idakepps

Where are you coming up with that? I'm showing you statistical evidence to argue my point, you're giving me a mantra. Organization wide, the Cubs are one of the least patient teams in MLB. The Red Sox are among the most patient. Part of this has to do with the kind of players the Red Sox target in the draft and internationally, and part of it has to do with player development, which, um, includes the kind of coaches that are hired to teach the kids how to play. Am I really saying something controversial here? Are you a hitting coach? You're from the south side. Ever heard of Charlie Lau? Read up on him, then tell me your "Do as I say, not as I do" mantra again. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charley_Lau

Not quite sure what you're getting at here. A player's on field performance has little to do with what they evangelize as a coach. Take Joe Morgan for example. If there was ever a player who understood the value of a walk, Morgan and his career .121 IsoD should be that guy. But you listen to him stumble his way through broadcasts and it's clear he doesn't understand the concept at all. The opposite is true as well, people can understand the value of the walk but not be able to execute for a variety of reasons(lack of talent, pitch recognition, etc). Right, that seems like a really faulty way to point out the Cubs failings when it comes to developing players. Look around most of the minors and I'm very confident that most of the coaches who were former players had sub-.350 OBP's. You sure about that? Red Sox Pawtucket hitting coach Chili Davis, career OBP -- .360 Portland hitting coach Russ Mormon, career OBP -- .379 Salem hitting coach Alex Ochoa, career OBP -- .353 A player's on field performance has little to do with what they evangelize as a coach? Are you kidding me? That's what they know. Of course they're going to teach players to play the way they did. They may not tell players to mimic their style exactly, but I promise you, when it comes to something like plate discipline, Russ Mormon is telling his players something very different than Mariano Duncan. Fortunately Ricketts came in saying he wants to emulate the Red Sox org. Well, this is exactly where it happens. The director of player development (Oneri Flieta) is the person hiring the minor league coaches, and if they aren't out and out preaching one style of play over another, they ARE at least hiring people (friends) they're more likely to agree with when it comes to things like this.

Heck, this is fun. Iowa hitting coach Von Joshua, career OBP -- .306 Daytona hitting coach Barbaro Garbey, career OBP -- .309

Thing is, we have no idea what kind of hitter Josh Vitters might have become had he come up in a system that stressed some semblance of plate discipline. Who is Josh Vitters hitting coach? Mariano Duncan. Everyone here knows who he is. Not an amazing player, but someone who had a 12 year career in the big leagues. Anyone want to take a stab at his career OBP? .300

I'm not sure Jackson and Ha are exactly rushed with these promotions though. There were certainly things they could both work on at the level they were at, but they won't be woefully overmatched at the next level either. And it does help the CF dilemma that was caused by Szczur moving up, and he absolutely needed to move up. I'm hoping Flaherty will get to come up to the big leagues in September, and don't really care which level of AA and AAA he plays before that. Given their ages and performance I think you could have made the case to just bump Szczur up to AA and leave Ha in A. Or like others have suggested bump Crawford up instead of Ha. I think Szczur is being treated with kid gloves, probably because if he bombs or doesn't look fit to be put on the 40 man this fall it looks worse on people in charge. Seems like there have been a number of other very aggressive low minors promotions this season (DeValle, Lira, Silva).

Also has a lot to do with him being in Tampa's org as opposed to the Cubs. Lee was a 70-100 type of prospect on most lists. Half a good season in High A elevates a prospect to #22?

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 the Gorz trade has gone somewhat overlooked by the media. It was a dumb trade. Can anyone say they were counting on Silva, Wellenmeyer or Looper to be in the rotation? Clearly, the Cubs weren't since none of those three made the team. Cashner should have been in Iowa to start the year and Gorz at #4, Wells #5.

Boy, you look at Castro's walks and you have to wonder if that's actually part of his game. I'm going to guess there are a lot of walks in the DSL just because of the pitcher's experience level, but it's hard to imagine Castro walking like that now. Keith Law said something interesting on the Baseball Today podcast the other day, about how the "turnaround" for Jose Bautistia has been as simple as him moving to an organization that favors taking a walk to "swing swing swing." That when he was with the Pirates he wasn't able to allow his (apparently) amazing plate discipline to flourish as he's been in Toronto. Makes you wonder if there are a few Jose Bautistias in the Cubs system. Will we ever know?

Agree on Crawford. He is a true CF right? Having a better all around year than Ha. Maybe Crawford walks too much.

What are the issues with Fleita? I legitimately don't know much about his responsibilities. See the quotes from Fuld above in this thread. Ah, yes. So Fleita is responsible for that organizational philosophy? As director of player personel he would be. It's wilken's job to get him players. It's Oneri's job to place them in the system and move them up. Although Oneri came up through international scouting if I'm not mistaken so he probably still has a hand in that. Plus he's Cuban American.