit, and make his season K% roughly passable. I figure, it's probably just a pretty bad stretch for him, and he's probably over-thinking at the plate and pressing a bit, but it's pretty ugly right now.

For the most part, last year,he topped out in the low 90's. I had a couple late season reports saying he was able to get to 93 (topping out), which isn't a significant difference, but was the highest I had ever heard him at. Off the top right now, solid slider, decent change, although maybe it's the other way around. Should add that was what he did as a starter. Not sure what he's throwing from the pen this year.

Don't want to drag too far off topic from this thread's purpose here, but I really should reiterate ... I'm really not a big fan of Jae-Hoon Ha (and I admittedly did not realize he played some XST CF) and Jose Rosario (who I've said before I think wiill become a pen arm). I guess ... it's the old debater in me .... ____

This is totally my bias talking, but if the Cubs want a polished college IF that can play multiple positions, I'm still a big fan of Stephen Bruno of UVA. Guy can hit, solid approach, and some pop. I think he can play short ... but it's a challenge to assess him as a shortstop prospect as of now because he isn't playing it (easy to forget that he was actually the favorite at shortstop before he got hurt). Plays 3rd, may profile best at 2nd. Reminds me a bit of a better Phil Gosselin (from UVA). Sounds like he's a top 10 round guy, and perhaps top 6 (still prefer him to Chris Taylor overall ... I think Taylor moves off short eventually, and if we're comparing them at 2nd or 3rd, I give Bruno's bat the edge).

Define "prospect" in your usage there. I don't think he's a "system arm" just yet (which was what I argued a few weeks back in one of these posts) ... although he's teetering dangerously close to it. He's not, for me, say, on a top 40 list of guys to pay attention to, and with all the youngsters, maybe not top 50 or 60. Oh, Samson started the year in AA. Decent line in limited AB's. I completely missed why he got bumped to AAA. Probably some side-effect of the Cardenas/DeWitt swap? Too lazy to check that one.

Total aside, but no need to feel so chippy (saw the comment you deleted about vaguely specific scouting reports). We're on a site talking about baseball. Not exactly the most important thing in the world. I type fast, and I type a lot ... every sports site that I've been on knows that I don't type like kids do these days, with shorthand of some sort. I mean, you can go on Sickels and see my insanely long Cubs write-up for an insanely long post I made sports related (although I actually started that at the end of the season, so it really wasn't like I sat down and did that in one writing). I apologize if you find my length of typing to be offensive ... but seriously, relax. It isn't you ... I just picked up CR's discussion on Raley/Rosario. I'd do that on a number of other topics as well. It's people talking about baseball.

As an aside first, Parker's a different pitcher this year. He's going to the 2-seamer and the change-up a lot more to lessen his stress. That said, there were definite concerns on his mechanics/arm action. One argument out there dealt with his arm action, IIRC (could be wrong), and another was that the arm action was fine (not superb, but fine), but that he had poor foot placement, or weight transfer, or something else that led to problems and increased stress. I haven't paid attention to Parker in awhile, so I don't recall the specifics, but there was some concern a couple years ago. Edit: So, on google, the only things I found right now were a) A critique of his weight transfer. Lauded his arm action but said that the poor weight transfer was a big issue. Also critiqued his follow through. http://baseballinstinct.com/2010/05/18/prospect-instinct-jarrod-parker/ b) A comment Parker made post-surgery to Adam Foster. Seems to sort of jive with baseballinstincts concerns on his transfer and follow through. http://projectprospect.com/article/2010/12/17/jarrod-parker-interview-part-1 ____ Maybe I'm thinking of someone else on arm action concerns, but that's probably the gist of the mechanical concerns I was thinking of. I'll spend a few seconds digging after my conference call.

I legitimately flinched when I saw the 0/5 with 4 K's for BJax. Ouch. Rhee with an ... eh game. Struggled a bit in the first. His struggles remind me a bit of his struggles to start last year. Here's hoping that he gets it going in the summer, like last year. On the plus side, nice win for Daytona. Shame Loosen got a ND - excellent outing by him, got beat by Flores on one pitch. Szczur/Alcantara each with 2 hits (but Alcantara had 3 K's).

I guess Diekroeger in the 3rd is fine, but he really doesn't intrigue me. Heck, I'd rather take Chris Taylor from UVA (and despite being a UVA fan ... I've never really understood the fuss on Taylor).

Oy, hope not, but yeah, it's a possible outcome. Stubbs defense in CF is a bit overrated, IMO (not sure what the advanced metrics say). The fact that Jackson walks more should help him be slightly better overall.

Even I can't defend the K's anymore, and lord knows I tried on Sickels site for a year or so there. Even if he's over-thinking it, as I've heard, this is still bad, no matter how you slice it. There isn't even a built in Torreyes "positive spin on something bad" aspect (in Torreyes case, the fact that he's not striking out and poor BABIP). I sort of wish that they would sit him for a few days, but that won't happen, barring an injury. He pressed last year when he got to Iowa and eventually worked his way out of it, and I imagine he might do the same here, but a little time off seems like it could help.

One of the odder things this year, IMO, was the lack of pop from Rebel Ridling. Well, 3 HR's in the last 2 days.

Craig, you sure he played CF in Korea? I was under the impression that he was a RF in Korea. Edit: Mildly curious, so trying to see if anything is online about it. Can't seem to find anything (English language sites) that says he played OF in Korea). Looking at old AzPhil box scores, he played more CF in XST in 2009 than I realized, so he at least got some work there that I didn't recall. My fault for not recalling that. Although I'm pretty sure he played more RF than CF in Boise and Peoria, but I'd have to go through game logs, which ... well ... that's too much work for this. Sufficed to say, I was wrong. He got, at the very least, some XST coaching work in CF. Serves to dent my point a bit, but not completely. But anyhow, the 2nd part is loosely what I wrote above - at the end of the day, Ha's offense is going to determine if he's a guy who's a regular. Edit: Loosen should be, stuff wise, more of a flyball guy. I don't recall the reports being that high on the movement he gets on his fastball or his changeup to generate groundballs.

Jay Jackson is probably fat at this point and has watched all his pitches diminish as a pro. I wold not make that comparison at all. Nope, not fat, just mysteriously lost his stuff. It is far more acceptable for a LHSP to be a junkballer. I don't see the comp. Funny though that you would look to comp him to Jackson, who's been a major disappointing for running on two years now...This whole Brooks Raley thing really bothered you, didn't it? I don't think a guy "maxing out" to 5th starterdom requires some kind of major leap. It basically means he's a warm body who throws starter innings anywhere from hopefully average to most likely below it. Possibly he makes it, possibly he doesn't (like JR Mathes or whatever his name is), I like him more than most and there's not much in the way of thousands of words that are going to really put a dent into that. Now Raley sucking? That would put a dent in it, but luckily that isn't happening this year so far. Huh? Jay Jackson is fat? Sure doesn't look that way. I've said this before, but the issue with Jay Jackson isn't that his stuff regressed a ton (it might've regressed a bit, but not a ton) ... it's that the future grades that people had (primarily on the slider) never materialized and his slider was stuck in average-land. If you take him now vs. Jay Jackson then, stuff wise, it's not that different. No, this Brooks Raley conversation doesn't bother me one bit. Maybe you are taking this too seriously? Dunno. It's just a discussion on minor league guys. I hope to heck he succeeds. I just picked up the discussion point in the other thread because I agreed with Raisin's points there on Raley vs. Rosario. I ranked him awfully high two years running, before dropping him this year based on a variety of factors. I don't know how you missed the comp - two former two way guys in college, both of whom played in the OF, that were viewed as above-average athletes that could handle the bat (Jackson was decent with the bat in college, probably a better overall bat than Raley, IIRC, but Raley had superior speed and was, IIRC, viewed as a better top of the order bat.) I said this was a better comp than Samardzija, but I didn't spell it out. The reason I said that is because Samardzija was a former two-sport athlete. I don't think he did anything besides pitch in baseball. Btw, JR Mathes was a Cubs farmhand for many years in the middle part of the last decade. Lefty, threw in the mid-80's, IIRC, decent secondary stuff, good command. A poor man's version of Chris Rusin perhaps, but IIRC, he was a fairly big lefty, around 6'3", 6'4", maybe 200? His lack of stuff made a lot of fans label him as a "system arm", the type of arm that fills roles in the minors. Went to Indy ball in 2011 after leaving the Cubs, IIRC. Not sure if he's still in organized baseball of some sort.

John Gaub was DFA'd. I wouldn't mind bringing him back (Gaub or Robertson ... not hard for me) if it was an option. Still walks a crapload, still struggles a bit with righties, but still is solid against lefties.

So ... Loosen heard about the Francescon news and decided to throw the best game of his season. 5 shut out, 1 hit, 7 K's. Your move, Cates (or Joksich, probably not Kirk, maybe Del Valle? ... I tend to think Kirk is safely in the rotation and that if they remove a lefty, it's probably between Jokisch and Del Valle, but who knows). As decent as Jokisch has been, I think, push comes to shove, he'd be the one I pushed aside if they wanted to keep Cates in the rotation. Half wonder if they go with a 2nd piggyback in Daytona ... Maybe some sort of Cates/lefty combination. Edit: And Jay Jackson's given up 4 R's in 3 innings so far ...

IIRC, he dabbled a bit as a RF as a prep guy in Korea (but I could be thinking of someone else).