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 2: HyperJackson has a .235/.316/.324 line over 34 PA. His K% is 28.9%, which is better than it has been (but not so much that you can't attribute it to SSS). He had a 33.8% last year in AAA.
Logan Watkins has been impressive so far, with a .242/.390/.424 line over 41 PA. He's had more strikeouts (12) than I'd like; his rate is actually higher than Jackson's (29.2%).
Josh Vitters has had a single PA, and he went 0-1. He isn't starting today but should start playing more soon.
Nick Struck has been unimpressive in a pair of starts this season; however, his peripherals have been decent. 9 IP, 13 H, 6 ER, 1 BB, 4 SO, 0 HR, a 3.31 FIP on the year.
AA
Arismendy Alcantara had a rough, rough week. His line stands at .242/.306/.364, with a HR and 2 SB in 36 PA.
Christian Villanueva had a worse week than Alcantara did. His line over 31 PA is now just .233/.258/.300; a pair of doubles are his only extra-base hits this year.
That's two more extra base hits than Matt Szczur has. He owns a .294/.368/.294 line over 38 plate appearances, and that's just not going to cut it. You've got to show more power than Darwin Barney to play in the major leagues. Szczur has a career ISO in the .120 range, so hopefully he can rebound a little bit. It's still early.
Kyle Hendricks only had one start, and it was bad. 5.0 IP, 8 H, 5 ER, 1 HR, 2 BB, 5 SO.
Tony Zych has seen relief action in 3 games and is yet to surrender a run (though he's admitted his fair share of baserunners). 3.2 IP, 5 H, 2 BB, 2 SO.
A+
Javier Baez has looked, quite frankly, like dogshit so far. Over 38 PA, he's batting .147/.211/.324, with a 2/12 BB/SO ratio. He does have a HR, 3B, and 2B as part of his 5 hits, so he's probably pressing a lot. .534 OPS isn't what you expect from your "top prospect."
Jorge Soler has been the shit and then some. Before his 5-game suspension, Soler had a .435/.519/.739 line in 27 PA. Yeah, that's a 1.258 OPS. He has walked as many times as he has struck out (4). He's a good candidate to be called up aggresively: he's 21 which is a great age for AA and it's not like Johermyn Chavez is blocking him.
Stephen Bruno has swung the bat really well also. He's got a .355/.429/.484 line over 35 PA and has played 2B exclusively. I imagine that's where the Cubs envision him in the future: he hasn't drawn a rep at 3B or SS this year and I've expected at least partial time at third.
I'm adding Zeke DeVoss into the prospect watch for now; he's kind of earned it. He was an ascending prospect heading into the 2012 season, but a line of .249/.382/.370 kind of tempered expectations. He's been promoted to Daytona this year and has taken to the league pretty well, with a .250/.415/.531 line over 42 plate appearances (which leads the team). He profiles as a 2B/OF; 2B is his natural position but he's been pushed off of it by Bruno. He's made all 7 of his starts this season at CF, a position he plays serviceably. He also has shown plate discipline at every level so far, carrying a ~15% walk rate and a ~18% strikeout rate through the minors.
Ben Wells had a poor start this week, bringing his line to 6 R (5 earned) over 8 IP, with 14 H, 4 BB, 4 SO, and a HR. His peripherals are bad, but he's also had a .433 BABIP against.
Starlin Peralta has already given up 4 HR. That's not very good. In his 10.1 IP, those 4 HR account for 33% of his non-outs, but he has flashed 12 SO to go against 3 BB.
A
Pierce Johnson settled down after a horrific first start to end up with this line: 7.1 IP, 12 H, 7 ER, 3 BB, 8 SO. That's a 2.045 WHIP right there. It's still really early to read into any pitcher's line, of course.
Gioskar Amaya has been very anemic at the plate. He's a member of the no-walk club at .233/.226/.333 over 31 PA.
Jeimer Candelario has been similarly awful, with a .226/.314/.258 slash. At least he has 4 BB to 4 SO.
Marco Hernandez loves repeating numbers, because he has a .111/.111/.111 line. He's been terrible so far, even in the field. His star is fading fast in my opinion.
Daniel Vogelbach hasn't shown any power or patience, flashing a .313/.314/.344 line. His only extra base hit is a double, and he was only 1 walk to go with 4 strikeouts.
Performance of the Week
I'm going with Eric Jokisch (yoke – ish) for this one. He had 2 starts this week, and he pitched really well in each of them. Both times he went 6 IP, and over the 2 starts he allowed 7 hits, a homerun, and 3 walks to go with 10 strikeouts and 2 earned runs. What concerns me about Eric is that his stuff profiles similarly to Chris Rusin and Brooks Raley; he doesn't blow you away with stuff and has to pitch more-or-less to contact to get outs. If that will work in the high-minors or majors is anybody's guess.
Prospect Performance of the Week
I'm going with the crazed batsman, Jorge Soler. It's pretty easy to choose a guy who was 7-14 with 4 walks and 2 HR this week.
Comments
Nice post!
Speaking of BJax and Watkins:
http://www.milb.com/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2013_04_13_albaaa_iowaaa_1&mode=gameday
/swoon
Rice CubeQuote Reply
I know, I’m watching it now 🙂
MylesQuote Reply
Hey, smart people!
Does Petco now have a much better batter environment since they moved the fences in? Rosario and Cuddyer haven’t had any problem hitting no-doubt homers. I don’t think SD has any dry air/thin air problems that AZ and CO have so those must have just been really shitty pitches.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
I really hope this is a joke.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Watching MiLB.tv right now, not the greatest cameras I’ve ever seen.
MylesQuote Reply
@ Rizzo the Rat:
Pretty sure that is a joke site, yes
joshQuote Reply
@ josh:
The Twitter account is a joke, but it copies posts verbatim from the Cubs Facebook page.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
@ Rice Cube:
Now the Padres are homer-happy.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
His batting average is higher than OBP. How is this possible?
Sample sizeQuote Reply
@ Sample size:
Sac flies count against OBP but not BA.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
My oldest son, who doesn’t follow baseball, after listening to Brennaman and McCarver for 20 seconds: “These guys are morons”.
Suburban kidQuote Reply
No you don’t. Case in point: Darwin Barney. Cubs MVP
(dying laughing)
SVBQuote Reply
@ SVB:
Powerless major leaguers here, because I got curious after snarking above. And a hilarious spray chart. (Not Darwin Barney)
SVBQuote Reply
New Shit
MylesQuote Reply
@ SVB:
I can’t believe this guy is batting first for the Philllies.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Suburban kid wrote:
Did your oldest son give up baseball when the Dodgers moved west?
GBTSQuote Reply