CubsWin

Yeah, I don't blame you. Here are his slashes from each level: .344/.417/.469 in Mesa .318/.464/.545 in Eugene .400/.471/.667 in South Bend .304/.385/.551 in Tennessee His 69 at bats in AA equal the number he's had at the other levels combined, so he's probably ready for a promotion, amirite?

Ademan's been in a terrible slump of late hitting .147 over his last 10 games. Still getting his walks, though, with 5 against 6 Ks in that time span so maybe it's just a bad stretch.

I know Maples struggled a bit with the mental side of the game early in his pro career, but it sure is weird why he's struggled so much in the bigs. The stuff is certainly big league caliber. In his last 7 minor league appearances: 6.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 15 K.

What the hell is going on in the background of the Hoerner HR video??? Was the guy who recorded it off his TV watching porn at the same time?

Who are you talking about here? caratini (as opposed to contreras) Got it. I don't visit the game threads very often so I didn't know a lot of posters don't like his bat. I mean I get having reservations because he's still unproven at the big league level and his success this year is still a small sample size, but he hit .342/.393/.558 in AAA as a 23 year old and .313/.409/.478 last season with solid K and BB percentages both years. I was just waiting for his D to catch up to his bat. He's made good progress with that over the last year, IMO.

A few days ago I wrote a post in the minor league forum about Robel and quoted the movie The Natural in reference to how he's come out of nowhere. Did anyone else notice that lightning struck right before Robel hit his HR? I mean like right before the pitch was delivered. Amazing... Listen to the baseball announcers in this clip. They very easily could be talking about Garcia. Brought up mid-season. Don't know much about him. Brought up because they're in a terrible losing streak. It's uncanny. [bbvideo=560,315] [/bbvideo]

That's an interesting idea. I'm gonna have to look into which team out there might be a fit for something like this. Who are you talking about here?

Got a fun little battle going on for the South Bend Cubs lead in HRs. Brennan Davis hit is 4th yesterday to enter a 3-way tie with Christopher Morel (and Tyler Durna). Morel comes right back today to notch his 5th. Not exactly McGwire v. Sosa, but keep it going, boys.

If the Cubs are over the limit or close to it and want to sign more kids, I guess that would mean some trades for IFA money are likely.

Welp, scratch him off the list. Pitchers dropping like flies being camped under by Brant Brown. Sounds like it wasn’t an arm or shoulder injury, at least. Phew! Any idea what it was?

Welp, scratch him off the list. Pitchers dropping like flies being camped under by Brant Brown.

Nice to see Estrada bounce back (4.1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K) after a terrible outing. It's expected that he would be inconsistent early on after missing all of last season to injury. I'm intrigued to see what he and Kohl Franklin can do in full season ball next year. The Cubs have a shot at changing the narrative around their ability to draft and develop pitching. Alzolay looks like the real deal in the bigs which will help put a chink in that narrative, but then there's several pitchers showing potential from the 2016-18 drafts: Tyson Miller - 4th round 2016 Dakota Mekkes - 10th round 2016 Cory Abbott - 2nd round 2017 Jeremiah Estrada - 6th round 2017 Kohl Franklin - 6th round 2018 Riley Thompson - 11th round 2018 None of them are finished products yet, but there's reason for optimism with all of them. There's some interesting arms from this year's draft that could add to that list in Ryan Jensen, Mike McAvene and DJ Herz as well.

Gioskar Amaya did, yes.

Truly, truly incredible. "All those years and you never played organized baseball? Well... I sorta got sidetracked." -The Natural

Time for a promotion for Riley Thompson... 59 IP, 53 H, 5 HR, 15 BB, 56 K, 2.29 ERA, 1.15 WHIP. He'll turn 23 in two weeks.

Cole Roederer said, "Enough!" After going 1-for-21 (.047) in his previous 6 games, he's hit safely in 10 of his last 14 at bats (.714) with 5 doubles, a triple, a HR, 5 runs scored and 6 driven in. In those 3 games he raised his SLG from .326 to .409 and his AVG from .209 to .247. It'd be really nice if this is a sign he's taken a step forward in his development and not just a hot streak. As is common for a 19-year-old in the MWL, he's been streaky all year, so we'll see. If it is development, that would give the Cubs an impressive group of 19 and 20-year-olds at that level going forward. Brennan Davis, 19, has a shot at being the Cubs top prospect by the end of the season if he is able to maintain what he's done so far. Christopher Morel leads the team in HRs with 4. He just turned 20 yesterday. He's hitting .294 over his last 10 games but more importantly has walked 3 times in that span. Roederer, 19, is heating up. Marquez, 20, arguably has the highest ceiling of any Cubs pitching prospect. That's four. A little less interesting is Jose Albertos, 20, who left his last outing with a blister on June 16th and hasn't pitched since, but has a really impressive 3 pitch mix, and if he finds his release point more consistently could rocket back up into the Cubs top 10. 2017 5th rounder, Nelson Velazquez, has the tools but lacks approach/discipline at the plate. He reminds me a lot of toolsy former Cubs prospect Jeffrey Baez, but he's a year younger than Baez was at this level. And lastly, 20-year-old lefty, Faustino Carrera and his excellent change up has acquitted himself quite well against MWL hitters. That's seven. Not bad. One 20-year-old in South Bend who did not make this list is 2015 bonus baby ($2.5 million) Jonathan Sierra. What a disappointment he's been at every level. At the time of his signing, many experts had him much lower and were surprised by the size of the signing bonus the Cubs gave him. Theo bet on his athleticism but it looks like the outside experts were right on this one.

This year's 2nd rounder Chase Strumpf and 14th rounder Ryan Reynolds (son of Shane Reynolds) made their pro debuts tonight. Strumpf went 0-for-2 with a walk and a run scored. He played 2B. Reynolds played 3B and went 2-for-5 with a 2-run HR, no walks and 3 Ks.

18-year-old right-hander out of Mexico, Manuel Espinoza, who was signed as an IFA 2 years ago (the same class as Luis Verdugo & Reivaj Garcia) for $400,000 (with $300,000 of that going to his Mexican team) didn't play last year. But he has impressed in his 1st two pro outings this year: 9 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 9 K. (He went 5 scoreless tonight with 3 hits.) He's 6'0", 175 lbs. and the youngest pitcher currently on the AZL Cubs 2 roster. (There are 4 pitchers on AZL Cubs 1 that are younger - in order of youngest to oldest - Joel Machado, who has yet to pitch, Richard Gallardo, Misael Garcia and Jorge Remon.) No idea on Espinoza's stuff. I've put in a question to AZ Phil on that. No reason to think he's a legit prospect yet, but definitely someone to keep an eye on.

Nope. Pitch counts in the rookie league only get accumulated on decisive pitches. You buried the lede! That's 3 perfect innings by Gallardo.

I can't breakdown what a pitcher is doing in his delivery, but watching Albertos last night, it seemed clear to me that it's all release point with this guy. He's a lot closer to finding it consistently than he was a year ago for sure, but he still struggles to maintain it. Once/If he ever gets consistent with it, look out, though. The stuff that prospect experts found so exciting 18 months earlier is still there. His curve ball seems different from what it was earlier in Eugene. This thing is like a wiffle ball. I don't know whether that's good or bad, but it's dives and breaks are impressive. He throws what looks like a 2-seamer with arm side run at 91-92 and a straighter, 4-seamer at 94-95 which he is able to keep low in the zone and get ground balls off of. The change up is still plus and, according to the South Bend announcers, the reason why the Cubs signed him. He often seemed to be releasing the ball late, be it with his wiffle curve which would sail wildly into the left handed batter's box or with his two-seamer which would miss buy 6-8 inches causing the catcher to lurch to his right. Sometimes he'd even bounce it. Less often he would miss inside with some pitches to right-handed batters. But when his release point was right, this guy looked good. Really good. That wiffle curve would start at the right-handed batter's head and break down and in for a strike. For lefties, it looked way high and outside and then they'd swing at the last minute with the ball breaking in at their ankles. His curve isn't hard to identify, but it seemed almost impossible to hit. He embarrassed a lot of hitters with it last night. If he gets his release point cemented in and can throw it for strikes, that's a helluva pitch going forward. A consistent release point would obviously help all his pitches. His 2-seamer would start off the plate and then catch the outside corner more regularly. The great action on his change would wind up in the zone more often. He'd have an impressive 4-pitch arsenal going forward, but it all hinges on continued improvement in that one area. He's remade his wind up. That seems to have allowed him to narrow his release point to where he's not incredibly wild. He looks a lot more comfortable and confident as a result. Now it's the fine tuning. He's 20. He's got time. Can he do it? If he does, he may be right back up to where he was. The best pitching prospect in the Cubs organization.

Speaking of Myrtle Beach, what the hell is up with Alex Lange? He starts out with 4 terrible games in April: 9 IP, 27 H, 7 BB, 10 K, 21.00 ERA, 3.78 WHIP (.600 babip) He then throws a no-hit, shutout thru 5 innings walking 4 and striking out 7. Then it's 4 more bad starts in a row for the rest of May: 20.2 IP, 21 H, 12 BB, 18 Ks, 6.10 ERA, 1.89 WHIP (.290 babip) And now, over his last 2 starts: 13 IP, 9 H, 3 BB, 16 K, 2.77 ERA, 0.92 WHIP (.258 babip) Is he just that inconsistent? Are the Cubs asking him to work on certain pitches in his bad games? Is he just getting lucky in his good starts? Was he just terribly unlucky in April? I don't know what to make of him. In watching Albertos' last appearance, the announcers said he wasn't throwing his plus change up as much because he's trying to work on FB command. How prevalent is that technique? Do the Cubs routinely restrict a pitcher from throwing their best pitch in order to work on their weaknesses, and then say "okay, go get 'em in this start" to see where you're at? I mean it sounds like something they would do. I'm sure lots of teams would do that, but does that explain what is happening with Lange? I'm at a loss with this guy...

Indeed, sir. Alzolay, Miller and Marquez should be fun to watch. And TBD might be the best guy they have in Myrtle Beach, too.

Aaron Miles! Ha! That's a blast from the past. Unfortunately, I think it's going to take an injury to Descalso or one of the other Cubs infielders before we see Garcia. But if he keeps this up: 222 PAs, 9 doubles, 1 triple, 17 HRs, 50 RBI, 304/.387/.624 ...who knows. The K% is a little concerning at 29.7% (he's improved a bit to 25% in his last 7 games), but if he can hit anywhere close to what he is now in the bigs, say .270/.340/.470, I'll live with the Ks. Garcia still leads the Tennessee Smokies in HRs despite not playing there since May 8th (which is also an indictment of the rest of the Smokies roster), and is tied for the most HRs in Iowa with Ian Happ in less than half the plate appearances. All this from a guy who hasn't played pro ball in the states since 2013. 2013! I was still married in 2013!

That's the first I've heard Pablo Aliendo being mentioned as a "big name". Good to know... It's a meaningless sample size, and there hasn't been much to write about from the minors lately so whatever, but that "big name" catcher, Pablo Aliendo, has started the year off well hitting .429/.600/.643. We'll see where he is towards the end of July. The Cubs sure do like themselves a Venezuelan catcher. Of the 7 catchers they have in the DSL, 6 of them are from Venezuela (one of which is Aliendo). Jhonny Pereda, Gustavo Polanco and Henderson Perez are also from there along with Erick Castillo and minor league FA signing Francisco Arcia. With Willy's success, I can see why. Contreras makes 12 in total. But that number is about to go up. Recent signee Edgar Gamargo and rumored upcoming IFA signees Ronnier Quintero and Brayan Altuve are all Venezuelan catchers. Hey, if it ain't broke...

You are correct, sir. His last game without a walk occurred August 10th of 2017. Furthermore, prior to today, he's never had a 3 outing stretch in which he's walked just 2 batters. The HBP wasn't terribly wild. It was a FB that nipped the batter near his foot. All in all, he looked really good. Worked a lot off of his curve (77-80) that got a lot of swings and misses, at least of them to finish off a strikeout. His change up, as usual, looked good and was effective, getting a K on one of them. His FB (93 was the only reported velocity today) had some really nice movement (arm side run) back over the outside corner (to a right-handed hitter). He got a lot of weak ground outs, 4 Ks in 2.2 innings. HIs only hit was a sharply hit ground ball through his legs and into the CF off of Wander Franco (4th best prospect in all of baseball according to MLB). I'm ready to say he's fixed. He completely revamped his wind up (South Bend announcer calls a hybrid between a full wind up and working out of the stretch). He's in much better shape and looks comfortable, under control and confident on the mound. And he's been consistent over his last 3 outings (6.1 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 8 K). How good he can become is still very much in question, but he's back in my top 20 with some helium if he keeps this up.