Players in the organization are ranked according to steals per game times success rate. Everyone with six or more steals as of the close of business on June 25 is shown here. Lake may not have been 100% after a month on the DL with a back injury. This would account for his lower-than-usual success [...]
On-base percentage is fine, but after you walk you still have to get around the bases. A walk seldom drives in a run, and it is relevant, I think, how often a walk scores a run. If a hitter’s production is measured in runs scored and driven in, then Fukudome is the least productive hitter [...]
Saturday night, the world-leading (38-12) high-A Daytona Cubs had a nice win at home. Down 5-0 in the sixth, the D-Cubs scored a couple, and the score stood at 5-3 in the seventh when Junior Lake homered with two on, two out, giving the Cubs the lead. With two outs in the eighth, Lake tripled [...]
Players in the organization are ranked according to steals per game times success rate. Everyone with three or more steals at the close of business on May 6 is shown here. In case you think that players who run well are not coveted by major-league teams, five of the top ten finishers in last year’s [...]
Here are a few predictions about various Cub players and about the team as a whole in 2011. Some of this might sound more like admonition than prediction, more a question of what the team should do than what it will do. But I am prognosticating, not giving advice. I have confidence in Cub management [...]
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Posted 01 April 2011
† Phil
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Hendry § prospect § soriano
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Tagged: aaron shafer, alfonso soriano, brett jackson, carlos zambrano, david cales, jeff baker, jeff beliveau, josh vitters, kosuke fukudome, marquez smith, michael brenly, rebel ridling, ryan flaherty, sam fuld, tyler colvin
I believe that, ultimately, Tim Wilken saves the Cubs, so my assessment of the 2011 Cub roster coming out of spring training would have to begin with the question, How did the Wilken guys do? They did pretty well. Of course, I would prefer that Brandon Guyer, fifth-rounder in 2007 and Cub minor-league player of [...]
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Posted 27 March 2011
† Phil
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Hendry § prospect
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Tagged: andrew cashner, brandon guyer, brett jackson, chris archer, d.j. lemahieu, darwin barney, fernando perez, james russell, jeff samardzija, josh vitters, marquez smith, marwin gonzalez, ryan flaherty, sam fuld, starlin castro, steve clevenger, tim wilken, tony campana, tyler colvin, welington castillo
The Cubs would score runs in more innings, and thus do better in low-scoring games, if they had hitters who were better adapted to the top of the order. Obviously, Byrd is not a leadoff hitter, nor does Baker belong anywhere other than six through eight. Can either of them bunt, or hit and run, [...]
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Posted 20 April 2010
† Phil
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prospect
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Tagged: bobby scales, brad snyder, brandon guyer, brett jackson, hak-ju lee, james adduci, jose valdez, josh vitters, kyler burke, logan watkins, matt camp, starlin castro, tony campana
The Cub team that I’m excited about is a couple years away, but 2010 is shaping up as a solid season, largely because Jim Hendry has been demonstrating the same patience and shrewdness in selecting players that new owner Tom Ricketts has applied to the choice of a spring-training site. Hendry corrected a few old [...]
Here is a list of Cub prospects ranked according to stolen bases per game, also showing games, steals, caught stealing and success rate. I include only regular-season games played at Boise or above, no higher than Iowa. I would isolate two important groups here, those with SB/game ratios higher than .30–I’ll call them rabbits–and those [...]
Along with Colvin and Castro and others, Brandon Guyer will be in the spotlight for five games beginning Thursday night, when the Tennessee Smokies travel to Jackson, TN, for a season-ending series with the West Tenn Diamond Jaxx. The Smokies begin the series alone atop the Southern League’s Northern Division for the second half, with [...]