Pitchers are ranked according to my “Marmol index,” K’s per 9 innings minus hits per 9 innings. (Marmol generally leads the league, or close to it, in highest K/9 and lowest H/9.)
Last year, by the way, Marmol walked a hitter every two innings, not every inning, and so the Marmol index implied more overall effectiveness; but I hope he regains his form soon.
June 1st:
Gaub and Archer now 1 and 2. Archer the best overall.
Huseby and Albuquerque moving up.
So is Beliveau, who now ranks above Buchter. (Both are lefties.)
Moving down: Cales, Mateo, Schlitter.
June 9th:
Siegfried has some innings now, added to list. Sasser and Sommer added recently.
June 15th:
Lambert and Maestri added.
June 23rd:
Beliveau moves from 8th to 5th in the ranking. Maestri goes from 19 to 15. In the top 10, Archer and Hart stand out as the only starters.
June 29th:
Southpaw Jeffrey Beliveau (Peoria) bypasses Gaub to become the new leader in K/9! Beliveau shoots up to #3 overall, and is unquestionably the best pitcher in the organization that nobody ever heard of.
Newcomer Manolin De Leon (Peoria) is solidly in the top ten after 20.2 innings.
July 6th:
Buchter challenging Beliveau for third place. Buchter is now #1 in K/9.
And the highest number of strikeouts in the Cub minors goes to . . . Atkins (81).
Marco Carillo (Tennessee), with 25 innings pitched, enters the list at #10 or #12 (depending on whether you count Alburquerque and Hart).
July 14th:
Parker jumps over Beliveau, Buchter and Archer into 2nd place.
Williamson moves from 20th to 12th (not counting Alburquerque and Hart).
July 20th:
Buchter moves up to second place behind Gaub.
In the race to 100 strikeouts, Beliveau leads with 91; then Carpenter and Atkins with 90, and Archer with 87.
In K’s to BB’s, Huseby leads with an off-the-charts 13. Also with a K/BB ratio of 3 or above are Sommer, 5.25, Reinhard, 3.42, and DeLeon and Williamson, 3.00.
Sommer is lefty, as are Gaub, Buchter and Beliveau. Also lefty and with strong numbers is Sasser.
July 27th:
Huseby moves up from 6th to 3rd. Huseby tops the list in WHIP and K/BB.
Sasser up to 10th among pitchers who are still in the minors and still in the organization (Alburquerque was traded).
Cashner up to 11th.
August 3rd:
Gaub, who had been coasting for a while, is headed up again, with a Marmol Index (the good, half-walk-per-inning Marmol) just a hair below 6.
August 10th:
Gaub back up over 6.
Austin Bibens-Dirkx (Peoria) added.
Beliveau is first to 100 strikeouts. Atkins and Carpenter have 99, Archer 96.
The Marmol Index disregards walks, which is very helpful to Marmol and also to some pitchers on the list. We do have a K/BB column, and a few pitchers do very well in this department. Here are the pitching prospects with K/BB ratios over 3.
Bibens-Dirkx 10.00
Huseby 7.75
Sommer 6.33
De Leon 3.15
Papelbon 3.10
Pitchers with fewer walks tend to yield more hits. They’re just around the plate more and the bat meets the ball or vice-versa. Huseby is remarkable in that he does phenomenally well in the Marmol index and also in fewest walks–and also WHIP, of course. We might consider him our brightest pitching prospect, especially if he ever puts up similar numbers as a starter.
August 18th:
Jackson moves up four notches. Gaub and Buchter–already at the top–go higher.
August 31st:
Two weeks between updates. Cashner has taken a few lumps lately and drops from #12 on the list to #18.
I would say that Gaub and Parker, both aged 24 with excellent Iowa numbers, are instant call-ups when the Iowa season ends. Stevens will be recalled–Samardzija too, I suppose–and Reinhard may get a look. The age of a prospect is very relevant in September, since this is an up-or-out system. They have to do something with Reinhard, who is 26.
Jeremy Papelbon (AA) is also 26. Look for him in the Cub bullpen in September. His numbers in the Marmol index are misleading for two reasons: he is not a strikeout pitcher; and his second-half numbers have been brilliant. If you start the season July 1, his WHIP is below 1.
September 8th:
Craig Muschko added to list. I meant to do this earlier. He has numbers that put him in the top half of the list. For Marmol-index purposes, he is held down somewhat by fewer strikeouts than innings; but his K/BB is 4.47 and his WHIP a lovely 1.06.
These are final numbers. This list is final!
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