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Tag Archives: starlin castro

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: , , , , , , , ,

Trading season

With the late-July trading season approaching, the usual rule applies that you trade older, more expensive players at positions where you have a surplus. While I hope they make a few deals, this team does not need to be “blown up,” as some fans are saying. The Cubs won’t make the postseason, and the [...]

Posted 01 July 2010 † Phil § Hendry § Piniella § prospect § soriano § trade ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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: , , , , , , , , , , ,

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: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Tradeable

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, [...]

Posted 21 February 2010 † Phil § Hendry § Ricketts § prospect § trade ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Bradley’s replacement

The Cubs’ second biggest problem with Milton Bradley was his personality. Larger even than the chip on Bradley’s shoulder was his inability to fulfill the role of run producer, the proper role of a right fielder. Bradley ended the season (via suspension on September 20) with forty runs batted in and a slugging percentage below [...]

Posted 08 February 2010 † Phil § Hendry § bradley § lineup § prospect ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged: , , , , , ,

No news is good news

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 [...]

Posted 08 January 2010 † Phil § Hendry § Running § bradley § prospect § trade ‡ Comments (0) ° Also tagged: , , , , , ,

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: , , , , , , , , ,

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: , , , , ,

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: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,