CubsWin

Could be a lot of things. The "trots", a trade or possibly a promotion. He's hit .338/.416/.506 in July, and .330/.415/.462 since the Carolina League all-star break (a span of around 120 plate appearances). He's at 400 PAs for the year. Maybe seeing what he can do in AA allows the Cubs and, perhaps more importantly, other teams to gain another level of scouting prior to the trade deadline. Obviously it was related to trade talks but a prospect isn't going to get promoted to another level in the minors an hour before his game. Yeah, I posted that before I heard the trade rumors... :blush:

If the Cubs trade Gleyber Torres for Aroldis Chapman and don't extend him, I'll be shocked. Doesn't sound like a Theo & Jed move at all. I'm in agreement with the others that think this doesn't happen without Chapman extending and if it's 4/60, I'd consider that good value.

Could be a lot of things. The "trots", a trade or possibly a promotion. He's hit .338/.416/.506 in July, and .330/.415/.462 since the Carolina League all-star break (a span of around 120 plate appearances). He's at 400 PAs for the year. Maybe seeing what he can do in AA allows the Cubs and, perhaps more importantly, other teams to gain another level of scouting prior to the trade deadline.

I'll take it! I agree. For me, it doesn't matter how late in the game he can go. What matters is if he's being challenged while still able to develop. He'll expand his pitch limit and go deeper into games soon enough.

This one's for you, Tom... Theo & Jed promised Cubs fans waves and waves of sustained talent coming from within the Cubs organization, and they haven't disappointed. 2014 - Baez, Soler, Hendricks 2015 - Bryant, Russell, Schwarber 2016 - Contreras, Almora, Edwards That pace is certainly unsustainable for a couple of reasons. One, it's unheard of, and, two, there's no room for anybody else! Parts of the 4th and 5th waves will almost certainly be traded, but 2-3 years from now a tsunami of players will be arriving at full season A-ball as reinforcements. Exactly which ones has yet to play out, of course, but the Cubs rosters in the Dominican Summer League this year are the youngest I've ever seen due in large part to their huge 2015 IFA haul. John listed some of them in the much appreciated recap above. It's not that unusual to have several 17-year-olds in the DSL, but what is surprising is that many of these 17-year-olds also happen to be the best players on their team. And the quantity of the quality gives me hope for a restocked system down the line. SS Yonathan Perlaza (17) .281/.343/.445 C Miguel Amaya (17) .281/.369/.374 OF Jonathan Sierra (17) .265/.405/.324 SS Aramis Ademan (17) .246/.355/.308 IF Fidel Mejia (17) .331/.383/.393 CF Abraham Rodriguez (17) .297/.322/.420 IF Orion Nunez (17) .276/.345/.423 OF Jose Gutierrez (17) .253/.312/.411 OF Fernando Kelly (17) ..276/.400/.276 IF Luis Diaz (17) .234/.321/.298 C Henderson Perez (17) .195/.278/.230 LHP Brailyn Marquez (17) 1.74 ERA, 1.26 WHIP, .207 BAA LHP Faustino Carrera (17) 0.96 ERA, 1.06 WHIP, .229 BAA RHP Carlos Ocampo (17) 3.00 ERA, 1.33 WHIP, .214 BAA RHP Yunior Perez (17) 4.44 ERA, 1.48 WHIP, .304 BAA But wait, that's not all... SS Isaac Paredes (17) .380/.341/.360 RHP Jose Albertos (17) 0.00 ERA, .050 WHIP, .077 BAA (60-day DL) ...are already in Mesa. Quite appropriately, that's, you guessed it, 17 17-year-olds. Obviously, not all of them will become noteworthy prospects, but then again, if they did, the Cubs would have the same problem they have now, not enough room for them all.

Interested to see how De La Cruz does in his start today. If he does well again, you'd have to think he'd be promoted to South Bend for his next one.

Yeah, what's equally amazing to me is how good the major league team is and how it was put together. The free-agent signings have been mixed from Edwin Jackson to Jon Lester. There have been some trades that didn't work out but the ones that did, hit big. Cashner for Rizzo, 2 months of Feldman for Arrieta and Strop, 2 months of Dempster for Hendricks +, 2 months of Garza for Edwards, Grimm +, Samardzija & Hammel for Addison Russell and Billy McKinney, etc. Their developmental philosophy and instruction have also been top notch. Pre-existing talents like Baez, Contreras, Vogelbach and Candelario have improved greatly, likely in ways they wouldn't have under the previous regime. Much of the talent that has made this Cubs team what it is came from the above avenues. Only one player currently making a major impact on the 2016 Cubs came from the draft. Kris Bryant. Contreras (a 2009 IFA signing which sounds so weird to say) is also making a big impact. Soler and Almora still could and Schwarber will next year, but even without them this team is stacked at the majors. It boggles the mind. It boggles it further when you think what the future holds. Russell and Almora are just 22. Russell has improved at the plate in a variety of ways this year. His OBP is up 30 points. K% is down 4 points. BB% is up 2.7 points. SLG is up 20 points and his D is still excellent. Almora is basically Kevin Pillar right now. Pillar is 27 and had his first full season at 26. What will Almora be when he's 26? Baez, who's still just 23, is developing across the board in ways I never expected. The K% has dropped from 41.5% to 30% to 22.5% this year. The walks are still way low but the average, OBP and SLG are way up giving him a wRC+ of 109. And defensively I knew he was good, but not this good. Contreras, who's just 24 and will be until next May, is thus far among the best hitting catchers in the majors. Soler is also just 24. He's shown us what he can be but needs to stay healthy in order to develop further. And we haven't even gotten to the heart of the order yet. Adding Schwarber's lefty power and OBP to this line up next season almost seems unfair, and he's still just 23. Then there's top 40 prospects Happ, Torres and Jimenez, with Candelario, Zagunis, Caratini and Martinez still in the minors. Come on now. It's very likely that at some point one or more of these guys will be traded for pitching. But that doesn't have to happen for a while yet letting guys continue to build value. The pitching prospects have had a rough year for sure. Underwood is a huge question mark despite his stuff. Clifton is inconsistent. De La Cruz, Cease and Albertos have all been injured to varying degrees. Steele has floundered. Stinnett has been mediocre. A trade for a mid-20s TOR or MOR with upside will have to happen to buy time for one of these guys to develop. But if one or more of them can, the rotation should be pretty good to go along with what will likely be the best offense in baseball.

Since the brain trust of Theo, Jed and Jason took over in the 2011 off-season, the sheer volume of amateur talent they've acquired is kind of ridiculous. 2012 Jorge Soler Albert Almora Oscar De La Cruz Duane Underwood Gerardo Concepcion 2013 Kris Bryant Gleyber Torres Eloy Jimenez Trevor Clifton Wladimir Galindo Erling Moreno 2014 Kyle Schwarber Mark Zagunis Dylan Cease Ryan Williams Carlos Sepulveda Chesny Young 2015 Ian Happ Eddy Martinez Jose Albertos Issac Paredes Donnie Dewees Bryan Hudson DJ Wilson Jonathan Sierra Aramis Ademan Yonathan Perlaza Miguel Amaya Brailyn Marquez Faustino Carrera You can add names or remove them per your standards. This is a subjective and incomplete list. The 2015 haul makes up for the lackluster 2016 draft. There are a few interesting names from this year's draft. Thomas Hatch, Tyson Miller, Bailey Clark, Chad Hockin, Dakota Mekkes and Delvin Zinn. But, for the most part, none of them are expected to be impact talents. We haven't heard of any IFA signings from this go around yet, but even if they're aren't any, the players already in the system should insure a strong organization for the foreseeable future. Jason McLeod and the Cubs scouting and developmental staffs deserve a lot of credit.

No worries. Happens to me too. Yeah, I expect De La Cruz will get to South Bend soon as well. I would think some of the college arms in SB will get bumped up to Myrtle Beach with some of either Hedges, Stinnett or Martinez getting promoted to Tennessee. With Blackburn traded, they should have a rotation spot open with Pries likely assigned to Iowa.

With the draftees arriving, promotions are likely coming. And Jose Paulino should top the list. 7 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 7 K tonight. This was his 6th start. He's gone 5 IP, 5 IP, 6, 6, 6 and now 7. He's been remarkably consistent, not giving up more than 1 ER or 1 BB in any game with 4 scoreless outings and 3 without a walk. It's time.

It's nice to see him doing well. It's still uncertain, perhaps unlikely, he sticks at SS, but for a stateside 17-year-old (who doesn't turn 18 until February) he's acquitting himself quite nicely of late. .309/.365/.397 after a 4 hit night last night If you look at a who's who among IFA bats, guys succeeding stateside at 17 are often the most legit so this guy hitting so well is a pretty big deal. Depending on how he finishes he is the IFA most likely to make my top EoY top 30, POSSIBLY even 20 or 25. Indeed sir. Now let's see if he can keep it up. I'm rooting for him.

It's nice to see him doing well. It's still uncertain, perhaps unlikely, he sticks at SS, but for a stateside 17-year-old (who doesn't turn 18 until February) he's acquitting himself quite nicely of late.

OT, but I'm surprised the Cubs didn't redo their dugouts in anyway during the buildout of their new clubhouse. I figure the exterior look of them would need to be the same due to historical landmark regulations but they could at least lower the floor so players don't have to duck when they enter from the field or hit their heads when standing up from the bench. I'm 6'3" and sat in the dugout a couple years back for a charity event, and there's not a lot of room in there. Has anyone heard of renovation plans for the dugouts?

Poor Javy. Hendricks, too. I know he's not a hitter, but he came up 3 weeks before Javy. So, to recap in chronological order, the Cubs still have 3 top 50 prospects (and possibly more in the top 100) after graduating 8 guys... Hendricks (7.0 fWAR in 61 starts & 1 relief appearance) Baez (1.1 fWAR in 540 PAs - 1.4 this year in 231) Soler (0.7 fWAR in 653 PAs) Bryant (11.5 fWAR in 1035 PAs) Russell (4.7 fWAR in 857 PAs) Schwarber (1.8 fWAR in 278 PAs) Almora (0.7 fWAR in 74 PAs) Contreras (0.8 fWAR in 93 PAs) ...in the last 2 years. That's just crazy. Kudos to Jason and the Cubs scouting and development staffs.

Nice! The baseball gods taketh (Cease & Albertos) and they giveth back. (Finally...)

Yay! Heh...

His tweet didn't say "also" in reference to another Cowboy: [tweet] [/tweet]Ah, good. The page I accessed the top of that tweet was cut off, so it read "baseball it is also my dream..." Couldn't tell, thanks!

12th round pick, and OSU teammate of Hatch, Trey Cobb said in a twitter post that he is "also" returning for his senior year. Don't know what the "also" means. Hopefully, it's not referring to Hatch.

Okay, so doing the math myself (because apparently I need to), the Cubs have $2,357,355 to spend including the 5% overage. Hatch - unsigned (slot $573,900) Miller $500,000 Clark $450,000 Hockin $241,000 Cruz $75,000 Ridings $120,000 Robinson $30,000 Mekkes $275,000 That totals $1,691,000 already spent + Hatch's slot money = $2,264,900. So the Cubs still $92,455 above slot to spend meaning they can go as high as $666,355 for Hatch or spread that around between Hatch, his buddy Trey Cobb and Parker Dunshee (both of whom are juniors).

Yags' number includes that 5%. If Hatch is going back to college all they have to do is offer some % (I think it is 60%) and then they still get that slot money to spend right? Never mind. I misunderstood. Yags' number doesn't include the 5%. My bad.

You're actually allowed to go 5% over slot on your pool without penalty. Yags' number includes that 5%.

Eddy Martinez with a 2-run jack to give South Bend the lead. That's his 1st HR since June 2nd.

One of three things must be true... 1. The reported amounts Yags has reported thus far are off a bit. 2. Hatch has agreed to sign for about $20,000 under slot. 3. Hatch is going back to Oklahoma State and the Cubs would have to cut someone else loose, likely 9th round pick Duncan Robinson If the signing bonuses for Mekkes and Clark are correct and Yags is also accurate, the Cubs are now $19,800 over their allotment with Hatch still unsigned.

No word from Yags on what Mekkes signed for but apparently he's in the fold. BA now has Cubs having signed: RND PICK PLAYER POS 4 134 Tyson Miller RHP 6 194 Chad Hockin RHP 7 224 Michael Cruz C 8 254 Stephen Ridings RHP 9 284 Duncan Robinson RHP 10 314 Dakota Mekkes RHP 13 404 Wyatt Short LHP 15 464 Jed Carter RHP 16 494 Holden Cammack RHP 17 524 Zack Short SS 18 554 Marc Huberman LHP 19 584 Matt Swarmer RHP 20 614 Colton Freeman LHP 21 644 Sam Tidaback C 25 764 Trent Giambrone 2B 27 824 Connor Myers OF 29 884 Tyler Peyton RHP 32 974 Zach Davis OF That leaves just 5 guys unsigned from their top 20 round selections. Junior RHP Thomas Hatch (3rd) Junior RHP Bailey Clark (5th) Senior RHP Michael Rucker (11th) Junior RHP Trey Cobb (12th) Junior RHP Parker Dunshee (15th) Yags has the Cubs with $226,800 in bonus overages but some of that will likely be taken up in the Mekkes signing.

I wasn't aware that I was secretly trying to steal all that credit coming my way or undermining all or whatever the issue is here. I was mentioning it for maybe the people who wander into the minor league thread once in a while and wonder why I am even mentioning some mostly 17 year olds. I've been saying this since their season opened, whenever I post about a DSL prospect, and did not realize it would suddenly become a thing tonight. I don't think nor did I say you're doing any of that. It's just not necessary to hammer it home in my book. It's a pretty obvious thing that they got a good haul. I mean, is anyone disagreeing with you?