Az Fall League Cubs

by WayneCampbell08 on Nov 5, 2009 7:57 PM CST Comment 9 comments

Well, I went the first of at least a half dozen games I'll be watching here until next Monday. Luckily, I got to see virtually the entire Cubs' contingent today. Unluckily, the only Cub who didn't play was Josh Vitters, the guy I wanted to scout the most. Maybe tomorrow, so here's what happened today :

Starlin Castro - hit a couple of sharp singles through the infield, drove in a run with a sac fly and made a great play on a bad hop ground ball in the ninth inning and showed a strong arm to throw out Truinfel. On the bad side, he chased a couple pitches outside the zone preventing him from taking a walk in his third AB and striking out in his last.

Andrew Cashner - had another excellent outing today. Pitched ahead in the count to almost every batter, no walks and 4 Ks in the same number of innings. 49 pitches of which 35 were strikes shows the dominance of a #1. The scout I talked to had him at 93-96 for the game. The majority of the hits were of the seeing eye grounder variety. Only Brent Morel squared up a fastball and laced a line drive to left.

James Russell, Jon Gaub & Blake Parker all came in and pitched an inning each after Cashner left. Only Parker gave up a run and that was due solely to the CF losing a ball in the sun and letting a fly ball drop 5 feet away at the warning track. Nothing there to get really excited about really.

The player of the game had to be PJ Phillips of the Angels. He crushed a homer and a double and made a diving catch in center field. Tosoni had the hardest hit ball though. He obliterated a fastball about 440 to straightaway center field that nailed that 50' tall batters eye for a double. It hit at least 15' above the rest of the fence.

That's about it. The Solar Sox play in Surprise tomorrow and I'll make the hour long drive to try to catch Vitters in action. Fortunately, he made the All-Star game Saturday so there's a good chance I'll catch him then as well. Though the player I'm dieing to see then is Strasburg. I'll just keep replying to this post instead of making new ones every day.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of SB Nation or Al Yellon, managing editor (unless it's a FanPost posted by Al). FanPost opinions are valued expressions of opinion by passionate and knowledgeable baseball fans.

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Thanks for the update.

Post pics if you take any.

"You can observe a lot just by watching." ~ Yogi Berra

by Al on Nov 5, 2009 9:48 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Hmm

Didn’t even think to take any. I guess I could take some with my iphone and upload them though …

I reject your reality and substitute my own.

by WayneCampbell08 on Nov 5, 2009 11:23 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Sure, if you can, that'd be great.

"You can observe a lot just by watching." ~ Yogi Berra

by Al on Nov 6, 2009 7:44 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Thanks for the on-the-scene scouting report.

Always good to read.

Catch my act on Twitter as @dat_cubfan_dave.

by dat cubfan daver on Nov 6, 2009 9:50 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

Day Two

Well, I just read the news that Vitters is hurt so it looks like I won’t be scouting Josh after all. :( That makes me a sad panda. Anyways, the only Cub on display today was Starlin Castro. As suggested by Al, I took a bunch of pics of SC with my phone. I haven’t uploaded them to my computer yet and I have no idea how big the files are but I’ll try to get on that tonight. But first Starlin’s day at the plate.

It was tough getting pics of his first 4 at bats since they were only 1 pitch, 2 pitches, 1 pitch and 2 pitches long. I was still walking around the stadium at Surprise when he laced a solid single to center on the first pitch. Then I tried getting a shot of him at first but a ball got away from the catcher and by the time the shutter clicked, he was gone. :) In the second, he got a hit to left on the second pitch. And that’s that for his hits for the day. His best out of the day came in the fifth where he hit a deep fly ball to straightaway CL that the center fielder caught at the wall. Finally, in his fifth AB, he worked the count full before striking out looking. He saw the same number of pitches in that at bat as he had in the 4 previous ABs. DOH! Finally, he got one more chance in the ninth but grounded out on a 2-1 count.

So that’s it pretty much. It’s been a long day and I think I need a nap. Is 41 too young to move down here?? :) Mahalo

Matt

I reject your reality and substitute my own.

by WayneCampbell08 on Nov 6, 2009 8:10 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

BTW

I’m thinking of skipping the All-Star game tomorrow since Strasburg and Vitters aren’t playing in it anymore. It’s a long trip to Surprise from PHX and I have a full day of fantasy baseball discussion groups in the morning & afternoon so I might need a break from my vacation. ;)

I reject your reality and substitute my own.

by WayneCampbell08 on Nov 6, 2009 8:13 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Fantasy baseball discussion groups?

In November?

"You can observe a lot just by watching." ~ Yogi Berra

by Al on Nov 6, 2009 9:21 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Yeah

It’s the First Pitch forums from Baseball HQ. They’ve been doing them for over a dozen years now. This was my 7th year coming down here and doing that.

I reject your reality and substitute my own.

by WayneCampbell08 on Nov 10, 2009 12:13 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Final Report

Well, I have a flight back to Chicago in a couple of hours so I won’t be seeing anymore games until Spring Training at the earliest which makes a little sad. I saw the Mesa/Scottsdale game yesterday and once again, the only Cub playing was Starlin Castro. He made a couple of routine plays at 2B, nothing new to report there. At the plate, he probably had his worst performance since I got down here last week. Only one single and lots of low pitch count ABs. He did steal second base and had a nice slide to avoid the tag. The hit was solidlly hit up the middle. He did look bad on the strikeout swinging at strike 3 that was well out of the zone.

Overall, I came away impressed with Castro. The only thing really missing is power but he has the body type to add on lots of muscle and power is typically the last tool to develop anyways. You can see why the scouts are so high on his future. I was also impressed with Cashner. He has the potential of a #1 with a little more fastball command and a better changeup. Well, I’ve put off packing up long enough so I’m out of here. See you guys back in Chicago. Mahalo

I reject your reality and substitute my own.

by WayneCampbell08 on Nov 10, 2009 12:21 PM CST reply actions 0 recs