CaliforniaRaisin

Get him out of Myrtle Beach and he'll hit...

Today: http://mlb.mlb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?gid=2019_09_18_scowin_msswin_1&t=g_box&sid=l119 C Miguel Amaya 2/3, 2B (1), 3 RBI, BB 2B Z. Short 1/3, BB, K

Amaya batting 5th, Short batting 7th.

BA already had their end-of-season list. Hoerner was 40, Márquez 96, no Amaya.

Not to spin negatively, since I'm very interested in Abbott and since he was really exceptional down the stretch. But to some extent, good prospects don't tend to be in one league long enough to lead leagues in IP, K's, or things like ERA or K-BB%. Most times if a good pitching prospect is leading his league in stuff like that, he's getting moved up to a higher league. If Abbott was more studly, or if he'd pitched early as shockingly well as he pitched down the stretch, the Cubs wouldn't have left him there all year long. https://www.dropbox.com/s/mj6mmbzuoe6hvk7/Screenshot%202019-09-17%2023.12.51.png?dl=0 Yep. Tyson Miller would've won the award if it was based on AA performance solely. I think Abbott will struggle with AAA too unless the juiced ball goes away.

It was updated at midseason, which is why I snarkily responded to that tweet.

Cubswin and others, what's the word on Riley's stuff these days? Yesterday capped a pretty nice season overall, K/IP around 1, K/BB around 3 not that bad, HR's maybe the yellow-flag. Draft reports were good velocity, and there was allusion to 98-99 tops, but that seemed kind of the usual "saw it once" hyperbole, with the actual working fastball I thought supposedly more in the 93-94 range in short-outings at Eugene. Reports from college were very bad on control. I don't recall really on breaking stuff, whether they were mediocre movement/break plus super-wild? Or whether he had something good/sharp, but just super-wild. Obviously a 10K/0BB night, you don't get 10K in 5 innings even in A-ball with just a fastball. Must be getting guys chasing on something off-speed for that. Seems like a very interesting guy at this point. Obviously turning 24 next summer, he'll never be young for level. Obviously we'd prefer he was 20 or 21. That said, the clock doesn't stop while a guy goes to college, but that doesn't change the inherent arm or the physical capacity and long-term potential. And obviously if you have surgery and miss a year plus, the clock doesn't stop for that either. Will be interesting if he can stay healthy and stay controlled at Myrtle. Pitching friendly there, so good chance that he'll post good numbers first half. In which case I could envision him getting a second-half promotion to Tennessee, and perhaps be in Tennessee by the time 24th birthday hits in July? My recall at draft was thinking his profile sounded relief-ish to me. Not sure if that's still necessarily true. But if progressing as a good-arm-good-stuff rotation candidate is the upside, and "settling" for throws-quite-hard reliever wouldn't be bad at all. This was his velocity last night: Breaking ball and change:

Nico is already horsefeathering around in the big leagues, Brennen Davis should be considered a unanimous top 100 prospect in baseball, Cole and Kohl are probably top 10 prospects in this system, Riley Thompson, Jack Patterson, Andy Weber, Cam Sanders and Edumond Americaan are all arguably top 30 prospects with potential big league careers. Oh yeah, and one of their second rounders was half the haul for Nick Castellanos. The 2018 draft has some potential (beating davell to this thought).

MWL Championship Series Game 3 (South Bend leads the best-of-5 series 2-0): South Bend at Clinton, 6:30 pm CT Probable Starter: South Bend: RHP Riley Thompson

MWL Championship Series: Game 2: South Bend won 3-2 (10 innings) on a walk-off wild pitch and leads the series 2-0 Box Score Game 3 is on Saturday

MWL Championship Series: Game 1: South Bend won 3-1, lead series 1-0 Box Score SS A. Weber 0/4 LF B. Davis 1/3, BB DH N. Maldonado 1/4, R, HR (1), RBI CF C. Roederer 0/2, K RF N. Velázquez 0/3, R, RBI SP K. Graveman 3.2 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 3 K, 1 WP, 3-3 GO-FO, 54-39 pitches-strikes RP Z. Mort 3 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 4 K, 1-4 GO-FO

FYI - no games till Wednesday, until South Bend starts their championship series.

Scheduled Playoff Games (All Times Central): PCL Semifinals, Game 5 (best-of-5 tied 2-2): Iowa vs. Round Rock, 12:38 p.m. MWL Semifinals, Game 2 (South Bend leads the series 1-0): South Bend at Great Lakes, 5:05 p.m. Probable Starters: Iowa: RHP Trevor Clifton South Bend: RHP Derek Casey

Playoff Box Scores: PCL Semifinals, Game 4: Iowa won 5-4 (11 innings) on a walk-off Phillip Evans sac fly to force a deciding Game 5 Box Score 2B V. Machin 1/6 LF D. Dewees 2/5, 3B (1), RBI, BB, 3 K C PJ Higgins 1/3, 2 BB, K, HBP 1B J. Adduci 1/4, R, HR (1), RBI, BB, 3 K RF T. Giambrone 0/3, R, 2 BB, 2 K DH J. Pereda 1/2, RBI, BB, K, 2B (2) SS Z. Short 0/4, R, BB, 3 K SP M. Swarmer 6 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 K, 3-6 GO-FO, 105-70 pitches-strikes RP C. Brooks 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, 1-1 GO-FO RP R. Rosario 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K, 3-1 GO-FO RP J. Norwood 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K, 2-0 GO-FO RP D. Maples 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, 1 HBP MWL Semifinals, Game 1: South Bend won 6-4, lead series 1-0 Box Score SS A. Weber 2/4, R, 2 RBI, BB, 2 K, E (1, fielding) LF B. Davis 2/3, R, RBI, 2 BB DH N. Maldonado 1/5, RBI, K CF C. Roederer 1/4, R, 2 K RF N. Velázquez 1/4, R, RBI, K SP C. Sanders 4 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 5 BB, 3 K, 1 WP, 4-2 GO-FO, 79-39 pitches-strikes

Scheduled Playoff Game: PCL Semifinals Game 3 (Iowa down 2-0): Iowa vs. Round Rock, 7:08 p.m. South Bend won their Quarterfinals Series 2-0 and have today off Probable Starter: RHP Kendall Graveman

Scheduled Games (All Times Central): PCL Semifinals, Game 2 (Iowa is down 1-0): Iowa at Round Rock, 7:05 p.m. MWL Quarterfinals, Game 2 (South Bend leads 1-0): South Bend at Bowling Green, 6:35 p.m. Probable Starters: Iowa: RHP Tyson Miller (48.2 IP, 7.58 ERA, 7.17 FIP, 6.65 xFIP, 43 K, 25 BB) South Bend: RHP Riley Thompson (94 IP, 3.06 ERA, 3.89 FIP, 3.59 xFIP, 87 K, 31 BB)

Hmmn... Omitting Amaya ... maybe that's why they had us with the 29th overall farm system recently ... They also didn't have Chris Morel in their recent top 30, which is ludicrous. They obviously fell off a lot when Jim Callis left, since he's basically the Mike Trout of minor league stuff. But I feel like they've fallen off even more the last year or three. I tend to think it's because they try to put out way more content than they used to to in order to compete with as MLB.com or Fangraphs, but since they still have a pretty small team it has led to a lot more sloppiness. They've also lost Jim Manuel and Aaron Fitt (college baseball) in recent years, who are really good.

Box Scores: PCL Semifinals: Iowa gave up 3 in the 11th and lost game one 5-4 Box Score DH D. Dewees 0/5, 2 K CF-LF J. Field 2/5, R, 2B (1), 3B (1), K C PJ Higgins 1/3, R, RBI, BB, K RF T. Giambrone 1/4, R, RBI, K 2B V. Machin 2/5, 2 K SS Z. Short 0/3, 2 BB, 2 K SP C. Rea 6 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 4 K, 6-5 GO-FO, 99-60 pitches-strikes RP J. Norwood 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 K, 3-0 GO-FO RP D. Mekkes 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB,2 K, 0-1 GO-FO RP D. Maples 0.2 IP, 2 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 0 K, 0-1 GO-FO, 2 WP MWL Quarterfinals: South Bend won game one 2-1 Box Score SS A. Weber 0/4 LF B. Davis 0/4, 2 K CF C. Roederer 0/3, 2 K RF N. Velázquez 0/3, K SP F. Carrera 5 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 0 K, 6-7 GO-FO, 85-55 pitches-strikes

No Amaya?? Since I think Amaya is the Cubs best prospect, I definitely think that's an oversight on BA's part.

The final regular season BA top 100 prospects list now has 2 Cubs with Brailyn Marquez cracking the list: 40. Nico Hoerner 96. Brailyn Marquez

No Cubs in the final Prospect Hot Sheet But Pedro Martínez was the helium prospect:

2 scoreless for Gallardo.

Yep, the best poster on this board. Thanks for all the kind words, folks. I feel like the best poster on this board should probably post in more than 2 forums.

Richard Gallardo starting for Eugene.