CubsWin

I believe you. I had friends that had it and it's a serious thing. Any time off, especially in bed rest and dealing with illness, will sap the body of strength especially when you're an athlete and need to continue to build muscle just to keep up. It sounds temporary to me, so there's hope, but it sure is disappointing.

I know. Seriously. What happened to this supposed mid-90s heat?

Well, he hacked early on the next at bat, swinging at the 2nd pitch and flying out. But at least the first pitch was a ball. He has yet to get himself in a situation where he was behind in the count before offering.

Not so much with the patience on the next at bat, but he gets a hit. First pitch in the dirt, next one, line drive single to center. Can you fault him for that? Seriously, I'm asking.

Bour with another HR. Dude's on a tear. His 8th of the season.

Just tracking Vitters at bats. In his first one in the 2nd inning, he took the first pitch for a called strike, then took two pitches that were called balls. So he worked a 2-1 count. Then hit the 4th pitch grounding out to short. That's not bad, not great. Let's see what the next one brings...

True. I was thinking the same thing. If there is added power to come, it will likely come from the fact that he is now focusing on solely baseball for the first time in his life and just getting better at refining his swing. Knowing when to turn on a ball and swing plane, etc. Kinda like Sandberg did in his early 20s. Not saying Szczur will have Sandbergesque power, just improving in the same way.

Szczur has yet to be caught stealing in his pro career. 12-0, 10-0 this year. He also has two more walks than strikeouts so far this season. OBP and speed are a good combination.

Crawford's speed on the base paths is exciting, but the main reason he's such a longshot and thus not much of a prospect right now is his K-to-BB ratio and the sheer numbers of Ks. If you're going to be a speed guy, then you have better be a high OBP guy. Right now, Crawford's OBP is .440 but that is mostly his .370 batting average. He's only walked 4 times this season while striking out 19 times. Last year, in 486 ABs his OBP was .315. He struckout 124 times while walking only 36. If he's striking out that often in High-A, he's really going to struggle at the major league level. Until he shows that he can do that, he doesn't rank as a prospect for me, but it is good to see him hitting and the stolen bases are great, too. The Cubs don't have a lot of that in their organization. If he were to walk more and strikeout less while continuing to hit for a decent average, he would rise through the prospect ranks quickly due to his skill set. LePage reminds a bit of Mike Fontenot without as much power. He can hit and has a good eye at the plate, but his ceiling is a middle infield utility guy which would be great for a 13th round pick. But the guys on that list all have higher ceilings than that of a reserve. He's certainly worth keeping on eye on, though.

Some updates on some of the guys being discussed in this thread... -Robert Whitenack went 6 strong allowing 1 hit and 1 earned run with 12 ground outs against just 1 fly out. He now is 5-0 on the season with a 1.80 ERA. In 40 IP, he's given up 22 hits. Opposing hitters are batting .159 against him. -Jae-Hoon Ha added his 6th HR while raising his batting average to .331. He now has 26 RBI in 28 games. -Justin Bour hit his 7th HR and 1st triple and adding his 16th walk raising his batting average to .275 and his OPS to .925.

He was a switch hitter when the Cubs drafted him last year and kept doing it in the NWL. As a result, he had some really drastic splits that made me wonder whether he should have just given it up. I'm curious if he's still switch hitting in Peoria. His splits from this year show that he is hitting both lefties and righties well so far. And according to this minorleaguebaseball.com article, as of April 23rd, he was still hitting from both sides.

Raisin, how much of that is that they're going slow with Rhee post surgery. He's struggled last season, maybe he's just taking longer than normal to come back and they don't want to push it. This is his 3rd year since surgery, right? If he's still not healthy enough to pitch 3 years after his surgery, I think something's not quite right. He was pitching rehab games two summers ago. Aren't most guys are back and ready to be used full-bore within 32 months or less of successful surgery? My point was, though not clearly expressed, that perhaps it wasn't a very successful surgery. If he's still being kept on a pitch count and that's the reason he's not starting, then maybe the reason why he struggled so much last season was that he wasn't 100% then and he still isn't. Just spitballin'.

Raisin, how much of that is that they're going slow with Rhee post surgery. He's struggled last season, maybe he's just taking longer than normal to come back and they don't want to push it.

Twice!! :shock: :shock:

:shock:

That was my question, too. He's got the frame for it at 6'4" and 250 lbs. We can only go off of results at this point and considering he just hit his 7th HR of the season today, so far, so good.

I had heard Beeler was 90-92 with his fastball, so I guess if he's sitting at 92-94 and touching higher, he's already done it. That's great news. If he can locate a consistent low-to-mid 90s fastball, he can succeed at the upper levels. As far as Gibbs is concerned, baseball beginnings had him graded as a 30 hit ability, 40 raw power and 40 in power production when he was drafted but had projected 50/70/60 in those 3 categories in the future. Whereas his defense was solid at the time of his drafting and wasn't projected to make huge gains from there. Baseball Beginnings So that's where I got my sense of him. I'm sure there were differing opinions and reports on him going around at the time. Wallach as a power reliever was something I had read at thecubreporter.com after the Lilly trade. They had posted the following quote from Baseball Prospectus on Wallach. As far as the use of the "power" to describe Wallach as a reliever, that is certainly an issue of definition. I'm with you if BP is thinking that a bullpen arm with a 92-94 mph fastball as a "power reliever". Maybe they're thinking he would gain a few ticks after moving to the pen.

So no guys who were on the radar as prospects heading into the season like Brett Jackson, Trey McNutt, Josh Vitters, DJ LeMaheiu, Ryan Flaherty, Chris Carpenter, Jay Jackson, Rafael Dolis, Hayden Simpson, Matt Szczur, etc. This is about the next wave, the emerging prospects. I'm sure these lists will change once we get more guys up from EXST like Ben Wells, Reggie Golden and Austin Reed, but we are now one month into the season, so, who's caught your eye? 1. Robert Whitenack, RHP, 22 (AA) - For those of us who are avid readers of AZPhil, this guy might have been considered an "on the radar" prospect heading into this season. Phil predicted a breakout season for Robert the likes of Trey McNutt the year before, and, so far, he's been dead on. Already promoted to AA after just 4 starts in Daytona, Whitenack is 4-0 with a 1.85 ERA in 6 starts. The 6'5" righty has thrown 34 innings giving up 21 hits, 0 HR, striking out 32 while walking just 3. 2. Jae-Hoon Ha, OF, 20 (A+) - If he keeps hitting like this, Ha will find himself laughing all the way to the bank. After somewhat of a breakout season last year in Peoria (.317/.334/.468), Jae-Hoon is truly breaking out in his first month in Daytona. Batting .330, his IsoD (.031) is still poor, but it appears to be improving. Last season he walked once every 29 ABs. This year, it's once every 23. The big improvement has come in Ha's power. He slugged .548 over his first 27 games (115 ABs) with 8 doubles and 5 HRs. He had 7 HRs all of last season in Peoria. 3. Austin Kirk, LHP, 20 (A-) - Austin turns 21 in a couple weeks making him age appropriate for the MWL, but if he keeps pitching like this, he'll be in Daytona soon enough. In 29 IP, he's allowed 17 hits with 9 walks and 31 strikeouts for a 2.17 ERA. The 6'1" lefty and 3rd round pick in '09 has held opposing batters to a .163 AVG of the first month of this season. 4. Micah Gibbs, C, 22 (A-) - Gibbs, last year's 3rd round pick, was considered a strong hitter for average, with good to average power and solid but not spectacular defensive ability as a receiver. So far, Gibbs has lived up to that. After getting off to a horrid start last year in Boise, he finished very strong at the plate in August and September and that has carried over to this season as Gibbs is tearing up the Midwest League to the tune of .367/.472/.467. 5. Kevin Rhoderick, RHP, 22 (AA) - The Cubs 9th round pick last season has seemingly come out of nowhere to dominate hitters in a relief role this season. Again, for those who follow AZPhil over at thecubreporter.com, Rhoderick's success comes as less of a surprise. Phil's reports during fall instructs were glowing at times and he was described as throwing a mid-90s fastball with a killer slider when it was on. Well, it appears to be on a lot this season as Rhoderick has followed Whitenack with a quick promotion to AA. In 19.1 IP, he's given up 9 hits, 8 walks while striking out 27. Some may discount his prospect status because he's not a starter. But with a ceiling of a potentially dominant bullpen arm, I think that's a pretty valuable thing for an organization to produce. 6. Justin Bour, 1B, 22 (A+) - Justin will turn 23 in a couple weeks, but he's a college draftee and isn't repeating the level, so he can be considered on schedule. Last year in Peoria, he put up solid numbers going .291/.375/.436 hitting 31 doubles and 12 HRs in 475 ABs. He got off to a slow start this season, perhaps due to adjusting to FSL pitching, but has been red hot of late hitting .371/.452/.714 over his last 10 games raising his season numbers to .269/.358/.519. He's got good plate discipline with an IsoD of .089 and a BB/K ratio of 15/16. That's consistent with last year's IsoD of .084. If he gets the same amount of ABs this year as he did last year, he's on pace for 27 HR and 37 doubles. 7. Nick Struck, RHP, 21 (A+) - Nick is 5'11" righty who is holding is own in the FSL so far this season. He's 4-1 with a 3.19 ERA and is averaging over 5 innings per start. Only 1 of his 6 starts this year has been bad. In 31 IP, he's allowed 31 hits, 1 HR, 10 BB and 30 Ks. When you take out the one bad start that reads 27 IP, 24 H, 0 HR, 8 BB and 28 Ks. 8. Dallas Beeler, RHP, 21 (A-) - Dallas is a 6'5" former standout wide receiver. Sound familiar? Of course, Beeler was the WR for the two-time Oklahoma State Champion Jenks High School football team, but he was still a standout. Selected in the 41st round because he missed most of Oral Roberts' 2010 season recovering from Tommy John surgery, Beeler is the classic under the radar prospect. Due to his frame and the fact that he is now almost 2 years removed from that surgery, Beeler may still gain a few mph on his fastball before it's all said and done, but he already has excellent control. He walked 2 batters in 18.1 innings last year and has walked 3 in 14 innings so far this season. In 32.1 IP between rookie ball and Low-A ball this year, he's yet to give up a HR, allowing 32 hits, striking out 27 while walking 5. 9. Brett Wallach, RHP, 22 (A+) - Another 3rd round pick and another 6'5" righty, Wallach started off this year with two bad outings, perhaps as he adjusted to the new level. He has since settled in nicely throwing 3 good starts in a row. Over those 3, he's pitched 14 innings giving up 12 hits, 3 earned runs, striking out 16 while walking just 4. He was a two-sport star in college and only started pitching full-time after being drafted by the Dodgers in '09. His fastball sits at 91-92 and touches 94. He's reportedly got a good change-up, but his breaking pitches need work. He has struckout a batter per inning consistently throughout his pro career. He may wind up as a power reliever, but he's starting for now. 10. Frank Batista, RHP, 22 (A+) - Batista was working as a starter the previous two seasons but is now the closer for Daytona and the conversion is paying early dividends. In the first month of the season, he's notched 8 saves. In 13 IP, he's given up 6 hits, striking out 13 while walking 4. Opposing batters are hitting .140 against him. Others considered: Su-Min Jung, Cam Greathouse, Arismendy Alcantara, Graham Hicks and Robinson Lopez.

hopefully without the DUIs as well. fyi, it's ok to compare players to guys of different races/nationalities. No, no it's not. I refuse. Actually, I didn't even think about that. I was looking at Choo's minor league numbers and noticed the similarities. They were both 19 in Low-A and 20 in High-A. At age 19, Choo hit .303 with a SLG of .451, Ha hit .317 and slugged .468. At age 20, Choo had a .286 AVG with a .459 SLG. So far, Ha is bettering that with a .330 AVG and a .548 SLG. The area in which they differ most is in walks and strikeouts. I don't know what that means for Ha's development going forward, but I am intrigued with similarities to Choo. That said, Ha drew another walk Friday night, so maybe he's improving in that area as well. In any case, I'm intrigued with his possibilities as a prospect.

Jae-Hoon Ha looks like Shin-Soo Choo without the walks and with less strikeouts. Choo always had the ability to be selective. Ha never has. Why is it that the Cubs struggle so much teaching their young talented hitters to have plate discipline? Or is it that they are simply two different players and plate discipline is something that you either have or you don't and isn't very easy to teach?

LeMaheiu having a good power night thus far. 2-for-3 with a 2B, his 9th, and a HR, his 2nd. He currently has 101 ABs. That's on pace, not that he will necessarily keep this up all year, but that's on pace for 10 HRs and 45 2B over 500 ABs as a 22-year-old in AA. There's hope for him yet. Plus, he continues to hit over .300 (as he has every year of his career thus far) with a good BB/K ratio. Can he stick at 2B? Justin Bour continues his hot hitting raising his season numbers to .270/.362/.520. After a very slow start, he's hit safely in 9 of his last ten games going .371/.465/.771 with 4 HRs and a 7:5 BB/K ratio over that span. He'll turn 23 at the end of May, but if he keeps hitting like this, he'll see AA before the end of the season and remain the Cubs only viable prospect at 1B. And, finally, Hayden Simpson had a decent outing tossing 4.2 scoreless innings giving up 4 hits, walking 2, striking out 1 while getting 9 ground outs against 2 fly ball outs.

J Jax! Looking good again today. Weird. It seems like he's back. Any reports on velo and stuff?

You beat me to it. And not only did he walk, but he hit another double. Oops, apparently I misread that. Cerda got the double. Still, I like seeing Cerda hit for extra bases.

You beat me to it. And not only did he walk, but he hit another double.

FB with lots of sink on it that runs in the low 90s and a change I believe. McNutt, 21, and Whitenack, 22, in AA should be fun to watch this season.