CubsWin

I realize that by merely raising the question I've just jinxed him into doing so, but come on...the guy hasn't walked anyone since May 10th. For those of you who can't count so good, that's over a month. A month without a walk. Of course, if he's not striking out anybody (or getting people out in general) not walking anyone doesn't really mean that much. I thought if he had a 5-to-1 or even 6-to-1 strikeout to walk ratio would be sick enough, but Chris's ratio is 18-to-1. I've never even heard of that before. In his last 12.2 innings, he's struckout 20 and walked none allowing 2 earned runs. That's got to be good enough for a promotion sometime in July, assuming he doesn't completely fall apart. Oops, jinxed him again. I'm terrible...

Scheppers or Brothers...

Scheppers was the guy I was hoping the Cubs would take at 31.

"He's a bit of a misser."

Let the hating begin...

And that's from a 21-year-old at AA. I'm watching...

I just want to make sure we are experiencing Josh Vitters from the proper perspective. He's hit 8 HRs over his last 10 games in which he is batting .442. His OPS for the season is now over 1.000. He's been so spectacular that it is easy to find yourself getting caught up in the hoopla, so it is important to remember that although his May has been abso-freakin-lutely sick, it is still just one month. And one month does not a season make. But that's not the perspective I was talking about. The proper perspective is that Josh is still only NINETEEN!! THE DUDE'S 19, PEOPLE!!! HE WON'T TURN 20 UNTIL THE VERY END OF THE MINOR LEAGUE SEASON!!! Keep it up, kid.

At what point do we start considering Josh Harrison a prospect worth talking about? He's slightly over age appropriate for the MWL but only slightly. (He turns 22 in July.) Of course, if he keeps hitting like this (.386/.412/.559), he could be in Daytona by then. Anyone got the scoop on this guy? Why is he hitting like this but no one's talking about him like he can be something? He hit really well last year at Boise (.351/.462/.509 over 144 ABs). Is his defense terrible? He's been moved around the field a lot, but most of games have been as a DH, so that could be it. Do people think he's too short to ever hit for power? Is there some rule says you can't be excited about more than one Josh at the same time? What gives on the other Josh?

And to go along with that one... He doesn't sound like a guy who lacks patience at the plate or has a "hacker's approach". He still could and just know the right words to say in an interview, but I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt when it comes to the ability to take a pitch and/or draw a walk.

Vitters also grounded into not one, but two, TWO double plays. I say we hang him.

Another good/great game for Vitters, Castro and Jay Jackson. The hot streak that Vitters is on is sick. I can't recall seeing anything like this before. Castro is now hitting over .300 on the year and .410 in May with a SLG of .623 this month as well. Jay Jack is 1-0 with a 0.95 ERA in 19 May innings, allowing 17 hits and 5 walks against 23 strikeouts. And that's in AA at 21 years old. These three are definitely living up to the hype right now...

I agree. Pie has been disappointing for the O's this season, but...

And if that's what the trained eyes of people like Ping are seeing then that's evidence he's not walking right now because he is getting pitches to hit and that calling his style a "hacking" style might be inaccurate. At the higher levels, he will likely get less pitches to hit and then, and perhaps only then, will we know for sure his ability around plate discipline. For now, though, I'm just going to sit back and enjoy the numbers he's putting up.

I think that's been my philosophy with the Cubs since the 2003 NLCS. As predictable as baseball looks, it just isn't. Certainly not game to game. Seriously though, I was losing my hair up until around '03-'04 and then it stopped falling out. I have no other explanation...

Why? I think its because of the current injury status of one Aramis Ramirez, but I don't want to put words in AF's mouth. From everything I've read, Jake's defense is just as bad at third as it is behind the plate, so...

I share this concern, but then I think about Vitters' ability to hit well almost anything remotely around the plate and something's got to give. If you can hit your way on base the way he can, not only do you not need to draw a walk, but you're not going to. At this level, it seems the pitchers aren't good enough to justify a change in approach. Now if he struggles at the higher levels, the adjustment will become necessary. At this point, it is unclear why he isnt walking. Does he lack the ability to recognize a pitch out of the zone? Or is the competition in the MWL so easy to hit for him that he rarely gets the opportunity to walk. Plus, with these young pitchers, its less about game situations and pitching around somebody and more about working on your stuff, throwing strikes and challenging guys to see what you got. At the higher levels, I would imagine the game becomes more nuanced and the pitchers more skilled at hitting their spots just off the plate and so on. Of course, ever since high school, Vitters' game seems to have been plate coverage. Somewhat off-the-charts plate coverage. So even at the higher levels, a pitcher will hit that spot just off the plate at the knees, a spot the pitcher and every other hitter consider unhittable, and Vitters might drive it to the opposite field. If he can and does, his walk rate may remain low. But I ask, if he's getting on base nearly 40% of the time at the higher levels, should I be concerned with how often he walks? I don't know, I'm seriously asking.

Josh Vitters and Tony Thomas continue to impress with the bat big time. The concern about Vitters is his walk rate, but with his ability to hit almost anything, and hit it well, I don't know if he fits into the conventional mold of hitter. If he is unable to hit his way on base in AA and AAA, then he will have to adjust. But for now, I'm not concerned with how rarely he takes a walk. Should I be? Thomas is just simply raking, especially for a 5'10", secondbaseman. As a guy who doesn't turn 23 until mid-July, he's basically age appropriate for his league if not a little ahead of the game. Where he seems behind is defensively. If he doesn't improve, Thomas could wind up as trade bait. Starlin Castro can officially be moved from a player worth watching to one worth getting excited about, as can Chris Huseby and Dan McDaniel on the pitching side of things. They join 19-year-old Ryan Searle in that catagory. Lots of others are worth watching at this point, but those 6 have distinguished themselves with their performance thus far this season and, if they keep it up, are of an age where they can be considered legit prospects. It's still mid-May so a lot can happen, but if those 6 keep up their current level of performance, it would be a huge feather in Wilken's cap and the Cubs system would undoubtedly be ranked higher by the so-called experts next off season. Add in guys like Hak-Ju Lee and Dae-Eun Rhee and the Cubs top ten prospect list might be making a comeback. Your thoughts?

I agree with your post, but to my knowledge they signed Pie for very little. I thought is was $50,000. Do I have that wrong? I would love to see them throw a lot of money at Sano. Of course, I don't know what the budget is and why...

Interesting little development for Jake, he was behind the plate for the I-Cubs on Monday. He allowed two passed balls and he was probably filling in due to injury or something, but much like Spock, I raised an eyebrow and said, "fascinating" when I saw that.

Vitters line in May - .389/.411/.593. His Peoria numbers on the year are very much like his numbers last year at Boise. If he keeps this up, he should see Daytona in the second half. Castro's already at Daytona. His numbers in May are .417/.429/.667 with 5 steals against 1 caught stealing. Both of these guys are just 19. This is fun.

Well, our just turned 19 year old, 6'1", 160 lbs., shortstop playing in the FSL is hitting .385 in the month of May and .433 over the last ten games. He's slugging .641 in May as well. That is only over the course of 39 ABs, but all I was looking for was evidence that his performance in April (.235/.200/.435) was an aberration driven by the necessary adjustments that come from jumping from the AZL to the FSL. I still haven't seen enough to feel confident that Castro will succeed at the A+ level all year long. He needs to get his walk rate up and keep hitting the ball well for longer than just a 12 game stretch, but at least he's broken out. And 12 games is nothing to sneeze. Ryan Searle's last two starts weren't as impressive as the previous three, but they weren't terrible. And he's still a 19 year old in the FSL with a 2.18 ERA and a WHIP under 1. Hang in there, Ryan.

I would be looking forward to that, too. What makes you so cool?

Hopefully all of this year. He needs to work on those secondary pitches and also work on his control. And I haven't given up hope that he might stick as a starter though he's eventually going to have to get into the 4th inning for that to happen.. Cashner is really wild. Last year he walked more a batter per inning (as a pro; he hadn't been equally wild in college). This year he's still really wild; I don't know where they record how many guys he's hit, but when you sum up walks, wild pitches, and HBP, he's averaging more than a wild-event per inning. And the extraordinary wildness is also why he's exhausting his pitch count within 2 or 3 innings. That kind of wildness doesn't play in either rotation or relief. He's in a minor-league rotation to pitch and try to get a hint of control. How much control he develops will dictate how far he goes and in what role he pitches, if he ever gets enough to pitch productively in the majors. Just a thought - If he's working on his secondary pitches, his problems with control could be due to that. Having no pitching experience myself, if someone asked me to come out and throw a forkball every third pitch every game, I would consider myself lucky if the catcher was even able to get a glove on it! Since his history indicates that his control has been fine, I have a tendency not to panic. I will assume that the Cubs brass will eventually have him scrap any pitches that he is just not getting the hang of. I think most pitchers work on those pitches in EST, but with him being such a high draft pick and an older player, I imagine there is some pressure to have him pitch in full-season ball. Just my two cents. If the Cubs are doing that with Cashner then its a trend 'cuz they did the same thing with Samardzija last year.

The article's got it wrong. He's 25. He'll turn 26 this winter. Should they have held onto him? Who knows. Maybe. But maybe he wouldn't have turned things around if he hadn't had a change of scenery. The Cubs have had some change-of-scenery success stories, so it's no surprise when they have one that goes the other way.

Starlin Castro has picked it up in the month of May. As of May 9th, he is batting .400/.423/.600 with 2 doubles and a HR over 25 ABs, 4 SB and 0 CS. He's had decent offensive numbers the last two seasons, so maybe April truly was an adjustment period to the new level he is at. After being in the Dominican League in '07 and Mesa in '08, playing ball in the FSL must have been like taking the training wheels off. Let's hope his May continues and this 6'1, 160 lbs. SS puts up another .800+ OPS this time at the A+ level at the tender age of 19. And if he doesn't become a star at the major league level, maybe we can trade this SS to the Phillies for a hall of fame 2B. After all, his middle name is DeJesus. :wink: