Official Minor League News Thread

[The Sheik]

The Cubs really need Cashner and Shark to develop because we need some help in the bullpen this season.

[GYBE]

I think the organization still wants to try Cashner as a starter. I'm sure he'll eventually end up in the pen, so I hope it doesn't hinder his development.

Lee is so far away that it's tough to make any judgments on him, but he's probably the only guy outside of Vitters with a chance to be a real star. Baseball Prospectus was really high on him this year:

Year in Review: Always busy in the Pacific Rim, the Cubs paid a seven-figure bonus to land Lee, who some feel is the best teenage position player to ever come out of Korea.

The Good: One international scout not with the Cubs insists that if Lee was American, he would have been a top 20 pick in the draft, and would rank only behind the first overall pick, Tim Beckham, among high school shortstops. He's a long, loose, and fluid athlete with a quick, direct swing and a body that projects for possibly average power down the road. He has plenty of defensive skills, beginning with good instincts and an above-average arm, and his plus-plus speed provides a great deal of range while also making him dangerous on the basepaths.

The Bad: Lee is still raw, especially on the offensive side, as he has very little exposure to pro-level pitching, especially breaking stuff. In many ways, we don't know what we don't know about him because of such limited evidence, and the holes in his game are yet to be discovered.

[The Sheik]

I think the organization still wants to try Cashner as a starter. I'm sure he'll eventually end up in the pen, so I hope it doesn't hinder his development.

And thats a lot of the problem with the Cubs System. Shark would be an average 4th to 5th starter, but has a chance to be special as a set up guy. Cashner is a 2 pitch guy with control issues. Trying him out at starter will make him a late bloomer or fail in the MLB. Look we gave up on Marmol being a starter and we all saw what happened. Its not like our bull pen is elite, we need all the help we can get.

The problem with most of our top 10 is that a lot of these guys are raw potential. There is no cant miss prospect. Hell who would have thought Marmol and Soto would be the 2 best prospects we have cranked out recently. By now everyone expected Pie in CF and the domination of Bobby Brownlie.

[GYBE]

Kevin Goldstein just released his Top 100 prospects list. Two Cubs made it.

34. Josh Vitters
85. Jeff Samardzija

[GYBE]

Baseball Prospectus ranks our farm system as the 26th in baseball right now. Only Detroit, Arizona, Washington and Houston are below us.

26. Chicago Cubs
Last Year's Ranking: 16
Why They Might Be Better Than This: Josh Vitters is one of the best pure hitters in the minors; 2008 top pick Andrew Cashner's post-draft struggles were a fluke and his stuff will play; Jeff Samardzija finally began figuring things out.
Why They Might Be Worse: Other than Vitters, there is really not a single hitter in this system that excites anyone; the weakness in terms of the organization's depth is the key reason that the long-rumored Jake Peavy deal never went down.
Outlook For 2010: Samardzija is the only player who is likely to lose his prospect status; there's no reason to see them moving up considerably.

[Posey H8er]

16 seems high for last year. Regardless, how did we move down 10 spots? Losing Pie?

[GYBE]

Lost Pie, lost Ceda, Soto graduated from prospect status, lost Gallagher, lost Donaldson. Those are probably the main reasons.

[WAYSA]

You gotta love the Colvin pick over Travis Snider.

There is absolutely no way Wilkins thought Colvin projected better..

[The Sheik]

Very Early Minor League report:

AAA:

Jeff Stevens has looked in relief. No ERs in 5.1 innings.
Shark has been average.
Ascaino hasnt given up a run in 2 starts.

Jake Fox is raking.

AA:

Casey Coleman is 2-0 with a 0.75 era in 2 starts
Hung-Wen Chen is the same with a 2.31 era
Jon Gaub (DeRo trade) has been very solid.

Jay Jackson has struggled early.

Tony Thomas is off to a hot start with the bat. .355 2 hr 8 rbi
Wellington Castillo is struggling

High A:

Marcos Mateo has looked good in relief
Dan McDaniel has a 0.79 era in 2 starts

Tyler Colvin sucks.

Low A:

Vitters (.423), Flaherty(.370) and Brenley(.455) have all been doing well.

Chris Archer (DeRo trade) has a 1.13 era in 2 starts.
Aaron Schafer has a 1.50 era in 2 starts with 2 wins.

Carpenter has been average.

Cashner hasnt made his debut yet. Nor has Rhee.

[The Sheik]

Jake Fox:

12 hr 31 rbi .420 BA 1.477 OPS

why does he have to suck at defense...

"Big" Names:

Tony Thomas .338 .964 OPS 4 hr 13 rbi
Jay Jackson 1-3 6.64 ERA (5 starts) 10 BB 16 K
Andrew Cashner 1.50 ERA (2 starts, 6 IP) 3 BB 4 K
Josh Vitters .313 .789 OPS 1 hr 7 rbi
Ryan Flaherty .255 .778 OPS 1 hr 5 rbi 9 BB 10 K
Chris Carpenter 1-1 2.25 ERA (4 starts) 11 BB 21 K
Aaron Schafer 3-1 3.68 ERA (4 starts) 5 BB 15 K

DeRo trade:

Jeff Stevens 0.00 ERA 10.1 innings (8 appearances) 6 BB 10 K
John Gaub 2.84 ERA 6.1 innings (6 appearances) 4 BB 10 K
Chris Archer 1-0 1.59 ERA (4 starts, 17 IP) 11 BB 16 K

[GYBE]

BP blurb on Chris Carpenter:

Chris Carpenter, RHP, Cubs (Low-A Peoria)
Sunday's Stats6 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 8 K
Coming out of Kent State in last year's draft, Carpenter had the power frame and power stuff to project as a first-round pick, but a checkered injury history that included a Tommy John surgery and a follow up a year later to clean out the joint concerned too many teams and dropped him to the third round. Still, he's been healthy for over two years now, and he's proving to be far too good for the Midwest League, now allowing only four hits over 17 scoreless innings in his last three starts. I didn't put him in my Cubs Top 11 Prospect list entering the year, and that was a mistake.

[GYBE]

Sleeper alert!
Dan McDaniel, RHP, Cubs (High-A Daytona)
Thursday's stats: 5.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 9 K
A 14th-round pick out of a California junior college, the Cubs gave McDaniel a $100,000 bonus to buy him away from a full ride to Oklahoma State, and it's looking like a very sound investment. Working on a changeup as the Cubs convert the big-bodied righty to starting, McDaniel has been flashing a low-90s fastball with excellent late life as well as a power curveball that has limited Florida State League hitters to a miserable .129 average.

Here comes the power?
Josh Vitters, 3B, Cubs (Low-A Peoria)
Wednesday's Stats3-for-5, 2B, HR (3), 2 R, 2 RBI
The third-overall pick in the 2007 draft, it's no real surprise to see Vitters hitting .333, as his bat speed, plate coverage and hand-eye coordination rank with nearly anyone in the minors. The questions revolved around the power potential. He makes hard contact to be sure, but it's more of a line drive swing without loft or backspin. With home runs in back-to-back games and a 10-for-24 mark with 18 total bases in his last six contests, those questions are beginning to get an answer.

From Kevin Goldstein.

[The Sheik]

What cracks me up about our bullpen issues is we are trying to change all these bullpen prospects into starters. Cashner, Shark, Ascanio, Jay Jackson, Hart etc. Just let them be good at what they're good at.

[GYBE]

Vitters update.

Josh Vitters, 3B, Cubs (Single-A Peoria)
It's not easy being the only premium prospect in the system, but with three hits each game on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, Vitters is hitting .407 in 16 games this year, and the power is beginning to show up in a major way, as the 2007 first-rounder hit his fourth home run of the year on Friday, and added a pair of doubles and his fifth homer on Sunday. Early on, scouts were calling Brett Lawrie the best young hitter in the Midwest League, but a few trips to Peoria have changed that assessment, and Vitters now holds the title. -Kevin Goldstein

He can really hit.

[ChronicKerr]

When are we going to bring him up? If Scales cools off you think he could replace Aramis already or does he need another year or two in the minors before he sniffs the big leagues?

[GYBE]

He's only in A ball right now, so he's still nowhere near ready. Remember he's only 19, he's got a longer path to the majors than a similiar hitter taken out of college. He'll probably be promoted to AA halfway through the year. He'll spend 2010 mastering AA/AAA and hopefully be ready for opening day of 2011.

[GYBE]

Vitters keeps on hitting.

Josh Vitters, 3B, Cubs (Low-A Peoria)
Monday's stats: 3-for-5, 2B, HR (6), 3 RBIs
It's like the best kind of broken record you can imagine if you are Vitters. On Saturday, he had three hits, including a home run; Sunday he had three hits, including a home run, and yesterday? You guessed it. Three hits, including a home run. Our data guru, William Burke crunched the number and found that the last time a big leaguer had three straight games with at least three hits and a home run was Rays third baseman Evan Longoria last June. However, it's more rare than you think, as only 14 occurrences of such a streak have occurred in the majors over the last 40 years. -Kevin Goldstein

[Posey H8er]

Vitters cannot go down the path of other failed Cubs prospects. So far he is producing at a high level which is good to see.

[GYBE]

Okay, this is getting insane.

Josh Vitters, 3B, Cubs (Low-A Peoria)
Tuesday's stats: 3-for-5, HR (7), 2 R, 2 RBI, SB
Yesterday I said that if Vitters keeps doing it, I'll keep talking about it, so I'm holding up my end of the bargain as the 2007 first-round pick recorded his fourth consecutive game of at least three hits and a home run, something that hasn't happened in the majors as far as our game log data is complete, which is the early 1950s. In case you missed it, the game before that was also a three-hit effort, only with no bomb. So that's now 15-for-22 with three doubles, four home runs, in his last five contests, raising his OPS more than 200 points with a batting line of .371/.408/.598.

Unstoppable.

[The Sheik]

Players of Interest:

AAA

Jake Fox -- .431 1.467 17 HR 50 RBI

Jeff Samardzjia (since return to minors) -- 3.75 ERA 10 K 2 BB

Jeff Stevens -- 2.04 ERA 14 K 11 BB (17.2 innings)

AA

Tony Thomas -- .344 1.047 8 HR 18 RBI 17 BB 31 K

Jay Jackson (last 4 starts) -- 1.04 ERA 8 BB 27 K 1.12 WHIP

Casey Lambert -- 1.91 ERA 10 BB 14 K 0.98 WHIP

High A

Starlin Castro -- .302 .728 2 HR 15 RBI 3 BB 15 K

Andrew Cashner -- 2.63 ERA 8 BB 14 K 1.54 WHIP

Low A

Josh Vitters -- .360 .970 7 HR 21 RBI 3 BB 20 K

Chris Carpenter -- 2.97 ERA 21 BB 40 K 1.19 WHIP

Chris Archer -- 1.80 ERA 18 BB 30 K 1.32 WHIP