Stratos
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Everything posted by Stratos
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Hoping Amaya can hit better at some point. He's a good receiver, but his pop-time is terrible. If he can't hit then he's a backup catcher on a good team. Verdict very much out on prospect Moises B. defensively. I'm sure they have to grab a catcher this winter to replace Gomes anyways.
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Vasquez is very good defensively. He might even hit better than Madrigal. He can't hit worse.
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The Cubs generally haven't seemed to put much emphasis on acquiring velo guys. As an org they seem to like quirky fastballs, command, funky deliveries, splitters/changeups, rather than Drivelining every pitcher to the stratosphere, especially SP.
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May stats: Cubs are 27th in MLB in runs scored (Braves are 28th haha), Cubs are 8th in ERA and FIP. Pen has dramatically improved in May. In April the main issue as a pen staff was BB/9. May pen stats: 2.92 BB/9, 10.90 K/9, 0.89 HR/9. 3.55 ERA and 3.13 FIP. Neris, Leiter, Brown, Wesneski, Tyson Miller have all pitched very well. Miller hasn't given up an ER in 5.1 IP. Hodge with a promising debut. Cubs offense should break out of the slump eventually, especially with everyone now healthy (Morel walking wounded?). Things looking positive going forward for the team for now.
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Watched an interview on Youtube with the Iowa play-by-play guy. He thinks the initial control issues that Horton has had and Brown had last year could be due to transition between different balls in AA to AAA. He also said Horton is apparently working in a split more that is looking like another potential out pitch for him. His velo drop is interesting, with all these injuries from flamethrowers and spikes in velo i'm wondering if the Cubs are telling him to ease off the fb a little, especially while still early in the season building up and still not far from TJ?
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With every position guy back healthy it may be in the interests of the Cubs to give Morel a couple of days off to heal up. Get him ready for the 4-game series vs the Brewers that starts Monday. Stick Wisdom at 3B on Fri vs Cards, he should be able to handle Mikolas and Imanaga as a FB guy means not many GB for Wisdom to punt anyways.
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Busch has hands as slow as molasses at the plate, that's been clear since early ST. He's the anti-Nico. He's always going to K a ton, even if he turns things around. According to Savant bat-tracking his bat speed is also below league-average, ranking between Nico and Bellinger's on the team. But unlike them, he can't make contact or put barrel to ball at near the rate that they can (so far).
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Today he was leaving bottom-of-the-league-quality sinkers over the heart of the plate. He walked a guy too. He needs to be precise and on the corners and walking virtually nobody or he shouldn't be on the roster. The only way he fixes that is to pitch innings and get the feel for his command back. They should DL him again and let him work, either BP/live sessions or in the minors. Or release him.
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Would be nice if the horsefeathers Cubs would start hitting the horsefeathers baseball. They're at home for fucks sake. And maybe this offseason we don't give some injured washed up has-been 16.5m dollars based on a few months of success and the fact that he's a nice guy and been with the team for a long time. You want a Smyly for SP depth then go pay Smyly money. But Smyly sucks too. So maybe stop signing bad SP to bloated contracts. If they want crappy SP results then pay a few million for a crappy SP. If they want a SP with talent who can get outs not based on luck then pay the money it costs for talent. Is Hoyer not listening to coaches and scouts who should be telling him the small amount of success Smyly and Hendricks had before their deals/options were signed was based on a bunch of luck hanging on a razor's edge? Scout the darn talent and get your heads out of the short-term stat sheets you idiots. Hendricks, Smyly, Mancini, Barnhart, Villar, Descalso....pay for talent not replacement bums you idiots! You want replacement players then go sign some AAAA nobodies for pennies and hope for the best. Sorry for the rant.
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I wonder if the sticky stuff crackdown had an impact on his command. June 1st 2021 was when the sticky ban started, and would fall in line roughly with his decline, though not perfectly has he had a good June/July in 2021. I looked at the spin rates on his pitches on BB Savant and i'm not sure that spin was much affected pre and post 2021, but maybe feel was? I can see that his extension has slightly decreased as well post-2021, which could just be aging. I didn't look at the movement of his pitches.
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That's one heck of a 4-seamer, and one fb looked like it cut.
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Mastro has been almost completely useless with the bat. He can't hit in the MLB. He's been trying to slap balls into the opposite field with Madrigal-level power (per BB Savant bat speed measurements) and has failed this year. He serves no purpose on the team other than being able to play backup SS where others can't and having good baserunning speed, If that's the case, might as well see if Vazquez can hit a little better. Nothing to lose.
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Cade HortonPete Crow-ArmstrongMatt ShawOwen CaissieKevin AlcantaraBen BrownMoises BallesterosJames TriantosJefferson RojasBrennen DavisMichael AriasAlexander CanarioFernando CruzDrew GrayLuis VazquezPedro RamirezHaydn McGearyDerniche ValdezPablo AliendoCristian Hernandez
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2023-24 Offseason Prospect Lists
Stratos replied to CaliforniaRaisin's topic in Cubs Minor League Talk
I mostly ignore Fangraphs ratings, especially for tools, since they're wildly inconsistent, but i take a look at the writeups. Maybe not the same guy as Eric but FG rated Imanaga a 40 for FB tool pre-season. They also have Matt Shaw with a 30 glove right now, Triantos with 40 arm, and still have PCA with 60 run. -
Yeah PCA should be playing more or less regularly somewhere, he's still pretty green in most parts of his game. I think these are all good moves. Vazquez can't hit worse than Mastro.
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Mastro can't hit. I hope Dansby and Nico are back and Mastro is off the 26-man. Either way I hope Mastro is gone.
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They seem pretty good at diagnosing injuries since they have the most guys on the IL haha.
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Mastro's avg bat speed according to Savant is only 0.5 mph faster than Madrigal's. Will Smith slaps harder.
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That's a good sign.
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Yeah but the score is tied late in the game, they're going home if they can you'd think. Isn't that a safety squeeze kind of situation? Why wouldn't Happ at least wait until they throw to 2B and start the DP to commit? I wonder by the stats how often runner in that kind of situation works. The baserunning on this team is terrible. Same base coaches, virtually the same players, not sure the issue. Maybe just bad luck let's hope.
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I think Bart caught the ball and went for the tag with the ball in glove but also secured with his barehand so it doesn't get knocked out as catchers are taught, and then the hands split apart either before or after the tag and got unlucky with Belli knocking it out. Some might disagree but I think any game-ending play shouldn't be able to be subject for review, even a HR call. It's just anti-climactic, just let the teams walk it off. Umpires have never been this good at their jobs anyways in the history of baseball, not by a longshot.
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If Imanaga continues to be good the Cubs can pick up an option after 2025 to extend him through 2028. That would be a total of 5 years for 90m, so 18m AAV if you include the 10m posting fee and 1m signing bonus. For CBT payroll purposes I believe it would be around 15.8m AAV.
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If you listen to his comments he's totally just speculating here, he has no info on this whatsoever. He's assuming IF the Astros are still struggling closer to the deadline they MIGHT trade Verlander who has a NTC but MIGHT be interested in a team like the Cubs. Fun to discuss but it's a nothingburger.
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The gap between Skenes and Hendricks is wider than a whale's hoo-ha. Props to Morel for continuing to play banged up with no chance to rest with guys like Swanson, Nico, Happ also being out. Maybe he gets a day or 2 off if we get healthier. Having 8 relievers on the IL is....interesting. All these forearm injuries....are they all going bowling after the games or something???
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Interesting note that Hendricks was good against the Pirates in his last start. Everything fell in today. But no walks, 4 k's in 4.2 IP, only 1 HR. I mean maybe he's circling the drain but not done yet. But hard to start him over any of the other guys right now.
