Did The Cubs Win? OSS: Hammel outduels Tanaka, and Lou Goodvalue gives Masahiro fits. Three Up 1. Luis Valbuena doubled twice and singled once. On the season, he’s .261/.384/.434. Last year, he was .218/.331/.378 on a .233 BABIP, so we should have seen this coming. It’s insane to me that Valbuena isn’t considered a long-term solution at 2B or 3B; …
Journeymen of Tomorrow: The Story So Far (AAA and AA)
It’s been awhile since we’ve touched on the minor leagues this season. dmick has been busy. Seeing as I held the post of “minor league wonk” fairly recently, I thought I’d give a short synopsis of each team so far. Iowa Arismendy Alcantara has not been so great this year. His walk rate is down precipitously, so even though he …
Minor League Recap 4-10-14
Three of the Cubs four minor league games got underway this afternoon while Daytona played tonight. Iowa Cubs Matt Szczur was 2-4 with a strikeout and run scored. Arismendy Alcantara doubled and had 2 hits in 4 plate appearances. Javier Baez isn’t getting a lot of hits, but he hit his 2nd home run of the season and was 1-4 …
Minor League Recap: 4-9-14
Iowa Cubs Matt Szczur is off to a slow start with another 0-5 night and he struck out 3 times. Arismendy Alcantara was 1-3 with a walk and Javier Baez was 2-4 with a double and a strikeout. Josh Vitters hit his 2nd home run of the season and was 1-3 with a walk and a strikeout. Brett Jackson hit …
Cubs Minor League Recap: 4-8-14
Iowa Cubs The Iowa Cubs are off to as solid a start to their season as the parent club is. They pounded out 4 hits tonight. All screaming liners, I heard. They also struck out 14 times due to bad umpiring. Leadoff hitter and center fielder, Matt Szczur was 0-4 with a couple of strikeouts. Chris Valaika had one of …
Minor League Recap 4-5-14
Iowa Cubs It was a long night for the Iowa Cubs as they were beaten 11-1. Matt Szczur was 1-3 with a walk, run scored and a strikeout. Arismendy Alcantara was also 1-3 with a double. He also had an error. Javier Baez was 0-2 with 2 strikeouts and was thrown out of the game arguing the check swing strikeout. …
Minor League Recap for April 4, 2014
I know Myles includes the Cubs, in part because they’re essentially a minor league team and in part because someone requested it. I’m not going to include them. It’s not because I have so much to say about the minor leagues. It’s because I just don’t want to write about them. Emilio Bonifacio? Seriously? No thanks. Iowa Cubs Matt Szczur …
OV Daily Facepalm
Weekend Roster Moves of note Darnell McDonald —-> AAA Chang-Yong Lim —-> Korea Tsuyoshi Wada —–> released Tsuyoshi Wada —–> re-signed to a minor league deal Neil Ramirez —–> AAA Javier Baez —–> AAA Jonathan Sanchez —-> AAA Casper Wells —-> AAA Blake Parker —–> AAA No real surprises here, except maybe Blake Parker, who was pretty decent last year …
OV Daily Facepalm
Aroldis Chapman hit in face by line drive There was a scary moment in last night's Reds game, as Aroldis Chapman was hit in the face by a line drive. Trainers from both teams rushed to the mound immediately (and his father too from the stands), and he was taken off the field in a stretcher. Reports say he never …
OV Daily Facepalm
Lots of HRs, lots of walks Baez and Olt both hit bombs off of Randy Wolf (video here and here), a not uncommon occurance for Randy Wolf. Olt later hit another bomb against against a Mariners reliever. Likely fifth starter James McDonald issued five walks in 2 2/3 innings in his start last night. First round of cuts The first round of …