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 [...]
When it develops its own players, a solid baseball organization also produces tradeable veterans. Tradeability is something of a foreign concept to Cub fans. It does not apply to high-profile flops, players you wish had never come in the door. Cub fans are quite familiar with players of that sort. Recent examples are Soriano, Fukudome, [...]
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Posted 21 February 2010
† Phil
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Hendry § Ricketts § prospect § trade
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Also tagged: d.j. lemahieu, geovany soto, hak-ju lee, jim hendry, john mcdonough, jose serra, marlon byrd, oneri fleita, rebel ridling, ryan theriot, starlin castro, tim wilken, tom ricketts
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 [...]
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Posted 05 November 2009
† Phil
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Hendry § bradley § prospect § trade
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Also tagged: brett jackson, casey coleman, chris archer, chris huseby, darwin barney, dj lemahieu, hak-ju lee, jay jackson, jim hendry, josh vitters, junior lake, kosuke fukudome, kyler burke, logan watkins, milton bradley, starlin castro
The story of the Cubs’ minor-league affiliates this year is that while pitching has been good across the board, only the team with dynamic players at the top of the order has won consistently. Peoria began the season with Campana and Harrison hitting one-two. First Campana and then Harrison were promoted to Daytona, but [...]
Harrison is the player Tony Thomas was supposed to be. He hits for average and has extra-base power: 20 doubles, 8 triples, 5 HR–plus he has 26 stolen bases at the end of July.
The problem was the competitive environment he found himself in around second base. At 5′8″, he was not going to get much [...]
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 [...]