Journeymen of Tomorrow: Week 1 Prospect Watch

In Minor Leagues by myles41 Comments

Each Saturday, I'm going to summarize the weekly performance top prospects at each level. Hopefully, this will give more of a snapshot of how our future Cubs are doing.

AAA

Brett Jackson's new swing hasn't exactly set the world on fire yet. In 10 PA, Jackson has a line of .111/.200/.111 with a HBP and 4 SO. It's still really, really early, but that's the opposite of good.

Logan Watkins also has 10 PA, but he's made the most of them (.500/.600/.750, 1 3B). You've got to wonder at some point sooner than later if Watkins isn't just a straight-up improvement over Alberto Gonzalez or Brent Lillibridge. The Cubs won't start the clock unless they have to, but hopefully Logan forces the issue and gets to Chicago at some point this year.

Josh Vitters is injured and hasn't played yet.

Nick Struck didn't pitch this week, but he did inexplicably pinch-hit. That's so Cubs.

AA

Arismendy Alcantara had an awesome week, with a HR and a walk bringing his line to .374/.444/.750 in 9 PA. I've made no secret of it, I love this guy.

Christian Villanueva had a routine week, with a .333/.333/.444 line.

Matt Szczur had a good one, drawing a walk and not striking out to provide a .500/.556/.500 over 9 PA. He drew a start at CF and LF this week, and it'll be interesting to see how he splits starts with Jae-Hoon Ha.

Kyle Hendricks hasn't pitched yet.

Tony Zych had a single inning, stranding the bases loaded with 2 hits, a walk, and a strikeout.

A+

Javier Baez has had a rough week. He did have a HR, but he struck out 4 times and a SF en route to a .250/.222/.750 line. I couldn't care less about anything in Baez' line save two things: strikeouts and walks. I know the bat speed and power is there, so I'm focusing on Baez' one huge issue.

Jorge Soler had a .333/.333/.333 line with a CS.

Stephen Bruno had a start at 2B and DH. He went .167/.375/.333, but he drew 2 walks so that's A OK.

dmick89 is going to have a more extensive piece on Ben Wells today. I'll just say that he had a start where he went 4.0 IP with 7 H, 2 R and 2 ER. He punched 4 but hit another 2, so he was all over the place.

Starlin Peralta also hit a guy, but escaped unscathed in 4.1 IP of work. He walked 3, gave up a single hit, and struck out 5.

A

Pierce "Prince Albert" Johnson got rocked in his first start of the year. He retired 7 batters, but he didn't retire 8. That's a 2.1 IP, 6 H, 1BB, 1 HBP performance. He did strike out 4; however, he faced 15 batters so it's ultimately less impressive.

ASIDE: this is another reason why K/9 isn't a great stat. You can strikeout 12 per 9, but if you face 46 batters per 9, you're still really bad.

Gioskar Amaya only played 1 game. He went 0-4 with 2 K.

Jeimer Candelario already has an error at 3B. He drew a walk and struck out twice for .286/.375/.286.

Marco Hernandez only has 7 PA with 1 hit. He struck out once.

Daniel Vogelbach went 2 for 8 with 2 strikeouts and no walks.

Performance of the Week

Brad Nelson tore the cover off the ball. .333/.556/1.333 with 2 HR and 3 BB. When you are 30 and in AAA, you should expect that.

Prospect Performance of the Week

Arismendy Alcantara: .374/.444/.750, with a stolen base and a home run.

Share this Post

Comments

  1. Berselius

    He’s someone who played real good, underrated defense (last season). If you look observationally or by the numbers, he was one of the best handful of third basemen in the game, so that adds value. Obviously his offense, though he had his moments, it wasn’t really a consistent season.

    Epstein on Valbuena. That’s up there with Sveum’s quote about Feldman (dying laughing)

      Quote  Reply

    0

    0
  3. josh

    Berselius wrote:

    He’s someone who played real good, underrated defense (last season). If you look observationally or by the numbers, he was one of the best handful of third basemen in the game, so that adds value. Obviously his offense, though he had his moments, it wasn’t really a consistent season.

    Epstein on Valbuena. That’s up there with Sveum’s quote about Feldman (dying laughing)

    So is he saying among shitty 3Bers, Valbuena was the least shitty?

      Quote  Reply

    0

    0
  8. Author
    Myles

    I need the steady income that OV provides, and my paperwork got lost apparently so I’m trying to raise the capital to buy Leah back from dmick.

      Quote  Reply

    0

    0
  40. dmick89

    I got through 4 games before I had to take a break. Haven’t seen any of the last 2 games. Wish I’d seen the first 4 innings of F7, but other than that I’m kinda glad I haven’t watched.

      Quote  Reply

    0

    0

Leave a Comment