Outshined_One
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Everything posted by Outshined_One
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Maybe Wood and Volstad will piggyback. -
In fairness, Cates is pretty new to pitching full-time. Most of the intrigue for me with Cates is that there still might be a good bit of upside in terms of honing his secondary pitches and in terms of cutting down his walks.
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Zach Cates is actually a fascinating prospect. His peripherals in the MWL were solid last season (despite the walks), where he racked up Ks and kept HRs down. I love pitchers with good fastball/changeup combinations. With a better curveball, my guess is his walk numbers will decrease. I'm tempted to put him in my Top 20. I'm sad to see Cashner go, but I really like this deal for the Cubs.
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They just had a pretty solid draft. If guys like Purke, Goodwin, et al. pan out as hoped, the Nationals should have a decent number of chips by the deadline, even if they'd have to go the PTBNL route.
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Nothing has been made official yet, but the deal appears to be Zambrano + $15m for Volstad.
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Really weird to think that he's 2 weeks younger than Cashner. Volstad's HR rate is one thing that's downright bizarre to me. He's a pretty good ground ball guy who didn't give up many HRs in MiLB and played half his games in Pro Player, but he's had some crazy high and crazy low HR rates in his short MLB career. I don't know what to make of it. pitch selection? His performance collapses when pitching out of the stretch, for whatever reason. I'd be curious to see how many of his HRs were given up with men on base and how that stacks up across baseball.
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Curious to see the official announcement; remember we originally thought the Marshall trade was just for Travis Wood straight up. I'm not expecting anyone great, but I wouldn't be surprise if Volstad came with a lottery ticket or two.
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Why do you care about salary relief? We don't have anybody to spend that 5M on. Banking cash is fine with me if it's used to sign draft picks, international FA's, make trades to add veterans, or to ink future FA's. I'm not thinking it's going to be used immediately. We can't overspend on draft picks anymore Technically we can; it'd just cost us in future drafts. I haven't read the specific language of the new CBA yet, but I'm curious about what kinds of workarounds could be used in future contracts with amateurs. I didn't read anything about escalator clauses (i.e. player's annual salary jumps X amount if player is added to 40 man roster), so there may be wiggle room for spending in creative ways.
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Only 21. Power could still develop. What's his perceived ceiling? John Sickels compared him to Pedro Feliz. That sounds about right if he doesn't improve his walk numbers.
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Deal might be Volstad and/or Dominguez for Zambrano I'm lukewarm on Dominguez. Good glove, but I'm not sold on his ability to hit.
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Career high strikeout rate last year along with a career low walk rate. The improvement was masked by what looks like some moderately bad luck. There's a hint of potential there, but the best case scenario looks like a typical Ryan Dempster year. Given he's not even under club control for long, I think I'd have rather held on to Zambrano and prayed for a resurgence (culminating in a deadline deal). He has serious issues with HRs. Even if you throw out his ERA and W/L, you're still looking at a pitcher whose best case scenario at this point seems to be either as a 4/5 or as a good, but not great, setup man. Maybe he just needs a few tweaks to help his mechanics/delivery. But, I'm not exactly thrilled with the Cubs picking him up if he's all they would get for Zambrano.
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Does Volstad have some really great stuff or something? He's 26, hits arbitration in 2013, and has been less than stellar so far in his ML career. I don't have a problem targeting him, but I don't see enough potential there to pay all of Z's contract unless he's got some really nice stuff. I don't expect stars for Z (as great as the LoMo talk is, it's almost certainly a pipedream), but if Volstad is it and we're paying the entire deal, I'd have rather kept Z and hoped a good first half would boost his value some. That said, after the Marshall/Wood trade, I'm not criticizing this trade until we find out all the details. And Volstad is 6'8, which is kind of cool ...... He once was a worthwhile prospect from 2006-2008, when BA had him as their #97, #40, and #58 prospect in baseball each of those three years, respectively. He's just never panned out the way everyone hoped. FanGraphs liked him as a bounceback candidate.
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FanGraphs on Garza
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The similarities between him and Andy Reid are a tad horrifying for me.
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Yay college OT.
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BA & BP's Cubs Top Prospect Lists
Outshined_One replied to CaliforniaRaisin's topic in Cubs Minor League Talk
Toonster just posted his Top 30. You might want to fix your link to the Callis Q&A, though. There's a period at the end of the url that results in a 404. -
I was thinking Jed & Theo asked for two of the three (which is what I would ask for) but all three? Wow. Maybe old rivalries die hard? A package built around Betances/Banuelos would be nice, though.
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So, with Santo in, who's the most deserving eligible candidate? I'm thinking Alan Trammell has to be up there.
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2011 International FA Market
Outshined_One replied to CaliforniaRaisin's topic in Cubs Minor League Talk
That part sounds promising. -
Pretty much, although he's had some minor shoulder and elbow soreness in the past. The Tigers shut him down immediately, though, and he seems no worse for wear from it.
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I'd love Drabek as a buy low candidate. I think the Jays mishandled him last year. He's young, the talent's there, and a change of scenery could do him a lot of good. i don't really see how they mishandled him. he pitched well in the upper minors and in his major league cup of coffee in 2010, so he started 2011 with the jays. they gave him enough opportunity in the majors but he sucked balls, so they sent him to las vegas where he continued to suck balls. i think the only really debatable part is whether he should've been called back up for bullpen work in september. What bothered me was they skipped him directly from AA to the majors to start 2011. He did really well in AA in 2010 and performed well enough in his cup of coffee in 2010. Given that he'd be pitching in the AL East, I was hoping the Jays would have started him in AAA in a hitter-friendly environment (Las Vegas). The yo-yoing that happened in 2011 didn't help, either. He clearly has control issues and they need to be worked out. But, again, he's the kind of young player I'd like to see included in a trade.
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I think so. Going by memory, here's what we gave up and roughly what they were valued at the time: RHP Chris Archer – B/B+ pitcher at the time, depending on whether you valued his upside or were worried about his control issues SS Hak-Ju Lee – B/B- prospect with A- upside; great glove, good bat, questionable power, huge potential OF Brandon Guyer – C+ prospect – Solid 4th OF, maybe a decent starting corner OF in his prime Robinson Chirinos/Sam Fuld – Two C-level prospects who were filler with good backup potential Keep in mind the Cubs got Fernando Perez and Zach Rosscup from the Rays in addition to Garza. Still, I think the Cubs could get a package better than that for Garza.
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I'd love Drabek as a buy low candidate. I think the Jays mishandled him last year. He's young, the talent's there, and a change of scenery could do him a lot of good. I don't want a package around him, but if the Jays were to offer a package involving Marisnick, Nicolino, and Drabek for Garza, I'd be tempted. I'd want Sydergaard or McGuire instead of Drabek, but I wouldn't turn my nose up at him.
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Sonnanstine fell off a cliff after 2008. A change of scenery might help him, but this is pretty much a roll of the dice kind of deal for the Cubs.
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This needs to be repeated. Marshall's been an excellent relief pitcher for the Cubs, but they were not going to get anything for him in terms of draft compensation following this season. Frankly, if they held onto him and a deal fell through at the deadline, they'd be stuck with Marshall with nothing to show for it. It's part of the reason the Papelbon signing was so damn hilarious after the new CBA was announced. I like Marshall and it sucks to see him go, but considering the Cubs traded him for a young, cost-controlled pitcher and two prospects, this is actually a pretty good deal. On the flip side, the Cubs will be able to re-sign Marshall after next season without having to give up any draft picks if they so choose.
