CubsWin

i'm not sure we can give vitters much credit for not swinging as he's being walked intentionally. You with the fact-checking all the time. Damn you.

Vitters with a single and a walk in the continuation of the suspended game from yesterday. More walks please. If he can be selective and recognize a good pitch to hit, he's got a shot at being a good major leaguer. I fear if he hasn't done it by now, he might not be able to do it. Until he gets traded to the Red Sox...

It's nice to have a 19-year-old left side of the infield at Peoria. Now if the Cubs could only teach them pitch recognition...

except that hasn't been happening. at all. like not even close. http://www.baseballamerica.com/blog/draft/2010/08/bonus-expenditures-2008-10/ biggest spenders in the draft from 2008-10 - the pirates. followed by a big market team (red sox), then the next seven teams on the list are nationals, orioles, royals, indians, rays, blue jays and rangers. meanwhile here are the bottom six teams: cubs, mets, marlins, phillies, braves, white sox. now i get that the teams toward the bottom tend to be drafting later, but still, the pirates, royals and rays are three notable small market teams that have been consistently going above slot money to draft hard-to-sign players. the mets, phillies, braves and white sox are kind of noted for rarely going above slot. same with international free agency - the a's outbid everyone for ynoa, the pirates outbid everyone for luis heredia, the twins bought miguel sano, the rangers have been spending gobs of money in latin america, etc. smart small to mid-market teams have seen what the rays did and are copying their blueprint. so really, the "best interests of baseball" argument would be a complete joke if selig ever tried to use it with respect to draft spending or international free agency. the system, as it is right now, works. teams that don't value amateur talent don't spend big bucks. teams that do value it do. and besides, it's not like selig is overturning these above-slot deals, he just lets the paperwork stew for a while, sends a nasty letter or e-mail to the offending team, then approves the signing. if he tried to overturn a deal like the one that samardzija got, MLB would be sued immediately. how exactly are his actions, as you put it, "not letting the teams with superior financial resources drive the bidding up for draftees"??? Thanks, good to know, but I guess I misspoke. By "superior financial resources" what I should have said was "teams that spend a lot on their draftees". I think Selig's reason for interfering here is to keep bonus sizes down. The NFL and NBA are both expected to pull back on the amount of money rookies are guaranteed in their initial contracts in their upcoming CBAs. This is Selig's way of doing that for the MLB. And yes, SSR, I agree completely. Selig is doing this strictly for the owners. For this and most other league commissioners, the interests of baseball and the interests of the owners are almost always synonymous.

I understand your frustration, but the commissioner has always had a lot of latitude to butt in whenever he wants due to the "best interest of baseball" part of his job description. He's allowed to do anything he wants, so long as he can show that it is in the best interest of the sport. Not letting the teams with superior financial resources drive the bidding up for draftees is clearly in the best interests of baseball. The MLB CBA is up after this season. I expect to see this issue addressed in a more uniform way during the negotiation process for the new CBA.

And so did Zeke DeVoss. I wonder when the last time two guys in the same organization stole home on the same day?

You forgot Matthew Spencer. Jones is 5 months older than Bour and Bour is putting up basically the same if not better numbers one level higher. Bour's the best of the bunch and even he's not considered much of a prospect.

Damn. He had been having a really good season in the DSL. Yeah, I've had my eye on him for a couple weeks now. Whatever he was taking, it was working...

So that's the Cubs 2nd and 3rd rounders signed. We're getting there. Here's some YouTube on these guys... Zeke DeVoss

Probably moving to RF.

This made me smile. It's about time. Not too overdue, but a little.

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. Thanks, craig. I saw Mejias show up in the box score as well. I'll be following him throughout the summer.

Wells has looked okay. Especially for an 18 year old in the NWL. Greathouse intrigues me. He seems like a guy with above average stuff that he hasn't learned to control yet. If he does, he could be good. Kind of like Juan Cruz's development arc.

To be quite honest, there were a lot of other guys I thought about and could've included but didn't because I was literally falling asleep while writing the post. Liria is deserving. He's putting up the numbers. The only knock you could make is he's doing so as a 21 year old in the NWL. And Contreras has the pedigree as a bonus baby, he's just 19, so I agree, he should be in the discussion as well. So that brings the list to 23. Who makes your top ten? I might as well create a top five and draw the rest out of hat for all that I know. But I know there are people on this site that know a whole lot more than I do...

The minor league season is now three months old, and the short-season teams have been in action for three weeks. It's time to take another look at the Cubs top ten emerging prospects. Here's the original list: 1. Robert Whitenack, RHP, 22 (AA) 2. Jae-Hoon Ha, OF, 20 (A+) 3. Austin Kirk, LHP, 20 (A-) 4. Micah Gibbs, C, 22 (A-) 5. Kevin Rhoderick, RHP, 22 (AA) 6. Justin Bour, 1B, 22 (A+) 7. Nick Struck, RHP, 21 (A+) 8. Dallas Beeler, RHP, 21 (A-) 9. Brett Wallach, RHP, 22 (A+) 10. Frank Batista, RHP, 22 (A+) With the emergence of some of the younger prospects in short-season and Dominican leagues, I think this list changes quite a bit. You can make solid arguments for Ha, Kirk and possibly Struck and Bour. Rhoderick and Batista are still in the discussion, but Gibbs' bat has really fallen off, Beeler is struggling after a very aggressive promotion to AA and Wallach has not been impressive at all. Meanwhile, there are a number of 20-and-under prospects worthy of consideration. At the top of that list is 19-year-old 2nd round pick Reggie Golden. He's hitting .313/.432/.463 while going 4-for-4 in stolen base attempts. 19-year-old, 5th round pick Wes Darvill, who showed some mastery of the Arizona League last year, is surpassing those numbers in the Northwest League so far this season. 18-year-old, right-hander, Ben Wells hasn't exactly dominated the NWL in his first 5 games, but he hasn't been terrible either, holding opposing batters to a .247 average with a 2.3 GO/AO. Plus, he's 18 and in the NWL. 19-year-old, SS, Arismendy Alcantara is holding his own in the Midwest League. Plus, he's 19 and in the MWL. 6'4", 20-year-old, right-hander Starling Peralta has put himself on the prospect map with a good debut in Peoria and a 24/3 strikeout-to-walk ratio and 16 hits in 18 innings so far. 19-year-old, third baseman Dustin Geiger has been tearing up AZL pitching to the tune of a 1.077 OPS. And latin american prospects Gioskar Amaya, Marco Hernandez, and Oliver Zapata are all 18 and OPSing around .850 for Mesa. And we haven't even mentioned the prospects in the Dominican Summer League yet. Of course, a lot of these younger guys suffer from SSSS, but you gotta go with what you got. So the list (in no particular order) goes: Ha Kirk Struck Bour Rhoderick Batista Golden Darvill Geiger Wells Alcantara Peralta Amaya Hernandez Zapata Throw in the DSL guys: Candelario (17) - 3B .366/.471/.491 Penalver (17) - IF .281/.406/.333 Arcila (18) - RF .263/.375/.516 Baez (17) - CF .303/.384/.418 with 21 SB in 24 attempts Santana (17) - RHP 0.86 WHIP in 35 IP Morel (17) - RHP More than a K per IP, 1.08 WHIP That's 21. This is tough. Who makes your top 10?

What organization eschews walks? Dusty's with the Reds now...

17 year old Yomar Morel has allowed just 2 runs, neither of them earned, in 14 innings with 13 Ks so far this season. He just went 6 allowing no runs on two hits, no walks and striking out 7. Is he a bonus baby?

So the questions remain, can he improve his eye at the plate enough to know what pitches to swing at and can he improve his defense enough to stick at a corner infield position. At 21, he has time to do both. It's up to Cubs coaches and Vitters work ethic now...

Any scouting reports on Rhoderick's stuff? I remember him having a good FB, but I don't know about anything else. He and Beliveau could be ready soon. I'd like to see both be given a long look for bullpen spots next season. You can throw Dolis in that group as well if his control improves.

I would add Szczur and Ha to your list of prospects who profile as above average. With the possibility of some the young guys from short season emerging to be that in the future like Wells, Golden, etc.

I think that is a very good point. The top run scoring lineups (other than the Yankees and Red Sox) don't have a lot of great offensive players. They typically have 1 great bat and the rest of the team is filled out with minimal bad hitters getting tons of ABs. Cincy has Votto as the great bat, with Jay Bruce having an argument...but none of the other guys with over 125 ABs have lower than a .722 OPS. And the guys with the .722 OPS for the Reds are Rolen and Phillips who are outstanding defensive players. Arizona is up there in runs scored. They have Upton as the great bat, with only Kelly Johnson of the regulars under .730 OPS. I'd like Vitters to be an .850 OPS type player at any of the corners of the IF or OF. But if all he's going to be a is a .750 OPS guy, then they key is to have 5-6 regulars that are better hitters than he is, and 1-2 others who aren't significantly worse than that. I could see him being like a Martin Prado or a Hunter Pence with a little less power. I'd be fine with that. I like looking at a prospect from the perspective of can he be a piece of a winning team and what would have to be around him in order for him to be a good fit. Smart take. Never looked at it like that.

I love this analogy, but you left out one thing. He's taking those ACTs as a sophomore.

Wow. He could be another late round find himself.

Yet to be determined. At 21, he's still projectable. But that is the question. My main point was that he wasn't a bust as many had been considering him to be.

Bottom line, he's improving. He's 21 at AA and he's gone from a .223/.293/.383 line at Tennessee last year to a .288/.324/.462 line in almost the exact same amount of plate appearances. That's more than enough reason for hope.