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Tag Archives: josh vitters

Is Lake’s star rising?

The Cubs went into 2010 with quite a few shortstop prospects vying for four minor-league spots. Hak-Ju Lee was the frontrunner at Peoria, ahead of Logan Watkins. At Daytona, Junior Lake held a slight edge over LeMahieu. Castro started the season at Tennessee, with Flaherty forced over to second or third. Barney was the incumbent [...]

¶ Posted 30 July 2010 † Phil § prospect ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged: d.j. lemahieu, darwin barney, dave kingman, ernie banks, hak-ju lee, junior lake, logan watkins, ryan flaherty, starlin castro

Running prospects 2010

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 [...]

¶ Posted 20 April 2010 † Phil § Running § prospect ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged: bobby scales, brad snyder, brandon guyer, brett jackson, hak-ju lee, james adduci, jose valdez, kyler burke, logan watkins, matt camp, starlin castro, tony campana

LBFC prospect rankings

I fancy myself a bit of a scout–a scout of the armchair, box-score persuasion, one who never set eyes on any of the players mentioned in this post unless they happened to be on WGN on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon in March.
The results of my scouting are tabulated, weekly during the season, in the [...]

¶ Posted 12 March 2010 † Phil § prospect ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged: alex maestri, alfonso soriano, andrew cashner, aramis ramirez, blake parker, brad snyder, brandon guyer, brett jackson, carlos marmol, chris archer, chris carpenter, chris huseby, david cales, derrek lee, dexter fowler, dustin sasser, geovany soto, greg reinhard, hak-ju lee, james adduci, jay jackson, jeff beliveau, jeff stevens, jeffry antigua, john gaub, jose valdez, juan pierre, koyie hill, kyler burke, logan watkins, manolin de leon, marlon byrd, matt camp, micah hoffpauir, michael bourn, nyger morgan, ryan buchter, sam fuld, starlin castro, tony campana, tyler colvin, willie taveras, xavier nady

November prospect watch

Several Cubs have been performing well in the just-completed Arizona Fall League season and also in winter ball in Mexico and Venezuela. On the hitting side, I would single out Brad Snyder, Robinson Chirinos, Starlin Castro, Josh Vitters, Matt Camp and Andres Blanco.

player
team
g
ab
r
h
2b
3b
hr
rbi
bb
so
sb
cs
ba
obp
slg
ops

Robinson Chirinos
Magellanes (VEN)
26
78
15
30
5
0
6
20
7
16
0
1
.385
.437
.679
1.116

Brad Snyder
Mexicali (MEX)
34
131
25
48
8
1
6
32
21
25
12
2
.366
.455
.580
1.035

Starlin Castro
Mesa (AFL)
26
101
18
38
5
1
1
10
3
14
9
3
.376
.396
.475
.871

Josh Vitters
Mesa (AFL)
16
68
6
24
4
1
1
8
2
11
0
2
.353
.380
.485
.866

Matt Camp
Mexicali (MEX)
35
152
25
51
11
1
1
22
17
10
10
7
.336
.405
.441
.845

Andres Blanco
Magellanes (VEN)
30
126
21
39
11
2
1
23
8
16
13
2
.310
.371
.452
.823

[...]

¶ Posted 20 November 2009 † Phil § prospect ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged: andres blanco, brad snyder, james russell, jeff samardzija, matt camp, michael brenly, robinson chirinos, starlin castro, thomas diamond, wellington castillo

Wait till next year (at AA)

Tyler Colvin had a decent half season at Tennessee (AA) and got called up in September. Starlin Castro had a good half season at Tennessee and is expected by many people to join the Cubs soon. (He’ll be twenty in March.) It’s hard to predict the future of any prospect but we can say with [...]

¶ Posted 14 November 2009 † Phil § Hendry § bradley § prospect § trade ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged: brandon guyer, brett jackson, dj lemahieu, hak-ju lee, starlin castro, tyler colvin

First do no harm

So far, Josh Vitters looks like a beta version of the player he will become. By contrast, Starlin Castro, Hak-Ju Lee, Brett Jackson and D.J. LeMahieu have shown polished two-way skills that may propel them to the majors while Vitters is working on his glove, his plate discipline, his power stroke. Either way–whoever gets there [...]

¶ Posted 05 November 2009 † Phil § Hendry § bradley § prospect § trade ‡ Comments (1) ° Also tagged: brett jackson, casey coleman, chris archer, chris huseby, darwin barney, dj lemahieu, hak-ju lee, jay jackson, jim hendry, junior lake, kosuke fukudome, kyler burke, logan watkins, milton bradley, ryan flaherty, starlin castro

Daytona speedway

Sixteen runs on sixteen hits Friday night was the latest offensive explosion by the Daytona Cubs. Their lineup is potent in the first four slots: Tony Campana, .296, with 40 stolen bases at Daytona and 51 overall, on his way to 70+ SBs in his first full season as a pro; Josh Harrison, .352, with [...]

¶ Posted 25 July 2009 † Phil § Running § prospect ‡ Comments (1) ° Also tagged: brandon guyer, chris carpenter, craig muschko, dustin sasser, henry williamson, josh harrison, luke sommer, rafael dolis, ryan searle, starlin castro, tony campana

Finding a third baseman in the system

One man’s injury is another’s opportunity. The Cubs were probably lucky to latch onto Ryan Freel just hours before Aramis went down; but Freel is something of a has-been, and ideally you would use the vacancy at third to give a farmhand some valuable exposure that is relatively low-pressure because unexpected.
There are three infielders at [...]

¶ Posted 09 May 2009 † Phil § prospect ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged: darwin barney, josh harrison, ryan flaherty, ryan theriot, steve clevenger

Open the window

I’m very glad Jim Hendry pushed himself away from the table at the winter meetings. In post-mortem remarks to Tribune reporter Phil Rogers, Hendry discussed–very refreshingly, I thought–what the impact of the trade would have been on the team three or four years out.

Hendry said he was looking beyond the 2009 team when he [...]

¶ Posted 12 December 2008 † Phil § Hendry § prospect § trade ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged: derrek lee, jim hendry, mark derosa, mark prior, matt wieters, phil rogers