Cubs Farm System And Prospects Discussion Thread

[CSF77]

Jeremy Null: 6'7" 200.
http://www.milb.com/multimedia/vpp.jsp?content_id=102811983&sid=milb

It is still too early. Big guy though but that means little at this point.

Iowa:
Best starter: Donn Roach 3-0 2.59 ERA 1.09 WHIP Followed by Wada 0-3 3.68 ERA 1.45 WHIP Hole is dry in pitching at this level. Hitting Bryant at 3 HR's and 10 RBI's still lead that team...wow.

Tenn: Much better team: Pitching Pena and Batista both at 3-0. Frank has an ERA at 1.19. Seems like he has reinvented himself as a starter. I would keep an eye on him. He was the best closer up to this point in the system.

Hitting Dan is at .358/.451/.568 Kyle .333/.458/.627 Swear they are clones of each other. Kyle is at 5 HR's Dan 3. BB Dan 17 Kyle 19. SO both at 20...both have 1 3B. OPS Dan 1.020 Kyle 1.085 Really scary how these 2 are identical production. I see little reason why these 2 should not be in Iowa soon. That team is a vacuum of talent.

A+: All about Duane Underwood 3-0 1.29 ERA 1.05 WHIP He has separated himself from the rest. Hitting Billy Mc Kinney .305/.402/.476 3 HR 17 RBI So his power is starting to show itself. He is by far the best hitter on that team. I see him going to Tenn very soon.

 

[CSF77]

AAA: Baez 0-4 3 SO. Alcantara 1 for 4 with the big 2 run HR. Wada puts up 5.2 IP of 4 hit 1 run ball. 6 SO's.
AA: Almora is back from injury. 1 for 4. Cory Black pitches 5 innings 4 hits 3 ER and 7 SO's. 4 BB shows his control is not there yet.
A+: Mc Kenny rocks a walk off HR. #4 with his 18 RBI. OK just promote him already....Underwood goes 7 IP 3 hits 1 ER with 4 SO...ditto.

 

[CSF77]

Interesting thing is they started Alcantara in LF today. Maybe they are thinking along the same lines I am right now. Get him up in LF and push Cogs to the #4 OF.

Thing is we should be looking at La Stella coming back. That pushes Heredia off of the roster. Alcantara pushes Szczur off the roster and Cogs into a day off guy. Which he has played all 3 spots so no biggy. Over all that makes the line up balanced. SH 1 and 2. Then Rizzo, Bryant,Soler, Montero to split them up and Castro hitting #7. It becomes a tough line up to crack because all can hurt you on any day.

At that point I would think of promoting Almora to AAA and promoting MCKinny to Tenn.

Iowa OF: LF: Silvia, CF: Almora RF: Andreoli
Tenn OF: LF: McKenny, CF: Hannermann RF: Rademacher

Another thing: Mc Kinney 4 BB. Teams are not pitching to him due to no talent around him. I would like to see him in the line up with Dan and Kyle.

 

[CSF77]

So is Donn Roach legit? 6 IP 4 hits 0 ER, 2 BB 4 SO. Lowered hit ERA to 2.17...

 

[CSF77]

Iowa:
2B Alcantara .234/.310/.516
LF: Chambers .241/.333/.345
SS Baez .235/.297/.382
C Lopez .217/.266/.283
RF Lake .271/.321/.313
1B Baxter .329/.424/.384
3B Valaika .238/.323/.357
CF Silvia .217/.217/.304
P Jokisch 1-0 4.00 ERA 8 BB 12 SO 18.0 IP

Man this team would look so much better with Almora, Vogelbach and Schwarber on it......

 

[Parade_Rain]

Baxter at 1B is hitting .329. How much better is Vog going to make that slot?

 

[CSF77]

Baxter at 1B is hitting .329. How much better is Vog going to make that slot?

.384 SLG for 1B? Also he is listed as a RF. He is a filler player.

So ya SLG it overhauls the spot.

Think of it this way:

Alcantara 2B
Almora CF
Schwarber C
Baez SS
Vogelbach 1B
Lake LF
Baxter RF

Cut Silvia and Valaika to start. Both have been filler. It would make Iowa interesting and it would give Baez the protection he needs to start turning around his season (career)

 

[CSF77]

To add when Olt is in rehab he slots to 3B so another HR stick added. That team would be fierce

 

[Parade_Rain]

I get that he's filler. I'm looking at OBA, since it was decided in another thread that OBA > HR.

 

[CSF77]

I get that he's filler. I'm looking at OBA, since it was decided in another thread that OBA > HR.

Top NL runs scored: San Diego. Team OBA: .308 (10th) 28 HR's. (5th) <2 more games than the Dodgers>

They lead at neither.

OBA leader is the Dodgers and they have 145 runs. 47 HR which they lead at. So they are doing both and it is working out for them well.

Cards #2 at .339 with 22 HR's. Runs 134. So less than half the HR's and 11 less runs generated.

Both do factor.

Cubs 121 runs generated. .327 OBA 25 HR's

Cards are leading at BA though. .273 so I'm guessing they have timely hitting going ontop of their OBA. Cubs team BA: .253

There are a bunch of factors going on and you can't just point to one factor and say that is the one.

 

[CSF77]

Another team: Rockies: .274 BA but a .316 OBA Due to having 54 team BB. Runs generated 108. 29 HR's. So behind the pace.

Everything factors for sure. But the basics is OBA (guys that take walks) at the top
Lower in the order guys that put the ball in play (HR's count) more.

It is a proven method. Pitcher hitting 8 or 9 matter little but you build OBA to the top then depending on who is left BA/SLG. Right now Bryant is taking BB like mad but is not hitting for power. That is why he is in the 2 hole. When he starts to drive the ball out of the park then it changes the dynamic.

 

[beckdawg]

So is Donn Roach legit? 6 IP 4 hits 0 ER, 2 BB 4 SO. Lowered hit ERA to 2.17...

He's got no real k potential. He's a more extreme version of Hendricks. Something like a 3 k/9 and a 2 bb/9 with like 70% ground balls.

 

[CSF77]

He's got no real k potential. He's a more extreme version of Hendricks. Something like a 3 k/9 and a 2 bb/9 with like 70% ground balls.

I was guessing that also. Still it is nice to see some one on that team doing something significant.

 

[CSF77]

How is it that the Iowa Cubs have 13 runs at the 4th and Baez has 0 RBI's?

 

[SilenceS]

He is 2 for 2 with a walk.

 

[CSF77]

:gary:

 

[TL1961]

Alcantara puzzles me.

He had good minor league stats last year. When promoted, he instantly breathed life into the offense. Even this year, while hitless for several games, he scored runs. It seemed (to me, at least), that he added spark.

But he never got going, and was sent to Iowa. Now he isn't hitting there. What the heck?

Are the Cubs encouraging all their guys to go for the HR?

AA, Baez and Soler all seem to be trying for the HR far too often. The best HR hitter we have almost goes the other direction. Bryant never seems to be "swinging away". He is disciplined, patient, and never looks like he is "letting loose".

Soler was said to be disciplined, but he is not showing that lately.

Are he home run happy?

 

[CSF77]

Alcantara puzzles me.

He had good minor league stats last year. When promoted, he instantly breathed life into the offense. Even this year, while hitless for several games, he scored runs. It seemed (to me, at least), that he added spark.

But he never got going, and was sent to Iowa. Now he isn't hitting there. What the heck?

Are the Cubs encouraging all their guys to go for the HR?

AA, Baez and Soler all seem to be trying for the HR far too often. The best HR hitter we have almost goes the other direction. Bryant never seems to be "swinging away". He is disciplined, patient, and never looks like he is "letting loose".

Soler was said to be disciplined, but he is not showing that lately.

Are he home run happy?

They are in transition and young to the league still.

Alcantara: .233 BA SO%: 31.5 Too high. BB% 9.6% On point for him. I'm not sure what is going on with him but all I can tell is he is taking more pitches now most likely. So he is still developing as a hitter.

Baez: .238 BA 7.4 BB% So not that bad so far. SO% 30.9% So that is finally getting to reasonable levels for a power hitter. Thing is his SLG is at .357 which is just bad right now. But at least he is showing some improvement.

 

[beckdawg]

Alcantara puzzles me.

He had good minor league stats last year. When promoted, he instantly breathed life into the offense. Even this year, while hitless for several games, he scored runs. It seemed (to me, at least), that he added spark.

But he never got going, and was sent to Iowa. Now he isn't hitting there. What the heck?

Are the Cubs encouraging all their guys to go for the HR?

AA, Baez and Soler all seem to be trying for the HR far too often. The best HR hitter we have almost goes the other direction. Bryant never seems to be "swinging away". He is disciplined, patient, and never looks like he is "letting loose".

Soler was said to be disciplined, but he is not showing that lately.

Are he home run happy?

It's part of being young. Rizzo hit .238/.324/.412 over his first 1200 MLB PAs. His last 750 he has hit .293/.397/.535. If you want me to sit here and tell you what I think is going on with Alcantara I will. The short version is he was called up prior to really being ready due to an injury and was exposed a bit. Once a team gets a book on you they are going to continue to smash you with said book until you prove it wrong. Right now I believe his issue is with off speed stuff though I haven't delved into the numbers a great deal. That in turn is causing him to K about 5-10% more than he has in the past. His BABIP also is about 100 points lower than it was last season in AAA. I'm not going to sit here and say everything is grand but he's still hitting .235/.307/.500 in AAA. That's not the end of the world.

As for Soler, it's a similar story. He's K'ing too much because pitchers are probably exploiting some things he needs to work on as a young hitter. With that being said the guy is still hitting .281/.333/.439. Think we need to chill a bit with the expectations so quick. League average for RF right now is .250/.322/.415. So despite having things to improve with he's been better than average.

Overall, it's part of the reason I figured they would have rough patches. They obviously have some talented players but they don't necessarily have enough established hitters to carry the slumps of the younger guys. Rizzo has been one of the top 10 hitters in the league thus far. However, the math of things is even great hitters fail 70% of the time.

Personally, I feel like Alcantara will be alright. He started off really slow after being sent down but his last 8 games he's hitting .273/.351/.485. He's still K'ing too much at 28.9% but his walk rate has stayed pretty high at 10.5%. Hopefully, he can get it going a bit and maybe come up to play LF some.

 

[JimJohnson]

Alcantara puzzles me.

He flat out sucks.