CubsWin

Well, that's cool. Did you get a read off of his radar gun? Any idea what his fastball was clocked at?

As in he's in a class of his own or he's not nearly as good?

Marquez Smith does it again. He now has 10 HRs in the month of August, 17 on the season.

Really good pitching night. Bastista 6 scoreless, 2 H, 3K/1BB Archer 7 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 9K/2BB Samardzija was doing great until the 6th.

So he got a little tired in the 7th... Does anyone know where you can get a complete game log for a minor league player on the internet? I want to see how many times this year Archer has gone into the 7th.

I had Jesus Morelli as one of the true prospects earlier in the season, but he's performed poorly enough to make me drop him from that list for now.

It could just be the adjustment to the wooden bats and the new environs. He's had 6 multi-hit games in his last 10 over which he's hitting .361/.395/.472. It could be a hot streak. It could be that the adjustment period is over.

It's always exciting when a late-round high schooler signs like Brian Smith or Dustin Geiger. But it sounds like Wells is more than that, he could've fallen through the cracks and been overlooked. Can't wait to see how he does.

Greatly looking forward to the AA debut of McNutt and the High-A debut of Struck. I will be surprised if they do well, however, there's usually some sort of adjustment period after you're promoted.

I know it's a bit early, but my mind is already going there and I know your's are too. So let's have at it.

Agreed. Chirinos has gotten two mentions in BA the last two years as being either the top defensive catcher in the Cubs organization or the top defensive prospect in his league, this year in the Southern League. With the way he's been hitting over the last two seasons straight, that's got to be better than what Hill has given the Cubs. Let Castillo have another year in AAA. It's not like he lit it up this year. Clevenger and Brenly are intriguing but far from ready. Chirinos is the oldest of the group, he's paid his dues and he is performing like he's ready. Castillo bats right-handed just like Chirinos so there's no difference there, and I know the conventional wisdom is if you have a starting catcher who bats righty, to have a lefty back-up, but who cares. Replace Hill with Chirinos and be done with it. Next!

Austin Reed with another strong outing at Mesa. At least, so far...

This is why I'm excited about not just Hak-Ju Lee but also Jae-Hoon Ha. They are both having more than passable seasons as 19-year-olds in Low-A which is right in the same Castro/Lake timeline. I haven't compared it to every organization, but against the org's that I have checked, the Cubs seem to have younger players at every level on average than the other guys. Speaking of The Other Guys, if you haven't seen it, go. It's pretty freakin' hilarious. [/hijack]

I'm getting concerned about Rhee ever recapturing the magic. I know. There's something to be said for this being his first season back from surgery. If he's like this next year...

Fixed. I've been talking about him for a couple days now. :D He's been incredible. He's got at least a ten game hitting streak, but he's been hitting well over .300 since June. And the HRs in August are just sick.

I'll take that. Show me you're not walking a lot of people and I'm happy. His stuff is good enough to get the job done so long as he's not walking guys.

Sure enough... Sorry Brandon, my bad.

Does yesterday's game not count? Oops, did I miss something? Checking... Where was I? Never mind. #-o He drew a walk, does that count? :blush:

Yeah, I think so. Smith will likely be added to the 40-man this offseason. The problem is he really can't play anywhere besides 3B. And how well does he even play that position, anyone know?

Guyer's hitting streak reached 19 games tonight.

Okay, so what's the deal with Marquez Smith. Does he have any worth as a major league reserve? He has been utterly destroying AAA in like a Jake Fox type way for a while now.

I haven't been following the farm team that long. But were there any players from Hendry's farm that had some pretty good years in the majors. From that #1 class, Prior and Z. And Choi who got us Lee. And Bobby Hill who got us Aramis. And Juan Cruz, who has had a solid, though not spectacular mlb career. Was Beltran and Jones (who got us Nomah) from his system or after? Don't forget Brendan Harris. Yes, both Justin Jones and Brendan Harris were Hendry draft picks. Beltran was signed as a free agent in '96, also under Hendry.

The Cubs scouts seem to do a pretty good job finding guys in like the independent leagues or Mexican league and turning them into major league possibles. Austin Bibens-Dirkx was signed out of the Golden Baseball League (I'd never even heard of that) and Caridad was signed in the Dominican after pitching in Japan. Anybody else fit this catagory?

Luis Liria is coming off of two really nice outings, and he's added a third tonight. Over his last three appearances, he's gone 12 innings, allowed 11 hits, 2 runs, struck out 18 while walking 1. I look at him as an age appropriate starter at Peoria next season. It's a tad early for it, but that gets me thinking about how next year's rosters will look. Depending on who goes north, Iowa's pitching could be filled with some actual prospects next season. Archer, Carpenter and Samardzija all have control issues to work on. Given Carpenter's injury setbacks and how late the Shark came to pitching full time, their ages don't bother me so much. Jay Jax and Coleman will still be young for the PCL, that's five pretty good ones right there. McNutt would likely headline in AA with age appropriate or younger carry-overs Dolis, Rusin and Cabrera filling out the rotation with possibly Brooks Raley on the back end. Rhee, Searle, Wallach and Whitenack will all be 22 and should be joined in Daytona by Nick Struck who's really come on lately. Jung, Antigua and Batista are also possibles. I could see Jung staying in Peoria unless they like the idea of keeping him and Hak-Ju Lee together for comfort sake. Liria should have a shot and the newly acquired Robinson Lopez should repeat low-A at least to start the season. Add '10 draftees Hayden Simpson, Cam Greathouse and Brett Ebinger, '09 3rd rounder Austin Kirk, Cuban signee Juan Yasser Serrano and even guys like John Mincone, Tarlandas Mitchell and Larry Suarez. It should be interesting next season at Peoria. Boise would have plenty of younger guys like the Wangs, who will both be 20 next year along with '10 4th rounder Hunter Ackerman, high school draftees Austin Reed and Ryan Hartman who will both be 19, various guys from the DSL and the '11 draftees. And that doesn't even include the reliever prospects like Kurcz, who could be moved to the rotation. All the Cubs need is just one or two of those guys to hit each year. This truly is a numbers game, ain't it...

Yeah, he threw 24 pitches, so i wonder what happened? On a better note, Wallach and Raley each had decent outings. Yeah, I saw that, too. Hope Rusin is okay. That's two pretty good outings in a row for Wallach. I can understand, after being traded for the first time, it can take you a couple of games to get comfortable. I'm interested to see how he does the rest of the way.