As I was typing this, it was 9-6. The Cubs had to score 2 runs in the bottom of the ninth to make it interesting, but of course they failed to win it.
Logan Watkins went yard for the 3rd time this season. It was his only hit; he also walked once and struck out twice. He grounded out to end the game. Thanks Logan, I didn't want to stay up any longer. Hide Yokids went 2-5 with a strikeout. Brett Jackson was really good today so I won't make a stupid entertainment-related pun for him today. He was 4-5 with a double. No, he didn't strikeout. Dave Sappelt went 2-5 with a double and a strikeout. Josh Vitters climbs the ladder with a 3-3, 2B performance. However, he also had the triple crown of stupidity; he was picked off, caught stealing, and had an error. He drove in a run and scored twice. Ian Stewart had a pinch-hit strikeout, and eventually walked. Attaboy.
Guillermo Moscoso was really hurt by that error but he also was poor today. He went 5 innings and surrendered 9 hits. 4 runs scored, 2 earnred, and he struckout 8 and walked none. As you type it out, you get the sense that Guillermo was likely very unlucky today. Esmailin Caridad should probably pack it up; with his 3 runs allowed in 0.2 innings, his ERA is up to 7.16. Casey Coleman had a rough outing as well, allowing 5 baserunners and 2 runs in 2.1 innings. Hisanori Takahashi was the janitor, throwing a perfect ninth.
Kane County Cougars 3 @ Cedar Rapids Kernels 4 (12 innings)
Bijan Rademacher again had the best night of the crew, with a 3-5, 2 run performance. He also had a double. Dan Vogelbach went 1-5, as did Marco Hernandez. Jeimer Candelario went 2-5 with a double, and celebrated with a throwing error. Gioskar Amaya was demoted all the way to 8th in the lineup; he went 2-5 with a strikeout.
Dillon Maples got the start! He went 5 innings and only allowed 2 hits. Unfortunately, he allowed 2 runs, with a walk and 5 strikeouts. Lendy Castillo could teach him a thing or two; he went 5 strong innings and allowed a single run. His ERA is down to 8.07. Nathan Dorris lost the game for the Cougars in the 12th inning.
Tennessee Smokies 4 @ Chattanooga Lookouts 3
Quite the bland game. Matt Szczur went 2-5. Ronald Torreyes went 1-5 with 2 RBI. Arismendy Alcantara continues to flounder; he went 0-4 with his 13th error of the season. Christian Villanueva heard about being on dmick's list and decided to hit today, going 3-4 with 2 doubles, an RBI, and a run scored. Tim Torres also had a nice game, going 1-2 with 2 walks. No one else was notable.
Kyle Hendricks took the mound in what might be one of his last starts as a Smokie. He did what he was supposed to; 7 innings, 6 hits, 3 earned runs, a walk, and 3 strikeouts. The big damage was a 2 run blast in the 7th because I fucking jinxed him. Tony Zych threw a perfect eighth, and Zach Rosscup faced 4 batters and allowed no contact in the 9th for his first save.
The Smokies faced Zach Lee, who used to be a quite notable prospect (and one in endless trade scenarios involving Dempster. They tagged him pretty good. They also face Yasiel Puig, a top hitting prospect that the Cubs were briefly linked to before Soler. He went 1-3 with a double, a walk, and a strikeout.
Daytona Cubs 5 @ Lakeland Flying Tigers 1 (7 innings)
Jorge Fucking Soler! He went 4-4 with a HR, and RBI, and 3 runs scored. And he didn't even have the best game on the team! Dustin Geiger went 4-4 with 3 doubles and a triple. That's a career game; add 4 RBIs to that toal and he's gotta be thrilled. There were only two other hits on the team (Javier Baez, 1-4, and Tim Saunders, 1-3), but who cares. Those two performances were sublime.
Yeiper Castillo pitched a complete game (it was only 7 innings). He allowed a solo shot in the 7th inning but dominated the rest of the way. He's had a quietly phenomenal year thus far.
Daytona Cubs 7 @ Lakeland Flying Tigers 4 (12 innings)
Javier Baez must think he gets paid by the error. He had 3 in this game, which probably offsets his offensive contributions (2-5, 3B, BB, 3 runs). Jorge Soler had a much worse game than his other one, going 3-6 with a double. Dustin Geiger was the shit yet again, with 2 walks, 3-4 with a double and 2 runs. Taiwan Easterling only had 2 hits in 6 plate appearances, but they were a double and a triple. Ben Carhart also had a nice one; he was 0-3, but walked twice and drove in a run. As a team, the Cubs walked 6 times and struck out only 5.
Eduardo Figueroa got the start today. He was not so good. He only lasted 3 innings and gave up 4 runs on 4 hits/2 walks. Austin Reed shut the Tigers down in the 4th and 5th, and Sheldon McDonald was aces, going 4 strong innings. Frank Del Valle finished it off with 3 great innings to collect his first win of the year.
| VSL Cubs | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Pos | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | AVG |
| Bryant Flete | SS | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 1 | .222 |
| Ricardo Marcano | RF-CF | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | .200 |
| Arnaldo Calero | CF | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .529 |
| 1- Leonardo Gonzalez | PR-1B | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .167 |
| Delbis Arcila | LF | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | .188 |
| Roney Alcala | 3B-RF | 5 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | .467 |
| Jhonny Pereda | C | 5 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .333 |
| Miguel Rico | 1B-3B | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | .231 |
| Eufran Vargas | DH | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | .308 |
| Humberto Garcia | 2B | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .125 |
| Totals | 31 | 8 | 9 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 8 | 9 | 8 | .279 | |
2B: Marcano, R (2, Hernandez, A).
3B: Flete (1, Morales, O).
TB: Calero; Alcala 2; Vargas, E 2; Marcano, R 2; Pereda 2; Flete 3.
RBI: Rico, M 2 (3), Arcila (6), Vargas, E (5), Flete 3 (4), Alcala (5).
2-out RBI: Flete 3.
Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Flete; Marcano, R; Pereda.
SF: Rico, M; Arcila.
GIDP: Arcila.
Team RISP: 3-for-14.
Team LOB: 7.
BASERUNNING
CS: Flete (1, 2nd base by Carrera/Capriata).
FIELDING
E: Garcia, H (2, throw), Alcala (4, fielding), Flete 2 (6, throw, throw), Rico, M (3, throw).
PB: Pereda (1).
| VSL Cubs | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ERA | |||
| Jesus Castillo (L, 0-1) | 2.2 | 6 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 13.50 | |||
| Yomar Pacheco | 4.1 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 8.44 | |||
| Manuel Fuentes | 2.0 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 20.25 | |||
| Totals | 9.0 | 17 | 15 | 9 | 2 | 7 | 5 | 10.54 |
|||
Programming Note
I'm in a wedding tomorrow. I will not be writing the recap for Saturday's game.
Comments
Saw the Maples game. Good times.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
And Aramis Ramirez hit 2 home runs.
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
@ dmick89:
Oh, I wasn’t blaming you at all. I was just trying to spread some cheer!
There is plenty here. In case anyone is wondering about Soler’s overall line now. It’s awesome.
Almost as awesome as Giggles’ .392wOBA!
They should be promoted together. Because fuck the FSL. Also, Soler is only 3 months younger.
@ Rizzo the Rat:
And they still lost! Allowing us to keep our sexy, sexy position of not last place!
DoogolasQuote Reply
Aramis is .327/.389/.612, but has 0 fWAR and -0.1 rWAR. (I think it’s highly unlikely he’s actually been this bad on defense.)
Rizzo the RatQuote Reply
@ Rizzo the Rat:
Has he literally not moved at all from his zone and/or starting position?
Rice CubeQuote Reply
@ Doogolas:
Myles did highlight Soler in his prospects on the rise piece. He’s had a great season so far. Lots to be excited about.
I thought you were saying in the last thread that we should be more optimistic about guys like Baez and Amaya rather than pointing out that, hey, these guys pretty much suck right now.
What’s interesting with Baez is that despite the awful walk rate, he’s still been about league average. This doesn’t mean all is good in Baezland. There’s a lot going on that will prevent him from ever being a good MLB player, but if he can keep the ISO up and play a passable SS, he could be a backup without much improvement. I’d bet against it, but the guy can hit the ball a long way. The problem is that he doesn’t make contact enough and doesn’t get on base enough and is on pace for about 70 errors this year.
dmick89Quote Reply
So this guy:
Seems to show up in the highlights a pretty fair amount. But not on the top 20 list or rising stars. I’m not criticizing that, but I thought I’d throw out some numbers. I admit that if his name was Bill Greene, I probably wouldn’t have noticed, but Bijan Rademacher is a pretty distinct name.
Drafted last year in 13th round from Orange Coast College (Calif). 21 years old. Plays RF this year, split between RF and LF last year. Slash: 350/431/420 8.6K%, 12.1BB%, 0.7K/BB 116 PA.
In 56PA at Boise last year, he had even better slash numbers than this year, 12.5K%, and 2 walks. He was promoted to Peoria and didn’t do well at all. With 135 PA at Peoria: 221/280/295 19.3K%, 7.4BB% 2.6K/BB. Slash wasn’t good.
I can see where these numbers and draft position don’t scream top prospect. For now, he’s having a good year at Kane County and I wonder if they’ll move him up when they move Sczuczcr up to AAA.
SVBQuote Reply
Isn’t one wife enough?
SVBQuote Reply
@ SVB:
I think the thing with Rademacher is that he’s nearly a 22-year old corner outfielder in the Midwest League. He has 5 extra base hits all year and an ISO of .070. He’s not young for his level and as a corner outfielder, he’ll have to hit for some power. He hasn’t to this point.
He’s most notable for being a switch pitcher. He could apparently hit 95 mph with his left arm and 88 mph with the right arm. When he first picked up a baseball, he threw it left-handed. When he first picked up a football, he threw it right-handed.
dmick89Quote Reply
@ dmick89:
Yeah, I noticed he was a mop up pitcher in 3 games this year already but forgot to mention that. I know his numbers don’t look like he’ll be the next Moises Alou. I just thought with the frequency I’d seen his name in the recaps (perhaps because it’s Bijan so it’s noticeable), I’d check him out. I agree that the lack of power is a big issue and he probably won’t pan out to much, but, you know, hope. My minor league mantra. (Hope but not delusion, by the way.)
As to being 22 in June, I think your age to be too old for A ball was 21.5 to start the year, right? So he was 21.8 or something and the median is 22.2. For a college hitter that isn’t drafted in the first round, is it common to already be in A+ by your second year in the minors? If we took major league 25 man rosters and looked at OF that were drafted in rounds 3 and lower, what level would they have been at at age 22, on average? That sounds like a task for RtR.
SVBQuote Reply
@ SVB:
That sounds about right, but age is still important. Another thing that is important is that he signed as a senior. Was he drafted as a junior?
dmick89Quote Reply
Garza ——> Starting Tuesday
Villanueva ——-> Bullpen
Aisle424Quote Reply
@ dmick89:
Oh, yes I know he was mentioned. But he instantly went 0/10 or something his next three games. And had brought himself down to like… A .750OPS. I mean it was clearly more bad luck than anything, but I mostly just wanted to say, “holy shit look at the day these two are having.” Than anything else.
Baez has a lot of problems, for sure. It’s not something to just overlook. We’ll see what happens with him but I trust him about as far as I can throw him right now.
DoogolasQuote Reply
new shit: http://obstructedview.net/minor-leagues/2013-mlb-draft-who-do-you-take.html
dmick89Quote Reply