Cubs' Prospects FUTUREBONER thread

[Quality Start Machine]

He had a batter August than July in AA last year, and he was hitting around .400 in a ten-game stretch a week or so ago. He's shown glimmers here and there, but any progress he might have had coming into this season is gone.

That's a lot of squinting just to see if he doesn't totally suck. He's got 3 extra-base hits in 102 at-bats this year and for all the talk of him walking more, he's still only at a 5.9% walk rate. He's just not going to hit enough to be a factor, barring a drastic improvement.

I want every Cubs minor leaguer to not suck, despite logic telling me that there's just a small handful of guys at any level who will ever have any significant tenure at the major league level.

Almora just looked so damn good at Kane County that I was disappointed at how quickly he rolled off the table.

[Yeti]

He had a batter August than July in AA last year, and he was hitting around .400 in a ten-game stretch a week or so ago. He's shown glimmers here and there, but any progress he might have had coming into this season is gone.

That's a lot of squinting just to see if he doesn't totally suck. He's got 3 extra-base hits in 102 at-bats this year and for all the talk of him walking more, he's still only at a 5.9% walk rate. He's just not going to hit enough to be a factor, barring a drastic improvement.

I want every Cubs minor leaguer to not suck, despite logic telling me that there's just a small handful of guys at any level who will ever have any significant tenure at the major league level.

Almora just looked so damn good at Kane County that I was disappointed at how quickly he rolled off the table.

Fork and Arguello SCOUTED him

[Eli]

He had a batter August than July in AA last year, and he was hitting around .400 in a ten-game stretch a week or so ago. He's shown glimmers here and there, but any progress he might have had coming into this season is gone.

That's a lot of squinting just to see if he doesn't totally suck. He's got 3 extra-base hits in 102 at-bats this year and for all the talk of him walking more, he's still only at a 5.9% walk rate. He's just not going to hit enough to be a factor, barring a drastic improvement.

I want every Cubs minor leaguer to not suck, despite logic telling me that there's just a small handful of guys at any level who will ever have any significant tenure at the major league level.

Almora just looked so damn good at Kane County that I was disappointed at how quickly he rolled off the table.

Hey, I'm bummed too since we were basically promised center-field Derek Jeter after he was drafted.

[Quality Start Machine]

He had a batter August than July in AA last year, and he was hitting around .400 in a ten-game stretch a week or so ago. He's shown glimmers here and there, but any progress he might have had coming into this season is gone.

That's a lot of squinting just to see if he doesn't totally suck. He's got 3 extra-base hits in 102 at-bats this year and for all the talk of him walking more, he's still only at a 5.9% walk rate. He's just not going to hit enough to be a factor, barring a drastic improvement.

I want every Cubs minor leaguer to not suck, despite logic telling me that there's just a small handful of guys at any level who will ever have any significant tenure at the major league level.

Almora just looked so damn good at Kane County that I was disappointed at how quickly he rolled off the table.

Fork and Arguello SCOUTED him

I also scouted the BBQ pork chop sandwich in Kane County. That's a big league sandwich.

[PenFoe]

He had a batter August than July in AA last year, and he was hitting around .400 in a ten-game stretch a week or so ago. He's shown glimmers here and there, but any progress he might have had coming into this season is gone.

That's a lot of squinting just to see if he doesn't totally suck. He's got 3 extra-base hits in 102 at-bats this year and for all the talk of him walking more, he's still only at a 5.9% walk rate. He's just not going to hit enough to be a factor, barring a drastic improvement.

I want every Cubs minor leaguer to not suck, despite logic telling me that there's just a small handful of guys at any level who will ever have any significant tenure at the major league level.

Almora just looked so damn good at Kane County that I was disappointed at how quickly he rolled off the table.

Hey, I'm bummed too since we were basically promised center-field Derek Jeter after he was drafted.

There's a decent chance that not a single hitter from the Cubs 2012 draft will ever make the bigs in Chicago. 

Duane Underwood and maybe Pierce Johnson are really the only things still going from that draft.

[Quality Start Machine]

He had a batter August than July in AA last year, and he was hitting around .400 in a ten-game stretch a week or so ago. He's shown glimmers here and there, but any progress he might have had coming into this season is gone.

That's a lot of squinting just to see if he doesn't totally suck. He's got 3 extra-base hits in 102 at-bats this year and for all the talk of him walking more, he's still only at a 5.9% walk rate. He's just not going to hit enough to be a factor, barring a drastic improvement.

I want every Cubs minor leaguer to not suck, despite logic telling me that there's just a small handful of guys at any level who will ever have any significant tenure at the major league level.

Almora just looked so damn good at Kane County that I was disappointed at how quickly he rolled off the table.

Hey, I'm bummed too since we were basically promised center-field Derek Jeter after he was drafted.

There's a decent chance that not a single hitter from the Cubs 2012 draft will ever make the bigs in Chicago. 

Duane Underwood and maybe Pierce Johnson are really the only things still going from that draft.

Jeez, remember when Dillon Maples was going to be a thing?

[SKO]

He had a batter August than July in AA last year, and he was hitting around .400 in a ten-game stretch a week or so ago. He's shown glimmers here and there, but any progress he might have had coming into this season is gone.

That's a lot of squinting just to see if he doesn't totally suck. He's got 3 extra-base hits in 102 at-bats this year and for all the talk of him walking more, he's still only at a 5.9% walk rate. He's just not going to hit enough to be a factor, barring a drastic improvement.

I want every Cubs minor leaguer to not suck, despite logic telling me that there's just a small handful of guys at any level who will ever have any significant tenure at the major league level.

Almora just looked so damn good at Kane County that I was disappointed at how quickly he rolled off the table.

Hey, I'm bummed too since we were basically promised center-field Derek Jeter after he was drafted.

There's a decent chance that not a single hitter from the Cubs 2012 draft will ever make the bigs in Chicago. 

Duane Underwood and maybe Pierce Johnson are really the only things still going from that draft.

Jeez, remember when Dillon Maples was going to be a thing?

No

[Powdered Toast Man]

I have a question and I don't know if the idea behind it is dumb or not. Okay, so Javier Baez was taken out of a game at AAA early and all of Twitter started speculating (wrongly) that he would be promoted to play 3B and Bryant would move to LF.

Now, here's my idea...or question...why are we assuming that Bryant has to move? Why not Baez in LF?

[World's #1 Astros Fan]

I have a question and I don't know if the idea behind it is dumb or not. Okay, so Javier Baez was taken out of a game at AAA early and all of Twitter started speculating (wrongly) that he would be promoted to play 3B and Bryant would move to LF.

Now, here's my idea...or question...why are we assuming that Bryant has to move? Why not Baez in LF?

It's a fair question, I suppose.  We saw enough of Baez last year to know he's pretty athletic, certainly no less of an athlete as Bryant.

[Powdered Toast Man]

I have a question and I don't know if the idea behind it is dumb or not. Okay, so Javier Baez was taken out of a game at AAA early and all of Twitter started speculating (wrongly) that he would be promoted to play 3B and Bryant would move to LF.

Now, here's my idea...or question...why are we assuming that Bryant has to move? Why not Baez in LF?

It's a fair question, I suppose.  We saw enough of Baez last year to know he's pretty athletic, certainly no less of an athlete as Bryant.

I read a little more and Baez last played 3B in the AFL two years ago and didn't play it so well. I guess, here's my thing...I don't hate Kris Bryant's defense at third. I've seen a few bobbles and there's the patty cake thing, but other than that he's long, he plays intelligently and he does have a great arm. That plays in LF too, though (as we saw earlier this year).

I guess it doesn't really matter so long as the bats are all in the lineup at some point, but the Cubs are facing a bit of an awesome baseball player numbers crunch when Baez does get called up and I think putting him in LF would be way easier than putting him at 3B, especially at this point in the Cubs season with them winning and all.

[Tonker]

I have a question and I don't know if the idea behind it is dumb or not. Okay, so Javier Baez was taken out of a game at AAA early and all of Twitter started speculating (wrongly) that he would be promoted to play 3B and Bryant would move to LF.

Now, here's my idea...or question...why are we assuming that Bryant has to move? Why not Baez in LF?

It's a fair question, I suppose.  We saw enough of Baez last year to know he's pretty athletic, certainly no less of an athlete as Bryant.

I read a little more and Baez last played 3B in the AFL two years ago and didn't play it so well. I guess, here's my thing...I don't hate Kris Bryant's defense at third. I've seen a few bobbles and there's the patty cake thing, but other than that he's long, he plays intelligently and he does have a great arm. That plays in LF too, though (as we saw earlier this year).

I guess it doesn't really matter so long as the bats are all in the lineup at some point, but the Cubs are facing a bit of an awesome baseball player numbers crunch when Baez does get called up and I think putting him in LF would be way easier than putting him at 3B, especially at this point in the Cubs season with them winning and all.

I wonder if he's been told to do that 'double-tap' thing on throws to first for the time being, to make sure he doesn't rush.  Did he do it in the minors, do we know?  Because it seemed to me that, after he just missed whoever it was yesterday, he looked into the dugout as if to say 'look what you made me do'.

[Quality Start Machine]

I have a question and I don't know if the idea behind it is dumb or not. Okay, so Javier Baez was taken out of a game at AAA early and all of Twitter started speculating (wrongly) that he would be promoted to play 3B and Bryant would move to LF.

Now, here's my idea...or question...why are we assuming that Bryant has to move? Why not Baez in LF?

It's a fair question, I suppose.  We saw enough of Baez last year to know he's pretty athletic, certainly no less of an athlete as Bryant.

I read a little more and Baez last played 3B in the AFL two years ago and didn't play it so well. I guess, here's my thing...I don't hate Kris Bryant's defense at third. I've seen a few bobbles and there's the patty cake thing, but other than that he's long, he plays intelligently and he does have a great arm. That plays in LF too, though (as we saw earlier this year).

I guess it doesn't really matter so long as the bats are all in the lineup at some point, but the Cubs are facing a bit of an awesome baseball player numbers crunch when Baez does get called up and I think putting him in LF would be way easier than putting him at 3B, especially at this point in the Cubs season with them winning and all.

I wonder if he's been told to do that 'double-tap' thing on throws to first for the time being, to make sure he doesn't rush.  Did he do it in the minors, do we know?  Because it seemed to me that, after he just missed whoever it was yesterday, he looked into the dugout as if to say 'look what you made me do'.

Not coincidentally, the throws up the line that were endangering Rizzo's life seem to have gone down.

[World's #1 Astros Fan]

I have a question and I don't know if the idea behind it is dumb or not. Okay, so Javier Baez was taken out of a game at AAA early and all of Twitter started speculating (wrongly) that he would be promoted to play 3B and Bryant would move to LF.

Now, here's my idea...or question...why are we assuming that Bryant has to move? Why not Baez in LF?

It's a fair question, I suppose.  We saw enough of Baez last year to know he's pretty athletic, certainly no less of an athlete as Bryant.

I read a little more and Baez last played 3B in the AFL two years ago and didn't play it so well. I guess, here's my thing...I don't hate Kris Bryant's defense at third. I've seen a few bobbles and there's the patty cake thing, but other than that he's long, he plays intelligently and he does have a great arm. That plays in LF too, though (as we saw earlier this year).

I guess it doesn't really matter so long as the bats are all in the lineup at some point, but the Cubs are facing a bit of an awesome baseball player numbers crunch when Baez does get called up and I think putting him in LF would be way easier than putting him at 3B, especially at this point in the Cubs season with them winning and all.

I wonder if he's been told to do that 'double-tap' thing on throws to first for the time being, to make sure he doesn't rush.  Did he do it in the minors, do we know?  Because it seemed to me that, after he just missed whoever it was yesterday, he looked into the dugout as if to say 'look what you made me do'.

Not coincidentally, the throws up the line that were endangering Rizzo's life seem to have gone down.

I've noticed that too. Those are the most frustrating throws for a 1st baseman to field.

[Powdered Toast Man]

Pen said something in the SBox*--that he expected next to nothing from Alcantara and Baez now--and I had to check myself because I feel like I've written off Alcantara almost completely (this year) while giving Baez the benefit of the doubt as he went through his life traumas recently. He's now back in Iowa, hitting about .300 with a 25% K rate. And as he was removed yesterday from his game with Iowa and Twitter went nuts, I thought "Oh no, it's too soon."

Thankfully, he wasn't called up. I think we have to have a bigger sample of Baez doing more of what he's done so far...the average doesn't have to be Schwarber-esque (it'd be nice), but I'd like to see continued patience and a little more advanced approach before he is called up. Maddon likes him a lot, so I think we'll definitely see him again even if his slashes fall a tad.

I still have hope.

*I'm not calling you out, Pen. It did make me think about Baez as he has sort of been forgotten since he dealt with that personal loss and it delayed any adjustments he was supposed to work on after his demotion.

[SKO]

I haven't written off Javy. I don't know what we can reasonably expect from him, but his line now at Iowa is very encouraging, all I know is I'll legitimately be furious if the Cubs were to write him off without ever giving him a chance to rebound with them at the major league level. His potential is such that you don't give up on a dude like that after one abysmal stint. Hell Rizzo's first MLB stint with the Padres was nearly as awful as what Javy did last year.

Mendy struggling at Iowa is the sadness. He'd be a super useful utility guy if he could ever get his shit straightened out.