CubsWin

Hey, as long as they're supplements and not the guys we're relying on, I'm good with cranking out Brock Holts like Lumberjacks and Gunfighters in World Zombination. I don't want there to be any supplements. No risk of PEDs at all.

Well, looks like I jinxed him. Since the original post, Contreras has reeaaallly cooled off. He's only hit .324 since April 12th. This dude... He's reached base in every game this season, still sports a slash of .375/.419/.446 and has thrown out 5 of 11 stolen base attempts.

I was really happy when I read that over at cub reporter. Paulino's been a favorite sleeper of mine for a while now. I had him pegged for the South Bend rotation. Don't know if he was struggling this spring or whether they wanted the college guys to get acclimated or what, but I look forward to the day when Cease, De La Cruz (out with an elbow, don't know the severity), Alzolay, Paulino, Sands and Steele are all going. That could be the South Bend rotation come the 2nd half.

Vic Caratini has reached base in 13 straight games and has hit in 7 of his last 8 raising his line of .148/.281/.296 to .259/.412/.389 in the last 10 days. Jeimer Candelario has hit safely in 7 of his last 8 with 3 doubles and 2 HRs in that span with 9 walks against 4 Ks. His line has gone from .167/.255/.214 to .217/.345/.377. Zagunis didn't have such a slow start but he has reached base in at 14 straight and has hits in 5 out of his last 6. His OBP is up to .366 despite a low average. McKinney is the only one still struggling. I know he had a knee injury late last season and a long rehab process that carried over into spring training. As was said earlier, maybe that is having an effect in some way.

I'm still trying to decide whether or not I have time to take him and Rademacher seriously. Realistically, much as I like Chesny Young, he's the type of guy that, for me, as I said about Torreyes back in the day and others, simply has to prove it up each level. In that respects, he's still a relatively fringe prospect, as is Bijan. That said, a fringe prospect who is a utility player that can play MI is far more valuable than a fringe corner OF prospect like Rademacher. Young has a better hit tool than Bijan, and has better raw bat speed, at least, he did (not sure about anything this year). He was a college shortstop who ... if i recall correctly right now ... showed very well one summer in one of the Wood bat leagues - Northwoods, I think. I'm pretty certain that he's handled some 3rd before, to go with 2nd, and I'm pretty sure he's not going to show a David Kelton arm in the OF. A comparison to Ryan Theriot sounds ... awkward ... but really, if Theriot was thought of as simply as a last man on the bench, utility type option ... he'd be alright. I think Chesny has a better hit tool than Theriot ever did, but it's not that extreme. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but Rademacher has a big time arm, IIRC. The type of arm that might be able to give transitioning a shot, IIRC. You are correct. Rademacher fell to the 13th round because he told teams he wanted to hit and hit only. He had a mid-90s FB from the left side which doesn't grow on trees and didn't blow people away with his bat in college, so teams saw him more as a pitcher. The Cubs promised to give him a shot in the field with the caveat that if it didn't work out he'd return to the mound. He's made enough progress every year that they haven't asked him to transition back yet. I would imagine this year (or next depending) is a make or break one for him with the bat. He turns 25 on June 15th. I agree with you for the most part on Chesny, but the Torreyes comparison, while in the ballpark, isn't that great. Beyond rookie ball and Low-A, Torreyes never put up the numbers Young has. He's also quite bit smaller than Young. Their biggest similarity is K/BB ratio, but their High-A numbers and thus far AA numbers aren't comparable. That said, we agree Young is most likely a utility guy, certainly on a good team. Perhaps something along the line of La Stella whose minor league numbers track better with Young's thus far.

Man, this is a deep system. Here we are voting on 19 and 20, and we still have guys with realistic chances at making the majors. How many organizations can say they have an advanced college bat, age appropriate in AA (and will be all season) who's career slash is .323/.396/.399 and is currently outperforming it as their 19th or 20th best prospect? Or a 20-year-old starter in High-A with good stuff (low/mid 90s FB, good breaking ball) who is still learning to command it but has never allowed more than a hit per inning in any season and consistently at or above 8 Ks/9? Or a speedy, athletic CF and Vanderbilt recruit who a very astute front office saw fit to overslot ($1.3 million) in the 4th round? And the list goes on. 22-year-old, AA starter Paul Blackburn (23-12, 2.98 career). 6'4", 2nd rounder Jake Stinnett. None of these guys are worthy of being another team's top 4-5 prospects, but a lot of them would be top 10. Then there's the incoming IFA class of Ademan, Sierra, Albertos, Perlaza, Amaya, Paredes, Marquez, Kwon and others. If there were no impact-type, starting caliber prospects at the top of the Cubs list, that would be one thing. But Contreras, Torres, Almora and Happ all currently fit that bill with Underwood and Cease knocking on the door and Jimenez and De La Cruz in line behind them. Oh, and the greatest collection of 26-and-under major league talent ever assembled in my lifetime. Please re-sign Jason McLeod.

#1: Gleyber Torres #2: Willson Contreras #3: Albert Almora #4: Ian Happ #5: Billy McKinney #6: Eloy Jimenez #7: Dylan Cease #8: Jeimer Candelario #9: Duane Underwood #10: Carl Edwards Jr. #11: Eddy Julio Martinez #12: Oscar De La Cruz #13: Pierce Johnson #14: Victor Caratini #15: Mark Zagunis #16: Donnie Dewees #17: Bryan Hudson #18: Dan Vogelbach

It's still too early for me, but I never left the Almora bandwagon. I'm probably more patient than most, however. I love how this Cubs front office went to a kid who had just hit .329/.376/.466 in Low-A as a 19-year-old and said you need to make adjustments or you're going to be in trouble. Previous regimes would've not intervened saying "he's a natural hitter" and to not "get in his way" only to watch him fail at the upper levels. These guys drafted Almora for his make-up as much as his bat/defense. They knew he had the coachability, mental toughness and work ethic to challenge him to wait for a pitch he could drive, even though all of his previous success was due to his ability to recognize a pitch and make good contact with it whether it was in his wheelhouse or not. They let him get his feet wet in the AZL and he hit well (347/.363/.480) but was very aggressive. He continued his success in Low-A while still lacking selectivity. Looking back, it seems as if they were allowing him to get comfortable and know he can play at this level while waiting for him to struggle. Finally he did. He struggled badly in High-A at first, hitting .241/.262/.318 through mid-June. It's unclear exactly when they asked him to make the adjustment to wait for a pitch he could drive (I have a vague memory of them doing so before the 2014 season began), but reports were when they did, he bought in. The moment he started to hit well in Daytona (.369/.395/.582 in his last 28 games without having become that much more selective), they aggressively promoted him to AA to see how he handled the more advanced pitching. I expect, they did so with an eye towards him struggling again. They knew he could handle the failure and it kept him focused on the need to wait for something he could drive. Years of habit needed to be undone all while facing the best pitching he'd seen in his career to date and being years younger than almost everyone around him. Last August, it seemed to click for him. It wasn't a large enough sample to draw anything conclusive from (.352/.413/.504 with 11 BB/13 K in 140 PAs) but the combination of a higher walk rate and greater power (14 doubles, a triple and a HR in that month) were the exact results the adjustment he'd been working on for about a year and a half were supposed to produce. Now, he's just 14 games and 60 PAs into his first season in AAA, but he's picked up right where he left off hitting .333/.390/.510 with a 10% walk rate and 11.7% K rate while being the 3rd youngest player in the PCL. I still need to see if this continues to believe this level of production is due to him having completed that adjustment, but the early returns are very promising.

Yep. In his last 7 games, 4 Ks to go with 6 walks and 3 HRs. If he can keep those Ks down, thats very encouraging. The next biggest step in his development is his play at 2B. I was hoping for Benintendi to fall but if he didn't I wanted Happ. Both are doing well right now. Benintendi makes better contact but if Happ can become an average (or better) defensive 2B, that might even the score a bit.

That Smokies team has a chance to be a monster. Candelario, Caratini, McKinney and Zagunis should all see an uptick in production as the season progresses with Rademacher being the only one to regress. Chesny Young will come back a little bit, but he's not too far off his career averages. I like the patient approaches in the line-up here. They lead the league in walks and OBP and have the least Ks per game. Hannemann and Penalver provide athleticism and good defense if nothing else. There might be some promotions in the 2nd half as both Candelario and McKinney logged AA time last season, but that's 6 legit hitters, with the possibility/likelihood of Happ replacing anyone who gets promoted, and Jason Vosler (one of my picks to breakout this season) ready to move up from Myrtle Beach come June/July. On the pitching side, Blackburn is off to a hot start. He looked really good when seeing him a few times on the back fields this spring, so where as his numbers will regress for sure, I'm not surprised to see him doing well. Dare I say Zastryzny has improved? We'll see, but so far, so good. I've always held out hope for Skulina. I think he's got a shot at being a decent reliever in the bigs as does Markey. Jen-Ho Tseng is off to a bad start and should pick it up as the season progresses, but as a BOR in AA a team could do worse. Top that rotation off with a returning Underwood and that's not a bad group. There really isn't an organizational filler guy on the list. The bullpen is full of guys with good fastballs and sliders that they're still learning to control. But Acevedo, Black, Peralta, Conway and Paniagua all have decent stuff. There may not be more than 1 or 2 MLB arms in that group but they can all be nasty when they're right. Concepcion seems to have steadily improved over the last couple of seasons. It'll be interesting to see if he continues to perform. Pugliese doesn't have the upside, but he's been a steady minor league reliever for a couple years now. Tennessee is middle of the pack at 8-9 right now mostly due to the slow starts from many of their hitting prospects, but as they heat up and Underwood returns, if they can stay healthy, this team could vie for the Southern League championship, if not run away with it. This is one of the best Cubs minor league rosters I've seen in my 25 years of following such things. What's doubly nice is many of these guys are age appropriate or younger and true prospects. No ringers in the bunch.

Yeah I was going to respond to your comment about him having to pick it up for it to happen but got caught up in the actual Cubs game and forgot. His slash line looks mighty fine if he were to roughly keep it up until Juneish I'd think a promotion would be reasonable. At the same time the K% is high and it would be nice to see him drop that a bit before moving up The K% is my concern with Happ, too. He's right around 25% and already young for his level. Plus, he's still pretty raw defensively at 2B. My guess is the Cubs will be happy to leave him in Myrtle Beach, let him settle in at 2B and try to cut down his Ks. If (and that's a decent sized if) he improves those areas and is still hitting close to this well by the time he's nearing or around 300 PA (probably in July), that's the earliest I could see a promotion.

Underwood should be back soon. He pitched 4-5 innings his last two times out in ExST and pitched well. Cease and Hudson we'll have to wait for...

It's official. Greatness has become routine. Since June 21st of last season, Jake is 20-1 with a 0.86 ERA, 5 complete games, 4 shut outs and 2 no-hitters in 24 starts. Kind of amazing, right? Now consider that his 1 loss came when the Cubs were no-hit by Cole Hamels... Another fun fact, coming into that run Arrieta was 6-5 with a 3.40 ERA. Switch. Flipped.

Amazing game. Can I get a time machine so I can fully appreciate the day Theo & Jed signed Scott Feldman? Not only does he throw a no-hitter, he gets on-base 3 times (2 singles and a walk) and scores a run. He outscored and out hit the Reds by himself, and I thought baseball was a team game. Arrieta's line on the year now stands at 273/.333/.545. And speaking of good hitting pitchers, Cubs pitchers (including 0-for-2 from their relievers) have a better slash line (.243/.300/.378) than the White Sox (.218/.275/.341) who have exactly 0 PAs from their pitchers. In fact, Cubs pitchers have out hit 8 MLB teams thus far going by OPS. Cubs pitchers - .243/.300/.378/.678 San Diego Padres - .234/.299/.348/.648 Oakland A's - .230/.283/.368/.650 Seattle Mariners - .222/.295/.379/.675 Tampa Bay Rays - .221/.289/.374/.663 LA Angels - .220/.294/.306/.600 Atlanta Braves - .218/.302/.285/.587 Philadelphia Phillies - .214/.271/.347/.618 Chicago White Sox - .218/.275/.341/.616 They have a better batting average than 17 teams and a better OBP than 8. Someone give John Mallee a pat on the backside.

Video of Almora's HR from yesterday just left of straight away center. He got all of it. [bbvideo=560,315]http://www.milb.com/multimedia/vpp.jsp?content_id=607332783&topic_id=26477824&c_id=t451&sid=t451[/bbvideo]

#1: Gleyber Torres #2: Willson Contreras #3: Albert Almora #4: Ian Happ #5: Billy McKinney #6: Eloy Jimenez #7: Dylan Cease #8: Jeimer Candelario #9: Duane Underwood #10: Carl Edwards Jr. #11: Eddy Julio Martinez #12: Oscar De La Cruz #13: Pierce Johnson #14: Victor Caratini #15: Mark Zagunis #16: Donnie Dewees #17: Bryan Hudson

Tennessee's early start time should give their players plenty of time to enjoy the rest of 4/20...

Bijan hit another Radongmacher. I still got nothin'...

That's funny and horrifying at the same time. It gets worse. The same poster goes on to name one African-American on the Royals, Lorenzo Cain, as an example. Of course, the Royals also have Jarrod Dyson and Terrence Gore. His "thinking" is completely non-sensical. The next level of absurdity in this poster's "reasoning" is apparently that if a team has African-American players on it, you're more likely to hear a racial slur coming from it's fans. Saying that the reason "you don't hear that stuff at Royals games" is because and "they don't have enough coffee to go with their cream". Is this Cardinals fan aware that the Cardinals currently don't have any African-American players on their roster? The whole thing is absurd. Racism exists everywhere and that should come as no surprise in this country.

Bijan Rademacher now leads all Cubs minor leaguers with 3 HRs. If he keeps up this pace, we're gonna have to come up with a nickname for them. Radedinger? Rade-hay-macher? I got nothing...

Agreed. Especially after some of the glowing comments Joe made about him and his future. Seemed like he was likely to stay hot in AA. It is disappointing. I don't know how meaningful it is. If it lasts a couple months, then yeah. Joe's always going to try to give a player confidence. I don't think he's lying, he's just not going to go into a young players deficiencies in front of the press unless it serves his or the kid's purposes. This could be something as simple as his energy and enthusiasm crashing after playing with the major leaguers and doing well and then having to return to the realities of life in AA. It could be a lot of things. Let's see how long it lasts.

Rashad Crawford and Bijan Rademacher have been added. You can vote for one or two guys and can change your vote.

#1: Gleyber Torres #2: Willson Contreras #3: Albert Almora #4: Ian Happ #5: Billy McKinney #6: Eloy Jimenez #7: Dylan Cease #8: Jeimer Candelario #9: Duane Underwood #10: Carl Edwards Jr. #11: Eddy Julio Martinez #12: Oscar De La Cruz #13: Pierce Johnson #14: Victor Caratini #15: Mark Zagunis #16: Donnie Dewees

Indeed. He's lighting it up and has the athleticism to have a decent ceiling.

I get your point, and you're right, when it comes to a pitcher's height, the difference is very small. But it's also where a given pitcher releases the ball. Height makes a difference (and arm length I guess too), but arm slot probably matters as much if not more. Also, a taller pitcher's stride can be longer and allow him to release closer to the plate. I've read reports that Hudson's arm slot takes advantage of his height. I've haven't heard anything about his stride or exact distance from which he releases but it stands to reason. As far as that difference being slight, in a game where fractions of inches and angles make all the difference, every little bit helps. A few millimeters is the difference between a line drive or a ground ball. The same for a fly ball or a home run. The difference in how long it takes a 92 mph fastball or a 96 mph fastball to reach home plate is infinitesimal. But I'd still rather have the added velocity assuming the pitch is hitting the same spot.