Jim Callis has another mock draft up and he has the Cubs selecting Archie Bradley.
9. CUBS: Bank on a high-ceiling player for Chicago. The Cubs have little chance to get Bundy or Starling, but they likely can pick between the next-best high school arm (Archie Bradley) or overall athlete (Connecticut outfielder George Springer) in the draft.
Projected Pick: Archie Bradley.
Scouting report:
After showing a 92-95 mph fastball that touched 98 last summer, he wasn’t at his best at the start of the season but was back in peak form by the time the state playoffs began in May. He touched 101 mph on the scoreboard radar gun while striking out 14 and pitching a two-hit shutout in the Oklahoma 6-A state championship game against Owasso, then the nation’s No. 1-ranked team. Bradley’s hammer curveball can be just as devastating as his fastball, and he has some feel for a changeup. He has a clean delivery that he maintains well, though at times it can get out of whack. An athletic 6-foot-4, 215-pounder, Bradley is also a top quarterback prospect who would play both baseball and football at Oklahoma in the unlikely event that he doesn’t turn pro. Teams weren’t taking his five-year, $20 million asking price seriously, though he could top the $5.25 million two-sport deal the Dodgers gave righthander/quarterback Zach Lee a year ago.
George Springer is the 11th ranked prospect by Baseball America.
The Twins took a 48th-round flier on him in 2008 but he went to Connecticut, and three years later he may have the best all-around tools of any college player in the last decade. At 6-foot-3 and 200 pounds, Springer has a skill set rarely seen among college players. He generates plus raw power with explosive bat speed. He has a plus arm and is a plus runner, and he’s a smooth defender in center field. He struggled early in 2011, when his hands were tight to his body and his stance was narrow, and he collapsed on his back side. But he made adjustments and returned to form when Big East play started, showing scouts why he was the Cape Cod League’s No. 2 prospect last summer.
I expect the Cubs to draft this guy with their first pick.
177. David Goforth, rhp
Mississippi
His four-seam fastball tends to flatten out. He still throws a curveball and changeup on occasion, but his approach is mostly to overpower hitters. He’s thrown a lot more strikes this year thanks in large part to the cutter, and should be able to pitch mostly off his fastball and cutter as a pro reliever. A 31st-round pick a year ago, Goforth should go out in the fifth-round range this season.
Yep, that’s who they draft with the 9th pick.
They’re going to IBB Pujols to get to Berkman with the bases juiced and one out. I am amazed.
FUCK.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
mb, I wouldn’t be surprised if your prediction came true.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
[quote name=Rice Cube]They’re going to IBB Pujols to get to Berkman with the bases juiced and one out. I am amazed.
FUCK.[/quote]
Marmol got the K but the IBB was still stupid in my opinion.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Nasty Marmol.
cwolfQuote Reply
It actually worked.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Why do you IBB to give Marmol the bases loaded? As Buck said he’s given up more BBs than hits in his career.
XoomwaffleQuote Reply
[quote name=Rice Cube]It actually worked.[/quote]
Only because Berkman had no idea where the slider was.
XoomwaffleQuote Reply
[quote name=Xoomwaffle]Why do you IBB to give Marmol the bases loaded? As Buck said he’s given up more BBs than hits in his career.[/quote]
Because Mike Quade is a fucking genius. Shut you right up. Hell, shut me right up.
I’d never do that again. That was fucking stupid.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Huh? Did the Cubs just do that?
Suburban kidQuote Reply
[quote name=Suburban kid]Huh? Did the Cubs just do that?[/quote]
Yeah. And “Good Runner” Yadier Molina was the one running!
XoomwaffleQuote Reply
(dying laughing)whut
ZappBranniganQuote Reply
First pitch, Kosuke?
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Castro looked really pissed after that K.
Cue the temperamental Latin remarks….
ZappBranniganQuote Reply
[quote name=ZappBrannigan]Castro looked really pissed after that K.
Cue the temperamental Latin remarks….[/quote]
Did he go around? I thought he checked. FOX didn’t show a replay that I could see.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Castro with a Soiano-esque K.
cwolfQuote Reply
I didn’t see a replay either. The announcers suggested the ball hit the umpire instead of rolling away.
ZappBranniganQuote Reply
Draft is Monday, yeah?
GBTSQuote Reply
I thought he went when I saw it live, RC. Missed the replay tho.
cwolfQuote Reply
[quote name=ZappBrannigan]I didn’t see a replay either. The announcers suggested the ball hit the umpire instead of rolling away.[/quote]Molina blocked it. Never hit the ump.
cwolfQuote Reply
[quote name=cwolf]I thought he went when I saw it live, RC. Missed the replay tho.[/quote]
I trust your wisdom.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
[quote name=Rice Cube]I trust your wisdom.[/quote]That’s probably not a good general thing to do, RC. (dying laughing)
cwolfQuote Reply
Samardzija throwing some crazy gas.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
…and it goes about 400 feet the other way.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Well, no shame in that.
ZappBranniganQuote Reply
It wasn’t a bad pitch. Pujols just golfed the shit out of it .
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Ugh… F7…
XoomwaffleQuote Reply
Yeah, pretty crazy gas.
Suburban kidQuote Reply
[quote name=Rice Cube]It wasn’t a bad pitch. Pujols just golfed the shit out of it .[/quote]True.
Suburban kidQuote Reply
[quote name=Rice Cube]It wasn’t a bad pitch. Pujols just golfed the shit out of it .[/quote]
I’d much prefer someone make a good pitch to Pujols that gets hit to the moon then have Ryan Theriot bloop the Cubs to death.
ZappBranniganQuote Reply
I guess whatever Cuey said to Sote in his mound visit before Pujols AB didn’t work. Although,as RC said, it wasn’t a bad pitch.
cwolfQuote Reply
0-for-June
Suburban kidQuote Reply
I think they wanted to pitch around. I think Samardzija was good about keeping the ball down, but Pujols is still really strong.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
[quote name=Suburban kid]0-for-June[/quote]Almost winning doesn’t count?
cwolfQuote Reply
Contest thread up: http://obstructedview.net/chicago-cubs/articles/win-an-obstructed-view-t-shirt.html
Use the comments here for anything other than the predictions.
mb21Quote Reply
I thought they played to the competition today, except for the missed opportunities in the first.
JoshQuote Reply
[quote name=Josh]I thought they played to the competition today, except for the missed opportunities in the first.[/quote]Yeah, they played a pretty good game today. Couldn’t get a few runners in, but the Cardinals are pretty good.
mb21Quote Reply
http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=15537225
It was low in the zone and designed that way, I think. But Pujols put a major “fuck you” swing on that one. I don’t think it’s a bad pitch but it’s kind of funny that the Cubs can’t even pitch around Pujols right.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Just reading stuff:
http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/06/04/report-pirates-expected-to-take-gerrit-cole-with-no-1-pick/
Pirates —> Gerrit Cole
Mariners –> Rendon or Bubba
Rice CubeQuote Reply
[quote name=Rice Cube]http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=15537225
It was low in the zone and designed that way, I think. But Pujols put a major “fuck you” swing on that one. I don’t think it’s a bad pitch but it’s kind of funny that the Cubs can’t even pitch around Pujols right.[/quote]You can’t complain when Pujols takes you deep. It happens. A lot. I missed that half inning, but figured Albert Pujols hit a walk-off home run. It’s happened before and it will happen again.
mb21Quote Reply
Would you have IBB’ed Pujols either of those two times–i.e., the one PA that loaded the bases for Marmol, and the one PA that ended the game?
Rice CubeQuote Reply
I definitely IBB him and bring in Marmol. I don’t know what you guys said about it, but that’s a no-brainer to me. Walking him is obviously the right decision and linear weights would prove that.
I do not walk him the other time. I would never walk anyone with nobody on base.
Looking at this using numbers, walking Pujols with nobody on increases the Cardinals odds of winning the ballgame. Walking him to load the bases does not. Easy decision.
mb21Quote Reply
[quote name=mb21]I definitely IBB him and bring in Marmol. I don’t know what you guys said about it, but that’s a no-brainer to me. Walking him is obviously the right decision and linear weights would prove that.
I do not walk him the other time. I would never walk anyone with nobody on base.
Looking at this using numbers, walking Pujols with nobody on increases the Cardinals odds of winning the ballgame. Walking him to load the bases does not. Easy decision.[/quote]
Fair enough.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
I think my issue was that you’re walking a HOF player to load the bases with only one out with a really hot hitter in Lance Berkman on deck. Then the pitcher is Marmol who has serious control issues. That’s why I was initially really livid about the first IBB, but it did work out well. I don’t know as much about leverage and odds and stuff, but it just seemed really really silly to me.
I agree with not issuing the second IBB.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
I was thinking there were two outs in that situation for some reason. With one out it’s a little less obvious. I still walk him. If you pitch to Pujols there and he drives in the winning run we’d be questioning why he was pitched to with an open base. With an open base, I’m not pitching to Pujols in that situation.
If I have time tomorrow I’ll run some numbers and figure out what was the right decision in that situation. As for the extra inning PA, I don’t have to run the numbers to figure that one out. You don’t intentionally put the winning run on base. Unless the hitters coming up after Pujols were the equivalent of a pitcher, you just don’t do it.
mb21Quote Reply
The one in extra innings, Pujols was up with two outs, Berkman on deck, the pitcher’s spot in the hole, and TLR out of bench players. I guess if you wanted to wuss out, you IBB both of them and hope Samardzija doesn’t throw any wild pitches.
I’ll have to learn more about linear weights, but thanks for clearing that up. I guess in both cases Q made a good decision and one just didn’t work out.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
[quote name=Rice Cube]The one in extra innings, Pujols was up with two outs, Berkman on deck, the pitcher’s spot in the hole, and TLR out of bench players. I guess if you wanted to wuss out, you IBB both of them and hope Samardzija doesn’t throw any wild pitches.
[/quote]I knew STL was out of bench players but I didn’t realize the pitcher’s spot was due after Berkman. That’s an interesting situation and I wonder what the numbers would say about that. I suppose it would depend somewhat on if the Cardinals have any pitchers that are halfway decent (for a pitcher) hitters. F7 probably would have walked the pitcher and followed up with the WP, as RC predicted above.
cwolfQuote Reply
If you walked two guys in a row, the odds of the Cardinals winning, even with a pitcher batting is pretty damn high. It’s definitely higher than pitching to Pujols. Pitching to Berkman with one on is definitely not a good idea either. A double wins it.
mb21Quote Reply
[quote name=mb21]If you walked two guys in a row, the odds of the Cardinals winning, even with a pitcher batting is pretty damn high. It’s definitely higher than pitching to Pujols. Pitching to Berkman with one on is definitely not a good idea either. A double wins it.[/quote]
If that’s the case…why load the bases for Berkman with just one out? I know they want the DP, but runners were at the corners with one out when Pujols IBBed and that meant the DP was still available to get out of the inning. I understand that the math justifies the move, but I’m having a brain fart trying to understand the logic behind it…
Rice CubeQuote Reply
There was already a runner on 3rd base so whoever was on 1st (Jay?) didn’t matter. If there’s only a runner on 3rd base in that situation, you walk Pujols and Berkman. The eventual runners on 1st and 2nd don’t matter so you pick which battle you want to fight.
mb21Quote Reply
[quote name=mb21]There was already a runner on 3rd base so whoever was on 1st (Jay?) didn’t matter. If there’s only a runner on 3rd base in that situation, you walk Pujols and Berkman. The eventual runners on 1st and 2nd don’t matter so you pick which battle you want to fight.[/quote]
Correct.
Aisle424Quote Reply
[quote name=mb21]There was already a runner on 3rd base so whoever was on 1st (Jay?) didn’t matter. If there’s only a runner on 3rd base in that situation, you walk Pujols and Berkman. The eventual runners on 1st and 2nd don’t matter so you pick which battle you want to fight.[/quote]
Okay, this makes more sense because it’s an endgame situation.
Loading the bases still matters though because now you force Marmol to throw strikes and he could potentially walk the winning run in in that situation, or similarly with a HBP.
I checked the Gameday pitchf/x stuff and all his pitches to Berkman in that situation were strikes except for the last pitch which was outside, but Berkman swung anyway to get himself out. So ultimately that inning didn’t matter.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
[quote name=Rice Cube]
I checked the Gameday pitchf/x stuff and all his pitches to Berkman in that situation were strikes except for the last pitch which was outside, but Berkman swung anyway to get himself out. So ultimately that inning didn’t matter.[/quote](dying laughing) Shows what I know – I thought the first two strikes to Berkman were out of the zone. They were nasty pitches but I thought he chased bad ones.
cwolfQuote Reply
[quote name=cwolf](dying laughing) Shows what I know – I thought the first two strikes to Berkman were out of the zone. They were nasty pitches but I thought he chased bad ones.[/quote]
Gameday might have been wrong then, I don’t remember the live play so that’s why I used the Gameday to track the pitches. Your eyes were possibly better than Gameday then. But if I drew the box to denote the strike zone for Berkman on the Gameday graphic, all four pitches in that at-bat except the strike three pitch that he whiffed on seemed to be in the box.
Rice CubeQuote Reply
Nah, I’d trust Gameday over my lying eyes, RC. Also, I could also be not remembering too well and probably wasn’t paying that close of attention anyway. Either way, it was a nice job by Marms (or is it Marmie?). (dying laughing)
cwolfQuote Reply
At some point, I think you have to trust that the best pitcher on your team won’t fuck up royally. I know it’s the Cubs, but still…
Aisle424Quote Reply
It’s worth mentioning that Seattle is probably going to pass on Rednor at #2. Which means if the Nats don’t take him, Starling is very, very, very likely to fall to us.
DoogolasQuote Reply
Did Rendon and Lindor have a child?
GBTSQuote Reply
Joe Poz twitter:
Nadal might need to get that checked out…
Rice CubeQuote Reply
For SK and Mish in the predictions post:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ytCEuuW2_A
Rice CubeQuote Reply
new shit: http://obstructedview.net/chicago-cubs/articles/historically-awful-franchise-off-to-historically-awful-start.html
Left the contest thread at the top of the page so if you go to the home page, scroll down.
mb21Quote Reply
[quote name=GBTS]Did Rendon and Lindor have a child?[/quote]
Oh whatever, you know what I meant. It was like 4AM.
DoogolasQuote Reply
I figured Goforth would be a standard Wilken-era cubs pick.
If you aren’t a relief pitcher, Shortstop or Centerfielder, Cubs ain’t interested.
Aaron_BabbQuote Reply