CubsWin

A big THANK YOU to Raisin for doing the yeoman's work again this season! =D> =D> =D> =D> =D> =D> =D> =D> =D> =D> =D> =D> =D> =D> =D> =D> =D> =D> =D> =D> =D>

Does anyone know anything about the availability of INF Lourdes Gourriel and RHP Hector Mendoza?

Wow. Very exciting news. Any one of Gutierrez, Ona, Estevez, Machado and Diaz would be great. A chance at 2 or 3? Each of these are 1st round talents. The Cubs have great depth to their system. Imagine adding possible impact talent to that depth while already having a major league team with Bryant, Schwarber, Russell, Soler and Baez on it with Rizzo, at 26, as the elder statesman. Can't wait to see what happens...!

CHAMPS!!

A complete list? No. We hope it's because they're still intending on signing more guys. The top remaining prospects are all Cuban. They include 19-year-old RHP Vladimir Gutierrez, 18-year-old CF Yusniel Diaz, 20-year-old 2B-OF Randy Arozarena, 21-year-old RHP Norge Ruiz, 20-year-old OF Eddy Julio Martinez and others. Exact details are still a little sketchy, but the ones that have been announced are: SS Aramis Ademan (21st by MLB, 12th by BA) - $2 million SS Yonthan Perlaza (15th by MLB, 20th by BA) - $1.2 million C Miguel Amaya (26th by MLB, 22nd by BA) - $1 million plus $250,000 for school OF Yonathan Sierra Estiwal (17th by MLB, not ranked by BA) - $2.5 million OF Kwang-min Kwon- $1.2 million RHP Yunior Perez - $600,000 They had reached an agreement with 3B Christopher Martinez for $1 million but backed out supposedly due to medical reasons.

Not CubsWin11, but thanks! I'd put Young ahead of him as a bat, but agree that the fact that he can stick at catcher helps.

Yeah, that's what I remember hearing last. Average, can stick. If he hits .260/.350/.400 or better as a 22-year-old catcher in AA, they'll have something. I've got him as a top-20 prospect which in this organization right now is pretty good. Agree that he's likely blocked, but I don't think he'd need to move off catcher to have value to the Cubs. I'm happy to have him develop for injury depth/trade purposes. Talent and depth. Love it.

Pelicans win game one in a wild finish. Up 2-1 in the bottom of the 9th, Jasvir Rakkar encounters all sorts of bad luck and some not so great pitching. He loads the bases on a single that deflected of the 1st baseman's glove, walks the next guy and then has a weird bunt go off of his glove for a single. 6th round draft pick, ground ball machine and side-arm reliever extraordinaire comes in and gets the first guy to ground to 3rd baseman Jason Vosler, who fires to catcher Victor Caratini for the force. On the next play, Berg gives up the game-tying run, however, though not due to any fault of his own. Berg induces a double-play ball to 2nd baseman Daniel Lockhart, but Gleyber Torres falls asleep and doesn't cover 2nd. Lockhart runs to the bag and fires to 1st but it's too late and the run scores. Berg, who averaged just under 3 ground outs for every air out in High-A this year, got the final guy to ground out to send the game to extras. Lockhart leads off the 10th with a double and he would eventually score. Berg comes back out for the bottom half and gets the first batter to ground out to Torres and strikes the last 2 batters out to secure the win. Berg looks like he could move quickly. He was one of the best college relievers last season and put up great numbers in his first pro season. He's not overpowering but has good control and is rather deceptive. He could provide bullpen depth as soon as next season if he continues to perform. I imagine his ceiling is only middle reliever/roogy but he has a fairly high probability of reaching it. Another player to watch next season from Myrtle Beach is Victor Caratini. He finished this year strong (.287/.350/.436 in August & Sept.) while showing a consistent, steady gap-power bat with a good approach, and he's been the Pelicans best hitter throughout the playoffs. He'll be 22 for most of next season in AA. That's young for a catcher at that level. I don't know how good his defense is. Haven't heard any reports lately, but I remember it being average. He's another converted infielder (3B). If his defense hasn't improved, he may find it difficult to make the bigs as most back-ups are defensive specialists and his bat hasn't proven starter worthy yet. He won't need a Contreras-esque break out with the bat to reach that level, though. He's put up OBPs north of .340 every year of his 3-year career. He shows a solid approach walking in just under 10% of his PAs while striking out in only 16.6% of them. He only HR'd 4 times but finished 5th in the league in doubles with less PAs than those who finished ahead of him. Catchers usually develop more slowly than other prospects so I think there may be more left in his bat. He's a 2nd round pick, so there's some pedigree there. He's certainly one to watch.

That's just not fair. I mean, he needs to rehab somewhere, but in the deciding game of the Carolina League championship? Wow... i was thinking about this earlier. it's hilarious. i mean imagine if some dude came down from some alternate universe where everyone is a super human baseball player to play for us in the play in game At least they took him out after 2 ABs. Zagunis in now.

That's just not fair. I mean, he needs to rehab somewhere, but in the deciding game of the Carolina League championship? Wow...

If you want to ignore the impact of having a pitcher hold hitters to a sub-.300 SLG and .500 OPS while K'ing 1/3 of them because he's not a starter, feel free. I'm not ignoring them. I acknowledged them strongly in my first post to you, saying you won't get an argument from me on whether or not Edwards is a very good pitching prospect. I agree he's the best pitching prospect the Cubs currently have. Underwood and Cease are gaining on him but not there yet. It seems though, given the award typically goes to the pitcher with the best season (not the best pitching prospect), you are ignoring the history of the award and the importance of innings pitched in your argument. If you want to change the context of the award to argue for your guy, go right ahead. I'm fine with that.

If you want to ignore the impact of innings pitched, go right ahead. If you want to ignore the history of what this award typical has meant and create your own definition, go right ahead. Once again, the award goes to the pitcher with the best season. Not the best pitcher. Wait, lots of people have said that a lot already. Never mind. Carry on...

It's more about how good Edwards was this year. We're talking a guy who struck out 1/3 of the batters he faced, allowed 8 XBHs - 7 of them doubles, allowed a sub-.500 OPS including a sub-.300 OBP and sub-.150 BAA....These are some dominant numbers. That he happened to already be the best pitching prospect is coincidence, I was on the fence about him until this performance. You'll get no argument from me that Edwards isn't a very good pitching prospect. His numbers speak for themselves. In fact I wrote a post earlier this year comparing his OppBA, HR rate and K% to the minor league numbers of current successful major leaguers. Those three stats are keys for me when evaluating a pitcher. Walk rate is as well, of course, and his walks this year were concerning. Going back over his career, he's never struggled with walks like this before which gives me hope that it won't plague him in the future for too long. But it seemed to come on when he returned from his DL stint with a shoulder injury late in 2014, and he's yet to have an extended period of time where he hasn't walked hitters at a pretty decent clip. There is a small sample of his last 8 appearances where he was more like his pre-injury self. Since July 27th, 10.1 IP, 6 H, 1 R (unearned), 4 BB, 13 Ks. Hopefully, he can carry this type of performance forward. But, again, this discussion is about the pitcher with the best minor league season. IP play a big roll in that distinction. Carl threw 55.1 innings. Ryan Williams - 141.2. That sort of knocks Edwards out of the race right there. Ryan isn't half the prospect Carl is, but that's not the criteria for this award.

Answering this question brought to light just how good of a developmental year it was for the Cubs organization. Schwarber did Bryant-like things. Torres tore up the MWL as an 18-year-old (until he tired towards the end of the longest season he's ever played). Doing what he did in that league, not a great hitters' league, and at his age, is very rare. Maybe 2 or 3 players in a decade. Javier Baez went from hitting .260/.323/.510 in AAA last year to .328/.391/.526. Jeimer Candelario would run away with Comeback Player of the Year if that were a thing. He went from being written off by many to a 21-year-old, good fielding 3B in AA who hit .291/.379/.462 and walked more than he struckout. Albert Almora isn't in the conversation for this award, but he certainly showed development in his approach and performance at the plate, finishing this season very strongly. Eloy Jimenez improved this season hitting 7 HRs in the NWL (no 18-year-old had more) and improving his AZL line of .227/.268/.367 to a respectable .284/.328/.418. We haven't even gotten to Chesny Young or Mark Zagunis yet. But all of the previously mentioned developmental success stories pale in comparison to Willson Contreras'. I agree, he is easily the Cubs Minor League Player of the Year. Interestingly, there is positional balance to the above list. You could even create an old style BA future line-up out of it... The 2018 Chicago Cubs C - Contreras 1B - Candelario 2B - Young SS - Torres 3B - Baez LF - Jimenez CF - Almora RF - Zagunis DH - Schwarber

Minor League Pitcher of the Year is very different from the organization's best pitching prospect. It's the prospect who had the best season. And that clearly goes to Ryan Williams. On the year, 14-3, 2.16, 98/18 K/BB, 0.90 WHIP, .214 OppBA. On top of all that, his story is the best. 10th rounder made good, jumping from Low-A to AA and still performing well. If Duane Underwood hadn't gotten injured and missed 2 months, he would've made this choice a lot harder. It's unusual for a short season guy to even get a mention for this award because of the lack of playing time, but Oscar De La Cruz's season was pretty special. His emergence from being an unheralded IFA signing to someone on par with Carson Sands and Justin Steele is impressive. He gets an honorable mention from me.

Not really. I mean, sure, they could trade them. But Zagunis, Candelario and Contreras are actual prospects. And they are older prospects that aren't top-flight prospects -- guys that had break-out years. They are definitely guys that we want a longer look at against good competition. "Older" is a relative term so this could just be semantics, but I wouldn't call Candelario who is 21 and doing quite well in AA an older prospect. He's two years young for the Southern League and putting up a line of .294/.366/.462 with 16 walks against 19 Ks in around 170 PAs. I'd describe him as young, actually. I understand the term applying to Zagunis and Contreras a little more easily, but each of those guys are age appropriate for their level as well.

Candelario is another guy who is doing well in AA as a 21-year-old. He'll start next season there, but could see AAA in less than a year depending on performance. Really good depth in this organization.

Make that 16. RBI single in the first. Another single in the second. EDIT: 4-5 with 4 singles 4-5 with no Ks. I like this better than 1-4 with a HR and 2 Ks.

Good lord, Clay Rapada is still pitching? I wish I was left-handed...

Agreed. I think he's an excellent AFL candidate.

Vladimir Guiterrez please...

Yeah, he's been someone I've been following since he put up good numbers in the DSL as a 17-year-old and then again the following year. He's 6'2", needs to fill out some. I'm just a box score scout, so all I knew was that he fit the profile of a hit per inning or less, a K per inning or more and a good K/BB ratio. Once I heard AZ Phil's scouting report on him, then I really started following him. Any age appropriate lefty who throws low-to-mid 90s and can miss bats has a chance. He''s got plenty of developing left to do, but he's got some tools to work with for sure.

And Trey Masek just completed the no-hitter. The first for the Emeralds since 1968.

Whatever happened to him sitting mid-90s touching upper-90s that the reports said during his senior year? That's two high round college senior draft picks who's velo dropped after being drafted. Zastryzny and now Stinnett. :(

You left out Underwood, who due to his age, scouting report and success at High-A as a 20 year old I would have to rank higher. But other than that, I think you could make a fair argument for ranking Contreras ahead of Johnson, Almora, Dewees and Zagunis (all of whom are ranked ahead of him on MLB at the moment. The numbers Edwards has put up consistently throughout his minor league career are pretty amazing, so I would have a hard time putting Contreras above him. In fact, consistency is the only knock against Willson right now. And I'm only referring to previous seasons. This guy has been amazingly consistent all year long with hit streaks of 5 (twice), 7 (twice), 10 and his current streak of 12. He's hit well in every month. No slumps at all. But the fact that he's never performed like this at any level before has to be factored in. I think he's for real. A true breakout, but in the case of a tie-breaker, I've got to go with performance history. For me: Torres McKinney Edwards, Jr. Underwood Happ Contreras Johnson Almora If Almora continues his hot 2nd half, he could easily rise up this list. But if Contreras hits well in AAA next season, so could he...