In season thread

[Boobaby1]

It's 2 to 3 weeks but could be 6 depending on how it heels. .

My initial thought are if it just a sprain, it shouldn't take more then the 15 days to heal...

If it is a high ankle sprain, it is like torn ligaments in which it will be roughly 6 weeks.

 

[chibears55]

If it is a high ankle sprain, it is like torn ligaments in which it will be roughly 6 weeks.

Don't know where you read that. .

Here what was said before today game. .

Left ankle sprain from hitting bag awkwardly. .
Maddon said he was told 2-3 weeks


http://abc7chicago.com/sports/cubs-put-jorge-soler-(ankle-sprain)-on-dl/765003/

 

[Boobaby1]

Don't know where you read that. .

Here what was said before today game. .

Left ankle sprain from hitting bag awkwardly. .
Maddon said he was told 2-3 weeks


http://abc7chicago.com/sports/cubs-put-jorge-soler-(ankle-sprain)-on-dl/765003/

I didn't hear it. I said IF it is. There are conflicting reports as to how long he may be out. Some say 2-3 weeks, some say as much as 6.

If it is 6, it is of the high ankle sprain variety which are very hard to recover from, especially as much as he would be on it day-to-day.

 

[chibears55]

@ESPNChicago: Javier Baez of Chicago Cubs out 4-8 weeks with fractured hand es.pn/1FDydYt

Tough break for kid...
Maybe this opens door for Schwarber to at least DH

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[TL1961]

Effing Dodgers!

Could see it coming. Lance lynn in trouble all night, Dodgers get 2. Blow lead late with walk, error on Puig, bobbled relay on next batter. Cards win another game in which they have very little offense. Crap.

 

[chibears55]

With Baez injury, i dont see the cubs really calling anyone else up now to DH in Detroit, i think tgey just stick with who they have and just go with Coughlin or Denorfia in LF while the other DH.. they probably reevaluate for their next trip in Cleveland and Minnesota

 

[chibears55]

@TheCCO: From the Wire: #Cubs Sign RHP Rafael Soriano to a Minor League Contract bit.ly/1KTkccC #MLB

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[CSF77]

So would you sign Manny to come off of the bench for the rest of the year? DH/PH etc. Not sure if he is in every day game shape but a hitter like him would be very valuable in high pressure hitting situations.

 

[Boobaby1]

So would you sign Manny to come off of the bench for the rest of the year? DH/PH etc. Not sure if he is in every day game shape but a hitter like him would be very valuable in high pressure hitting situations.

Nope! They need to find something from another team until maybe Schwarber can come up.

I'd like to see some at bats from Schwarber, so he can get his feet wet this year.

Lets see if they do something towards the deadline, or the waiver line.

They are going to have to move on somebody as they are still a couple of parts away from making a serious run. Those parts don't have to be "All-In" parts, but there are some that can give the Cubs some serious help.

 

[chibears55]

So would you sign Manny to come off of the bench for the rest of the year? DH/PH etc. Not sure if he is in every day game shape but a hitter like him would be very valuable in high pressure hitting situations.

Id do it in August, if their a legit playoff contender.
Hed be a good bat to have on bench for the playoff run and playoffs

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[CSF77]

SP: 12 games

Hammell 5-2 2.81 ERA 80 IP 0.96 WHIP 9 SO/9
Arrieta 6-4 3.16 ERA 77 IP 1.12 WHIP 9.7 SO/9
Hendricks 2-2 3.80 68.2 IP 1.15 WHIP 7.74 SO/9
Lester 4-5 4.25 ERA 72 IP 1.43 WHIP 8.75 SO/9

Lester really needs a strong start tonight. As of now he is the 4th starter.

 

[CSF77]

Nope! They need to find something from another team until maybe Schwarber can come up.

I'd like to see some at bats from Schwarber, so he can get his feet wet this year.

Lets see if they do something towards the deadline, or the waiver line.

They are going to have to move on somebody as they are still a couple of parts away from making a serious run. Those parts don't have to be "All-In" parts, but there are some that can give the Cubs some serious help.

They are developing Schwarber as a catcher. They are not going to advance him fast. The day they decided he was a catcher. That decision dictated that his catching skills and progress as a catcher would dictate his time line vs his bat. I would not depend on him promoting until sometime 2016 now. If they were willing to rush him he would have been out in LF.

So no, there is no fact to back that view point. Best case is Baez gets back at the deadline and Bryant moves to LF. That would have happen already if not for the injury. Notice that they made the Schwarber as a full time catcher around the same time Baez went to 3B. There is a master plan going on.

 

[CSF77]

Looking ahead: 2 home vs Indians. The there 2 games then 3 at Min. So a 5 day AL road trip starting on the 17th. Baxter has not been that bad. Lacks any power but a extra LH bat. I could see a DH platoon of Lake/Baxter. Or they could think outside of the box and DH Soler for the 5 games vs toss him down to AAA to get his timing back. Keep him off of his legs for that span.

Hmmm: Just noticed they are in a 20 game run with no day off. Day 5 of it now. They most likely will need to add a arm for the pen.

 

[chibears55]

@ihapp_1: Excited to start my journey with the @Cubs First stop Arizona

Sound like the cubs have wrapped up their first rd pick

 

[chibears55]

@TheCCO: #Cubs | Cubs Reportedly Calling Up Top Prospect Kyle Schwarber bit.ly/1dH6ONQ #MLB

Wow... DH and maybe LF and 3rd catcher

 

[brokenjoker22]

Right, I'm totally confused and hoping you guys could shed some light on these questions:

I'm on the cubs website and looking at the active roster - we have 13? pitchers. Now, I understand this must be rotational, but how often do pitchers play? And due to having so many pitchers, do mlb teams generally have a number 1 starting pitcher or like 3/4 general starting pitchers?

What is this DL I'm reading about? Some injury list? It reads as if players are just assigned there but surely can't be if it's an injured player list? And what's the A+, AA and AAA - I'm assuming these are like junior/partner (cant think of a good word) teams linked with the cubs for use of younger guys to play week in, week out and injured guys coming back to fitness?

Sorry and cheers all.

 

[CSF77]

Hmmm seems you are a novist to how MLB is set up.

A, A+, AA, AAA are minor league affiliate teams. Each team falls under a major league team. It is used for player development.

DL: disabled list. 7 day for concussions. 15 for temporary 60 for long term injuries. A player can rehab on assignment up to 20 days. 30 for a pitcher on a minor league team.

 

[CSF77]

Process: go on 15 day. Say for a broken bone. 15 is the minimum can go over depending on the situation. If he goes into rehab then he can go up that amount on a minor league team. Think there is a limit of 2 extra roster spots per team for rehab

 

[beckdawg]

Right, I'm totally confused and hoping you guys could shed some light on these questions:

I'm on the cubs website and looking at the active roster - we have 13? pitchers. Now, I understand this must be rotational, but how often do pitchers play? And due to having so many pitchers, do mlb teams generally have a number 1 starting pitcher or like 3/4 general starting pitchers?

What is this DL I'm reading about? Some injury list? It reads as if players are just assigned there but surely can't be if it's an injured player list? And what's the A+, AA and AAA - I'm assuming these are like junior/partner (cant think of a good word) teams linked with the cubs for use of younger guys to play week in, week out and injured guys coming back to fitness?

Sorry and cheers all.

Typically speaking you now run 5 starters and 7 relievers. with 8 positional starters and 5 bench guys(generally a back up C, 2 OF 2 IF). Relievers will usually pitch every other day though closers can go longer and some guys have "rubber arms" and pitch way more often. It's kind of nebulous as to how often relievers pitch. Mainly depends on how much they pitched. If you throw 3 pitches yesterday you're probably available today. If you throw 15-20 you're probably not.

As for #1 starters, you'll hear that term thrown around a lot but it means different things to different people. Some people literally mean it as a teams best starter. But I think more generally people talk about it as one of the better pitchers in the game which not every team will have. Typically you'll often hear people talk about Aces(which is probably a better term when referring to top pitchers in the game as a whole). You'll also hear people talk about top of the rotation starters(or TOR), middle of the rotation(MOR) and bottom of the rotation(BOR). Again that can mean different things to different people but I tend to view it like this. A TOR pitcher is either a teams best pitcher or their second best pitcher and tends to be one of the 50-75 best pitchers in the game. Middle of the rotation tends to be a teams 3rd or 4th best pitcher which are usually one of the 75th-125th best pitchers in the game. BOR tends to be guys who are competing to be starters. Often times you will have a competition for who's a teams 5th starter. The guy who loses ends up in the bullpen(think Travis Wood and Edwin Jackson with the cubs).

The basic separation between starters and relievers is relievers often have trouble with control and walk too many people. Ideally you want guys who are effective with their pitches(throw strikes) because generally around 100 pitches they yank the starter and bring in a bullpen guy. So, if you use 100 pitches to get through 4 innings you're going to kill your bullpen. For relievers, pitching out of the pen allows them to throw harder because they are less worried about how long they go and are more worried about getting through an inning or so. So, you'll often see a reliever have 2-3 mph faster pitches than the same pitcher as a starter.

As for the DL, it's basically about roster management. In the MLB you have 2 rosters for the pro team. One is the 25 man active roster. These are the guys you see in the team. There is also a 40 man roster which will include players in AAA and sometimes AA if they are really good. In order to play in the majors you have to be on the 40 man roster and also the 25 man active for that matter. Basically the 40 man roster functions as a pool of 15 guys the major league team can call up to the majors for injury or if someone is struggling. The idea behind it is you don't want one team to hoard all the good players. So by limiting it to 40 people you force teams to make choices on players. You'll often hear talk of DFA(designate for assignment) which basically means removing a player from the 40 man roster. You're usually talking about veteran players here. Some times they will clear waivers(a system where any team can claim a DFA'd player) and return to AAA for a team. Other times they will opt out and become free agents.

I'm going off on tangents here but I'll try to bring it back in here. In terms of the DL, the 15 DL doesn't remove a player from the 40 man roster. It just frees a spot on the 25 man roster allowing you to bring someone else up from the 40 man roster. If you put someone on the 60 day DL that removes them from 40 man roster. The idea here being this is a significant injury that will take several months.

With regard to the minor leagues, there are a myriad of leagues. AAA is the highest minor league level. However it is a bit weird because not every team uses it for the best prospects. You will often see teams bring especially talented players straight up from AA to the majors like the cubs did with Schwarber. That being said the cubs generally haven't been one of those teams. AAA often times tends to be a depth system where teams pull guys up. You will often have career minor league players who just aren't good enough to make the majors. That's one reason some teams don't value AAA much for prospect development because while you end up having guys who have a lot of experience they don't always have the best physical skills. AA is the next highest minor league level. As I mentioned before you can often have some of the more talented players in the game in AA. It tends to be one of the biggest steps up in minor league progression. A+ or advanced A is the next best level. A is after that. You then have low A. These leagues can differ despite having similar monikers. I'm pretty sure low A is a shorter league. I believe everything from A through AAA are full season leagues(eg start in april). I believe AA and AAA have longer season(10-15 more games) however. In terms of A and A+, there's not a vast difference but I believe the existence of the two is because the fact they are the lowest level full season leagues and you need some distinction between leagues with so many players. For example, the cubs have one of their top prospects Gleyber Torres in A. He is 18 and was one of the big international signings 2 years ago. He's good enough they want him to play every day but he(at least to start the season) might be over matched by some of the 19-20 year olds who might be in A+.

After you get to A- things are a bit more strange. A- is more of a summer league(starting right around now) and is usually for more advanced college players. You also have rookie league. This will be where high school players who are drafted go and sometimes less developed college players. You also have the Dominican and Venezuelan summer leagues. Those are generally viewed as lessor leagues than rookie league. Often times with the VSL/DSL you will have young international FAs signed at 16 and 17 start in those there and "graduate" to an extent to rookie league around when they turn 18 or 19.

You also have fall leagues. The AFL is the highest profile league. It's akin to AA where you'll often send high quality prospects go to in order to get more reps. I believe there are several other latin fall/winter leagues. I know there's a Dominican winter league. I believe puerto rico also has one. Alcantara played in the DWL last year and I think Baez played in a puerto rician winter league. Might be some others.

By in large those leagues are feeder systems. Given you're from england you're probably more familiar with soccer/football. I don't have a great deal of knowledge about the lesser leagues there but you can probably draw some similarities to the young soccer leagues. However, I believe those leagues aren't quite the same because with baseball essentially the cubs own the rights to all of their players and they are in essence renting him to these lower level leagues to be developed. I might be mistaken but I believe in soccer those leagues exist on their own and the higher level clubs buy players who become good rather than say Man U owning a guy and having the lower level leagues develop him.

If you have any other questions about this book of text I just wrote feel free to ask

 

[TL1961]

Excellent, beck!