jumbo

http://www.thecubreporter.com/cubs-depth-chart AZ Phil is a very respected writer at TCR, which I frequent. I had been trying to put all the prospects where different prospect lists were calling for them, but then I found out how many players there are in the system and how little I knew about some of them. Just one man's take on the system

I was looking at Sappelt's minor league numbers earlier today to make the same comparison that you're suggesting: Would he outperform Soriano. He has some pretty good years. Then I looked up Soriano and found something pretty interesting. Baseball Reference gives you his summary stats with each team he's been with: NYY 284/322/502/824 TEX 274/316/498/814 WAS 277/351/560/911 CHC 266/320/498/818 Granted, his numbers the last three years are declining, but I was amazed at how clear of an outlier his season was in Washington. And to think that his 5 years with the Cubs are (by OPS) nearly identical to his non-Washington career was also stunning. Doesn't really change anything about your post, but I found it interesting

http://firstinning.com/stats/?type=batting&min=350&lg=NL&season=2011&t=exp&asc=so Last year, Jose Reyes had the lowest K rate in MLB at 7.0%. Link above is players with over 350 PA. Only 9 players under 10%

I posted this on another site about Torreyes: Player Age Level KRate BB Rate AVG/OBP/SLG/OPS Player A 19 A+ 10.6 4.9 299/334/388/722 Player B 18 A 6.3 4.6 356/391/457/848 Player B is Torreyes (fueled by a 375 BABIP) Player A is Starlin Castro (with a 331 BABIP) I'm not saying Torreyes will be in the majors in two years like Castro, but they both possess a great contact tool. Torreyes may have a better contact tool than Castro if you believe that his strikeout rate can indicate that. Maybe someone else can provide some insight there. I also was impressed that his slugging was so high, but I guess that is also impacted by his high BABIP. My main point is that I'm excited about Torreyes

They'll have a top 6 pick this year and higher draft $ total given their draft position. Then they'll have another offseason of moves. The 2013 draft could be pretty promising if they're as bad this coming season as a lot of people think they will be. I realize draft picks take time, but the system should be much improved by June 2013.

I had thought that Theo told Wood they would sign later in the offseason so he can maneuver around the 40 man roster limits. Since the 40 has been full since the Reed signing, I don't think they could sign Wood now if they wanted to. I could be way off on that, but I'm not gonna look up anything at the moment

This made me look up the schedule for our South Bend Silvehawks. Peoria comes here for three games in July that I will probably go watch and hopefully see some good future Cubbies. Went to one a couple years ago and saw Ha, among others.

I think they could be just waiting to clear space on the 40 man for Wood. Helps them make a trade if they have more than one player coming back to the 40. I think we're at 39 or maybe even 40 already. Too lazy to look it up right now

Good eye - I didn't see that. Pretty funny to include that in the design documents...

I would not be able to tolerate LaRussa's constant victim mentality

Thanks for the reply. I figured I was missing somebody, and I hope that next year isn't completely lost for Whitenack. If he heals at a normal rate he should be ready by middle of the year?

What do you expect the rotations to be in Iowa/Tennessee next year? Iowa: JJax, Coleman, Cabrera, Struck, Rusin Tennessee: Rhee, Whitenack, McNutt, Antigua, Searle/Suarez/Jokisch

Do you think there's ANY chance that Kurcz sticks as a starter? Does he have a decent third pitch to go along with his two plus pitches? Stamina? Thanks

What are his MLE's? Does anyone here buy into those calculations?

OK, I'll try this out There are 7 FA Spots that will open up after the season: Pena, Grabow, Wood (could be back), Lopez, Ortiz, Johnson, Montanez There are 3 players with options, 1 40-man spot will open up: Ramirez - Cubs will pick up his option, Ramirez will opt out. Samardzija - Cubs will decline his option which still keeps him under club control due to service time Dempster - player option. Possible for him to opt out given poor SP market this offseason. Only loyalty would keep him here. There are 5 player with MLB contracts for 2012, 1 40-man spot will open up eventually: Soriano, Zambrano (likely to be released, still counts on the 40 man for the time being), Byrd, Marmol, Marshall, There are 5 players arbitration eligible for 2012, 1-2 spots could open up: Garza, Soto, Baker, Hill (should be non tendered by new GM), Wells, DeWitt (could be non tendered by new GM) There are 19 autorenewal players for 2012, 3+ spots should open up: Keep: Castro, Colvin, Cashner, Russell, Barney, Campana, Carpenter, Castillo, Dolis, Gaub, LeMahieu Cut: Berg, Caridad, Schlitter Could go either way: Mateo, Cabrera, Coleman, Maine, Smit So as a rough figure, we should have 12 spots available on the 40 man. We would need to have slots available for FA signings, so maybe the Rule 5 draft will tell us something based on how many spots are left open. I'm not sure of the timing/sequence of the options versus rule 5 and FA.

If they call up Flaherty they will have to add them to the 40 man either now or in December. Jackson would cost them a 40 mam spot though, since he doesn't have to be protected this offseason.

That fills in a lot of gaps

I think Evan Crawford should get a look. Rohan has done well since his promotion.

I'm hoping that this disappointing season has convinced Ricketts to jump-start the development side of the equation. If he tried to get twice as many impact players in the draft w/overslots I wouldn't be surprised given their public statements about developing players.

Read on another site that Shoulders will sign.

If the Cubs decline the option on Aramis can they offer him arbitration and still get compensation? It seems like a safe move to me assuming he wants a multi-year deal this offseason. I had read some speculation that any trade would require the trading team to turn down his option so that he can be a FA. If he gets to type A it seems like a slam dunk to me.

Trading Gorz didn't make sense to a lot of people, but at that time, the cubs had Silva, Cashner, Wellenmeyer, Looper fighting for the 5th spot and Jay Jackson "ready to go" at Iowa. I thought they should have stuck Gorz in the pen until Silva got hurt. Using this logic Cashner would never get out of the pen. That said, I think they should have let him start the season in Iowa and wait for an injury or his dominance in Iowa to get him into the ML rotation. Ultimately, the rotation's had more injuries than in recent memory, and it's really affected Wells in particular (or he's just this good naturally).

I think it's more likely that Bautista improved his eye or plate discipline somewhere along the line. The idea that if you don't have the right plate discipline as a young hitter you'll never get it seems hard to believe. I'm sure that guys who understand the strike zone young end up better than those who don't, but I still think people can grow into it.

I've heard this comp before and would be happy if that's the case. If ARAM is back at third next year he will invariable need some days off or have some minor injuries that keep him out for days at a time. If Flaherty can be a lefty DeRo then we won't miss Jeff Baker when he's traded.

Are you counting a dribbler off the end of the bat that gets past Barney/Pena a hit to the infield or outfield? In Garza's first few starts it seemed like these were the only hits against him. He produced weak contact but the balls went for hits anyway. Sure, BABIP is an indication of a hard hit ball, for hitters and pitchers, but if every hard hit ball was a liner right at someone and all that weak contact turned into outs Garza would look like a God this year.