CubsWin

Marathon extra inning affair for KC today. Skulina had been dealing with a left knee issue and got rocked in the first inning of his last start, reaching his 30 pitch per inning limit and getting pulled so having him pitch today kinda made sense. It looked it would just be a minor piggyback start for Tseng, but turned into a full-fledged 5 inning "start" with him pitching very well...again. 5 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 3 K.

Ha! Given that Soriano usually heats up in the 2nd half anyway, a line-up of: Alcantara CF Valaika 1B Baez SS Manny LF Bryant 3B Soriano RF Watkins 2B Lopez C might actually be better than the major league club on certain days. Of course, the ERAs of the pitching staff would likely rise...

Love it. Manny in LF, Alcantara in CF and Soriano in RF. Talk about giving Arismendy a crash course in getting to balls in the gaps!

Okay, so this is getting a little silly... Prospects with legit shots at being either all-star level/average to above average position players, solid members of a major league rotation or high-end relief pitchers: AAA Bryant Baez Alcantara Hendricks Rivero Vizcaino AA Russell Soler Johnson Edwards (expected back late-July) A+ Almora McKinney Vogelbach Zastryzny A Schwarber Hannemann Tseng Blackburn Underwood Paniagua SS A- Clifton Rookie Torres Jimenez Mejia Add in draftees Cease, Sands, Stinnett and Steele along with DSL/VSL IFA signees Moreno, Matos and Galindo if you wish. There are reasons to pay attention at every level.

Erling Moreno sighting. He started the DSL game today going 2 hittless, giving up a walk while striking out 2. He's now pitched 5 innings giving up 4 hits, walking 1 and K'ing 5.

[expletive] yes! No get the friggen TJS. 22nd of this month, per Callis. Given the year plus recovery time, he could get in some game action in Mesa or Boise next year with no setbacks. Likely see Kane County for most of 2016 if all goes well. According to Callis, Cease received the 34th highest signing bonus at $1.5 million dollars which falls between the 37th and 38th slot values of this year's draft. So, if we look at this from the standpoint of trading down in the draft, the Cubs essentially traded down from the 4th spot to between the 8th and 9th pick saving $1.5 million and picked up a 1st round compensation pick in 2015 (due to the TJS recovery time) in return and still got the best college hitter in the draft according to most commentators with Schwarber's early results backing that up. We'll have to wait and see what kind of pitcher Cease is when he returns from the surgery to know what kind of return they got on that trade but considering Schwarber's early performance, it looks like it was already a worthwhile trade, almost like getting something (something potentially really good) for nothing. If the guys taken 5-8 (Nick Gordon, Alex Jackson, Aaron Nola or Kyle Freeland) are demonstrably better than Schwarber in the long run then that certainly mitigates any potential return, but that could also be chalked up to a failure in scouting/projection and not in trade logic as the Cubs might have had Schwarber rated higher than those guys anyway. I tend to like getting something for nothing, especially when that something could be a TOR starter...

As far as I can tell, he never said anything, but whatever it was (minor injury, more instruction) it was seemingly worth the wait...

It's July so, naturally, the Daytona game was rained out.

Wladimir Galindo hit another HR today, his 6th. Slash line of .297/.374/.545 thru 145 ABs. Stats are pretty meaningless at this level, but they do take on more meaning when you're those numbers up at 17 years old. Be interested to see what he can do stateside next season.

Last year's 7 high-profile IFA signees are all off to good starts though mystery surrounds one of them. RHP Jen-Ho Tseng (19) MWL - 3-0, 3.22 ERA, 50.1 IP, 51 H, 7 BB/51 K. SS Gleyber Torres (17) AZL - .308/.409/.444, 1 3B, 1 HR, 7 BB/8 K in 39 AB. RF Eloy Jimenez (17) AZL - .444/.444/.889, 1 2B, 1 HR, 0 BB/2 K in 9 AB. RHP Jeferson Mejia (19) AZL - 2-0, 0.00 ERA, 9.1 IP, 7 H, 2 BB/12 K. C Yohan Matos (17) DSL - .316/.435/.491, 2 2B, 1 3B, 2 HR, 12 BB/13 K in 57 AB. 3B Wladimir Galindo (17) VSL - .298/.377/.532, 16 2B, 1 3B, 5 HR, 13 BB/35 K in 141 AB. RHP Erling Moreno (17) VSL/DSL - 0-0, 0.00 ERA, 3 IP, 4 H, 0 BB/3 K. Moreno made one appearance on May 15th in the VSL but hasn't pitched since. He is currently listed on the DSL roster but has yet to see game action for them.

Interesting. I was looking at the Cubs minor league rosters just last night and said, "Zak Blair's gonna be cut soon." Didn't think of Zapata but it makes sense.

Hannemann to Daytona?

Schwarber again. He's got to be going to Daytona fairly soon. A couple weeks?

3B Kris Bryant (22) 2-for-6, 2B, 2 BB, 3 K, -- .345/.450/.716 on the year SS Javier Baez (21) 4-for-8, 2 2B, 2 K, -- .342/.390/.500 in his last 10 games CF-2B Arismendy Alcantara (22) 3-for-7, 2 2B, HR, 3 K, -- .293/.337/.534 on the year RF Jorge Soler (22) 1-for-2, HR, 2 BB, -- .382/.462/.735, 5 BB/7 K on the year 3B Christian Villanueva (23) 2-for-5, -- .364/.417/.576, 3 BB/3 K in AA 2B Steven Bruno (23) 2-for-5, -- .300/.377/.455 on the year 1B Dan Vogelbach (21) 1-for-4, 2B, -- .317/.391/.585, 5 BB/8 K Post All-Star CF Albert Almora (20) 1-for-3, BB, -- .308/.325/.410, 2 BB/4 K Post All-Star C Kyle Schwarber (21) 2-for-3, 2B, BB, -- .524/.580/1.095, 6 BB/6 K on the year C Yohan Matos (17) 2-for-4, 1 K, -- .316/.458/.474, 10 BB/8 K on the year 3B Wladimir Galindo (17) 2-for-3, HR, BB, SB, -- .296/.367/.544 on the year OF Luis Hidalgo (18) 2-for-5, 2B, SB, -- .357/.402/.509 on the year Yep, that's a pretty good night...

Baez drives in Watkins with a line shot double to the gap. 3-3 in game 2.

I'm not a fan of assuming that the extenuating circumstances matter. A two-year break from baseball means he missed a lot of important time. That's not a point in his favor, that's a point against. Baseball players *usually* don't get a whole lot better after about the age of 24 or 25, so if he's not close to a major leaguer now, it's just not a good sign. Pitchers are different. They don't have the same sort of learning curve that hitters do. Not really what I was asking, but I generally agree with you. That gives Hannemann two years beyond this one to get ready for the bigs. Would that be "quick"?

Would Reed Johnson be a good comp for Hannemann? His ceiling is described as good sizemore. Of course, being as old as he is he needs to mature as a prospect very quickly to get there. Tim, or anyone, can you explain why you think someone who is 23 and in Low-A ball would necessarily need to mature quickly in order to be a productive major league player? Especially someone with extenuating circumstances like taking a two year break from baseball? I guess that could hinge on what you mean by "quickly". Truly asking, not sarcastic. Rivero signed as a 25-year-old out of Cuba. He moved quickly. KC, Daytona and Tennessee last year. Tennessee to Iowa this year, but he never really had time off from baseball and was already facing a fairly high level of competition in Cuba. THAT'S quick. Matt Carpenter might be the best example of what I'm looking for with Hannemann. He played his first season as a 23-year-old (291 PAs split mostly between Low-A and High-A). Then was 24 playing in A+ and AA, and 25 while in a full season of AAA. I'm not saying Hannemann will necessarily be as good as Carpenter, but as far as timeline, I'd be more than okay with that.

There are quite a few players who's numbers have improved greatly since pretty bad starts to the season. All are older minor leaguers who you would expect to be able to perform at their current levels and it now looks like they are. Rob Zastryzny's H/9 was 14.9% in April, 12.2% in May to 6.1% in June. BABIP evening out or improvement? Juan Paniagua's BB/9 was 6.9 in April, 4.9 in May and 2.6 in June with a K/9 of 10.4. His ERA has dropped every month as well (5.17 to 3.58 to 1.04) Jacob Hannemann's walk rate has gone from 6.3% in April to over 10.5% in May and again in June. He's hitting .311/.388/.500 in June. Tony Zych, who I had basically written off this being his 3rd go around in AA and starting off the season poorly, is back from the dead. Of course, he's just 23 (age appropriate for AA) so perhaps I had written him off unnecessarily. Zych's ERA has gone from 8.00 in April to 3.86 to 0.79 in June. His K/BB went from 4 K/6 BB, 9 K/2 BB to 8/0 in June. Over his last 10 appearances, he pitched 14.2 innings, allowed 10 hits, walked none and struck out 10 with a .204 opponent BA. He's also consistently induced groundballs with a 2.44 GO/AO over that span. Each of these guys has the talent to contribute at the major league level in some way. Two months ago that didn't seem very likely. Now, at least for the moment, they look on track.

Unless the play log is wrong, Hannemann got to 3rd on the wild pitch and stole home outright. Was anyone listening/watching? Sharma was there. Got it, thanks Raisin.

Assuming Hannemann stole home... What's more impressive, Hannemann stealing home or Schwarber stealing 2nd?

Unless the play log is wrong, Hannemann got to 3rd on the wild pitch and stole home outright. Was anyone listening/watching?

Kyle Schwarber has hit safely in every game since joining the Cubs #collegehittersforever #jinxproof

Agree on keeping Tseng in KC the rest of this season. He's 19. Plus the added benefit of seeing playoff action the first year with the organization sets a nice tone in changing the "loveable losers" culture. 2012 3rd round pick Ryan McNeil is making his return from TJS tonight after missing the entire 2013 season. The 6'3", 210 lbs, 20-year-old righty pitched 20 innings for Mesa in '12 allowing 19 hits, striking out 18 and walking 10 for a 1.35 ERA. In his first inning back, 2 hits, 1 HR, a BB and no Ks.

Nice night for 19-year-old, 2013 overslot (12th round) Trevor Clifton. 4.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R (earned), 2 BB, 7 K. Classic pitcher's body and projectable frame at 6'4", 170 lbs. Live fastball, is getting ground outs a lot in EXST and his first two games in Boise, more than a K per inning. He's interesting.

Wonder what's going on, as he's clearly not in the DR. Probably just getting a chance to watch. Gleyber showed himself to be ready in EXST, Jimenez not so much. That would be an incredible waste of a season. Soler being there kind of screws up the playing time. FYI, the guy starting in LF today, Ricardo Marcano, had a worse ExST than Eloy (.190/.300/.207 vs .261/.289/.402). ETA: Heck, Manny isn't playing either (clearly Soler's is more important than Eloy or Manny and I can't imagine Manny can play anywhere besides DH). Um, it's just one game. The first game. I doubt he'll be on the bench the entire season. Maybe he's nursing an injury. Who knows... Marcano's two years older. Played well in the VSL last season. Why are we overanalyzing this?