JOT: Cubs Minor League Recap 5-9-13

In Commentary And Analysis, Minor Leagues, News And Rumors by dmick8910 Comments

Iowa Cubs 1 @ Colorado Springs Sky Sox 5

Drew Carpenter pitched 5 innings, struckout 6 and walked just 1. He allowed a home run, a total of 6 hits and 3 runs. Casey Coleman gave up 3 hits, walked 2 and struckout 2 in an inning of work. 2 runs scored. Zach Putnam pitched the final 2innings and allowed a hit and struck a batter out.

Pinch hitter Darnell McDonald hit a home run. Brett Jackson, Brad Nelson and Alberto Gonzalez had the only other I-Cubs hits on the night. Each had 2.

Birmingham Barons 9 @ Tennessee Smokies 7

Alberto Cabrera gave up 13 hits and walked 3 in 4.1 innings. I’m not even sure how that’s possible, but what is most impressive is that despite 18 baserunners (he also hit a batter), the Barons only scored 6 runs off of him. So maybe we should just talk about how his strand rate was about league average.

Kevin Rhoderick allowed a run on a hit and 2 walks in 3 innings. He struckout 2. Trey McNutt threw 1.2 innings, allowed a hit and 2 walks and 2 runs. He struckout 1.

Rafael Lopez was 1-4 with a home run and a walk. Tim Torres was 3-4 with a double and a strikeout. Jair Fernandez was 2-3 with a walk.

Arismendy Alcantara has really been struggling over the last couple of weeks. He was 1-4 with a strikeout. Over his last 10 he’s hit .182/.250/.242.

Dunedin Blue Jays 3 @ Daytona Cubs 4

PJ Francescon pitched 5 innings, allowed hits and 3 runs. He struckout 4 and walked none. He also gave up a home run.

Fracescon has made 7 starts this year and pitched a total of 35 innings. He’s struckout 31 and walked only 7. He has allowed 5 home runs, which is a bit troubling, but the K/BB rate is pretty good.

Jeffrey Lorick pitched a clean inning. Austin Reed walked 2 in an inning of work and Hunter Cervenka pitched 2 innings, allowed a hit and struck a batter out.

Zeke DeVoss is working on a demotion to Kane County. Although he has no problem at all getting on base (.375 OBP), his batting average is now down to .200. He’s slugging a Ryan Theriot-esque .324. Even over the last 10 days, he’s only hit .094, but his OBP is still .275. Far from acceptable, but even when he struggles the guy gets on base in other ways. He’s been one of my favorite prospects, but he needs some more balls to fall in for hits and needs to flash a little more power.

If Zeke DeVoss is working on a demotion to Kane County, Tim Saunders is working on a demotion back to Marietta College. He was 1-4 last night, but he struckout two more times. His strikeout rate is over 30% and his walk rate at about 7%. He has a total of 3 extra base hits on the season in just under 100 plate appearances. He’s batting only .188/.278/.247.

Javier Baez had a good night, going 2-4 with a double and a triple. He stole base and committed his 14th error of the season in just 31 games. John Andreoli and Dustin Geiger each added 2 hits, and so did Taiwan Easterling. Andreoli tripled. Jorge Soler doubled in 4 plate appearances.

Kane County Cougars @ Burlington Bees (postponed)

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  1. josh

    @ Rice in limbo:
    This is a situation where the proverbial umpire in the booth setup would be able to check that kind of a rule. Though one wonders why the umpires couldn’t have a tablet device in their pocket with the rule book that they could search.

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  2. Author
    dmick89

    @ josh:
    In this particular case, the umpire should have known the rule and it appears he did. He first said Porter couldn’t make the switch, but Porter used his Jedi powers to convince the umpire he could make the change.

    I agree there should be a booth with at least one person to quickly settle and correct wrong calls, but this one should never have happened.

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  3. Author
    dmick89

    Jake (Chicago): Do you think the Cubs will be able to go below slot for Appel or Gray?
    Jim Callis: Not too much. The Rockies at No. 3 likely would jump on one of those guys, so they aren’t going to have to take less than Colorado would offer. The Cubs really need pitching, so I don’t anticipate them trying to get cute.

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  4. Author
    dmick89

    Andrew (Chicago): With the Cubs dearth of starting pitching, who are a couple of 2nd round arms that they could target?
    Jim Callis: I’ll list several college candidates: Bobby Wahl (Mississippi), Ryan Eades (LSU), Aaron Blair (Marshall), Alex Balog (San Francisco), Alex Gonzalez (Oral Roberts), Andrew Thurman (UC Irvine), Tom Windle (Minnesota), Corey Knebel (Texas), Trey Masek (Texas Tech), Andrew Mitchell (TCU), Jason Hursh (Oklahoma State), Kevin Ziomek (Vandy). Some HS names: Devin Williams, Blake Taylor. They will have several attractive options.

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  5. josh

    @ dmick89:
    Agreed, but that little extra authority can keep an aggressive manager from getting his way. He may have been so convinced that he became convincing, like how people under interrogation will confess to crimes and sometimes even be convinced that they committed the crime because the authority insists they did. The rule arbiter above solves that problem.

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  6. Author
    dmick89

    Awhile back GW highlighted something that Keith Law had said about Mark Appel (he hadn’t been used as heavily as he was in 2012). It seemed like an odd statement to me at the time considering how much season there was left to play (NCAA regionals don’t begin until the very end of May).

    Appel has thrown 86.1 innings over 11 appearances (all starts). Assuming he’s the typical Friday pitcher for Stanford, he’ll pitch tonight and the next two Friday nights. He’ll have 3 more starts overall and finish the regular season with 14 GS.

    He’s averaged about 7.5 innings per start this season and assuming the same rate over these next few starts, he’ll finish the regular season with 109 IP. He threw 123 innings last year over 16 starts.

    Last season they played in the tournament and played their last game on June 10th. Stanford was a better baseball team last year and I’m not even sure they’ll make the tournament this year. They’re currently ranked in the 70s. 

    If Stanford does get into the regionals, it’s very likely that Appel will have pitched more innings this season than last. It’s probable that he will have faced slightly fewer batters this season because he’s been more effective, but not that much of a difference. It could even be argued that he pitched more effortlessly this season because he’s been so much more effectie.

    Seemed like a weird thing for Law to say at the time and based on these totals, it’s untrue. Maybe he meant something else and I just wasted your time, as well as mine.

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