April Minor League Assignments

by tim815 on Feb 12, 2010 9:21 AM CST

I am officially ready for some baseball news. In fact, I'm so desparate, I'm trying to guess which players will be assigned where. (Note: If you're interests don't involve who will be in Daytona, etc... this year, find something else to do.) Rather pointless, but there you go.

Some destinations are easy. Watkins and Lee in Peoria with Kirk (maybe), Rusin, Rhee, Hernandez, and Gonzalez every fifth day. Wagner in the outfield. Daytona with LeMahieu, Vitters, Brett Jsckson, Brenly, and a potential rotation similar to Peoria's late last season. Tennessee quite similar to last year with Guyer trying to get it right this time.

My question is, what will go on with out 8-ish middle infielders that belong in Daytona? DJLM, Flaherty, Rosa, Opitz, and Samson, should probably start there. Vitters is at third. Can we trade one of them for any value? Meaning Rosa, Opitz, or Samson? Or Junior Lake?

Any minor league questions or answers, fire away.

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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You generally don't trade

minor leaguers because there are too many of them to all play in High A ball. You rotate them in and out. or some of them play in Peoria and Tennessee.

Rosa’s not a middle infielder anyway. He’s a corner infielder and mostly a first baseman at that. Opitz played more third and first than second base last year as well. I’d imagine the two of them will split time at first and DH if Opitz doesn’t go to TN, which is a possibility as well.

Last year Castro started the season in Daytona because the Cubs wanted both him and Junior Lake to play everyday and they felt Castro was the better prospect and more able to handle the FSL. (Good call, Hendry and Fleita.—but don’t forget Lake is probably going to have to repeat Peoria this year too. So add him to your mix.)

I’d bet Watkins gets some CF time in Peoria this year—although they really like the way he and Lee have bonded, so he should stay at second base for at least a while.

Here’s what I’d do. I’d pick who the real top prospects are and put them where I want them and play them everyday. Then I’d move the others around to accommodate them. So from the guys you mentioned, Lee should be at SS in Peoria, Vitters at third in Daytona, Jackson at CF in Daytona. Flaherty and Watkins should be playing every day in Daytona and Peoria respectively, although not necessarily at the same position. Then I’d just start filling in the rest where they fit best and tell the manager to get everyone as much playing time as possible.

by Josh Timmers on Feb 12, 2010 12:09 PM CST reply actions

Rosa's going to get time behind the plate

He’ll split time at first, but I think they’ll see that experiment through.

Philosophically, most organizations do what you are proposing. There’s a reason a guy like Jericho Jones was thrown to the wolves – he wasn’t valued that highly in the organization and had to sink or swim.

by toonsterwu on Feb 12, 2010 5:19 PM CST up reply actions

I did a rough rotation guess awhile ago

I’ll try to dig that up at some point, although it’s probably still over at nsbb in some thread. How the rotation spots shake out in A+/A will be interesting.

I’d point you to AzPhil’s depth chart over at TCR for one person’s guess. I disagree with some things there, but I’m sure he’ll be right on some and I’ll be off on some.

Positionally, some things that I’m looking at, early in the process (keeping in mind that spring will make a difference)

C – Chirinos/Clevenger/Robinson/Castillo will be stacked at the top. How that breaks down will be mildly interesting. Castillo’s on the 40 man, but most indications are that someone like Chirinos could get the call-up if a backup catcher is needed.

3rd base at AA – Is it Vitters? There’s a couple ways that could play. One school of thought has been to shift Vitters to AA. I don’t like it, but that’s possible. The subsequent move would be to have Flaherty (probably) man 3rd at Daytona. The other scenario would be to keep Vitters at A+ and likely push someone up to AA (or they make some small minor league move in the next few weeks to add a stopgap piece). Flaherty would be a good guess there. I’m more amenable to that course of action.

I’ll add some other thoughts when I get a chance.

by toonsterwu on Feb 12, 2010 5:24 PM CST reply actions

A couple thoughts

I would think Clevenger would be the callup if Hill went on the 15-day DL, because his defense is fine, and it will give other teams a chance to see him.

Vitters needs to go where he’ll be challenged and have to stop swinging at everything. I think that’s AA.

Fontenot (fon-te-no): Cajun for "scrappy"

by cubzfan on Feb 16, 2010 7:38 AM CST up reply actions

Vitters' problem

isn’t that he swings at everything, because he doesn’t. He’s not hacking at stuff in the dirt. His problem is that he swings at the first hittable pitch and he puts it in play. He needs to learn to go deep in counts and trust that he can wait for a mistake. He’s got such an ability to put bat on ball that he shouldn’t worry if he’s got two strikes on him in the count.

by Josh Timmers on Feb 16, 2010 12:21 PM CST up reply actions

My (first) top 40 Cubs prospects to get (1000 ab) or (500 ip)

I left out Spencer, Gray, and others I haven’t followed. Be kind.

1. Castro
2. Vitters
3. B. Jackson
4. Lee
5. Carpenter
6. J. Jackson
7. Barney
8. Cashner
9. LeMahieu
10. Colvin
11. Watkins
12. Flaherty
13. Coleman
14. Castillo
15. Burke
16. Antigua
17. Gaub
18. Opitz
19. Beliveau
20. Archer
21. Kirk
22. Atkins
23. Rusin
24. Burruel
25. Y. Gonzalez
26. Dolis
27. Clevinger
28. Brenly
29. Lambert
30. Darvill
31. McDaniel
32. McNutt
33. O. Martinez
34. Thomas
35. Rhee
36. Raley
37. Bristow
38. Campana
39. T. Mitchell
40. Jung

by tim815 on Feb 14, 2010 12:27 PM CST reply actions

There's no right or wrong to these things

but off the top of my head, my reaction is that Rhee is way too low. Also Barney is too high, although if you value closeness to the majors, then maybe he’s only a little bit too high.

I think you’ve got Flaherty and Cashner too low too, but that’s really in the realm of opinion. I’m not very high on Jake Opitz, honestly. He’s not in my top 30.

by Josh Timmers on Feb 14, 2010 12:53 PM CST up reply actions