Jackson/Flaherty Promoted

waldo7239117 · Jul 12, 2011

The Cubs reporteldy promoted top prospect OF Brett Jackson and U Ryan Flaherty from Double A to Triple A. Jackson's time on the North Side could be arriving. If an OF(s) are traded, look for Jackson to get the call. Byrd, Johnson and Kosuke have interest. With Soriano on the outside. Also, if Ramirez is traded...Flaherty for 3B? Could that be why they made the move in case. I don't know, just sayin'.

It's still nice to see them both getting the promotion, especially Jackson. Vitters most likely next with pitching prospects.

Thoughts?

poodski · Jul 12, 2011

Meh don't see the point in moving Jackson to AAA. He is probably better off in AA til the call up.

Oh well.

waldo7239117 · Jul 12, 2011

Maybe to tell the fans, we believe in Jackson and he's closer to the MLB than we may think.

poodski · Jul 12, 2011

I mean I get the whole AAA>AA to the fans, but I would rather him be facing the pitchers in AA who are probably as a whole better than the ones in AAA.

To me AA is a prospects league AAA is a "I'm old and not good enough to play in the bigs, but still holding on to my dream" league.

dabynsky · Jul 12, 2011

I agree with your assessment Poods of AAA vs. AA. However, I think given what Jackson really needs to work on (cutting down on strikeouts) might be better served facing more experienced pitchers who will exploit weaknesses in a swing. I guess I see AAA as being guys that are better at pitching as opposed to just throwing. Granted the stuff as a whole is probably better in AA, but Jackson was hittting pretty well against those guys.

waldo7239117 · Jul 12, 2011

You are totally right, Double A has better players. Triple A is for washed up players. At least this is what I believe.

poodski · Jul 12, 2011

dabynsky said:
I agree with your assessment Poods of AAA vs. AA. However, I think given what Jackson really needs to work on (cutting down on strikeouts) might be better served facing more experienced pitchers who will exploit weaknesses in a swing. I guess I see AAA as being guys that are better at pitching as opposed to just throwing. Granted the stuff as a whole is probably better in AA, but Jackson was hittting pretty well against those guys.

I can dig that, and I wouldn't mind seeing him cut it down a bit but if he can walk 13-15% of the time I can deal with a 25% strikeout rate.

dabynsky · Jul 12, 2011

poodski said:
I can dig that, and I wouldn't mind seeing him cut it down a bit but if he can walk 13-15% of the time I can deal with a 25% strikeout rate.

I don't think the strikeouts preclude him for being successful. I was just offering why I think going to AAA might be useful given that he is clearly hitting well and drawing walks at a decent clip against pitchers who on average have better stuff. The strikeouts though are a concern, and facing pitchers that both have better stuff and control than he has faced could lead to the strikeout rate rising even higher at the big league level.

AceCubbie · Jul 12, 2011

I suspect that the promotions were as much about opening up two spots in Tennessee as they were about "challenging" Jackson and Flaherty.

dabynsky · Jul 12, 2011

AceCubbie said:
I suspect that the promotions were as much about opening up two spots in Tennessee as they were about "challenging" Jackson and Flaherty.

While I don't disagree with that being at least part of the reason, if the main reason the Cubs are doing anything with their best prospect besides trying to improve his chances of success as a major leaguer than I would be very upset.

Flaherty is an interesting case because he has always been kind of on the old side at each level, but he hasn't ever repeated a level either. I like what they've done defensively with him playing all over the field. He could be quite useful in that Mark DeRosa type role. That is provided he can actually hit a little at the major league level.