Tag: blake parker

Cubs 4, Cardinals 6 (4/14/14)

OSS: Edwin Jackson dodges the first bullet and gets hit by the second.

Three Up

1. Junior Lake, sure. He went 2-4 with a triple. Pretty cool.

2. Mike Olt, why not. 2-3, with a double and an RBI.

3. Anthony Rizzo hit a home run! It was fun, because we had a lead before Grim Death took hold of Chicago.

Three Down

1. Edwin Jackson had a really shitty game. Just 4 runs in 6 innings doesn’t do justice to how bad he was. 8 hits, 3 walks, but he looked worse than even that! He settled down after shitting the bed in the first 2 innings, but it conceivably could have been 8-2 after that.

2. Starlin Castro had a pretty bad game, going 0-4 with 2 strikeouts and looking relatively lost at the plate.

3. If Blake Parker didn’t give up a pair of runs in the 8th, the game is tied at the 9th. 25th man woo!

Overreacting

This team sucks.

Next Game

Cubs @ Yankees, Tuesday, 6:05 PM CST
Hammel v. Tanaka (:()

 

Minor League Recap 4-10-14

Three of the Cubs four minor league games got underway this afternoon while Daytona played tonight.

Iowa Cubs

Matt Szczur was 2-4 with a strikeout and run scored. Arismendy Alcantara doubled and had 2 hits in 4 plate appearances. Javier Baez isn’t getting a lot of hits, but he hit his 2nd home run of the season and was 1-4 with a strikeout. Josh Vitters showed he can be patient and walked twice. He was also 1-2 with 2 runs scored. Chris Valaika was also 2-4 with a double.

Kyle Hendricks rebounded after his poor outing last week. He threw 7 strong innings and allowed 5 hits and a run. He walked 1 and struck out 5. Neil Ramirez also didn’t suck in his inning. He gave up a hit and struck a batter out. Blake Parker pitched the 9th and struck out 2 while allowing 1 hit.

Tennessee Smokies

The Smokies got beat on a 9th inning run by the Lookouts. It was the only run of the game. The Smokies had only 4 hits so this will be easy.

Zeke DeVoss was 1-4 with 2 strikeouts. Stephen Bruno was 1-3 with a double and a walk. Dustin Geiger was also 1-3 with a walk. Wes Darvill had the only other hit (1-4, strikeout).

Jake Arrieta is making his way back to the majors and got a rehab start in. He threw 3.2 innings, allowed 3 hits and no runs. He walked 2 and struck out 4. Lendy Castillo walked a batter and retired a batter. Good outing for him. Dae-Eun Rhee who was highly thought of a couple years ago threw 4.2 innings, allowed 4 hits, a walk and a run. He struck out 3. Tony Zych finished the game and allowed a hit in a third of an inning.

Daytona Cubs

The Cubs got killed. The game was over early and Dunedin went on to win 12-2. Pin-Chieh Chen was 1-4 with a strikeout. He’s off to a good start so far this year and even played some 2nd base tonight. Tim Saunders was 1-4 with an RBI and strikeout. Albert Almora and Dan Vogelbach were each 0-4 while Jeimer Candelario was 1-4. The hot hitter for the night was Bijan Randenmacher who went 3-3 with a BB and run scored. Oliver Zapata was 1-3 with a walk, RBI and run scored.

Taylor Scott had a night to forget. He threw only 3 innings and somehow gave up 11 hits and 3 walks. When you allow nearly 5 base runners per inning, you’re probably going to have a bad night. Scott gave up 8 runs and while only 4 were earned, it’s not like he can point to bad defense. Scott got lit up.

Austin Kirk threw 3.1 and gave up 3 hits and 2 runs. He walked a batter and struck out 2. Austin Reed tried to top Taylor Scott in his 1.2 innings. He gave up 4 hits and walked 2. He allowed 2 runs and struck a batter out. The only decent pitcher on the night was a guy on injury rehab: Arodys Vizcaino. He threw an inning and walked a batter and struck one out.

Kane County Cougars

Danny Lockhart and Carlos Penalver set the table for the Cougars. Each collected 2 hits in 5 AB in the 1-2 slots in the lineup. Lockhart scored twice and struck out while Penalver doubled and scored 3 times.

Yasiel Balaguert was 1-4 with 3 RBI and a walk. Jacob Rogers and Daniel Canela were each 1-5. David Bote was 1-3 with a double, walk and a strikeout. Trey Martin was 1-3 with a run, RBI and walk

Tyler Skulina threw 5.2 innings, gave up 6 hits and 5 runs while walking 1 and striking out 6. Justin Amlung threw 2.1, allowed a hit and a walk while striking out 1 and Tyler Bremer finished the 9th and gave up 2 hits and struck a batter out.

OV Daily Facepalm

dailyfacepalm

Weekend Roster Moves of note

No real surprises here, except maybe Blake Parker, who was pretty decent last year in 46 innings and change for the big league club.

Starlin Castro working his way back

Castro has played in a minor league game or two and should be back for opening day. Hopefully they'll take it easy on his hamstring in the cold weather next week, though Aisley said on twitter this morning that the extended forecast for the Cubs home opener is 62 degrees, for what little it's worth.

BPro scouting notes on various prospects

Jason Parks and his BP friends saw a bunch of Cubs players yesterday ($). Parks had great things to say about Almora's fielding, especially in Arizona's troublesome sun. Not much new on Javier Baez – big league pitchers with changeups are going to own him until he adjusts. Parks also had lots of things to say about Junior Lake, including that he still has the ceiling of a 30-30 guy but right now he's pretty much a 'fastball in the middle of the plate' guy. The tools are there. Lots of nice things to say about Christian Villanueva too, especially about his bat's future.

BPro NL Central preview

Ken Funck and OV Executive Overseer-in-Chief Harry Pavlidis preview the Cubs competition ($), answering five questions about each team. My favorite thing from this piece was suddenly realizing that Ryan Braun will be playing in RF, i.e. the sun field at Wrigley. Bonifacio is a switch hitter, and if he makes the team I wouldn't be surprised to see an inside the parker at some point. Billy Hamilton might hit 5 or 6 against them (dying laughing). They're also kidding themselves to even consider that Ryan Braun could win another MVP award from the BBWAA. They also seem pretty conviced that Shark (obviously) and Travis Wood (surprisingly) will be dealt. I don't really see it with Wood, *someone* has to pitch those innings for the Cubs for the next few years. 

Re: Last weekend

It's a strange feeling to see a Wisconsin basketball team down double digits and not be too worried. Not to mention these newfangled things like dunking and alley-oops, and scoring more than 50 points in a game. What team is this?

Of course, they'll go 2-19 on 3-pointers and lose by 25 to Baylor on Thursday because that's how this tournament works.

Quiet Optimism

So, we've got the team. My best guess at the 25-man roster (Wins Above Replacement – Myles):

Position Player WARM
C Castillo 1.5
1B Rizzo 3.0
2B Valbuena 1.0
SS Castro 2.5
3B Olt 1.0
LF Lake 1.0
CF Sweeney 1.5
RF Schierholtz 1.0
4OF Ruggiano 1.0
5OF Vitters 0.5
UTIL Barney 1.0
UTIL Roberts 0.75
2C Kottaras 0.5
#1 Wood 2.0
#2 Samardzija 2.0
#3 Jackson 1.5
#4 Hammel 1.0
#5 McDonald 0.0
Spot Villanueva 0.75
Spot Rondon 0.25
LOOGY Russell 0.25
LOOGY Wright 0.0
MI Parker 0.0
SU Strop 0.5
CL Veras 1.0
Total   25.0
Adjusted   72.7

Other considerations for the 25-man roster: Logan Watkins, Darnell McDonald, Justin Grimm, Chris Rusin, Armando Rivero, Arodys Vizcaino. There are plenty of other configurations that could emerge, but none of them are appreciably different.

These are quick-and-dirty calculations, and for the most part I think they are very defensible. I admit some of the bench pieces are high, but I built in more playing time than they'll get in their calculations. This assumes that every single player on the 25-man stays on the 25-man the whole season – this obviously won't happen (I think I remember a study showing that a team's 25-man Opening Day roster accounts for roughly 80-85% of that team's playing time in a season). Still, it's a reasonable facsimile, especially if you believe that every team will face roughly the same amount of roster turnover and that their replacements will be of similar quality (I think our replacements are actually slightly better than the average, actually). 

I let's make a sub-table of the players likely to be traded this year and their midseason WARM (either not signed for 2015 or unwilling to sign an extension):

Schierholtz 0.5
Samardzija 1.0
Hammel 0.5
Villanueva 0.375
Veras 0.5

That's only a loss of 2.375 WARM. If that's the case, I think we can reasonably project that even if we jettison every tradeable asset in 2014 (including Shark, which is no certainty), we'd still hover around a 70 win true-talent team. There's a psychological boon to starting your win total with a 7, but more importantly it would represent some incremental progress towards respectability. 

70 wins isn't as far away as you might think. Terrible as the Cubs were last season, they still won 66 games. Their pythagorean win total was 71, so even if we haven't improved (and don't worry, we haven't), we still have a similar true talent level. We're a young team as well, so we aged better than the average squad, and most of our star talent underperformed. 

The "go-for-it" win expectation is probably around 85 wins. Once you have a mid-80s squad, each marginal win becomes incredibly valuable. However, you have to climb the ladder some time. Being 20 wins away means it is very easy to punt on 2015, which (in turn) makes it easier to punt on 2016. 15 wins is still a hell of a climb, but you can get 15 wins in an offseason if you spend correctly and promote a few prospects that work out (something we're poised to do in 2015). In 2015, we could reasonably see the full-season debuts of Christian Villanueva, Javier Baez, Kris Bryant, Arismendy Alcantara, C.J. Edwards, and Pierce Johnson. It's incredibly unlikely (150 to 1 odds?) that all 6 of those take the steps necessary to be ready for the season, but it is possible. Pitchers historically require less seasoning in the majors, and it's worth noting that in the BP Cubs Top 10 they have an ETA of 2015 (not late 2015) or sooner for each of the top 9 guys. 

Here's some more optimism. I'm way down on Junior Lake, who I think will be absolutely exposed in the majors offensively. He's a prospect at SS, a sort-of prospect at 2B, and a 4th OF and a corner. However, Junior Lake would have placed 8th on the BP list if he was eligibile (he was 10th on the talents 25 and under, and Castro and Rizzo are there). That might be damning with faint praise; it isn't. Everyone above him was a comfortable Top 101 prospect, and most people have preached the high ceiling that still exists. I don't think Junior Lake is going to work out, but I'm seemingly in the shrinking minority. If you think about Junior Lake as being a bottom-100 prospect that just so happens to already be on the team, it's more exciting than it was before (and Lake DID put up 1.6 WARP last season). 

Even if 2014 doesn't end up being a magical ride into the sunset, the Cubs still have enormous payroll flexibility in the future. The Cubs shed $33 million in payroll with the losses of Soriano, Hammel, Schierholtz, Fujikawa's buyout and Villanueva. Shark gets probably a $3 million arb raise, Rizzo and Castro graduate to another $5 million, and most of the other arb situations are irrelevant (let's put another $18 million on those raises (Castillo, Wood, and another 10 or so players that graduate in arb status, but many of these players will be non-tendered so that's probably a huge overstatement). That puts the Cubs up $7 million from an already extremely depressed payroll ($84.5 to open this year, if you're wondering). If the Cubs' effective payroll is just a cool $100 million, that's something like $23 million a year to play with AFTER arb raises. That could buy a lot of stuff.

2014 doesn't figure to be a very successful year. However, I think it'll be incremental more successful than 2013, and hopefully a nice springboard to a watchable 2015. Also, milb.tv is just $40!

JOT: Cubs Minor League Recap 5-18-13

Tuscon Padres 4 @ Iowa Cubs 2

Chris Rusin threw 6.2 innings, allowed 5 hits and 4 runs. He walked 2 and struckout 3. He also hit a batter. Zack Putnam struckout the only batter he faced. Rafael Dolis gave up 2 hits and struck a batter out in an inning of work. Blake Parker pitched the 9th and allowed a walk and a hit. He struck a batter out.

The I-Cubs only had 6 hits and a walk in this one. Logan Watkins had one of the two extra base hits as he went 1-4 with a double. Ian Stewart also doubled and was 2-4. Donnie Murphy was 2-3.

Tennessee Smokies 7 @ Chattanooga Lookouts 5

Dallas Beeler had another strong outing. He went 6 innings, walked 2 and struckout 6. He gave up 4 hits and 3 runs. Trey McNutt struckout 2 in an inning of work.

All of the position players in the lineup had a hit. The top of the order did this:

  • Matt Szczur 3-5, double
  • Ronald Torreyes 2-5, double
  • Arismendy Alcantara: 3-4, 2 doubles, home run

Jair Fernandez was 2-4 and Anthony Giansanti was 2-4 with a double and a triple.

Daytona Cubs 6 @ Lakeland Flying Tigers 5

Zach Cates walked 2 and only struckout 1 in 5.2 innings. He gave up 5 hits and 3 runs. David Cales threw 2.1 innings, allowed 3 hits and 2 runs. He walked a batter and struckout 4. Hunter Cervenka struckout 2 in an inning of work.

The Cubs acquired Cervenka, along with Michael Bowden, in the Marlon Byrd trade with the Red Sox. He’s appeared in 9 games this season and has thrown 17.2 innings. He’s allowed just 7 hits and 4 runs. He’s struckout 16, but he has walked 10. He’s had a tendency to walk a lot of batters so there doesn’t see to be much improvement there. He’ll either need to improve that or he may only have a career of a LOOGY ahead of him.

Zeke DeVoss and Dustin Geiger were 2-5. Geiger doubled. Javier Baez had another good day at the plate going 3-5 with a double. That’s two days in a row he’s had good results. More of it, please.

Jorge Soler continues to rake. He was 2-4 with a walk and a strikeout. Wes Darvill was 3-5.

Kane County Cougars 4 @ Cedar Rapids Kernels 0

Pierce Johnson had his best start of his career last night. He threw 6 innings and struckout 9 batters while walking only 1. He’s having a great year so far. Over 8 starts and 40.2 innings, he’s walked 12 and allowed only 1 home run. He’s struckout 45. Pierce turned 22 a week ago and it won’t be long before he’s in the Daytona rotation if he keeps this up.

Justin Amlung walked 2 and struckout 3 in 2 innings. Jeffry Antigua struckout 2 and and allowed a hit in 1 inning. The Cougars pitchers struckout 14 batters and walked only 3.

Dan Vogelbach and Rock Shoulders were both 2-4. Vogelbach had a double and a strikeout while Shoulders struckout twice and hit his 9th home run of the season. Jeimer Candelario doubled in 4 plate appearances. Oliver Zapata was 3-4 with a home run.

VSL Cubs 3 @ VSL Rays 2

The VSL Cubs had allowed a ton of runs so far. They’ve allowed 22, 8, 15, 15 and now 2 runs. It’s nice to see them play a game that I can be certain is actually baseball.

JOT: Cubs Minor League Recap 4-29-13

Round Rock Express 10 @ Iowa Cubs 9

Nick Struck walked 4 and struckout 1. He gave up 3 home runs. In just 3 innings he gave up 4 hits and 5 runs. The only other pitcher worth mentioning was Blake Parker who threw the 9th. He walked a batter and struckout 2.

Logan Watkins was 2-4 with a walk and a strikeout. Brett Jackson’s new swing was 1-4 with his 2nd home run of the season. He walked once and struckout twice. Of course he struckout twice.

Ian Stewart was 1-4 with a walk. The headline in the Des Moines Register should be: Ian Stewart got a hit.

Ryan Sweeney was 2-4. Brad Nelson had the big night going 4-5 with 2 doubles.

Pensacola Blue Wahoos 3 @ Tennessee Smokies 0

Eric Jokisch wasn't very good over 5 innings. He only struckout 1 and walked 1. He allowed 6 hits, one of which was a home run and allowed 3 runs. Frank Batista threw a clean 6th inning and Tony Zych pitched the 7th and final inning. He allowed a walk and struck a batter out.

Matt Szczur was 1-3 and Ronald Torreyes was also was 1-3. Those were the only hits for the Smokies in game 1 of the double-header. Jae-Hoon Ha, Rafael Lopez and Jonathon Mota were each 0-2 with a walk.

Moving on.

Pensacola Blue Wahoos 0 @ Tennessee Smokies 3

Kyle Hendricks threw a gem in this one. He threw 6 innings, allowed only a hit and a walk while striking out 8. Marcus Hatley struckout 2 in the 7th.

In 5 April starts, Hendricks pitched 25 innings, allowed 22 hits, 10 runs, 8 walks and struckout 23. His last two starts have been awesome. He's thrown a combined 13 innings, allowed 4 hits and a run. He walked only 2 and struckout a total of 17.

Only one Smokies hit mattered in this one and it was the final one of the game. Jae-Hoon Ha didn’t start the game, but pinch hit in the bottom of the 7th inning with 2 on and 2 out. He hit a walk-off home run to win the game and show me that I should not talk about his lack of power.

Palm Beach Cardinals 1 @ Daytona Cubs 2

The Cubs won this game to even up their record to 12-12. Yeiper Castillo got his first start of the season after several relief appearances this year. He threw 4 innings, walked a batter and struckout 8. Impressive first start.

Luis Liria threw 2 innings, allowed a hit and struck a batter out. Hunter Cervenka threw 2 inning, allowed a hit and a run and struckout 4.

Another game, another Zeke DeVoss walk. Another Zeke DeVoss strikeout. Two of them in this one. Tim Saunders was 0-2 with a couple of walks. Javier Baez was 1-3 and was hit by a pitch. He also had another error, his 11th of the year. He’s on pace for about 64 errors this year.

Jorge Soler and John Andreoli were each 1-4. Dustin Geiger was 1-2 with a home run and a walk.

Ben Carhart and Chad Noble were each 1-3. Both had doubles. Both struckout twice.

Kane County Cougars 6 @ Lake County Captains 7

The Cougars took a 6-2 lead into the final inning (the 7th) and gave up 5 runs to lose. Felix Pena struckout 3 and allowed 5 hits and 2 runs in 6 innings. Then Ian Dickson and Matt Iannazzo shit the bed.

If the fans hadn’t been so negative, that would not have happened.

Dan Vogelbach hit his 3rd home run of the season and Rock Shoulders hit his 5th. Shoulders was 1-3. Marco Hernandez was 1-4 and Jeimer Candelario was 0-2 with a walk.

Kane County Cougars 2 @ Lake County Captains 4

Michael Heesch struckout 7 and walked 1 in 5 innings. However, he allowed 6 hits and 4 runs. Steve Perakslis gave up a hit in an inning of work.

Dan Vogelbach hit his 4th home run of the season. He was 1-3. The only other hit for the Smokies in the late game was by catcher Oliver Zapata who was 1-1 with a walk. Jeimer Candelario was 0-2 with a walk.

JOT: Cubs Minor League Recap 4-22-13

Iowa Cubs 5 @ Memphis Redbirds 2

Brooks Raley gave up 5 hits and 2 runs in 5.1 innings. He walked 2 and struckout 3. Zach Putnam, Rafael Dolis and Blake Parker finished the game without allowing any runs. He did give up 3 hits and walked 3 while striking out 5.

1B Brad Nelson was 2-4 with a home run and a strikeout. I expected to be writing his name in these recaps frequently, but he's gotten off to a slow start. Nelson is the perfect example of a quad-A talent.

Brian Bogusevic was 2-4 with a double. Ian Stewart and Logan Watkins were both 1-3 with a double. Watkins also walked twice.

Montgomery Biscuits and Gravy 3 @ Tennessee Little Smokies 9

Eric Jokisch gave up 8 hits and 3 runs, only 1 of which was earned, in 6.1 innings. He struckout 3 and walked 2. He has an impressive 1.11 ERA over his first four starts and this last one was actually his worst. He's struckout 20 and walked 5 over 24.1 innings. He's allowed 19 hits.

Brian Schlitter threw the final 2.2 innings, didn't allow a hit or a run and struck a batter out.

Arismendy Alcantara was 2-4 with a home run. Everyone else in the lineup had one hit with the exception of Ronald Torreyes who went 0-3.

Matt Szczur and Christian Villanueva were each 1-4 with a double. Jae-Hoon Ha and Rafael Lopez were each 1-3 with a double and a walk.

Daytona Cubs 7 @ Dunedin Blue Jays 4

In Austin Kirk's 4th start of the season he threw 5 innings and allowed 4 hits and runs. He also gave up a home run. However, He struckout 8 and walked 2. It was his best strikeout to walk ratio of the season. In 18 innings he's struckout 16 and walked 10.

Zach Cates walked a batter in 1.1 innings. He didn't allow any hits or runs. Hunter Cervenka walked a batter and struckout 2 in 2.2 innings.

Javier Baez had a good day at the plate. He was 3-5 with a double and a strikeout. Over his last 10 he's started to hit, but still has not gotten on base nearly enough. His batting average is just over .300 and his OBP is .289. He's slugged over .550 so he's made up for it, but over that span he has 12 strikeouts and 0 walks. On the season he has 24 strikeouts and 2 walks and a .250ish OBP.

Zeke DeVoss was 0-3 with 2 walks. This guy can get on base. He's struggled a bit over the last 10. His batting average is barely over .200 and his slugging is under .300, but his OBP is over .425.

Dustin Geiger was 3-5 and Jorge Soler was 0-5. That's the first 0-fer I can remember for Soler.

Peoria Chiefs 9 @ Kane County Cougars 6

Michael Heesch is off to a pretty good start this season. He threw 6 innings, allowed 5 hits and 2 runs. He walked 2, struckout 5 and did allow a home run. In 3 starts this year, he's thrown 14 innings, allowed 11 hits and 5 earned runs. He has allowed 9 overall runs, a 5 walk and 12 strikeout rate isn't too bad. It's not great by any means, but it could be a lot worse. He's had 2 pretty good starts and a terrible start.

I've known 3 guys in my life named Brian Smith. I met one in high school, another while in Iowa City and the other one in Des Moines. There's a writer on Fangraphs named with the same name, though his name is spelled Bryan. There's also a Brian Smith with the Cougars and he sucked in his most recent outing. He allowed 3 hits, walked 2 and gave up 5 runs though only 1 was earned.

Smith is a left-handed reliever born on December 12, 1992. In 8 innings this year he's walked 7 and struckout 7.

Matt Iannazzo pitched 2.1 innings, gave up 5 hits and walked 3 and escaped while allowing only 2runs.

Dan Vogelbach was 2-4 with a home run and Marco Hernandez was also 2-4. His two hits were doubles. Pin-Chieh Chen was 2-4 with a walk and Gioskar Amaya was 2-5. Jeimer Candelario had 2 walks and a hit in 5 plate appearances.

Journeymen of Tomorrow: 4-10-13

Iowa Cubs 3 @ Round Rock Express 2

The Cubs got their first win of the season behind a decent start from Drew Carpenter. Carpenter pitched 5 innings, allowed 3 hits and walked 2 while striking out 4. He gave up 2 runs, both of which were earned.

Yioannar Negren pitched 2.2 innings and gave up a couple hits, struckout 2 and walked 1 while allowing no runs. Blake Parker got the save as he worked 1.1 innings. He gave up a hit and struckout 2.

RF Ryan Sweeney was 2-5 with a strikeout and 3B Edwin Maysonet was 2-3 with a walk and a strikeout. Logan Watkins was 1-4 with a walk and Brett Jackson’s new swing was 0-3 with a walk and 2 strikeouts.

The Cubs took 6 walks last night. The other two were by Darnell McDonald who was 0-3 with a couple walks.

Chattanooga Lookouts 6 @ Tennessee Smokies

Dallas Beeler threw 6 OK innings. He allowed 6 hits and 2 runs while walking a batter and striking out 3. He also hit 3 batters. Kevin Rhoderick gave up 4 runs in 1.1 innings of work. He allowed 2 hits and 2 walks.

Frank Batista threw the final 1.2 innings and allowed a couple of hits while striking a batter out. Batista is another of the Cubs minor league pitchers who has decent control, but doesn’t strike out nearly enough batters.

The Smokies only had 6 hits so there’s not a lot to write about. CF Rubi Silva collected 2 of those hits in 4 plate appearances. One of the hits was a double. Arismendy Alcantara had a double in 4 plate appearances. Justin Bour walked and homered in 4 plate appearances.

Rafael Lopez and Johermyn Chavez had the other two hits.

Matt Szczur was 0-5 and Christian Villanueva was 0-4.

Clearwater Threshers 14 @ Daytona Cubs 9

Ben Wells did not strike a batter out in 4 innings of work. He walked 4, gave up a home run, allowed 7 hits and somehow only 4 runs scored. I mentioned awhile back that I was very surprised to see Wells at this level. I hope he makes it, but I expect he’ll be dropped to Class A at some point.

Austin Reed gave up 3 runs and recorded only an out. Ryan Searle was about the only decent pitcher for the Cubs last night. He threw 3.2 innings, allowed a hit, walked 1 and struckout 4.

Zeke DeVoss was 2-6 with a home run and 2 strikeouts. It was his 2nd home run of the season already. He was caught stealing the other time he reached base. It was his first of the year against 4 successful steals. I’m loving DeVoss’ 5 walk to 5 strikeout ratio. The power will eventually drop (slugging over .600) since he’s not that kind of hitter, but you’ve got to love what you’ve seen out of him since he signed.

John Andreoli was 3-6 with a double. Javier Baez continues to struggle. He was 0-5 with 3 strikeouts. He did take his 1st walk of the season, which is good. However, he has 1 walk and 11 strikeouts in 28 plate appearances. He’s also committed 4 errors in 6 games.

Dustin Geiger was 1-5 with a home run and a strikeout. He made 3 errors in Monday’s game and when I checked the score of this one early last night, he had already made another error. Stephen Bruno and Ben Carhart were each 2-5. Bruno struckout twice and Carhart doubled.

Taiwan Easterling was also 2-5 and he hit a home run, his first of the season.

Jorge Soler was 1-3 with a walk, strikeout, double and an ejection. There was apparently an incident when he slid into 2nd base during the 7th inning. The benches cleared, but nothing came of it. Then Soler went and grabbed a fucking bat and charged the Threshers dugout. Fucking bat in hand!

Chicago Cubs prospect Jorge Soler was ejected from his Class A team’s game Wednesday night after approaching the opposing team’s dugout wielding a bat following an earlier confrontation on the field.

According to the Daytona Beach News Journal, Soler — the 21-year-old Cuban whom the Cubs signed to a nine-year, $30 million deal last year — slid into second base during the seventh inning of the Florida State League game and had words with an opposing player for the Clearwater Threshers in Daytona Beach, Fla.

Players from both the Threshers and Soler’s Daytona Cubs came out to separate the two, and the sides returned to their dugouts. But according to the News Journal, the 6-foot-4, 215-pound Soler sprinted back out — with bat in hand — toward the Threshers’ side.

Soler was caught by Cubs teammates before he made it to the opposing dugout and never swung the bat, according to the News Journal.

There are some quotes from the manager at the link. I’m going to assume charing the opposing dugout with bat in hand is not in The Cubs Way manual. As such, I think it’s safe to say that Soler is going to have a sit down with some important people. I would also think there would be a suspension coming his way from Minor League Baseball. None of us saw the incident, but I can easily imagine this would be a very stiff penalty for Soler. If it’s not as bad as sounds, it probably won’t be. Baseball tends to look down on players going after an entire dugout, bat in hand.

Clinton LumberKings 10 @ Kane County Cougars 4

Taylor Scott couldn’t get past 2 innings of work after his stellar performance in his debut. He threw 2 innings, allowed 3 hits, walked 5 and struckout nobody. He gave up 4 runs. Nathan Dorris pitched 4 innings, allowed a hit and struckout 5.

Steve Perakslis put the game out of reach in his 2 innings of work. He allowed 5 hits and 5 runs on 2 walks and 3 strikeouts. Bijan Radenmacher walked 3 and struckout nobody in an inning of work.

Rock Shoulders was 2-5 with a strikeout. Nobody else had more than 1 hit. Gioskar Amaya was 0-4. Dan Vogelbach was 1-3 with a walk. Jeimer Candelario was 0-2 with 3 walks and the struggling Marco Hernandez was 0-5.

Journeymen of Tomorrow: 4-5-13

Iowa Cubs 6 @ Alburquerque Isotopes 10

The Iowa Cubs were first in the Cubs organization in 2013 to score more than 3 runs in a game. It's not like they've played that many games (8th game), but it's still nice to see some offense.

Drew Carpenter got the start for the Cubs and wasn't good. He gave up 6 hits and 5 runs in 4 innings of work. He struckout only 1 and walked 3. He also allowed a home run. The 2006 2nd round pick, Carpenter has been up to the big leagues each season since 2008, but has only thrown more than 10 innings once (14.2 between the Phillies and Padres in 2011). He's shown pretty good control at the minor league level, but not so good at the MLB level.

Jaye Chapman and Cory Wade gave up 7 hits in 1.2 innings, along with a walk, but only allowed 3 runs. Brooks Raley served as a pinch hitter. That has me curious. Isn't there anybody else on their bench who is a better hitter than Brooks Raley?

Brad Nelson has started both games at 3rd base so far since Josh Vitters is currently day to day. So maybe they don’t.

Blake Parker finished the game for Iowa allowing 2 hits, a walk, 2 runs and he struck out 3 in 1.2 innings.

Logan Watkins was 3-3 with a couple walks and 2 runs scored. He had two singles and a triple. Brian Bogusevic continued his fine start to Iowa Cubs season. He also added a couple of walks and was 2-3 at the plate.

Brad Nelson hit two homeruns. He also added a walk in 5 plate appearances and drove in 3 runs.

Brett Jackson’s new swing was 0-5 and struck out twice. He’s now struck out 4 times in 10 plate appearances on the season.

Tennessee Smokies 8 @ Pensacola Blue Wahoos 2

The Cubs moved 24 year old Alberto Cabrera to relief at the start of last season. He hadn’t been particularly impressive as a starter. He wasn’t terrible, but he wasn’t very good. As a reliever he struckout a ton and walked few on his way through Tennessee, Iowa and then stalled a bit in the big leagues. The Cubs have moved him back to the rotation this year and to do so they’re getting him stretched out at Tennessee. He had a great night. He allowed 4 hits and 2 runs in 6 innings, but struckout 9 and didn’t walk anybody.

Zach Rosscup struckout 5 in 2 innings and Trey McNutt threw a scoreless 9th.

Jae-Hoon Ha and Christian Villanueva had big nights at the plate for Tennessee. Each was 3-5 with a double. Combined, they accounted for half of the Smokies 12 hits.

Matt Szczur was 1-4 with a walk and Arismendy Alcantara was 1-5 with a couple strikeouts.

Daytona Cubs 8 @ Brevard County Manatees 0

Starling Peralta had a pretty good night tonight as he threw 4 innings allowed only 1 hit no runs. He walked 3 and struck out 5.

Ryan Searle was outstanding in relief. He threw 5 innings, allowed only 2 hits, and struck out 6.

Daytona pounded out 15 hits and walked 7 times. They surprisingly only scored 8 runs though. Tim Saunders, Stephen Bruno and Dustin Geiger were without a hit, but all of them added a walk. Geiger actually walked twice.

Centerfielder Zeke DeVoss had a single, double, triple and a walk in 5 plate appearances. Javier Baez homered in this first plate appearance and later doubled in 5 plate appearances. He struck out twice.

Jorge Soler was 1–5 and John Andreoli was 3-4 with a walk. Catcher Chad Noble was 2-4 with a walk.

Quad Cities River Dogs 4 @ Kane County Cougars 1

Taylor Scott also had a good night on the mound. He threw 6 innings, allowed 4 hits and a run (unearned). He struckout 6 and didn’t walk anyone. Scott was drafted in the 5th round of the 2011 draft out of high school. He barely pitched that season, but joined Boise when their season began. He had a very good ERA over 71.1 innings, but his strikeout to walk ratio was just 43 to 29. Solid control, but he’s going to have to strikeout a lot more than that to be of much value as a starter. Good start to his season.

Jeffry Antigua relieved Scott and pitched the final 3 innings of the game. He allowed 3 hits, 2 walks and 3 runs while striking out 2.

Catcher Chadd Krist and 2B Wes Darvill collected 5 of the 10 Cougars hits. Krist was 2-3 with a walk and Darvill was 3-4 with a double.

Prospects Marco Hernandez and Jeimer Candelario were each 1-4 while Dan Vogelbach was 0-4.

Roster Reshuffling update

The Cubs have transacted half a zillion minor moves in the last week. We'll take a page from Phil Rogers and use the +/- system, because it actually means something in this context (i.e., how many roster spots are open).

Outrighted to Iowa (i.e., off the 40-man)

Claimed off Waivers (by another team)

Free Agents

  • RP Manny Corpas (refused minor league assignment)
  • MVP Shawn Camp

Added

Players stashed on the 60-Day DL

That's a net -7 for the Cubs 40-man roster, though Stewart may just be released if they don't think that they want to re-sign him. They'll have to add a few players to protect them from the Rule 5 draft, though given the state of the Cubs system I can't imagine it would be that many. Most of the Cubs guys that are worth stealing are already on (Lake, Sczczcur, Vizcaino, Soler), and the only players I can think of off the top of my head that might be added are Christian Villanueva (3B from the Dempster trade) and maybe the shadow of Trey McNutt. It also sounds like RP Marcelo Cerrano, acquired in the Jeff Baker deal, should be elgible. Most of the Cubs top players are too far down in the system and shouldn't have enough service time to qualify for rule 5. Even if the Cubs do add more minor leaguers and/or FAs, the likes of Casey Coleman, Mike Beliveau, and Brooks Raley aren't going to be tough drops from this roster. 

Also of note is that Randy Wells (who was outrighted back in June following an injury) won't be finding his way back on the roster, as he elected minor league free agency.