Bertz

I said this a few days ago, but given his age I'm probably going to buy into Alcantara pretty quick. His issue prior to this year was that he had zero power, it's looking increasingly like that's no longer the case. If he's got even adequate pop he does everything else enough that he's probably on the borderline of being a starter.

He's probably fine? I think he legitimately pitched bad in April, but has basically been himself plus a bunch of extra dongs since. Dongs are notoriously flukey and streaky. There are two things that give me a little pause though. First, because he's such a velocity outlier, the "rules" don't necessarily apply to him. Second, he's gotten less swing and miss in the zone than he normally does, even as he's pitched better since that Braves start. I wonder if that's a canary in the coalmine for a legitimate issue.

The post June schedule is starting to look lighter and lighter too. Between teams like he Dbacks confirming that they're awful, and teams like the Nats and Twins looking like they'll have sold off by the time we face them, there's very few tough out of division matchups left after the 4 games @ the Dodgers at the end of this month. Home and aways against the Phillies and White Sox, and the Giants @Wrigley. Eyeballing it I think that's it for the entire second half of the schedule.

That Nance curve all to strike out Dejong should be hung in the Louvre. Holy Horsefeathers.

Alcantara was doing awesome at Iowa, and is still just 24. I'll be a lot quicker to think he's real than Wisdom.

I like what he brings to the team, but Joc has a super douchey "The Oldest Brother from Home Improvement" vibe that I do not like

Christopher Morel, from 5/19 through yesterday: .214/.333/.414, 3 dongs, 14.3 BB%, 17.9 K%, 110 wRC+, .226 BABIP His first two weeks were hideously bad, and with a minor leaguer you can't simply say "BABIP=Luck" but I'm really picking up what Morel's putting down right now.

With his health history, it *might* be based on actual medical advice? Probably not, but it's not as black and white from the outside as like Sogard.

With Higgins behind the plate too, damn. I like how he was billed as being a very good hitter for a backup catcher, but possibly a bit of a disaster behind the plate. Instead he's got great framing numbers (in a minuscule sample) and has hit like he's wearing the Ted Mosby Sensory Deprivation goggles.

I believe a week or two ago Keith Law very explicitly said that the Cubs like Taylor, so this is starting to sound kind of real.

I haven't been able to catch much of these west coast games, but I think he didn't make the trip. they still don't travel Oh good call then I have no idea. We are in graduation season and he's got a couple of older kids?

I haven't been able to catch much of these west coast games, but I think he didn't make the trip.

Jake's sitting 92-94. If he can stay living there I think he can get back to actually being solid again

Each of the last three years KB has had an injury where he tried gutting through it and it tanked his performance. I think in general guys should probably get a day off per week, but KB absolutely should.

Chris Morel over the last three weeks is at .206/.311/.349 with a 13.5% K rate and an 18.5% walk rate. Obviously he needs to start hitting (though the Southern League is so pitching friendly that's an 89 wRC+), but those are very nice BB/K numbers for him. If he can live anywhere near there, with his tools he's gonna really be a guy.

It may be a matter of days before he falls flat on his face. But what separates him from the AAAA sluggers of Cubs past is that he's doing it at a time when it actually matters. If nothing else, hopefully the smoke and mirrors are enough to earn him a few million yen on the other side of the pond. He's going to K a lot, which is not the kind of hitter you necessarily want to add to this lineup. I think what actually separates him from those other guys is that it seems like he can actually play solid defense. Jake Fox could hit, you just couldn't put him anywhere and he wasn't good enough to be a DH. With Wisdom, you get a 5% chance of a Max Muncy thing, a pretty high likelihood he can be the next Bote (or the Bote we thought we'd be getting), and a decent chance his K rate goes to 40% and he falls into the Fox/Hoffpauer/LaHair category. Yeah I think this is where I'm at. One of the good things is that this lineup is going to change SUBSTANTIALLY in the next year or so. So while adding a .240/.320/.450 type of hitter might not be the ideal type of hitter for this moment, if he proves to be fairly real it can change how we approach this offseason. Like maybe you're a little less likely to hold on to Javy, so you can alleviate the RH swing and miss in the lineup. But obviously, we need to see a few hundred more PAs before we get too far down the road on thoughts like that.

Yeah, I think even if they had to blame it on the sniffles he was going t get phantom IL'd around now. I'd not be surprised by another in August.

I think I actually really like the hat? Too bad I look terrible in them.

Nelson up to .324/.346/.581. The K and BB rates are problematic, but he's hitting the horsefeathers out of the ball.

He got a little buzz at the Alt Site last year and ST this year, but this is ridiculous.

I'm surprised how good the Giants' Pride design looks. Like usually these themed logos and uniforms look like trash. Glad they got this one right.

So I don't think Stewart is *good*, but he does look like a league average-ish starter. He won't miss many bats, but he'll avoid walks and keep the ball on the ground. Add in the team control, and you absolutely can't bounce him for Arrieta or Davies.