Have a seat, Neifi

Even after last night, Edwin Jackson has a higher fWAR (2.3) than Andrew Cashner (2.0).

On his most recent BP podcast (Fringe Average), Jason Parks talked at length about Baez and the other Cubs prospects headed to the AFL. The long and short of it was that Parks believes Baez has the best bat speed in the minors and easily has the highest ceiling of any of Cubs prospect, but that he swings so "hard" "fast" "violently" whatever that he would get torn up by major league pitching were he to come up now. He specifically noted RHPs with "strike-to-ball" sliders on the outer half that, in his view, would induce violent swing-and-misses, and that it's this factor that keeps Parks from ranking Baez even higher than he already does. Regardless of what various Twitter wars would have you believe, Parks loves Baez's tools. He specifically said that Baez could hit 40 HR in the majors as long as he can make enough contact, and that he "honestly doesn't give a sh___ which position he plays" given how absurd his bat speed and power is. (He also stated that his power tool is at least "comparable" to Sano's.) He also briefly recapped his Twitter spat with whoever it was (might've been Kyle, can't remember). So that was fun, too.

Villaneuva follows with a HR of his own.

Oakland's top prospect. 19-year old SS in A+, current slash line of .277 / .373 / .514 with an 11% BB rate. No idea how good his defense is, but his fielding % seems pretty high for a 19-year old shortstop (.969).

http://images.wikia.com/marvelmovies/images/f/fd/Face_palm.jpg

From today's BA prospect handbook:

I think I'd be pissed if I were a Pirates fan. Their outfield is increasingly resembling hot garbage and they could use cheap, short-term OF help.

Lindor's BB and K rates are obscene for a 19-year old in AA; I get that part. But even given that and assuming Lindor's defense is superior, the disparity in power is just so great that I can't see how anyone could still rank Lindor ahead of Baez.

In an ESPN chat held yesterday, August 21, Keith Law answers a bunch of Javy Baez-related questions in typical Keith Law fashion:

Good early guess; the Cincinnati Enquirer's John Fay recently tweeted his guess that the initial asking price for Choo is likely to be around 4 for $60. Granted it looks like this is just this Fay guy's guess, but if you can get Choo on a 4-year deal for a reasonable AAV the Cubs should jump on it.

Found this interesting (from Keith Law's chat this afternoon (Wednesday, 8/21)):

Yea, I'd expect Voges (assuming he even makes it as a ML regular) to have significantly more power than Kruk and nowhere near Kruk's hit tool. Aside from both being somewhat similar physically -- as in white, short and not particularly athletic first basemen -- I don't see an obvious comparison between them as hitters.

Praver is/was agent for Zambrano, Marmol, and Soler, IIRC.

Total slash line now up to .270/.354/.488/.842. On the season, the only NL first basemen with higher fWARs are Votto and Goldschmidt. Between Belt, Smoak, and Hosmer, sort of feels like the year of rejuvenation of formerly heralded first baseman prospects.

Joe Sheehan weighs in via his latest newsletter:

Cubs killed it in this week's prospect hot sheet -- http://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/prospect-hot-sheet-aug-16-mets-rafael-montero-is-always-in-command/

Did anyone else listen to yesterday's Baseball America podcast? Ben Badler and John Manuel spent a good 45 minutes discussing Abreu. Nothing really earth-shattering or that hasn't been discussed previously in this thread, but here are a few highlights from what I recall of Badler's take: Abreu is absolutely not an option anywhere but 1B or DH, both due to size and general lack of athleticism. Made the comp to Miguel Cabrera in that Miggy is far more capable of faking it at 3B than Abreu ever would be in any position besides 1B. In terms of recent Cuban hitting prospects, Badler would rank Abreu right alongside Cespedes, albeit slightly below him in sheer hitting ability. If Abreu were graded purely as a 1B prospect, both Manuel and Badler would put him far and away the top 1B prospect in baseball and easily the closest to the majors. Manuel here actually said he'd rank Vogelbach as his second-best 1B prospect in such scenario, even ahead of Jonathan Singleton. (You could infer that Manuel would thus rank Vogelbach his top minor-league 1B prospect, for whatever that's worth.) Concern about slowish bat speed due in part to his double foot tap and the generalization that Cuban hitters tend to struggle with velocity, which in turn tends to result in Cuban hitters developing long, loopy swings to take advantage of their power potential rather than develop shorter, more quick-through-the-zone-type swings you see from US-born players who develop swings so as to adapt the high-velocity arms here in the states. Had some question about Abreu's projectability due to his feasting on "sloppy" breaking stuff over the plate, which he'd see far less of in the US. Speculated that the Rangers and Red Sox seem the most obvious fits for Abreu based on their financial flexibility, history with Cuban defectors, and obvious need at 1B. As far as NL clubs, both Manuel and Badler guess that the Nationals and Pirates also make sense (though these are merely guesses). Neither mentioned the Cubs, which isn't terribly surprising given our current 1B situation. In terms of league-wide interest, Badler expects that Abreu will receive more money than the recent Cuban positional prospects due largely to their success, but that the volume of teams involved will be fewer. Badler's point here was that Abreu isn't Puig or Soler; he's not an OFer you can just stash at LF or RF depending on your positional need. A team in search of Abreu absolutely has to have a clear hole at 1B or DH to really make it worthwhile.

Bryant finishes 2/3 with 2 singles, a strikeout, and a sac fly.

Batting-average related (I know, I know) but just saw that Eris Hosmer (KC) is now hitting .297 on the year. His month by month BAs (BABIPs): April .250 (.327) May .269 (.301) June .303 (.297) July .324 (.353) August .400 (.407) Still not hitting for a ton of power (.443 SLG) and doesn't walk a ton (.342 OBP), but was also surprised to see that he's actually a better hitter vs. lefties than righties (152 OPS+ vs. 107 OPS+, respectfully). Interesting year for a former can't-possibly-miss prospect.

Maybe today's massive ERA bump will help with this winter's extension talks? Really reaching for a bright spot here, you guys.

thecubreporter ‏@thecubreporter 5m With his three hits today for @BoiseHawks, Kris Bryant is up to .292 AVG, .935 OPS. #Cubs

Ha yea was just coming here to post that. Apparently the D-backs weren't trying to sell low on Kennedy but rather were trying to nab Shark using a package built around Kennedy. Yea, umm..,,no.

@jimcallisBA: Garza. Not close. @frankieaaron: Peavy or Garza: which return would you say is better? #Cubs #WhiteSox

I got it, you guys: Shark + Nate for Taillon + Glasnow + Hanson + Polanco Tweet that [expletive].