CubsWin

That depends on what you mean by "permanent", I guess. There's nothing in there that said he'd never be used as a starter again. He's being moved to the bullpen for now. And I think that's smart. It's not a bad idea to limit his exposure for the time being. Have him work things out with coaches in side sessions, and then take it into game situations out of the pen in shorter stints. Get things ironed out (if they can...), hopefully have him get a couple of scoreless innings under his belt. Rebuild his confidence, which has assuredly taken a hit. And when they think he's ready (a month or so down the road depending), give him a start. I mean, maybe it's more dire than that, I don't know. But that seems like a more logical plan than moving him to the pen permanently at the age of 19.

He's 5-5 on the day. Bote is legit in my mind. I think he could start at second for some teams. He didn't look great in his short time with the Cubs, but he looked WAY better than Zagunis. I was watching a Smokies game last season and the color analyst that night said something I found quite surprising. I don't remember who he was (a retired college coach or something) but he was definitely a baseball lifer. Bote had only decent numbers at the time, and only had one really good season in his pro career at High A the year before. He said, without hesitation, that Bote was going to be a starting 2nd baseman at the major league level. My eyebrows shot up. He might be right...

Monasterio should definitely be in the conversation for current top 30 lists. The back of the top 30 currently is very weak and. Monasterio is holding his own at A+ in his age 21 season. At the very worst, he’s looking like a potential big league utility guy. Same goes for Jhonny Pereda at age 22 in A+. I haven’t heard defensive reports for either of them. A couple years back when he was in the AZL, Pereda was described as a light-hitting, defense-first catcher. So he should still be good defensively. Then he had his first good offensive season in 2016 and the Cubs had him skip Eugene starting him in full season ball as a 20/21 year old and I thought, "hey, we may have something here!"

When a player is young for their league and yet still gets promoted in-season, like Almora was throughout his minor league career, I like to track their numbers from their starting level only to isolate their performance before having been challenged by the in-season promotion. For example, Andruw Monasterio is a 20 year old playing in High A. He'll turn 21 at the end of this month. I consider 21 to be the "average" age for Low A, so he's still young for his age. He's not a top prospect by any stretch and didn't come with any sort of pedigree (his signing bonus is unknown). If he was a high pedigree prospect, I'd have higher expectations for him being able to perform at a high level against more experienced competition. In other words, in my world, the average age for high end prospects for Low A is around 18-19. But I digress. Here's a look at Monasterio's numbers ignoring what happened after in-season promotions (when he was already young for his league...) 2014 Venezuelan Sumer League (age 17) .292/.368/.343 2015 AZL Rookie League (age 18) .252/.346/.348 2016 NWL Short Season Low A (age 19) .324/.355/.437 - only 71 ABs 2017 MWL Low A (age 19-20) .281/.351/.368 2018 CL High A (age 20-21) .319/.413/.435 - only 69 ABs I find that the jump from the DSL, in this case the VSL, to the stateside rookie leagues is often one of the toughest. In this case that held true. The Cubs have aggressively promoted IFAs with regularity but it's almost always the high pedigree ones. Eloy Jimenez, Gleyber Torres, Aramis Ademan and Miguel Amaya all either skipped levels, were promoted in-season when already young for their league and/or started stateside at 17. Monasterio is the only other IFA I have found thus far (during the Theo/Jed era) that has been challenged similarly (although while being at least one year older at each level than those top prospects). What's more, he's held his own thus far. He's never been listed in the Cubs top 30 that I know of. But if he keeps this up, he should be this year. Does anyone know of any reports on his defense?

That's as it should be. ...And woefully underwhelming.

Personally, I might take Regular Show's draft prospect analysis over Keith Law's, but Law has some really nice things to say about Rodriguez:

Wow.

I need to see Underwood sustain this until July if I'm even going to buy it a little. Way to go, guys! I'm holding you two personally responsible for the 4 runs Underwood gave up in the 1st.

More love needs to be given to Spring Training hitting legend Mike Freeman........ But yeah Adbert on point again So the next outing could be shaky based on his season trends Yup. When something happens once... look out.

Infield hit. No more no-no.

58 pitches through 5 innings for Adbert. He threw 83 pitches his last time out. He likely has a pitch limit around 95 tonight.

Nice! I'm jealous...

Despite putting up dominant performances as a reliever at Michigan State, Dakota Mekkes was a prove-it-at-every-level guy for me because of the lack of mid-90s velocity on his fastball. Reports said his FB played up because of deception in his delivery and his stride and 6'7" frame causing him to release the ball a little closer to the plate. Still, I was (and am) wait and see. But that might be changing. He still needs to improve his walk rate, but these are his career numbers thus far: 60 G, 102.2 IP, 53 hits, 2 HR, 44 BB, 132 K, .151 AVG, 0.94 WHIP, with a 1.05 ERA. Now most of that was against A ball hitters which can be argued is a similar talent level to college, but he's doing the same thing in AA in the early going this year. Continued dominance in the Southern League this season will go along way towards him being considered a viable major league MIR prospect. This has been your #MekkesWatch report for April 2018.

I know, good lord. He's hitting .292/.370/.538 with 7 doubles and 3 HR with above average walk and K rates (8 walks against 13 Ks in just over 70 PAs). For a guy who is a talented defensive catcher, just turned 19 a month an a half ago, this is an impressive start to full season ball.

Thanks, Raisin. I also liked that the newly signed 17-year-old Cuban 3B, Kevin Moreno, went 2-3 (2 singles, a walk and a run scored) in his professional debut. And Fernando Kelli got on base twice (a single and a walk) with a SB and a run scored.

Interestingly, Little looked better than his stat line might suggest and Lange, despite a dominant stat line, looked worse. Lange missed a lot last night consistently bouncing balls (fastballs and curves) well out in front of the plate, and he gave up some hard contact that went for outs mostly to nice catches by CFer Connor Myers. Wladimir Galindo also made some nice plays at third. He may not have great range, but his hands were great in this game and he has more than enough arm. Obviously, Lange had enough good pitches to get out these High A hitters, but he's actually looked better in previous, less dominant outings. (No velocities were given.) Little was hitting his spots more consistently in this game and the curve had a sharper break. The HR came off of one of the few FBs he left over the plate. It was center cut and crushed. One of his few mistakes of the night (he left a few more FBs up in the zone that were hit deep for outs). He was 92-93 with the FB, change at 84, and 81 with the sharp breaking curve. The velocity did dip in the 5th inning when his FB was 89-90. Little threw more pitches than ever before in his professional career (84), so apparently he's still working on adding stamina. Little changed his wind up between his last start and this one. He no longer takes his glove over his head instead keeping his hand in his glove at his waist before taking his arm back. Maybe that had something to do with his better performance. He needs to gain consistency/stamina and pitch like he did last night more often, but that's why he's in the minors. If he does and develops his change up, he could be good. Another oddity, Little, who wears number 34 and resembles Lester in other ways, bounced a pick off attempt to 1B allowing the runner to advance. Of course, Little's bounce was not on purpose... Amaya's 2 RBI double would've likely gone out if not for the harsh wind blowing in from LF where he hit it. If it had gone out, it would've been his 3rd HR in as many games.

Tyler got two quick outs in the 9th but allowed 4 straight hits letting in 2 runs. 3.2 IP giving up just 1 H, 0 BB with 6 Ks. After that, not so much. 0.1 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 0 BB and 1 K as he got the final out via strikeout.

That makes more sense. Ricky Tyler Thomas doing it again in a piggyback capacity this time. Announcer says he expects Thomas to pitch the 9th, but so far 3 IP, 1 H 0 R, 0 BB, 5 K.

Another solid outing for Assad. 5 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K. Brings him to 19 IP, 14 H, 4 BB, 17 K with a WHIP and ERA of 0.95 as a 20-year-old in Low A. His stuff needs to improve if he's going to become a realistic MLB prospect, but he's getting the job done against MWL hitters.

What does the "that makes it 14-4" reference?

This can't be happening. The Cubs search for a lead off man since the departure of Dexter has been well documented. Heyward, Schwarber, Zobrist, heck even Rizzo has been tried. But now, the two guys whose ability to get on base has been widely criticized throughout much of their professional career, Almora and Baez, have formed the best 1-2 punch to start the game in a long time. It's only been 8 games so things will likely revert to the norm, but both players are still young and learning their craft. In those 8 games, the Cubs are 6-2 while Almora and Baez have scored 8 runs each. Might they become the new (and highly improbable) daily double? Dernier and Sandberg, Lofton and Grudzielanek... Almora and Baez??

FWIW, here's an extremely outdated write-up on Raidel Orta from 3 years ago... Per AZ Phil, Orta is veteran of Serie Nacional (the Cuban major league) who defected from Cuba two years ago and hasn't pitched competitively since. At least when he was 18, he was pretty darn small. 1.75m and 70kg converts to 5'9" and 154 lbs. Not pitching competitively for so long, being 22 already (just turned) and getting only $10,000 for a signing bonus isn't very exciting so there's no reason to have much expectation here, but the Cubs are nothing if not thorough and they must've seen something in him.

Yet one more IFA signing before the new period begins... To clarify the ones that are currently in Mesa, that list reads: Luis Verdugo, SS, Mexico (age 17) - $1.2 million Reivaj Garcia, SS, Mexico (age 16) - $500,000 Fabian Pertuz, SS, Colombia (age 17) - $300,000 Alexander Guerra, C, Cuba (age 21) - $300,000 Raidel Orta, RHSP, (age 22) - $10,000 Kevin Moreno, OF-3B, (age 17) - No bonus info Juan Mora, IF, (age 18) - No bonus info

Fair enough. Any out of the woodwork, unexpected guys you like? Kevonte Mitchell. I've predicted a breakout for him for like 3 straight years, maybe I'll eventually get it right. I also thought one of the many Latin American middle infielders in A-ball (Narea, Peguero, Monasterio or Perlaza) would separate from the pack and establish themselves as future big league utility guy/2nd division second baseman. I thought Peyton Remy and Tyler Thomas might break out as a relievers and move quickly through the system. But Remy is stuck in Extended and Thomas is starting for South Bend. Not sure how out of the woodwork those guys are for your taste. I'd say they all qualify. Mitchell's your raw toolsy prospect who can pop unexpectedly after some years of marinating. Thomas is off to a surprisingly good start as a starter (didn't see that coming) in full season. He was just a 7th rounder. The Cubs of late have had a long list of young, lean, slap-hitting MIFs like you listed of which the only one with a claim to any sort of pedigree would be Perlaza but he's been bad for two years now, so yeah, they all count. The Cubs have been drafting college control artists with some size the last couple of seasons who could surprise (Robinson, Rucker, Morrison, etc.). Last year's version was 11th rounder Rollie Lacy who is off to a great start this year for South Bend.

From the not very obscure candidates: Miguel Amaya, Cory Abbott and Erling Moreno (whoops) were my picks. Fair enough. Any out of the woodwork, unexpected guys you like?