You’re the Iowa Cubs. You’re in Albuquerque in game eight of a nine-game road trip, trying to make it home still clinging to a slight edge over the fast-closing Memphis Redbirds (Cardinals), who will meet you in Des Moines this weekend for a season-ending, division-clinching four-game set. Two of your starting pitchers, Coleman and Diamond, [...]
Like many fans, I have enjoyed the work of some (not all) Cub rookies this year, and look forward to September, when the Cubs will have nothing to lose by filling the dugout and also the daily lineup card with fresh faces. The top prospects may be otherwise engaged, however. Double-A Tennessee is a sure [...]
Tony Campana is center fielder and leadoff hitter for the Tennessee Smokies in the Southern League. As we approach the end of April, Campana sports the highest batting average (.403) on the winningest team (15-3) in the minor leagues. That he is starting his second full professional season in double A means that the organization [...]
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 [...]
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Posted 20 April 2010
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Running § prospect
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Also 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
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 [...]
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Posted 12 March 2010
† Phil
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prospect
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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, josh vitters, 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, tyler colvin, willie taveras, xavier nady
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 below [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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Posted 25 July 2009
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Also tagged: brandon guyer, chris carpenter, craig muschko, dustin sasser, henry williamson, josh harrison, josh vitters, luke sommer, rafael dolis, ryan searle, starlin castro
The Cubs have seven stolen bases out of the leadoff position, all by Soriano, as we approach the final two months of the season. The two players who bat leadoff in the current configuration, Fukudome and Johnson, share seven SBs between them, but none batting leadoff. As Lou points out not infrequently, the team lacks [...]
If a prospect is someone who has a good chance of making the major-league team in the not-too-distant future, I like the chances of these four unheralded players.
1) Steve Clevenger. A converted shortstop, Clevenger is a good defensive catcher who throws out over thirty percent of runners attempting to steal. He swings a good lefty [...]