beckdawg
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Since there's basically no one who posts in the prospect thread and I doubt many people follow day to day games like I do in the minors I figure some might be interested in a recap of the previous month of minor league play to get some idea of names worth keeping an eye on. Fangraphs has a nice sortable board for this info by the way here. I'm only going to look at the guys with 50+ PAs unless it's a top prospect in the system just because it's not really worth talking about guys on a super small sample size. I'm also going to split this into 2 posts one for hitting and one for pitching. Here's the hitters.
Iowa
Dixon Machado has been the most interesting hitter in Iowa. He previously was primarily known for his glove at SS but through 88 PAs is hitting .294/.455/.485. His 21.6% walk rate is pretty outrageous but he's also tapped into power he didn't previously have with a .191 ISO. Now this is in the PCL so definitely take some offensive numbers with a big grain of salt as it's a strong hitters favored league but still this was a guy signed on a minor league deal who looks like a potential second tier starter on a bad MLB team.
Donnie Dewees looks like a shrewd pick up. He's hitting .293/.464/.488(19.6%/8.9% bb/k .195 ISO). Cubs don't really look to have a spot for him unless someone gets hurt but he looks really good. Happ hasn't done a ton but is hitting better of late. On the season he's hitting .233/.330/.411. However his last ten games he's hitting .265/.419/.471 with 21% BB rate and 14% K rate. Russell hasn't played many games(6) but looks decent hitting .250/.423/.500. He's got a really good bb/k rate at 19.2%/19.2% and his .250 ISO is something he sorely missed last year. Need more data to truly judge but he looks like he could at the very least contribute as a bench bat right away when he's able to be reinstated. Zack Short gets mentioned here as he's on mlb.com's top 30. He's only played 6 games but has hit decent(.368/.455/.474 4.5%/22.7% .105 ISO). Giambrone also is top 30 and while he started pretty hot he's slowed down a bunch. He's at .241/.284/.554(4.5%/31.8% .313 ISO). Contact definitely needs to improve on him but the ISO is really nice. Vimael Machin is a bit old prospect wise but hitting .316/.435/.421 after his call up for 10 games thus far. 17.4%/17.4% .105 ISO all looks decent. Cubs really have a glut of MI in AAA.
Tenn
Hoerner is obviously the draw here. He's killing it given his age. He's currently on the IL with a bruised wrist but he's hitting .293/.388/.483 with a .190 ISO and 10.4%/11.9% bb/k rates. With that being said he's not been the best hitter on this team. That is Robel Garcia. Garcia is 26 so I mean take that with a grain of salt but dude is raking for a guy the cubs just picked up off the scrap heap. He's hitting .346/.414/.731(.385 ISO 10.3%/20.7% bb/k). He's easily the best high level 3B "prospect" the cubs have. Like Machado he's potentially a name to watch in terms of trade pieces in july.
PJ Higgins is also worth mentioning as an older guy. He's 25 which again is a bit old for AA but he's a C who I believe is decent in terms of framing. And C take longer to develop typically. He's hitting .312/.400/.468(13.3%/14.4% .156 ISO). Connor Meyers is probably the only other bat worth considering atm. If he didn't play CF I probably wouldn't mention him but he's hitting .264/.350/.434(8.1%/33.9% .170 ISO). K rate needs to come down a lot but you can sorta forgive that with guys who actually aren't terrible in CF. Jhonny Pereda is on the top 30 but not hitting all that amazing. He's at .230/.368/.328(17.1%/11.8% .098 ISO). That being said his BABIP is pretty garbage at .235. If that perks up and he finds a bit more power he's looking decent.
MB
Myrtle Beach isn't really hitting well thus far. So, the only two names really worth talking about are two top guys in Amaya and Ademan. Amaya isn't hitting for average at .200/.333/.457 but that's heavily influenced by his .217 BABIP. His 14.3%/23.8% bb/k is ok but the K rate needs to come down some. His .257 ISO is really good though. Ademan appears to have rebound from his aggressive 2018 placement in A+. He's hitting .275/.422/.490(17.2%/23.4% .216 ISO). If his k rate comes down a touch and if Hoerner gets promoted he's likely close to ready for a promotion.
SB
While MB sorta sucks hitting wise, SB looks a lot better. Nelson Velazquez leads the way hitting .338/.361/.450(3.6%/23.8% .113 ISO). His BABIP is unsustainably high hence the .338 BA and his plate discipline numbers need work but this is a real nice step in the right direction for him. D.J. Artis who was a 2018 draft pick in the 7th round looks to be a strong pick thus far. He's hitting .264/.407/.375(15.2%/28.3% .111 ISO). I don't think K's were an issue for him in college and he was a big walk guy. So I suspect that will even out some for him and he's been playing LF but I believe he can play CF decent. SB just has a lot of athletic outfielders. Speaking of which, big time 2015 IFA Jonathan Sierra is hitting .265/.322/.373(5.6%/15.6% .108 ISO). Those numbers don't look super impressive but he's a guy with a bunch of raw power that hasn't found a way to get it into games yet(fangraphs had it at a 70 raw). The reason he excites me is if he does tap into it you could see something similar to Eloy's 2016 A ball because of that 15.6% k rate he's likely to hit for high average. He's also a lefty which is nice. The last big name outfielder in SB is Cole Roederer. He's having a bit of a tough go thus far hitting .229/.296/.314(9.9%/25.9% .086 ISO). I'd need to dig a bit more into the data but I suspect he's just over matched as a 19 year old at A and swinging through pitches. I wouldn't worry too much about that though because it was a fairly similar case for Velazquez last year and they just let him play april/may in south bend and bumped him down to A- after the draft
The SB infield isn't as impressive. Delvin Zinn is the best here but he's largely BABIP inflated hitting .346/.424/.462(8.5%/30.5% .115 ISO). I wouldn't entirely sell him off because the cubs must really have liked him. They drafted him as a high schooler and he went to college then drafted him the following year and he signed. That year he was I think like top 300 in baseball america's assessment but he didn't get much hype else where. Andy Weber is top 30 on mlb.com but not doing a ton(.238/.286/.393 6.6%/25.3% .155 ISO). Christopher Morel is also top 30 and he's kinda meh as well at .245/.275/.367 2.0%/15.7% .122 ISO. I would mention Levi Jordan here but he's 23 and while he has a 144 wRC+ he's pretty old for A.
TL;DR version
I think the best way to look at this is the cubs are pretty thin hitting wise in A+ and AA. I think you could potentially argue AAA as well but they've done some decent work finding fringe prospect guys who are useful. SB as a team looks really strong. There's a lot of talent there. They likely need to add some infield bats overall though as other than Ademan and Hoerner they don't have a ton of interesting guys in the infield and at 1B/3B they don't really have much interesting. I do really like their OF depth though especially at SB and when you add in Davis as an impact type guy there's a lot to like.
Iowa
Dixon Machado has been the most interesting hitter in Iowa. He previously was primarily known for his glove at SS but through 88 PAs is hitting .294/.455/.485. His 21.6% walk rate is pretty outrageous but he's also tapped into power he didn't previously have with a .191 ISO. Now this is in the PCL so definitely take some offensive numbers with a big grain of salt as it's a strong hitters favored league but still this was a guy signed on a minor league deal who looks like a potential second tier starter on a bad MLB team.
Donnie Dewees looks like a shrewd pick up. He's hitting .293/.464/.488(19.6%/8.9% bb/k .195 ISO). Cubs don't really look to have a spot for him unless someone gets hurt but he looks really good. Happ hasn't done a ton but is hitting better of late. On the season he's hitting .233/.330/.411. However his last ten games he's hitting .265/.419/.471 with 21% BB rate and 14% K rate. Russell hasn't played many games(6) but looks decent hitting .250/.423/.500. He's got a really good bb/k rate at 19.2%/19.2% and his .250 ISO is something he sorely missed last year. Need more data to truly judge but he looks like he could at the very least contribute as a bench bat right away when he's able to be reinstated. Zack Short gets mentioned here as he's on mlb.com's top 30. He's only played 6 games but has hit decent(.368/.455/.474 4.5%/22.7% .105 ISO). Giambrone also is top 30 and while he started pretty hot he's slowed down a bunch. He's at .241/.284/.554(4.5%/31.8% .313 ISO). Contact definitely needs to improve on him but the ISO is really nice. Vimael Machin is a bit old prospect wise but hitting .316/.435/.421 after his call up for 10 games thus far. 17.4%/17.4% .105 ISO all looks decent. Cubs really have a glut of MI in AAA.
Tenn
Hoerner is obviously the draw here. He's killing it given his age. He's currently on the IL with a bruised wrist but he's hitting .293/.388/.483 with a .190 ISO and 10.4%/11.9% bb/k rates. With that being said he's not been the best hitter on this team. That is Robel Garcia. Garcia is 26 so I mean take that with a grain of salt but dude is raking for a guy the cubs just picked up off the scrap heap. He's hitting .346/.414/.731(.385 ISO 10.3%/20.7% bb/k). He's easily the best high level 3B "prospect" the cubs have. Like Machado he's potentially a name to watch in terms of trade pieces in july.
PJ Higgins is also worth mentioning as an older guy. He's 25 which again is a bit old for AA but he's a C who I believe is decent in terms of framing. And C take longer to develop typically. He's hitting .312/.400/.468(13.3%/14.4% .156 ISO). Connor Meyers is probably the only other bat worth considering atm. If he didn't play CF I probably wouldn't mention him but he's hitting .264/.350/.434(8.1%/33.9% .170 ISO). K rate needs to come down a lot but you can sorta forgive that with guys who actually aren't terrible in CF. Jhonny Pereda is on the top 30 but not hitting all that amazing. He's at .230/.368/.328(17.1%/11.8% .098 ISO). That being said his BABIP is pretty garbage at .235. If that perks up and he finds a bit more power he's looking decent.
MB
Myrtle Beach isn't really hitting well thus far. So, the only two names really worth talking about are two top guys in Amaya and Ademan. Amaya isn't hitting for average at .200/.333/.457 but that's heavily influenced by his .217 BABIP. His 14.3%/23.8% bb/k is ok but the K rate needs to come down some. His .257 ISO is really good though. Ademan appears to have rebound from his aggressive 2018 placement in A+. He's hitting .275/.422/.490(17.2%/23.4% .216 ISO). If his k rate comes down a touch and if Hoerner gets promoted he's likely close to ready for a promotion.
SB
While MB sorta sucks hitting wise, SB looks a lot better. Nelson Velazquez leads the way hitting .338/.361/.450(3.6%/23.8% .113 ISO). His BABIP is unsustainably high hence the .338 BA and his plate discipline numbers need work but this is a real nice step in the right direction for him. D.J. Artis who was a 2018 draft pick in the 7th round looks to be a strong pick thus far. He's hitting .264/.407/.375(15.2%/28.3% .111 ISO). I don't think K's were an issue for him in college and he was a big walk guy. So I suspect that will even out some for him and he's been playing LF but I believe he can play CF decent. SB just has a lot of athletic outfielders. Speaking of which, big time 2015 IFA Jonathan Sierra is hitting .265/.322/.373(5.6%/15.6% .108 ISO). Those numbers don't look super impressive but he's a guy with a bunch of raw power that hasn't found a way to get it into games yet(fangraphs had it at a 70 raw). The reason he excites me is if he does tap into it you could see something similar to Eloy's 2016 A ball because of that 15.6% k rate he's likely to hit for high average. He's also a lefty which is nice. The last big name outfielder in SB is Cole Roederer. He's having a bit of a tough go thus far hitting .229/.296/.314(9.9%/25.9% .086 ISO). I'd need to dig a bit more into the data but I suspect he's just over matched as a 19 year old at A and swinging through pitches. I wouldn't worry too much about that though because it was a fairly similar case for Velazquez last year and they just let him play april/may in south bend and bumped him down to A- after the draft
The SB infield isn't as impressive. Delvin Zinn is the best here but he's largely BABIP inflated hitting .346/.424/.462(8.5%/30.5% .115 ISO). I wouldn't entirely sell him off because the cubs must really have liked him. They drafted him as a high schooler and he went to college then drafted him the following year and he signed. That year he was I think like top 300 in baseball america's assessment but he didn't get much hype else where. Andy Weber is top 30 on mlb.com but not doing a ton(.238/.286/.393 6.6%/25.3% .155 ISO). Christopher Morel is also top 30 and he's kinda meh as well at .245/.275/.367 2.0%/15.7% .122 ISO. I would mention Levi Jordan here but he's 23 and while he has a 144 wRC+ he's pretty old for A.
TL;DR version
I think the best way to look at this is the cubs are pretty thin hitting wise in A+ and AA. I think you could potentially argue AAA as well but they've done some decent work finding fringe prospect guys who are useful. SB as a team looks really strong. There's a lot of talent there. They likely need to add some infield bats overall though as other than Ademan and Hoerner they don't have a ton of interesting guys in the infield and at 1B/3B they don't really have much interesting. I do really like their OF depth though especially at SB and when you add in Davis as an impact type guy there's a lot to like.