Minor League Wrap - July 7

Great to see him missing a lot of bats.

Burke could really stand to go on a tear—he’s been very cold lately.

And I guess this is what it takes for Hoffpauir not to hit a double: a rainout.

I’d call it a good year but far from great. He has had some outstanding performances but overall the numbers are ok. Definitely an improvement from last year’s disaster though. 100 IP, 94 hits, 76 K’s 52 BB’s. Still way too many walks.

Sorry, but I don’t see how you can say Veal is having a great year. He has barely pitched an average of five innings per start, and in 100 innings, has only struck out 76 and walked 52. Plus, he’s given up 12 unearned runs. Maybe the defense is bad, but chances are he put a lot of those guys on base, so his ERA may not be a great indicator of his effectiveness. I would argue he’s pitching must like he did last season, just with a few more groundballs, fewer strikeouts, and a little better luck.

I think he still has a chance to be very good, and wish him the best. But there needs to be a lot of improvement before he’s ready to pitch in the majors (which is the goal for any prospect).

But he really needs to cut down on the walks. I have yet to see a performance where Veal has a dominate strikeout to walk ratio.

Veal has always had the stuff to dominate, but his mental makeup is the problem. He isn’t a blue-chip prospect, but he has the ceiling of one.

Sure there have been some disappointments, but I think there are a number of guys who have taken strides thus far this year. Micah Hoffpauir might not be the typical prospect, but his bat has been loud enough to get him to Wrigley this year. Eric Patterson still has prospect status and has been putting up solid numbers at AAA. Jose Ascanio has been solid. Jeff Samardzija hasn’t been good stats-wise, but let’s not ignore that he’s now at AAA and has held his own up there so far. Lower down, Welington Castillo has made himself a legit prospect and perhaps our backup catcher next year or the year after. Also at AA, Casey Lambert has quietly put up solid numbers, making himself a candidate for a lefty reliever sometime soon. Marquez Smith, Jovan Rosa, and lately Luis Bautista have been hitting very well down in A ball. Rebel Ridling has been raking at short season ball. There have also been other pitchers who have improved their status but have been mediocre as of late (e.g., James Russell, Dae-Eun Rhee, Alessandro Maestri).

Few of these guys entered the season as noteworthy prospects, but that doesn’t mean they can’t become solid major leaguers someday.

However, besides Vitters and Ceda—you have a couple of prospects that have had their stock rise within the last year.

Welington Castillo (AA) has turned into a legit prospect. He is only 21 years old and he is a true defensive stud at the very least. But this year his offense has caught up with his defense. Best case scenario he will be Geovany Soto’s backup in 2009. James Russell who’s also in AA .. started out great but lately Russell has hit a wall.

Also, like stated above, Marquez Smith and Jovan Rosa have had solid years. Guys that we recently drafted like Ryan Flaherty and Rebel Ridling have been good as advertised.

Jericho Jones makes a lot of sense to promote now. Boise has Kyler Burke and a few center fielders on their roster. Having Jones there to man LF make a lot of sense, given how he’s performing in Arizona.

Vitters could be promoted given either of two scenarios. One is that Marquez Smith is promoted to play 3B at Daytona, where Jonathan Mota has been playing since Josh Lansford’s promotion to Tennessee awhile back. Mota is not the offensive player to be more than a backup middle infielder, so it’s not like he’s blocking Smith there. It also makes a lot of sense to get Smith closer to his age level—he’s too old for the Midwest League, and it would be nice to see how he fares against older competition to know if he’s legit or not. I would vote for this scenario.

The other scenario for promoting Vitters to Peoria is that the Cubs decide to keep Jovan Rosa at 1B for the season (or forever) and try Marquez Smith at 2B for the rest of the year, a position at which he’s played more than a bit at Peoria so far this year. This would allow Vitters to man 3B and not take ABs away from anybody else (although he certainly takes precedence over either Rosa or Smith).

I also wonder if RF Nelson Perez gets promoted from Arizona to Boise this year. And if Vitters is promoted to Peoria, does Ryan Flaherty make the move to 3B that many expect, or does John Contreras get promoted from Arizona to take over?

Because they’ve all matriculated. Our team’s top prospect going into the season is now a non-prospect, because he’s now an All-Star catcher. Same with Marmol – he’s no longer a top prospect because he’s a top setup man. Sean Gallagher is with the major league team. Our top prospects have been used to upgrade the big-league club by filling spots on our 25-man roster. It’s going to take time for prospects to bubble up from the lower levels to fill those gaps.

Apparently Billy Beane felt differently than you did. What a difference 3 hours makes, huh?

I’m glad to hear you and your family are ok. I’ll do tonights if needed.

Glad you and your family are OK. BTW, did you hear the Cubs made a trade today? :)

The last time I left Chicago there was a huge car fire on the shoulder of I-57. Glad your family is safe, Josh, seems like you’ve had some really rotten luck in the last month or two! Here’s hoping it balances out, real quick.