CubsWin

That's great to have Davis end up with a big day, and able to play. I wonder how much work they'll have for him during the off-season camps and stuff, given he only played 50 games? Fabulous season, and nice to get over the .300 BA and .900-OPS round-number barriers! Will be interesting to see where in the top-5 you guys rank him this winter! :):) He'll have at least 2 playoff games this week, so it's not quite over yet.

Oh man. Dreaming on Gallardo taking a step forward and dominating the NWL next season along with Cruz (98 & 99!) pulling a Marquez in South Bend next year. Hope springs eternal even in late summer in the minor league forum...

Great day for Davis. So nice for him to be able to finish the season not only playing but playing well. For the record, Davis missed approximately 2 weeks in July due to getting hit on his finger during a bunt attempt, but the reason why Davis missed all of August was a straight up hit by pitch. He wasn't bunting.

Massive props to Raisin, once again, for the yeoman's work of churning out these daily posts and following up with the box scores. I live by the Cubs minor league games during the summers. I don't know what I'd do without you, Navin...

I know it's only 26.1 innings but I wonder if Brailyn was dominant enough to have the Cubs thinking about starting him at AA. Feels similar to Adbert who spent most of 2017 in high-A, logged 32.2 AA innings to end the season and then jumped to AAA to start 2018. That's been my thinking all along. Myrtle Beach's rotation could be pretty full if Jensen starts there so they may start Brailyn in AA out of necessity. Jensen, R. Thompson, Sanders, Little, Carrera and they'll probably give Hudson another go there as well. That's six. Tennessee would have Marquez, K. Thompson, Patterson, Uelman and Assad. I suspect Justin Steele (if healthy) would be moved to the pen with the possibility of some spot start/long relief work. South Bend should be interesting with McAvene, Franklin and Clarke showing well in Eugene this year. Mort's already there and, depending on how he looks in ST, Yovanny Cruz should be in the mix along with Burgmann. Iowa could be pretty good (and very homegrown) especially if Alzolay doesn't make the team. I think he's good enough to, but they may want him in AAA as the first shuttle option instead of coming out of the pen. If he doesn't break with the team, it would be: Alzolay, Miller (who is finally settling in with 2 good starts in a row), Abbott, Swarmer and a FA vet with options (possibly Rea if they add him to the 40-man, I think he has options left though not positive). Even Eugene will be interesting with Gallardo, Herz, Manuel Espinoza, Benjamin Rodriguez and possibly Luis Rodriguez and Danis Correa (at least until 2020 draftees arrive).

And South Bend clinches a wildcard. Will have a 3 game playoff against Bowling Green.

Vimael Machin was already seen as a super utility guy, but the Tennessee Smokies did their part to redefine that term tonight playing Machin at every position except pitcher.

I'm really digging that terrific walk rate over the past month or so. Yeah, he's around the plate a lot. Good control of all his pitches. What's rare is when you pair that walk rate with such a low BAA. There may be some luck in there (though he's been doing that for the most part his entire career thus far), but what that pairing indicates to me (and the video backs this up) is that he's got great movement along with that good control. He doesn't have the command that Hendricks does, though not many do, but he's got better velocity. If Abbott improves his already good control to command, he could be more than a BOR, but achieving that type of command is really difficult/rare.

Watched Gallardo's first televised appearance. His curveball is legit. The FB is average at this point 92-93, decent control but missed his spots often. But that curve, damn. And, obviously, he's got plenty of time to develop and add velocity. Gallardo wasn't given his promotion based solely on his pedigree. He earned it with a line of 12 IP, 7 H, 1 BB, 9 K, 1.50 ERA, .163 BAA and a 0.67 WHIP in the month of August. He turns 18 in a week and should lead the rotation in Eugene next summer.

Nice And replaced by Gallardo! Unfortunately, Yovanny Cruz crapped the cushions...

The case of Tyson Miller's time in AAA has been frustrating and confusing. It's tough to make the case that his 215 innings in High A and AA were just lucky. And clearly the PCL is a known hitter's league that is now using the MLB baseball that stats suggest is juiced a bit, but he's been really, really bad since getting his promotion. Until tonight. Finally. 5 innings, 7 hits (one was an error on Robel Garcia that was called a hit), 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB and 6 K. I don't know if his promotion coincided with a dead arm period, but his velocity has been down a couple ticks in Iowa (90-92) vs. earlier in the year (92-94). That may have had something to do with it. It seemed that when he struggled so badly early on, that he started adjusting his approach and pitch mix (and probably rightfully so). In tonight's game he seemed to be relying more on his off speed pitches whereas in AA, he was throwing more well placed FBs and it was working for him. Maybe his FB just isn't good enough for the MLB and AAA level. Maybe he lost some velo on it for whatever reason, got knocked around and lost confidence in it. Maybe hes going thru a dead arm period and the velo will come back. (Iowa's broadcasts have the velocities on the screen for every pitch, but tonight's game was on the road and no velos were given while I was watching.) Whatever the case, he was better tonight. He was working quickly. Quicker than I remember. Almost too quickly. Maybe it was a way to get him to put his past struggles out of his head. (As Nuke Laloosh would say, don't think, just throw, Meat.) Regardless of his struggles of late, I'm intrigued to see how Miller, Abbott and possibly Alzolay will do in AAA next season. Every level's rotations should have some intriguing arms as well. It's possible AA will have Marquez, Patterson and Keegan Thompson. High-A could have Jensen, Riley Thompson, Sanders and Little. Low-A should have Franklin, McAvene, Clarke and Yovanny Cruz. Eugene might have Gallardo and Herz. Should be fun.

Finally! Marquez has a non-dominant, bad start. I was getting worried.

Man, Cory Abbott is on some kind of roll. In the month of August: 5 G, 30.2 IP, 11 H, 6 BB, 40 K, 1.17 ERA, .107 BAA, 0.55 WHIP. He's averaging 7 innings per start this month without exceeding his 100 pitch cutoff (one game was a rain-shortened affair in which he only went 3). He's led the Cubs system in Ks two years in a row now with BAAs of .223 last year and .214 this year along with nearly identical WHIPs (1.16 & 1.13), showing consistency of performance and durability. The PCL has proven difficult for pitchers this season, especially Cubs pitchers, so no guarantees next season for Cory, but, at this point, he's arguably the Cubs 2nd or 3rd best pitching prospect behind Marquez and maybe Alzolay. He's still just a BOR candidate, but he seems like a pretty solid one.

That is a tough pill to swallow and a pretty irrational premise. I do not get this idea that opting for less info about the same season is more telling than the favorite parts. His season is actually pretty fun if you're less caught up in labeling him a TOR guy for doing well at the A ball levels for a handful starts too, he didn't do anything to hurt himself as a ML prospect. Is it great that the best came at the end? Yep, for both him and the Cubs. Do I think 27.1 IP establishes that he secretly had amazing control the whole time? Nope. Do I think he had bad control in the first place? Don't really care until AA about walk rates unless they're heavily one way or another for alot more than 27.1 innings, and even then look at what else is going on. The quality and situational defense in...A ball? After taking 3 years to get there? From a supposed future TOR starter? Not for me It's okay. You don't have to get it. Not that you're trying to when you misrepresent what I wrote and respond to words I didn't write. But like I said, you do you. It's all good with me that we view this differently.

Nice to see Alzolay putting together a nice start thru 3 and a third. 1 hit, 1 run, 2 BB, 6 K.

As a 19-year-old in the MWL, I'm mostly looking to see development. Roederer hasn't lit the league on fire in the 2nd half by any stretch, but he's definitely improved. 1st half OPS .630, 2nd half .746. K-rate down in the 2nd half and his walk rate went up. Even his SB% is up. Good signs. I think he'll start in High-A next season with Davis and Velazquez even with guys like Sierra, Artis, Taylor, and Hill floating around.

Funner fact: Marquez got a lot better as the season went along so looking to season long numbers for accurate context on who he is now doesn't tell us much. We could also point out his season long walk numbers, but that would ignore the fact that in his last 5 stats (27.1 innings) he's walked 5 guys while striking out 38. Is that an accurate picture of who he is going forward? Who knows? But his most recent performances (especially for a 20 year old who is showing development in leaps and bounds) are likely more accurate than what he was doing April-June. And why you would us RA/9 as a telling stat when it ignores the quality of and situational defense behind him is odd especially for a guy whose FIP and xFIP were better than his ERA this year. But, you do you. Not seeking to change your opinion in any way. Just stating my own.

And next season!

Yes. The problem is they also get to ball 4 quite often, too.

Well, he improved his slider this year. That thing is above average to plus consistently now. Next is the change up. Again, I'll be interested to see how they project him next spring.

The FanGraphs guys haven't really been down on him as a SP so much as a particularly good one. Their preseason projection was a #4 starter That high? For a guy with mediocre production who hadn't played full season ball yet? Is that common for them? I'll be curious to see how their projection of him has changed, if it all, come next spring.

Also took a B. Davis question but just about how he's hit faster than expected Wow, really? That's a lot higher than I thought he'd say.

Yovanny Cruz sitting 94 with his FB tonight thus far.

As a guy who cares deeply about fairness, justice and ethics in the real world, I like it when the team I root for penalizes their own for trying to gain an unfair, unearned and unethical advantage. I feel like there are teams out there that would be pissed that he got caught and give him a stern talking to about how to do it better in the future.

Yeah, he's a real prospect. BOR ceiling but in his 3rd pro season now he's had just one bad month (this past June), so he's been very steady and consistent while progressing quickly thru the org as a college arm and 2nd round pick. He seems to be better at the end of each season than he was at the start of it so he's got the smarts to make adjustments which he'll need heading to the homer happy PCL.