Official Minor League News Thread

[The Sheik]

Perhaps the biggest surprise to come out of the Cub farm system this season is Hung-Wen Chen and tonight, he pitched the D-Cubs into the FSL Championship series. Chen threw six shutout innings, allowing only three hits. He actually had a perfect game going through four innings. Chen showed his typical great control, as he didn't walk a batter either. Chen struck out three.

http://www.bleedcubbieblue.com/2008/9/5 ... p-septembe

Both the D and I Cubs win last night. The D-Cubs advance to FSL championship series.

[GYBE]

Good stuff Sheik. Thanks for the updates.

[SportsWorld]

http://blogs.dailyherald.com/node/515

Watch for the Cubs to announce later today that they've recalled center fielder Felix Pie and purchased the contract of pitcher Randy Wells from Iowa. They'll both be here for tonight's game. It looks like the Cubs will place pitcher Jon Lieber on the 60-day DL to make room for Wells on the 40-man roster.

Wells went to the Blue Jays in last December's Rule 5 draft and was returned to the Cubs early this season. He was named Iowa's pitcher of the year.

[The Sheik]

D Cubs end of the year report:

Blake Lalli(25)
BA OBP SLG HR RBI BB K
.343 .386 .519 7 39 19 34

Ty Wright(23)
BA OBP SLG HR RBI BB K
.300 .370 .411 8 72 41 71

Russ Canzler(22)
BA OBP SLG HR RBI BB K
.273 .327 .463 12 59 27 70

Tony Thomas(22)
BA OBP SLG HR RBI BB K
.266 .320 .400 7 43 34 113

Steve Clevenger(22)
BA OBP SLG HR RBI BB K
.313 .393 .405 2 39 39 41


Jay Jackson (21)
W L ERA K BB WHIP
2 0 1.59 21 7 1.06

Brian Schlitter (23)
W L ERA K BB WHIP
4 4 2.21 67 24 1.26

Jeremy Papelbon(25)
W L ERA K BB WHIP
2 1 2.57 51 25 1.21

Marco Carrillo(21, ended the season in AA)
W L ERA K BB WHIP
7 6 2.88 71 33 0.99

Todd Blackford(23)
W L ERA K BB WHIP
7 1 2.40 31 19 1.31

[The Sheik]

D Cubs win Florida State League 2008 championship. First Round pick Andrew Cashner got the win in 2.2 innings of shutout relief.

Tony Thomas was nuts in the playoffs, hopefully he was the MVP.

BA HR RBI BB K
.483 1 8 3 4

Andrew Cashner

6 ip 1 win 0.00 ERA 11 K 3 BB

Both Jay Jackson and Hung-Wen Chen pitched shutouts in their playoff outings, striking out 5 and 3 while yielding no walks and giving up 4 and 3 hits respectively.

[SportsWorld]

Nice a Cubs team that knows how to win.

[The Sheik]

Organizational overview:

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd ... p&c_id=chc

[Posey H8er]

Baseball Prospectus's top Cubs players in the system:

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/artic ... cleid=8296

It's interesting that Hak-Ju Lee is on the list since he was just recently signed out of Korea.

[Posey H8er]

Cubs 2009 Minor League Managers And Staff Announced

Code: Select all

AFFILIATE             MANAGER            PITCHING COACH     HITTING COACH     ATHLETIC TRAINER
Iowa (AAA)            Bobby Dickerson    Mike Mason         Von Joshua        Matt Johnson
Tennessee (AA)        Ryne Sandberg      Dennis Lewallyn    Tom Beyers        Nick Frangella
Daytona (A)           Buddy Bailey       Tom Pratt          Richie Zisk       Bob Grimes
Peoria (A)            Marty Pevey        Rich Bombard       Barbaro Garbey    Kelly Vanhove
Boise (Short A)       Casey Kopitzke     David Rosario      Desi Wilson       Dan Golden
Mesa (Rookie)         Juan Cabreja       Rick Tronerud      Ricardo Medina    Steve Melendez
Dominican-1 (Rookie)  Alberto Garcia     Leo Hernandez      Ramon Caraballo   Robert Jimenez
Dominican-2 (Rookie)  Franklin Blanco    Anderson Tavares   Leo Perez         Amaury Gonzalez

So Sandberg has been promoted... I still have a dream that he could manage the Cubs once Lou's contract ends. Even though I could see a Dennis Savard comparison.

[GYBE]

I'd like to see Sandberg have success managing another MLB team before considering him for the Cubs. Something like this as a career path:

- Promoted to Cubs bench staff in two years
- Succeeds there and is hired to manage a smaller profile team (Pittsburgh, KC, etc)
- If he does well, offer him the Cubs job whenever it comes open

I just don't like the idea of ever giving the Cubs to a first-time manager. Last time out we got a World Series champion and one of the best managers of all time, and since then the franchise has only gotten more visible and more competitive. We should be able to get any manager we want, I'd go after someone more established until Sandberg has some success on his own.

[The Sheik]

I found this funny. On another board they were talking about Cubs draft blunders:

In 2002, he took Bobby Brownlie, ahead of Matt Cain, Joe Blanton, and Jeff Francouer. In 2003, he took Ryan Harvey ahead of Carlos Quentin, Nick Markakis, John Danks, and Chad Billingsley. In 2005, he took Mark Pawelek ahead of Jacoby Ellsbury (who was taken three picks later.) These are all just the first round flub-up, Cub-ups. I can't wait until the 2006, 2007, and 2008 drafts start showing skipped talent.

[SportsWorld]

MLB.com's top 50 prospects list was released:
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/minorleagues/prospects/y2009/
Awful list.

[GYBE]

Wow. Anyone who thinks Alcides Escobar is a Top 10 prospect is high. Don't worry guys, he's not THAT good. And what is Samardzija doing there when everyone knows Vitters is the Cubs best prospect?

[The Sheik]

I was sure you were going to post something about Weiters.

[SportsWorld]

I don't understand the list at all. On the bottom it says:

(Editor's note: To be eligible for the Top 50 list, players must have rookie eligibility. To qualify for rookie status, a player must not have exceeded 130 at-bats or 50 innings pitched in the Major Leagues, or accumulated more than 45 days on the active roster of a Major League club or clubs during the 25-player limit period, excluding time on the disabled list or in military service.)

But I'm pretty sure guys like Colby Rasmus and Matt Wieters haven't played a game in the major leagues yet. I can't believe Josh Vitters didn't make this list.

[Posey H8er]

I never understood why Samardzija was always considered a top Cubs prospect. He basically had his fastball and that was it.

Trevor Cahill should be higher on that list.

[The Sheik]

Here are my top 10 Cubs prospects:

1. Josh Vitters
2. Jeff Samardijza
3. Andrew Cashner
4. Jay Jackson
5. Ryan Flaherty
6. Welington Castillo
7. Hak-ju Lee
8. Jovan Rosa
9. Tyler Colvin
10. Jeff Stevens

[DanTown8587]

I agree with Price #1 and Weiters #2 but that is it. This is partly why I only trust BA for my prospect news.

[GYBE]

Good list Sheik. Here's mine:

1. Josh Vitters
2. Jeff Samardijza
3. Hak-Ju Lee
4. Andrew Cashner
5. Ryan Flaherty
6. Welington Castillo
7. Jay Jackson
8. Dae-Eun Rhee (even with TJ surgery)
9. Logan Watkins
10. Tyler Colvin

Stevens and Matt Cedra would be my next two guys. I'm a huge fan of Lee and Watkins.

[The Sheik]

Lee has some crazy potential as does Rhee, I went low on the potential guys though. The thing that makes our system "poor" is that we dont have a history of producing prospects that contribute and we have produced one all star position player in the last 10+ yrs. The other thing is the lack of a sexy pitching prospect(s) ala Phil Hughes or someone to that effect. I actually like our top 20 guys, but a lot of them are high upside potential guys and we all know its hard for them to pan out. We love drafting players with tools (see Colvin, Tyler and Pie, Felix) but for some reason they never pan out...it could be the Cubs fault as well.

I could easily see Flaherty playing second in Wrigley in a couple yrs, he has good pop...not great D. Cashner has a fire arm, but not great control (same with Shark). Castillo has the makings of a late bloomer much like Geo. Lee and Vitters have endless potential, but do we have the proper development to get them there. In this day and age of baseball you have to have a combo of development and Free Agents.

The one guy I would tell Cub fans to casually keep an eye on is Jay Jackson...this guy could be a gem.