CubsWin

What's Marquez Smith's defense like? His fielding% and range factor aren't all that great, but he sure is hitting this year. He's been on since June.

I know by posting this I'm assuring that it will never reach 19, but Brandon has an 18 game hitting streak. I was reading that article linked in the post above and when you look at how his season has gone injury wise, he's numbers this season would likely be even better. He started off the year hitting .283/.427/.467 with a .308 BABIP in April. Then he jammed his shoulder sliding head first into 2B on April 28th, apparently he's kind of a hustle freak. He had injured the same shoulder in his senior year at Virginia. He was out about two weeks, came back for two games (and went 3 for 14) and missed the rest of the month. When he returned, he spent the month of June getting his stroke back. In 26 June games, he hit .250/.301/.500 with a .250 BABIP. So when most of us looked at his line at the end of June, we were disappointed and might have been tempted to write him off as a 24 year old in AA. I know I was. But his last month and a half and a closer look at how his season unfolded have greatly changed my mind.

I was wondering the same thing. I'm guessing some kind of injury. He's not on the 7-day DL according to the Smokies website and I couldn't find anything with a Google search. Don't know. Finally got the explanation. It was pink eye. http://chicago.comcastsportsnet.com/08/18/10/Smokies-outfielder-Guyer-overcoming-misf/blog_landing_default_v3.html?blockID=292726&feedID=6200

LeMahieu continues to distinguish himself as a really good, if not powerful, hitter for average. He went 3-for-4 with a double last night bringing his average on the year to .316 after hitting .321 last season. Is he that good of a hitter? Neutralized for park and luck, he's hitting .313 at High-A while being 21 for most of the season. In fact, since turning 22, he's absolutely destroying the league. At 6'4" and just 22, if he can add some power in the next two years and be a guy who continues to hit near or over .300 once reaching the majors, I'd take that from my secondbaseman. Carpenter gave 7 strong innings of 4 hit, 2 run ball, striking out 3 while walking none. In August, he is holding batters to a .198 avg, has a 2.57 GO/AO ratio, an ERA of 2.45 and has struck out a batter per inning while walking less than 3 per 9. He's 24 and at AA which is a little old for the league but he's been set back my injuries. If he can stay healthy and build consistency, he can contribute rather quickly. Another 24 year old at AA, Brandon Guyer continues his incredible streak going 2-for-5 with yet another HR. He has now hit safely in 18 consecutive games. In his last 10 games, he's OPSing 1.385. :shock: When September hits, he needs to be in Chicago.

I know. Nick Struck had another nice outing going 5 giving up 4 hits and 2 earned but striking out 9 while walking none. He's still just 20 and probably not been considered a top 15 prospect for much of this season, but that could be changing. Over his last 10 outings, he's held opponents to a .195 avg, going 6-1 with a 1.99 ERA and averaging 5 1/2 innings per appearance. In 54.1 IP, he has allowed just 36 hits, striking out 47 against 17 walks.

McNutt had an awesome bounce back performance. Those are huge for me. Shows mental toughness and repeatability of mechanics. McNutt had two great outings (5 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 7 K, 0 BB and 6 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 7 K, 0 BB) and then, his last time out, he went 3 IP, 7 H, 6 R, 3 ER, 6 K and 2 BB. To come back and pitch 6 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 6 K, 0 BB is a great sign. Overall, he is easily the #2 Cubs prospect. After being drafted in the 32nd round in '09, he held opponents to a .143 avg and a 0.98 ERA striking out just over 1 batter per inning. As a guy who just turned 21 two weeks ago, he's 10-0 with a 1.97 ERA while being at least a year young for his league. In 100.2 IP, he's allowed 72 hits while striking out 119 and walking only 33. This season's 32nd round selection, Brett Ebinger, is more than a year older and pitching in Boise. McNutt has to rank as one of the best draft steals in Cubs history.

Agreed. The only one I have that could be ahead of him is Brett Jackson.

Interested to see what Rusin will do tonight. He's on a nice run.

Guyer continues to destroy, and I mean destroy AA pitching. He went 2-for-5 tonight with a HR and a walk. He's now hitting .438/.460/.790 since the all-star break with exactly half of his 46 hits going for extra bases (15 doubles, 2 triples, 6 HRs in 105 ABs). If I were Hendry, he'd be getting a September call up.

Gee, I thought the Cubs got quite a good return for six weeks of Derrek Lee. Robinson Lopez, 19 year old dominican pitcher with a decent frame who dominated rookie ball as a 18 year old, made the jump all the to low A this year and started off strong but struggled as the year went on but who has still held opponents to under a hit per inning. If he repeats Low A next season, he'll still be a year young for the league. And two relievers a 23 year old, 6'4" lefty, Tyrelle Harris, who has basically dominated at every level on his way to AA where he is just under a strikeout per inning and as a WHIP under 1. And a 22 year old lefty, Jeff Lorick, who I'm less excited about, but who has allowed less than a hit per inning, as respectable WHIP of 1.22 on the year. By my estimation, it isn't likely that either Lopez or Harris will be good major leaguers, but it is possible. And that's not a bad return for 6 weeks of a struggling firstbaseman. By my estimation they got nothing and payed Atlanta for the services. It's not a big deal, b/c like you wrote it will only be for the remainder of the season and playoffs. I think Hendry was doing Lee a favor for being a good citizen. Kind of like early parol. I don't necessarily have a problem with it and I didn't expect a top 10 prospect, but I would have liked to have gotten someone of value instead of a straight salary dump. That's why I said it was "kind of frustrating". So you really think that Lopez and Harris have no value? There's a lot of evidence that suggest otherwise. What has you discount that evidence?

Gee, I thought the Cubs got quite a good return for six weeks of Derrek Lee. Robinson Lopez, 19 year old dominican pitcher with a decent frame who dominated rookie ball as a 18 year old, made the jump all the to low A this year and started off strong but struggled as the year went on but who has still held opponents to under a hit per inning. If he repeats Low A next season, he'll still be a year young for the league. And two relievers a 23 year old, 6'4" lefty, Tyrelle Harris, who has basically dominated at every level on his way to AA where he is just under a strikeout per inning and as a WHIP under 1. And a 22 year old lefty, Jeff Lorick, who I'm less excited about, but who has allowed less than a hit per inning, as respectable WHIP of 1.22 on the year. By my estimation, it isn't likely that either Lopez or Harris will be good major leaguers, but it is possible. And that's not a bad return for 6 weeks of a struggling firstbaseman.

Why couldn't he be stretched out in spring training?

Nice bounce back performance from Austin Reed. He had barely been hittable in his first 8 outings allowing just 2 ER in 21.1 IP, but then got hammered last time out. As an 18 year old, you'd like to see if he's got the ability to come back mentally strong and 4 perfect innings with 4 Ks answers that question unequivocally. Do the early returns on this draft's lower round selections (5-16) seem better than normal and surprisingly good or am I missing historical perspective here? I realize its a small sample size, I'm just comparing early returns.

He's probably not ever going to be somebody who hits for 20-25 HRs, but he just turned 22 a month ago, he's 6'4" 185 lbs, so he can fill out that frame. Colvin was 6'3" 190 lbs while in the minors before he added his supposed 20 in muscle over the off season. As a 22-year-old at AA, Colvin's SLG was .425. LeMahieu slugged .384 as a 20/21 year old and is slugging .387 so far this season. I'm not comparing Colvin's power with LeMahieu, just their similarity in frame and that improvement in power can and often does occur after the age of 22. What I like about LeMahieu is that he hit .323 last year and is hitting .313 so far this season. The guy can hit. If he can improve his OBP a touch, and develop 8-12 HR capability, I'd take that from my secondbaseman. As of right now, not including the Cubs prospects at SS, he is the best Cubs 2B prospect and a respectable one at that.

Well, he's back and with a vengeance. 3-for-4 with a double and a triple and 2 runs scored. He's now batting .331/.382/.575 on the year and an off-the-hook ridiculous .426 in 129 at bats since July 1st with 18 doubles, 2 triples, 5 home runs and 9 stolen bases against 1 caught stealing. Guyer is 5 months younger than Tyler Colvin, but 9 months older than Colvin was when entering AA. Colvin was 23, about to turn 24 when he had his hot month in AA last season. Colvin hit .342 avg in 117 at bats last August with 7 doubles, 5 triples and 5 HRs. How much does BABIP come into play here. Guyer's BABIP for July and August are very high, but he's hitting .426, so they have to be, right? Does that mean that he's been very lucky or just smashing the ball? He had 20% line drives in July and 22.5% in so far in August. Someone put this into perspective for me.

The big knock on Junior Lake just last season was that horrid K/BB ratio and the very low walk rate. And less 10 months later he has vastly improved. He still needs to get better in that area, but at 20, he probably will. No doubt, low walk rate is a red flag, but that flag gets a lot bigger and deeper in hue when the prospect is 22 or 23. Ha is still just 19 and has already shown improvement in that area from last year (even if it is minor), so I agree the Cubs shouldn't be too concerned. Lake's improvement and to a lesser extent Vitters improvement tells me that Cubs instructors are teaching patience and selectivity, and it seems Ha is a good learner and coachable.

I was wondering the same thing. I'm guessing some kind of injury. He's not on the 7-day DL according to the Smokies website and I couldn't find anything with a Google search. Don't know.

Agreed. He could've been in the minors last year as a 23 year old when he hit 51 doubles and 21 HRs. I wonder what the AAA or AA equivalent of that kind of production would be? Does anyone know of a way to find that out? And it's not like he hasn't shown improvement since coming up as a 21 year old rookie. That year he had a 108 OPS+. Last year he finished the season with a 124 OPS+, and so far this season he is at 130 OPS+. The Royals would have been pretty dumb to have that growth and production all occuring in the minors.

Times maybe different now I realize, but, in terms of trade value how do you think Colvin compares to Brant Brown before he was traded for Lieber? (Were there other players involved???) Brown was 27 when he had his good year with an .850 OPS in '98. Colvin is OPSing .831 as a 24 year old. So I would think Colvin's trade value would be quite a bit higher than Brown's in '98. And it was a straight up deal for Lieber.

It's fun to think about, but not only is it a long ways off, there are several roadblocks to handle. So for now, I will dream of Brandon Guyer become a productive RFer for the Cubs, bringing speed, solid defense and some offensive pop. Fukudome being traded for whatever and at next year's trade deadline, the Cubs putting together a package that sends Colvin to KC and brings Butler to the northside.

Haven't gotten a report on him this year but last year, he was 87-90 with the FB, good curve and average change. Well, if that's still the same, he must have pinpoint control. Actually, with 19 walks in 109 innings, he probably does.

Another good day from Rusin at the AA level. Not great, but not bad. 6 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 K. He's been a bit more hittable since the promotion but that's to be expected as he adjusts to the talent level, but his 14 Ks/4 BB ratio is close to what he was doing at A+. As a 23-year-old, 4th round pick Rusin looks like someone who could help at the big league level down the road as a back of the rotation guy. Does anyone know what his stuff is like?

The Royals could very well covet someone like Colvin..................... I wonder if they'd be willing to give up a good A ball prospect. William Myers or John Lamb would be nice, maybe too nice. Danny Duffy. A package of Colvin and other pieces for Hosmer would fit the Cubs organizational needs nicely but the Royals have very little motivation to trade Hosmer with how well he's doing. Actually with Hosmer advancing through their system as quickly as he is, including Colvin in a package of players for Billy Butler, who is about to get more expensive, would be ideal.

The Royals could very well covet someone like Colvin..................... I think a few poor teams would love him if he can still look like a guy with the HR power and isn't too huge of an OBP liability. Those teams can't afford ideal players. No one, certainly not in this thread, is calling Colvin an "ideal player". I'm just wondering what the Cubs could get for him as a guy who is young, cheap, under team control for a good while and is coming off a decent rookie season.

Two homers for Guyer tonight. Bring his season total to 11 in 295 at bats. Throw in his 27 doubles and 5 triples and that's an extra base hit every 7 at bats.