Our Minor League team stats compared to their competition

by tharr on May 24, 2011 12:29 AM CDT

With the trip to Boston and the play of this year's team, again the organization's philosophy has been questioned. Despite the emergence of Castro and Barney, many people question the infrequency of taking walks. In the past we've seen the majority of focus being placed on our prospect pitchers. While we've seen a belief that Patterson and Pie were All Stars in the making, neither achieved antwhere near the hope we were told was almost inevitable. And with the hiring of Wilkens, our drafts have changed from signing big pitchers to going after position players with up the middles skills. However, most of those guys seem to have poor inclinations to take walks and work counts. So, at this moment, we have a major league roster that is last in taking walks and first in allowing walks. Is this an unfortunate abberation of a result of a system that has little respect and/or ability to recognize the value of getting on base via the base on balls.

Rather than look at any specific player, I thought it might be revealing to look at the minor league team and see how they compare to other teams in their league in certain areas that indicate important skills. The numbers shown are our team's rank in a particular area. Here are the number of teams in each league in our system. Iowa AAA 16 teams, Tennessee 10 teams, Daytona 12 teams and Peoria 16 teams.

Lets start with pitching.WHIP ranking always seemed to me the most statistical number to value a pitcher's true worth. Ks indicates power arms. BBs allowed signify pitchers too often behind in the count and unable to go deep into the game. ERA is an appropriate common indicator. Runs allowed is the ultimate indicator which judges a team's pitching success in the end.

Iowa

WHIP #15 1.78 K #8 7.3/gm BB #14 4.3/gm ERA #15 7.08 Runs #15 7.3/gm

Tenn

WHIP #9 1.51 K #7 6.7/gm BB #10 4.1/gm ERA #4 4.00 Runs #5 4.5/gm

Daytona

WHIP #2 1.24 K #1 8.0/gm BB #6 3.4/gm ERA #1 2.86 Runs #2 3.6/gm

Peoria

WHIP #4 1.21 K #16 6.5/gm BB #8 3.2/gm ERA #2 3.01 Runs #3 3.6/gm

On to hitting and the numbers. First is the obligatory OPS. Then OBP, BB most to fewest, K most to fewest, HR, SB amd finally runs scored.

Iowa

OPS #7 .811 OBP #9 .353 BB #15 3.2/g K #1 7.8/g HR #9 .94/g SB #15 .50/g R #7 5.7/g

Tenn

OPS #1 .857 OBP #1 .366 BB #7 3.2/g K #9 6.0/g HR #1 1.2/g SB #5 .76/6 R #1 6.2/g

Daytona

OPS #1 .769 OBP #3 .343 BB #8 3.2/g K #8 7.3/g HR #1 .89/g SB #3 1.0/g R #1 5.5/g

Peoria

OPS #6 .697 OBP #5 .329 BB #15 2.8/g K #16 6.0/g HR #9 .50/g SB #11 .77/g R #4 4.7/g

Obviously our best perforing teams are Tenn and Daytona, as evidenced by their outstanding records. However, all teams are still allowing more BB than they are taking. And it seems like our AA and A+ teams have some decnt speed for once. Other than Iowa, we're outscoring our opponents by over 1 run per game. And, other than Daytona, our squads aren't loaded with high strikeout pitchers. Iowa is a mess, particularly their pitching staff. As an organization none of our teams are in the upper half of the leagus in BB taken and all of their staffs are among the worst in walking opponents.

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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Comments

Guess you said it all

No comments after 11 hours. So you get a rec!

No one should be untouchable on this roster unless his name is Eliot Ness...or Starlin Castro.

by cubzfan on May 24, 2011 12:03 PM CDT reply actions

Thus I am reduced to pity recs

Thanks Dave. lol

If a quality pitching start is 3 runs and 6 innings, then a quality hitting day is 1 for 4.

by tharr on May 25, 2011 6:39 PM CDT up reply actions

Also rec'd.

Iowa’s pitching is terrible. I can’t believe there’s a promotion in order for anyone right now unless things get really desperate, which they won’t.

by SenorGato on May 25, 2011 3:32 PM CDT reply actions

Great Analysis

I understand I can always go look it up, but would have been helpful to know how many teams are in each league.

Outside of the complete catastrophe that is the AAA team, the lack of walks taken is easily the biggest concern for me. The Cubs organization simply don’t stress patience at the plate, and while that can work well in the minors, it gets exposed at the MLB level. 2nd most concerning, even though the stats outside of WHIP aren’t awful, is the AA staff. So while there is no help at the moment at AAA, there is not much on the way from AA either. Maybe that’s just a tough hitting league.

by mmontice on May 25, 2011 5:51 PM CDT reply actions

Ignore my # of teams comment

Missed it like a dumba$$

by mmontice on May 25, 2011 5:51 PM CDT reply actions

I wish I had something to say

But I really don’t. It’s hard to judge minor league teams as a whole because you’ve got some guys who just are never going to make the majors and those numbers are factored in here.

The numbers are interesting. I don’t know what they mean. I appreciate you doing this.

by Josh Timmers on May 26, 2011 2:49 PM CDT reply actions

My point was to look at an overall philosophy

in our system. And while we have guys there who won’t be ML’ers, that’s the case with all systems. The fact that all our teams have poor BB numbers seems to say to me that it isn’t a high priority for the Cubs. That was what I was trying to determine insofar as the criticism that has been leveled.

Additionally, if we drill down to look at individual pitchers in the system, Whitenack is the only starter at AAA or AA with a Whip under 1.40 and BB/9 under 4.5. Beliveau is the only reliever. That scares me.

If a quality pitching start is 3 runs and 6 innings, then a quality hitting day is 1 for 4.

by tharr on May 26, 2011 5:41 PM CDT up reply actions