Well yesterday was interesting here in the great midwest. After 3 days of the media beating us over the head with forecasts of DOOM! it finally arrived in the form of 99 tornadoes all hitting Salina. Which is fine because Salina sucks. Anyways, the only tornado near me was actually near my hometown so naturally I got in a large truck with my kinfolk and took some video. Check it out on Facebook if you are allowed access. If not then reflect on why you aren't allowed to be a eFriend of mine and cry.
The offensive machine that is our AAA club continued to roll last night. Beef Castle picked up 3 hits and is now hitting .500. Brett Jackson hit his 2nd homerun is as many nights and Josh Vitters had a two double. Even Tony Campana got in the action stealing his 5th base of the year and raising his average to .333. Its weird that we have two CF's in AAA that are better than our starting CF on the big league club but winning PCL titles is part of the master plan I'm sure. Sadly for the offense the corpse of Nate Robertson came in and shit the bed in relief and the Iowa Cubs lost 6-5.
Wichita KS native Logan Watkins continues to have a good season as his first HR of the year helped Tenn win 5-2. Watkins could have a future as a utility player as he has some time at SS and 2B. What's interesting about him is that every year he moves up a level and he doesn't really get much worse. He just puts up a decent numbers wherever he goes. Kevin Rhoderick who I think we will see at some point in the bullpen this year worked a scoreless 9th for the save. Rhoderick has a slider that will make your think of the Carlos Marmol of old and now has 6 K in 5.1 IP while only giving up 1 run.
Maybe its time for Zach Cates to take the bullpen test because he is awful as a SP. A week after laying a major egg Cates went out and duplicated his dubious feat giving up 8 R (5 ER) in 3.1 IP. After two starts he now has allowed 20 baserunners in 4.1 Innings and sports an ERA of 22. Tony Zych had a good outing striking out two in 1 inning of work.
Zeke DeVoss! went deep for his first HR of the year and continues to justify my man crush. Ben Wells had another strong outing. He worked 5.2 IP and gave up 3 runs while striking out 5. All the damage vs Wells was in the first inning. True to form his heavy fastball caused 8 groundouts to zero fly outs. There is a lot to like with this kid and he's definitely of the best pitching prospects we have. (Which isn't saying much)
Comments
also from AZ Phil it looks like Whitenack is doing well in his rehab and Concepcion got crushed in AZ ball.
dylanjQuote Reply
I see Campana is in the OBP>SLG club.
ACTQuote Reply
dylanj wrote:
It’s not that bad.
Suburban kidQuote Reply
Even in a small sample, it’s nice to see Vitters having some success. He’s not even repeating his level!
ACTQuote Reply
lulz http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=20584151&c_id=mlb
h/t Tango
ACTQuote Reply
LIneup vs RHP Jake Westbrook
RF Johnson (wut)
2B DeWitt
SS Castro
1B Baker (wut)
3B Stewart
LF Mather (wut)
C Soto
CF Byrd
P Maholm
Did the Cardinals switch to a lefty starter today or something?
BerseliusQuote Reply
@ ACT:
(dying laughing)
(dying laughing)
That was Cubs-esque
BerseliusQuote Reply
I’ve already seen someone say the cubs “couldn’t do much worse” by replacing Soto with Castillo (dying laughing)
BerseliusQuote Reply
@ Berselius:
Most of them want Clevenger to play more in my observation.
Sort of playing off the conversation that ended the last thread…there have been a few blogs I’ve read online about Castro and the Cubs trading him. It seems like sort of a last resort to me but a trade would land some juicy items in return.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
@ Rice Cube:
He’s had 4 errors on 9 games, clearly he no longer has any value.
BerseliusQuote Reply
@ Berselius:
Might be from missing dinner all those months.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
@ Berselius:
I guess they’ve been facing so many righties, Sveum felt the need to give his RHH’s some playing time.
ACTQuote Reply
Rice Cube wrote:
I’m all for trading Castro. The Cubs can take their mediocre to bad farm system and turn it into a very good one with one trade. Add in Garza at the deadline and the Cubs would be a top 2 or 3 farm system next year.
I should say that I’m only for trading Castro is you essentially rape another organization of talent. If all you’re getting is equal talent in return, no thanks. I think a lot of teams would overvalue Castro so give up a lot more than he’s worth.
mb21Quote Reply
@ Berselius:
Can you imagine what it would have been like if there were blogs, twitter and facebook during Ryne Sandberg’s first month with the team in 1982? Or what about Andrew Dawson’s 1989 season when he had a .227 batting average after 20 games? Or what about the last 59 games of that crucial stretch in 1989 when he batted only .231? Terrible fucking start. Terrible finish. It’s the sign of a player who doesn’t give a fuck about anything because he’s not performing when it matters. Piece of shit! That’s all we’d hear today.
It’s almost like fans in the 80s understood small sample size and 30 years later they don’t.
mb21Quote Reply
mb21 wrote:
I’m for this. I basically want to see whether Theo and Jed can convince a team to empty out their top 50 for Castro (dying laughing)
Rice CubeQuote Reply
@ ACT:
What the hell was that? (dying laughing)
mb21Quote Reply
And why did Lee throw it to 2nd base?
mb21Quote Reply
i wouldn’t trade Castro at all and I think you are all insane.
dylanjQuote Reply
@ dylanj:
Keeping Castro is probably contingent on whether or not he learns to play defense.
The idea of shifting him to CF bugs me because you already have a capable prospect in Brett Jackson who probably gets on base better and hits for more power. If Castro doesn’t stick at SS then I don’t know why you’d want to keep him long-term…but that’s just one n00b’s opinion.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
The Cubs have never had and never will have a player I wouldn’t trade in the right deal. If the Cubs can get more value than Castro is worth how is it a bad idea? I wouldn’t trade him for what he’s worth even though Castro is probably going to be making big bucks or already be a free agent by the time the Cubs contend.
mb21Quote Reply
Rice Cube wrote:
Jackson could easily shift to RF and there’s still the obvious question about whether or not he’ll even be good enough at the big league level.
mb21Quote Reply
there isn’t value that i would consider = unless people got really silly about it. He hits for average, he has improved his power, his SB numbers are getting much better. He has flashed just about every tool you can. His biggest knock? He is raw at SS. So are alot of 22 year olds. Only they are raw in AA vs being a 3 year vet.
Castro might be the most undervalued player around here. You can’t find SS like him in the bigs
dylanjQuote Reply
dylanj wrote:
It depends on whether you value the number of tools or the amount of value a player provides. I don’t care if he’s got 1 tool or 37. He’s a damn good ballplayer and he’ll improve over the next few years. I don’t exactly know how I could be undervaluing a player that I think is a very good player. Is he a superstar? No. Not now and more than likely not ever. That doesn’t mean he’s not a very valuable player though.
PECOTA sees Castro being worth a little over 15 WAR over the next 5 years (before free agency). CAIRO would be similar and so would all the others. That’s a reasonable expectation for Castro. I’m not even being reasonable. I think he’ll be worth about 20 so among the many things people can call me pessimistic about, this sure as hell ain’t one of them.
But when it comes to whether or not you trade someone there are only a couple things I care about. First, that you at least get equal value in return and second, you do so in a way that will free up payroll down the road. With Castro, because I think he is so good, I’d only trade him for more than he’s worth, but his salary will begin to increase next year. By the time the Cubs contend he’ll be making at least $10 million per year. Maybe more if he’s already a free agent at which point he’d be making exactly what he’s worth.
mb21Quote Reply
Realistically though, teams aren’t going to be emptying their farm system for Castro. I think he could fetch more value in a trade than he’s worth, but even that it’s still not going to be enough for what I’d really want to see in return. I’d want 2 elite prospects and a third one that’s a very good prospect. Castro just isn’t the type of player you’re going to see teams emptying their system of that much talent for. Few players are.
So I think the Cubs would be wise to sign him to an extension for 6, 7 or 8 years. By that time he’ll be in his late 20s, certainly moved away from SS by then and beginning to decline.
mb21Quote Reply
I agree with mb for the most part, but for some reason,. I actually do see a team overvaluing Castro enough to get back at what I would want in return. Which is, at the bare minimum, two top flight prospects + other major league projectable players.
MishQuote Reply
@ Mish:
If the Cubs can get that then I think they have to pull the trigger. That’s just more valuable to the Cubs and their time frame they’re looking at to contend than paying Castro a lot more money by the time that happens. I can’t imagine Theo and Hoyer saying no to such an offer.
I don’t see anything getting done until the rape investigation is complete. I don’t think any team would even give up a top 20 prospect for him with that over his head. I wouldn’t even think about an extension until I knew that investigation was complete and that he would not be arrested for it.
mb21Quote Reply
Speaking of the investigation, is it typical of investigations like this to last this long? It’s basically a he said/she said crime unless physical evidence exists. I would think the police would have collected all the physical evidence (if it exists) at this point. It would have to have been collected shortly after the assault. Maybe this is typical, but it doesn’t seem like that to me.
mb21Quote Reply
One thing Castro could do to improve would be his splits. His splits are wider than the average player. If he could continue to hit lefties as he has so far and improve vs righties we could probably add another half win per season. What’s more likely to happen though is that his splits vs lefties come down. He’s only had 313 PA vs lefties (nearly 1000 vs righties).
mb21Quote Reply
Went to the I-Cubs game.
Bert’s double was kind of a squib to left; he showed off his speed making it to second. His homer was also to straight away left field. It didn’t look like he got much of it at all. The wind definitely helped; I estimate it went about 350 feet. He also misplayed a low liner to center field that didn’t cause much trouble because Campana was very fleet-footed in backing him up.
You can definitely tell why the scouts like Vitters. His double was crushed off the base of the left field wall. He also had at least one cringe-inducing swing at a Zach Jackson curveball in the dirt. He’s also a lot more slender than I had anticipated. Not quite Campana out there, but stands out compared to Rizzo, Valbuena, and Bert, who are all built like brick shithouses.
Rizzo hit into two double plays, a 6-4-3 that was well struck with a nice play made by the shorstop, and a 3-6-3 that was pretty vanilla. His double was a line drive to right center.
Overall, the I-Cubs tagged the lefty Jackson, who was throwing hard relative to Wood, but the radar gun wasn’t on. Campana had an outfield assist(!). Or so it is claimed. I missed it waiting in line for beer.
I took some shitty iphone videos which i may or may not get around to posting.
GWQuote Reply
@ GW:
Cool story, bro! (dying laughing)
Thanks for the report. Early on Vitters has had a good start. I hope he can keep it up. If It’s easier for you, you can send me the videos and I can embed them in a player that’s available through our host.
mb21Quote Reply
Bob says that the RHH-heavy lineup is because righties had more success last year against him (which was true in 2011).
Here are his career splits, however:
http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.cgi?id=westbja01&year=Career&t=p#plato::none
vs. RHB: .278/.321/.404
vs. LHB: .274/.350/.408
ACTQuote Reply
So much for the new regime being smarter than the old one.
ACTQuote Reply
Ruh roh! 3-0 green light?
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Maholm having issues.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
@ mb21:
cool. i’ll probably do that.
GWQuote Reply
Seriously, this whole deal of rearranging the lineup based on 1 year of platoon splits pisses me off. It’s so basic. I don’t think Quade ever did something that dumb.
ACTQuote Reply
@ ACT:
Sounds like something Joe Girardi would do.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
I think Wells is better than Maholm
Recalcitrant Blogger NateQuote Reply
@ ACT:
Also, if it’s what Bob Brenly said, then Bob’s just dumb, but what did Sveum say about it? Maybe he’s just trying to get his righty guys some action. *shrug*
Rice CubeQuote Reply
@ Rice Cube:
I think Bob was just saying what Sveum’s reasoning was.
ACTQuote Reply
@ ACT:
Did he hear it from Sveum or was he just speculating?
Rice CubeQuote Reply
The Cardinals announcers blow. I hate them. Asshole is saying Castro “looks bored” in the field; “just looks like he doesn’t want to play ball”. Also said that Maholm was a FB pitcher. Career 52 GB%
Recalcitrant Blogger NateQuote Reply
@ Rice Cube:
He said it was the reason, so I assume he talked to him, though he didn’t give an exact quote. Westbrook’s reverse split was pretty severe last year, which supports the assertion: http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.cgi?id=westbja01&year=2011&t=p#plato::none
ACTQuote Reply
@ ACT:
Probably would’ve been a good game to use Clevenger since they have to head out to the next series.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Daily TOOTBLAN!
Rice CubeQuote Reply
TOOTBLAN
emphasis on the LAN
BerseliusQuote Reply
Let’s have all our mediocre baserunners run on the best defensive catcher in baseball
BerseliusQuote Reply
Marlins’ home run sculpture finally goes off.
GBTSQuote Reply
BABIP does not smile on Maholm.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
@ Recalcitrant Blogger Nate:
Hard to say. Both have had modest success in the past, but both have had recent injuries and declining velocity.
ACTQuote Reply
Pena continues to fucking rake with Tampa.
GBTSQuote Reply
@ mb21:
who knows where the investigation is? The timeframe for a big department like Chicago could take months. they may be trying to track down witnesses, or waiting for lab results from a backed-up lab, or maybe the investigation is complete and sitting at the bottom of a huge stack of cases on the DA’s desk. It seems slow, but it also seems not unreasonable to me.
joshQuote Reply
GBTS wrote:
Sideshow Bob does not approve
BerseliusQuote Reply
@ Berselius:
That’s the patented “Eh, whatever’ lineup.
joshQuote Reply
So…. how are the Iowa Cubs doing today?
Recalcitrant Blogger NateQuote Reply
The Cubs are in the lower third in terms of wOBA and slugging, but we’re second in terms of strikeout rate! Yay!
joshQuote Reply
Randy Wells 2IP, 6R, 7H, 2K, 2BB
Campana HR (yea, you read that right)
Jackson, 0-1, BB, K, R
Valbuena 2-2, HR
Rizzo 2-2
Recalcitrant Blogger NateQuote Reply
Racist HR ties it for TB
Recalcitrant Blogger NateQuote Reply
Geo will quiet the Clevenger crowd just a bit.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
@ Rice Cube:
Don’t tell me what to do.
GeoQuote Reply
@ Rice Cube:
Would Wade Davis be enough return for Geo? Could the Cubs even get that back at this point? If Castillo can handle starting by 2013, or even if a platoon of Clevenger and Castillo will work, I expect Soto to be dealt
Recalcitrant Blogger NateQuote Reply
Who starts tomorrow for the I-Cubs? Going to go to the game.
BerseliusQuote Reply
@ Berselius:
Maholm.
/demote him’d
Rice CubeQuote Reply
@ Berselius:
I think it might be Casey Coleman’s turn. Wells was today, Wood yesterday, and I think Jackson before that
Recalcitrant Blogger NateQuote Reply
Recalcitrant Blogger Nate wrote:
Wow, over-the-fence, too. Anything is possible in the PCL.
ACTQuote Reply
Ryan Flaherty had his MLB debut today: 0-3, 3K.
Recalcitrant Blogger NateQuote Reply
Batting practice at Busch today.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
@ Recalcitrant Blogger Nate:
.261/.292/.348 for marwin gonzalez through 25 pa
GWQuote Reply
Hanley just hit a 1200 foot home run.
GBTSQuote Reply
@ GBTS:
That could be a record. Someone should write that down.
joshQuote Reply
Geo robbed.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
@ Rice Cube:
Someone stole my toolbox once, so I know how he feels.
joshQuote Reply
@ josh:
Did you also have five tools?
Rice CubeQuote Reply
@ Rice Cube:
I did lose a torque wrench. That was the worst part.
joshQuote Reply
@ Rice Cube:
All my tools were mediocre. Koyie Hill level. My torque wrench was like Koyie Hill’s grittiness, useful, but still not that good.
joshQuote Reply
I’m pretty glad to see this series over. When do the Cubs play the Pirates? There are some games we might win.
joshQuote Reply
@ josh:
How’s your band saw?
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Today’s runs were scored via
Wild Pitch
Groundout
Infield single
The 2012 Cubs offense!
BerseliusQuote Reply
I hope we get another post-game interview with Byrd about the caught stealing.
Did you get the steal sign?
Did I go?
I said, did you get the steal sign?
I said, did I go?
ACTQuote Reply
Byrd looked in as if it was a hit and run so I’d assume a sign was missed somewhere.
mb21Quote Reply
Kemp now has 6 home runs.
ACTQuote Reply
Marshall got his first save. Also, Aroldis is freaking invincible so far this year.
ACTQuote Reply
Aroldis: 8.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 15 K
ACTQuote Reply
@ ACT:
That would’ve been a very nice start.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
@ ACT:
transformed
mb21Quote Reply
http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=20655513&c_id=mlb
This was so weird I think even Vin Scully is confused.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
new shit: http://obstructedview.net/commentary-and-analysis/what-can-we-expect-from-starlin-castro-on-defense.html
mb21Quote Reply