Barret Loux is just another terrible I-Cubs player. Last night he threw 3.1 innings, gave up 9 hits and 7 runs. He walked 3 and struckout 2. On the season, he’s made 6 starts and thrown 23 innings. If you guessed 37 hits allowed, you were right. He’s given up 21 runs. He’s walked 16 and struckout 22. If he wasn’t allowing nearly 2 baserunners per inning, that strikeout rate would be impressive.
Yoanner Negrin threw 2.2 innings and allowed 7 hits. He walked a batter and despite allowing 8 baserunners, he gave up only 3 runs. Hisanori Takahashi pitched a clean 7th inning. Casey Coleman gave up 3 hits and a run in 1 inning pitched.
Brett Jackson was 1-4 with a strikeout. Brian Bogusevic and Brade Nelson were each 2-4 with a double. The only other I-Cubs with hits was Donnie Murphy and Ian Stewart. Each were 1-3.
Tennessee Smokies 3 @ Jackson Generals 2
Alberto Cabrera had a nice start. He threw 7 innings, allowed 5 hits, walked only 1 and struckout 7. He gave up a solo home run and that was the only run that scored. Marcus Hatley, Zach Rosscup and Frank Batista each pitched 1 inning. Rosscup gave up 2 hits, a walk and a run while striking out 2. The other two didn’t give up hits or walks.
Matt Szczur was 3-5 with a strikeout. Christian Villanueva was 2-3 with a double, walk and a strikeout. Four other Smokies had a hit.
Ronald Torreyes was 1-5 with a double. Arismendy Alcantara and Rafael Lopez were each 1-5 with a strikeout. Tim Torres was 1-2 with a walk.
Charlotte Stone Crabs 4 @ Daytona Cubs 2
Ben Wells threw 5.1 innings, allowed 6 hits, 2 walks and 2 runs. He struckout 4. Wells has shown his usual command on the mound. He’s walked 15 in 43 innings, continued to give up tons of groundballs and has been better than the stats when you consider his age. He has given up 4 home runs, but 3 of them were in one start. His biggest problem continues to be an inability to get swings and misses. He’s struckout just 24. His FIP prior to this start was an unimpressive 4.71. Those strikeout numbers just aren’t going to work. Unless he figures out a way to miss more bats, he’s just not very good.
Jeffrey Lorick threw 0.2 innings and allowed a hit. Eduardo Figueroa threw 1 inning, walked 2 and allowed 2 hits. He gave up 2 runs. Austin Reed didn’t suck in his 2 innings. He gave up 2 hits and a walk. He wasn’t good. He just didn’t suck, which is an improvement.
The Cubs had only 4 hits and a walk. Javier Baez was 1-4 with the inevitable 2 strikeouts. He was also picked off. When that guy actually gets on base, he can’t afford to be taken off base. John Andreoli, Dustin Geiger and Chad Noble were each 1-3.
Peoria Chiefs 8 @ Kane County Cougars 4
Hector Hernandez threw 5.1 innings, allowed 6 hits, 4 walks and 4 runs. He struckout 3 and gave up 1 home run. Corey Baker struckout 3 in 1.2 innings. Zach Petrick gave up a hit and had 2 strikeouts in 2 innings of work.
Gioskar Amaya was 1-2 with 2 walks. He’s had 9 extra base hits on the season. That’s it. Rock Shoulders was 2-4 with a double. Promote him to Daytona. Willson Contreras was 2-2 with a home run. He was taken out mid-game and Yaniel Cabezas went 1-2.
I wonder who’ll be promoted from the AA staff first. My money’s on Cabrera, but I think you could promote Hendricks if you wanted to be aggressive about it.
Also, yeah, promote Shoulders and Soler. Move Andreoli to RF so Shoulders can split time with Geiger at 1B and Andreoli at LF, and who cares if Johermyn Chavez loses playing time at RF in AA?
MylesQuote Reply
Wonder if Contreras can keep it up. I think he was a big-time amateur 6-figure signing as a 3b under the Hendry regime, and they moved him to C for some reason.
ABQuote Reply
On Luke’s Minor League Recap comments…
“I echo Bryan’s view. This is a fantastic place to keep up on the minors and a balanced site in general. Unlike some other snark-fests that are out there.”
MylesQuote Reply
@ Myles:
Is that a backhanded way of saying you write snark Myles? (dying laughing) If so, my one day as sub sure didn’t help that, did it?
SVBQuote Reply
26.2cubfan wrote:
Ah, but he absolutely dominated Jeff Francis last night. Early season slump being magnified. He’ll be up to his usual .250/.301/.322 slash soon.
SVBQuote Reply
SVB wrote:
I imagine that this particular BN’er doesn’t appreciate our rapier wit, nor does anyone in that comment train that lined up to agree with him.
MylesQuote Reply
@ Myles:
Yeah, it sort of turned into a lovefest there for a bit, but that’s probably just the snark talking.
mikeakaleroyQuote Reply
@ Myles:
I think it will be Cabrera or Hendricks. I’d probably bet on Cabrera since he’s already pitched at AAA (and MLB), though that was as a reliever.
dmick89Quote Reply
@ AB:
I’d guess he can’t, but he’s been good so far. I think he’s shown he has the potential as a back of the rotation starter. I’d be more than happy with that.
dmick89Quote Reply
excellent:
http://insertmeanywhere.biz/#/home
EnricoPallazzoQuote Reply
Re: Ben Wells 3.1 BB/9 and 5.0 K/9 1.6 K/BB
Looks like Tom Glavine to me. Career 3.1, 5.3, 1.74 His ratios in his first 3 full years in the majors weren’t even that good. Of course, Glavine’s K rate in A ball was high–9.3. By AAA it was more like his career numbers. So if Wells progresses like Glavine and loses half his current K rate, I guess he is out of job. If he happens to be the rare guy that is just consistent across all levels, he could be pretty good.
The history of the minors is that regression rules as competition gets tougher. But, you know, hope.
SVBQuote Reply
@ SVB:
If he even keeps his current strikeout rate, he’s out of a job.
dmick89Quote Reply
Out of 232 pitchers in MLB who have 200 innings since 2010, all of 15 have struckout fewer than 5 per 9 innings. Only 5 of them have an FIP below 4.5. Wells has struckout 13.4% of batters this year. Of those same 232 pitchers, 24 have had a strikeout rate equal or lower Wells. Their FIPs: 5.75, 5.04, 5.47, 5.02, 5.36, 5.37, 4.34, 4.63, 4.95, 5.13, 4.29, 5.02, 4.87, 4.31, 5.78, 5.06, 5.48, 6.21, 4.58, 5.18, 4.65, 5.59, 4.95, 5.35.
These are, for the most part, terrible pitchers. That’s if his strikeout rate remains what it has in A+ and it won’t. It will go down.
The bottom line with Ben Wells is this: he has to strikeout more batters.
dmick89Quote Reply
I’d imagine that the list of successful pitchers post-integration with a K/9 under 6 in A ball has 0 people on that list.
MylesQuote Reply
@ Myles:
I’d bet it has some since improvement does happen. It would be a short list. That’s for sure.
dmick89Quote Reply
Carlos Zambrano ——-> Phillies
Aisle424Quote Reply
Minor league deal, of course.
Aisle424Quote Reply
@ Myles:
ahem
GWQuote Reply
@ GW:
TRANSFORMED!!!
Aisle424Quote Reply
@ GW:
(dying laughing)
Nice.
GBTSQuote Reply
@ dmick89:
I figured you or someone would be able to get stats on this. But that was Fast. Does that come from b-ref or somewhere else?
mobile svbQuote Reply
I think Z has about the right personality for Philly, as long as he doesn’t insult the locals.
mobile svbQuote Reply
@ mobile svb:
I went to Fangraphs because I was also interested in FIP.
dmick89Quote Reply
Aaron Cook has the lowest K% among players that I looked at. I’m too lazy to calculate K%, but his K/IP was over 7 in A+. Brad Penny was 2nd worst and his K/IP was over 11. Nick Blackburn was 3rd (5.2). Blake Beavan 6.3. Henderson Alvarez 6.2. There’s a lot of the season left for Wells, but his career rate is only 6.3.
dmick89Quote Reply
dmick89 wrote:
Maybe I should sit behind him at a game and mock the pitching in the system again as motivation.
Aisle424Quote Reply
@ Aisle424:
(dying laughing) he’s a guy who doesn’t even need to strikeout a lot of guys. He just needs to strikeout more than he has. He could be effective at the MLB level averaging 6 K/9 considering he’s an extreme groundball pitcher.
dmick89Quote Reply
Just looked at the FSL leaders. Javier Baez has the fewest walks in the league among qualified batters (tied with several others with 3) and tied for 3rd most strikeouts (45). The Brewers Nick Ramirez has 57 strikeouts in 159 PA. (dying laughing) http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=sa577807&position=1B
dmick89Quote Reply
@ dmick89:
Funsucker
JonKneeVQuote Reply
Really not a fan of Brett’s story on Carlos Marmol today. Pretty sure if Sully or Gordo wrote that we would be trashing the everloving shit out of the report
bubblesdachimpQuote Reply
@ bubblesdachimp:
To be fair, I’d guess anyone who has been a member of this shit organization for as long ad has would want the fuck out. I’d be concerned for his mental health if he loved Chicago.
dmick89Quote Reply
@ JonKneeV:
(dying laughing) it’s just hard not to notice the ridiculous uphill climb it will take for him to work out. That hill isnthe size of a small mountain.
dmick89Quote Reply
The facebook comments are why i think the “report” i will refer to it as hearsay was just reckless.
bubblesdachimpQuote Reply
bubblesdachimp wrote:
I came here to say the exact same thing but with Yellon. I love Brett’s blog but I don’t know why he would take one Twitter follower’s transcript of what happened as gospel.
GBTSQuote Reply
@ GBTS:
Although, to be fair, at least Brett fully published his “source,” unlike others who will remain Yellon.
GBTSQuote Reply
Adam Dunn: .156/.255/.391 (I know some people would do away with slash lines, but that would deprive me of the joy of reading Dunn’s.)
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
GBTS wrote:
i think Brett does a great job and I have similar qualms as you do. In the end i just dont see the point of publicizing that. All it does is get people riled up more then they already are. And i just am not sure that is fair to Carlos. As far as bretts update. Sure the guy heard it in his apartment but there is something called respect for peoples privacy. I work at a pretty major hotel in DC. I never tweet or repeat the shit that comes out of my famous guests mouths that i overhear. Why? They are in a place that they feel is private. Unless the person who “heard” carlos had audio recording of the conversation it just seems really fucked up to me. It established no new ground and the only thing it will do is get the pitchforks going.
bubblesdachimpQuote Reply
I don’t think it was “wrong” to post that shit, but I agree with bubbs that there was no point in doing so.
Suburban kidQuote Reply
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
@ Suburban kid:
I am in this camp. I don’t think he did anything truly wrong, but I just kind of brushed it off. I’m more surprised that Brett is now in full damage control though, I didn’t think it was a huge deal but I tend to over-simplify these things.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Rice Cube wrote:
If you ever want access to players you dont trash what they said in their own building. Brett knows that
bubblesdachimpQuote Reply
@ bubblesdachimp:
If he didn’t, I guess he knows now (dying laughing)
Rice CubeQuote Reply
bubblesdachimp wrote:
This is the problem, as Brett said in his last update. He didn’t trash a player. He passed on sourced info without passing judgment. But people read it and think, “Brett saw/said this. Dumbasses are trashing Marmol. Therefore Brett trashed Marmol.”
It was kind of like name dropping. It would be fine in the comments of a fringe Cubs blog like this garbage hole, but tweeting and “reporting” it to a big audience makes BN all TMZish and Drudgey.
Suburban kidQuote Reply
Brett made a simple mistake. He apologized. Bubbs is quite satisfied. Learning curve
bubblesdachimpQuote Reply
Suburban kid wrote:
Thats the thing. You cant do that. It was just bizarre to read.
bubblesdachimpQuote Reply
dmick89Quote Reply
I have no problem with what Brett did. Maybe that’s because I assume that Carlos Marmol wants out of Chicago. he’s no longer the closer, been a part of this crappy organization for a decade or longer and the 2013 Cubs suck ass. There would have to be something wrong in his head if he didn’t want out.
What person here who works at a shitty job and gets demoted doesn’t want the fuck out? The difference between Marmol and the average person is that it’s just a lot harder for him to get out.
Not to mention, every single person on this planet has complained about their job. It’s very likely that every single person has said they hate their job and want a different one at some point.
So it’s not news to me because I have reason to believe that Carlos Marmol is a human being, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t news to someone else.
dmick89Quote Reply
I guess if we hold Brett to the same standards we hold the beat writers to, then he was, technically, wrong to publish what he did with one source that may or may not be credible.
Brett seems to be holding himself to that standard as evidenced by his apology, but I’m not sure where journalistic standards need to be applied. He is, at the end of the day, running a fan site, so reporting what one fan said he heard isn’t the end of the world in that realm (especially since he made every effort to paint it in that light).
However, if I were Brett, I probably wouldn’t have run it. At the end of the day, the readers aren’t necessarily seeing a difference in Cubs coverage between blogs and news sites and immediately jump to conclusions that it DEFINITELY DID HAPPEN, despite all the caveats and disclaimers that Brett included in his post.
So then you have to think about the reaction and what it accomplishes. In this case, all it does is rile up the dipshits who don’t really need any help getting riled up. As MB mentioned, he didn’t say anything (as far as we allege) that isn’t reasonable to say/think about his current situation, so is it worth riling up all those people when your source is completely unverified? I probably would have passed, but I can’t say he was “wrong.”
Aisle424Quote Reply
@ dmick89:
That’s how i viewed it. it’s really not news at all
Not Stationary WaLiQuote Reply
@ dmick89:
The difference between everyone on the planet who complains about their job and Carlos Marmol is that:
a. nobody blogs about it when I mention to my buddies at a bar or walking down the street that my job sucks.
b. I don’t have thousands of fans booing my every single mistake at my job, and my complaining about my job would not increase the readiness, frequency, and volume of those boo-ers
c. that public airing of Marmol’s alleged complaining has a very real impact on his ability to be traded and to sign a future contract. Even the inkling of a lack of loyalty could turn off one or two GMs, however understandable and human that lack of loyalty is. Reducing the trade or FA market by one or two could be a significant difference.
26.2cubfanQuote Reply
Samardzija!
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Shark Attack
BerseliusQuote Reply
Now there’s only one hitter in the Cubs lineup with a slugging% under .400 (Barney).
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
I guess Castro just fell to .399 with his last at-bat.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
This Cubs game has already featured two of my favorite hitting plays:
Lead off (the game) HR
HR by pitcher
Both by the Cubs.
Now I’d a triple with two men on.
Also, if Barney gets a hit in his next AB, his BA will climb over .200
SVBQuote Reply
@ Berselius:
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
I feel for Brett because while this does seem like quite a dumb mistake to make (and was not worth reporting even if it was true), I can’t help but feel that even in spite of his apology this is going to make it all the more difficult for him to score access in the future.
To make this about me unnecessarily, I’d love to some day do what Brett does. I have a vested interest in his success, because the more successful he becomes, the more clearly defined that blueprint becomes and the easier it is to be taken seriously (of course, that’s a fever dream at best, because I’m an asshole and would certainly make dumber mistakes than this one). Reporting a twitter rumor from someone who very likely violated the privacy of an unwitting participant does not jive with something that even the worst traditional beat reporters would do. Brett clearly knows this but it sucks nonetheless.
MylesQuote Reply
david price —-> triceps soreness
GWQuote Reply
Brett runs a great site. I read it every morning. I also guarantee that if he could do it again he would never have published it. I am sure it was an interesting dichotomy. On one hand if he trusts his source which I believe he does then he scooped a story (I consider it a non story for mb’s reason) that the beat guys would not get. However on the other side if you ever want access to players or organizations they probably don’t want their dirty laundry being aired that they are discussing in their home. (While not technically in marmols condo it is still a place where he should not have to worry about his conversation making the rounds)
I respect the shit out of Brett for somewhat distancing himself from publishing it. I know he reads and sometimes posts here. I want nothing but the best for his site. It is so much better then anything else on the net cubs related. (I don’t count this place since this is my cubs home)
bubblesdachimpQuote Reply
the real question here is whether you can tell that a reliever doesn’t have it with an organization anymore based on only four tweets.
GWQuote Reply
@ dmick89:
@ dmick89:
I guess FanGraphs doesn’t give minor league stats?
Anyway, I was playing around there just now to see what I could do with the magic of custom reports. Pretty cool. To return to the Ben Wells discussion for a bit, since that was the framework I used to play around in FG…
If you expand the data set to 2003-2013 and leave it at 200 IP, you get 65 pitchers with less than 5.0 K/9. I got 13 of them with FIP less than 4.50. The best numbers for FIP were Paul Quantrill at 3.61 (11.4 K% in the majors), Shigetosi Hasegawa at 3.88 (12.5%) and Scott Diamond at 4.10 (12.0%; K/9=7.6 at A+). Also on the list were Tom Glavine (Mets years because of the filter I used), John Lannon (A+ K/9 = 6.2), Chien-Ming Wang, Mike Hampton, Zach Duke (A+ K/9 = 9.8) and of course the previously mentioned Aaaaron Coook. If we increase K/9 to 5.03 we can include Rick Porcello (A+ K/9 = 5.2) and Jake Westbrook (A+ K/9 = 4.2).
It’s a pretty mediocre bunch of starters, but some were/are serviceable, at least for a few years.
Hasegawa and Quantrill were both All Stars as relievers. Hasegawa’s best season was his lowest K/9. He was worth 11.6 WAR over 9 seasons. No minor league stats because I didn’t look up K/9 from the Orix Blue Wave or whatever they are called.
Quantrill’s K/9 ranged was 2.8 at A+ and improved to 4.6 in AAA. SO/BB varied very little around 2.30. Over 14 years in the majors he was worth 18.0 WAR. 8 of those years he had K/9>5.0. His major league K/9 was 5.2 while his minor league K/9 was 4.5.
So Wells’ ceiling I guess is Paul Quantrill, or Glavine in his late 30s, or whatever Scott Diamond turns out to be. That has value. His floor is Dewon Brazelton. ((dying laughing), (dying laughing)) Jury’s out.
You know, Hope!
SVBQuote Reply
These last couple of games of made me wonder who has the best hitting pitching staff in baseball right now. Note that: I’m too lazy to look it up.
joshQuote Reply
@ GW:
I see what you did there…
Rice CubeQuote Reply
@ josh:
http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=p&stats=bat&lg=nl&qual=0&type=8&season=2013&month=0&season1=2013&ind=0&team=0,ts&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&sort=17,d
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
I remember when I was a kid, I was envious of people who had those massive baseball encyclopedias. Now I can look up what teams have the best park-adjusted linear weights from every position for any year with the push of a few buttons. Vengeance is mine!
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
The Phillies’ left fielders had a wRC+ of 168 in 1910. I bet you can’t find that in your fancy encyclopedias!
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
Nice to see Fearsome the Gregg shut down the Colorado rally with his patented dweebglare.
Suburban kidQuote Reply
New shit http://obstructedview.net/minor-leagues/jot-cubs-minor-league-recap-5-15-13.html
dmick89Quote Reply