Tag: christian villanueva

JOT: Cubs Minor League Recap 8-15-13

Sacramento River Cats 9 @ Iowa Cubs 1

This team sucks to write about. Mike Olt was 0-4 with 2 strikeouts. Brooks Raley struckout 7 and walked 1 over 6 innings. He allowed 7 hits, 1 home run and 4 runs overall.

Chattanooga Lookouts 3 @ Tennessee Smokies 4

Nick Struck has had a poor season and even though he gave up only 3 runs in 6 innings, it was a terrible start. He walked 5 and struckout 4. AJ Morris and Frank Batista threw the final 2.1 innings without allowing any runs.

The Smokies had 10 hits, but only 3 were extra base hits. No surprise, Javier Baez had 2 of them. He had a fantastic day. He was 2-3 with a double, home run, walk, stolen base and a strikeout. He's putting together an impressive season for a young shortstop.

Justin Bour was 2-4 and Christian Villanueva was 1-4 with the other team's extra base hit, a double. Rafael Lopez was 2-3.

Clearwater Threshers 4 @ Daytona Cubs 2

C.J. Edwards threw 5 innings, allowed just a hit and no runs. He didn't walk anybody and struckout 3. Edwards has made 4 starts since coming over at the deadline in the Matt Garza trade. He's yet to throw more than 5 innings in a start. He's been dominating in the innings he's pitched, but I was curious if the slender righty had troubles going deep into games.

He does. Only three times this season has he thrown 6 or more innings. He's thrown exactly 5 innings in 9 of his 22 starts this year. Only four times in his career has he thrown 6 or more innings. This is something to watch because if he's unable to consistently go 6 innings, he'll be moved to the bullpen. So far, he hasn't given any indication he's capable of that.

Kris Bryant was 2-4 with a strikeout and Dan Vogelbach was 1-4 with a double. Wes Darvill has the team's other extra base hit. The Cubs had 9 hits spread out in the lineup. Bryant was the only one with a multi-hit game and Anthony Giansanti was the only player without a hit.

Kane County Cougars 1 @ Burlington Bees 0

There was only 1 run and 7 hits between the two teams in this game so let's be quick.

Eugene Emeralds 3 @ Boise Hawks 8

Dillon Maples has been outstanding since his demotion to short-season Boise. He threw 5 innings, allowed just a hit and no runs. He walked 2 and struckout 9. He's struckout 30 in 28 innings and walked only 9. He should be dominating this level considering his experience, but this is the first time he's had any success so who knows?

Lance Rymel was 1-4 with a home run. Rony Rodriguez was 2-5 with a double. Carlos Penalver was 2-3 with a double and a walk.

DSL Cubs 3 @ DSL Orioles 2

AZL Cubs 7 @ AZL Padres 9

Cubs Prospects on the Rise, June edition

Myles already posted the Cubs prospects who have fallen so now it's time to look at the ones who have risen. We'll also have an updated Cubs top prospects list for you.

3. Pierce Johnson – The 22 year old supplemental first round pick from 2012 is probably a little too old for his level, but he's been dominating. He only logged 11 innings after the draft last year, but started the year in Kane County. He's made the most of it and will be due for a promotion soon.

In 62.2 innings, Johnson has 25.7% of the batters he's faced and walked only 7.1%. He's also kept the ball in the ballpark as he's only given up 4 home runs.

He has given up more hits than you'd like. To be precise, he's given up 63 of them and that's a higher number than you'd like for someone advanced for his level. Despite the impressive control, he's allowed more than 1.3 baserunners per inning due to the number of hits allowed.

There's plenty of reason to be optimistic regarding Johnson, but also reason to be concerned. The large number of hits allowed could be the result of a leaky infield, but I'd have to check out the other pitchers before we could even go there.

While Dave and I did not think that Johnson had the highest ceiling among the pitching prospects in the Cubs organization, we did rate him higher than the others. This was because we thought he had a higher floor and because he was older, would move much more quickly. I can't speak for Dave, but Johnson has moved up simply because some others have dropped.

Dillon Maples has performed poorly when he's healthy, which isn't often. Arodys Vizcaino is injured. The others on our list have yet to make an appearance. So these guys have either stayed where they were or dropped while Johnson's defense independent statistics have been quite good. We'll need to see how he performs at the next level, which we should get a glimpse of this year.

2. Kyle Hendricks – The 23 year old right hander was drafted twice. In 2008 he was taken by the Angels in the 39th round. He went to Dartmouth instead and it paid off. Three years later he was drafted by the Rangers in the 8th round.

He was a reliever his first year with the Rangers, but was so good they moved him to the bullpen and he's continued to be impressive. The Cubs acquired Hendricks, along with Christian Villanueva, for Ryan Dempster last July. He had a rocky start with the Cubs, but has been excellent so far this year.

In 71.1 innings, he's struckout 21.3% of the batters and walked only 5.6%. He has a 2.57 FIP and a more impressive 2.14 ERA. Hendricks throws a ton of strikes and hasn't been hit particularly hard. He's allowed 61 hits this year and only 2 home runs.

He hasn't been known as a top prospect or anything, but he's continued to put up impressive numbers since turning pro. He's not long for AA and should see significant AAA action this season.

1. Arismendy Alcantara – One of the youngest minor leaguers in the system relative to the league's median age, Alcantara has not disappointed. He hasn't just been as good as previously. He's been quite a bit better.

He's currently batting .289/.364/.478 with a .381 wOBA. His wRC+ is 141. While his BABIP is .341, that's right in line with his career average. His walk rate sat below 5% in his first two seasons and climbed to 5.3% a year ago. This year it's nearly double that at 9.8%. He has the best ISO in his career at .189 in large part due to the 9 home runs he's hit in 265 plate appearances.

That's a lot compared to before. Alcantara had hit 9 over the previous two seasons totaling 749 plate appearances. He's hit as many or more doubles than he has in any season in less the playing time too. His speed has not suffered with the addition of the power. He's stolen 16 bases compared to 25 last year. He's on pace to top that figure. He's become an excellent base-stealer.

He was successful 25 of 29 times last year and 16 of 18 so far this year. Since 2012 he's been successful 87.2% of the time.

He's done all this while playing shortstop. I don't see Alcantara pushing Starlin Castro to another position, but if Alcantara continues to play well, we could see him moved to 2nd base and Darwin Barney moved to the bench.

If Alcantara keeps hitting like he has been, he'll probably be due for a promotion around July.

Honorable mention: Christian Villanueva and Javier Baez. Baez hasn't moved up since he was the top prospect and a top 20-30 prospect in baseball. He really  has nowhere to go but down. He's being mentioned here because last month he was listed as the player who had fallen the most. He's had a monstrous month since then. I still have the same reservations about him that I did a month ago. He has shown more patience, but he still has a very low walk rate. He's also struckout less so there's been some regression to the mean in both areas. Both are a little higher than you'd like, but no player is perfect.

Christian Villanueva has quietly put together another quality season on offense in AA. His rate stats aren't pretty. You could even look at them and dismiss him, but it's good enough to be quite a bit better than the average hitter (119 wRC+). He's also hit for more power since coming over in the trade last summer. His ISO this year is .175. Vaillanueva has consistently been between 19% and 26% better than the league average hitter. I don't think he really has the tools for that to translate well to MLB, but if you factor in his well above average defense, he's still a nice prospect.

We'll have an updated top prospects list tomorrow afternoon.

Cubs Prospects on the Decline

Before this season, both dmick/Uncle Dave and I made our prospect lists. These aren't the only prospects in the Cubs system, but they are nearly all the ones worth talking about. I might have missed a prospect here or there, but it's a good jumping off point. The list of the first 21 is right here:

Javier Baez 65
Jorge Soler 65
Dan Vogelbach 65
Albert Almora 60
Brett Jackson 60
Gioskar Amaya 55
Arismendy Alcantara 55
Arodys Vizcaino 55
Logan Watkins 50
Christian Villanueva 50
Junior Lake 50
Dillon Maples 50
Duane Underwood 50
Jeimer Candelario 45
Dave Sappelt 45
Marco Hernadez 45
Matt Szczur 45
Pierce Johnson 45
Paul Blackburn 45
Josh Vitters 40
Juan Paniagua 40

Starting this month, dmick89 and I are going to cover which prospect we think are rising and falling. We'll focus on 3 or 4 guys, and list any honorable mentions we might have. Keep in mind, this is only for actually prospects; Brian Bogusevic is tearing up AAA but that's not as important as Jorge Soler tearing up A+ ball. — Myles

Stats are current through Wednesday's games

3. Gioskar Amaya: I was probably a little higher on Amaya entering this season than a lot of people, but even if I used MLB.com's 18th ranked prospect in the Cubs system, Amaya has fallen. He hit 8 home runs last year in short-season Boise, led the league in triples, and he added 6 more doubles. He slugged .498, which gave him an ISO near .200. His OBP was nearly 100 points higher than his average. For a 2nd baseman, these numbers were impressive.

So I've been more than a little disappointed with Amaya's results in 2013. Promoted to full season A ball at Kane County, he's been terrible. His walk rate has been cut in half (down below 6%) and his strikeout rate increased to nearly 25%. He hasn't yet hit a home run and has 9 extra base hits. He's hit .237/.280/.321, which is good for a 71 wRC+.

There's still plenty of time for Amaya to improve these numbers, but it's going to be difficult to have season ending numbers that look that impressive. He was rated near the bottom of the lists by the prospect analysts and is likely to drop off at this point.

2. Marco Hernandez: what was supposed to be a fantastic Cougars infield that boasted a legitimate prospect at every position has turned out to be disastrous. Hernandez struggled last year when he was promoted to A ball. His average was down, OBP down and slugging down. That's all true this year. He did have a couple nice games yesterday and that's not reflected in the stats.

His walk rate is horrendous. It's below 3%. In 280 A ball plate appearances he has a total of 12 extra base hits. He is only 20 years old and plays a premium position, but this guy has shown little skill beyond the ability to play SS.

Dave and I had Hernandez near the bottom of our list of prospects. I'm comfortable in knocking him down further at this point and depending on whether or not he shows much improvement the rest of the way, off the list entirely. The Draft is coming up next month so there will be two or three players that will sneak in above him and potentially pushing off.

1. Javier Baez. You knew it would be Baez. Baez currently has an ISO of .224, which is very good. It's allowed him to be productive enough so that his wRC+ is essentially league average (98). Doesn't sound so bad. It is bad.

Last year when he hit .188/.224/.400 (.288 wOBA, 76 wRC+) at Daytona in 88 plate appearances, you could point to him getting adjusted to the league, his .200 BABIP or highlight his .213 ISO and say things were going to be all good. The ISO is basically the same and, predictably, his BABIP has increased to .292. He's hitting just .238/.271/.462.

He's walking less than ever before and Baez was never one to take a lot of pitches. His walk rate is down to 3.2% and his strikeout rate has jumped to 29.0%. That's higher than Brett Jackson at the same level. Most of his strikeout rates are higher than Jackson's at the same levels. The difference between the two being that Jackson was very good at getting on base via the walk. Baez is not. He's flat out terrible at taking walks.

Prior to High A, Baez had 235 plate appearances in A ball. He hit .333/.383/.596. Those are ridiculous numbers for someone his age. In 241 A+ plate appearances, he's hit .220/.261/.439. Much of Baez's rankings have been based on the 235 A-ball plate appearances, but he now has nearly as many in A+ as he had before. Baez also had 18 plate appearances in rookie ball and A-.

Baez just hasn't been very good at all since getting to Daytona. I think anybody would agree that a .260ish OBP isn't going to cut it.

There are a handful of FSL players with 3 or 4 walks on the year. Baez has 5. He has the 3rd most strikeouts. He has the 26th lowest batting average this year. He has the 10th lowest OBP. Of the 7 FSL players with a lower walk rate, only 3 of them have a strikeout rate above 18.4%.

To make things even worse, Baez has made 14 errors this year in 35 games played. He stole 25 bases in his 253 pre-High A plate appearances. He's stolen 7 in Daytona.

One of the things that was actually impressive about Baez prior to Daytona was that he had been hit by 11 pitches. He wasn't afraid to stand in the box and take his base. He was afraid to not swing the bat, but that's another story. He's been hit 4 times in as many PA since he got to Daytona. It's almost like the pitchers with better control got promoted.

Baez is still just 20 years old and still has a lot of potential, but he's not the best prospect in the system anymore. Jorge Soler has taken that from him. Albert Almora may soon move ahead of him and if Dan Vogelbach's power returns, I'd put him above him too. Depending on how the rest of the season goes, it's also possible that the 1st round pick is ranked above him. We could see Baez fall down to 5th or even lower. If he doesn't improve the rest of the way, it will be lower.

I talked about this with Josh Vitters for years. You have to take walks. You have to take some. Vitters walk rate was quite low in the minors, but his walk rate is quite a bit higher than Baez's was. I'd be happy to see one improvement from him the rest of the year: patience. He has no chance to be a good MLB player walking as little as he does. He certainly has some power and could be a pinch hit specialist, but that's about it. He has to be more selective and if we see him improve at that, things suddenly look a lot better.

I guess the problem with that might be an even higher strikeout rate, which would seem difficult to do. If he's working deeper counts, he will strikeout more. Scary.

Honorable mention: Brett Jackson, Christian Villanueva

Brett Jackson's walk rate has declined 3 years in a row now. It stands at 8.7% through Wednesday. His strikeout rate has declined from over 33% to below 27%, but that's still bad. Along with the loss of strikeouts, though, his power has declined considerably. Jackson is capable of going on a tear and posting even better AAA numbers than a year ago, but he's quickly becoming an afterthought.

The Cubs working with him to cut down on his strikeouts by altering his mechanics is something I've always disliked. Sometimes it has great results, but it seems to me that more often it's the opposite. Brett Jackson was always a guy who struckout a lot and walked a lot. When he put the ball in play he'd hit it hard. He was productive. Very productive. What's wrong with that?

I understand it's the organizations obligation to help a player as much as possible, but sometimes I think they tinker too much. This might be an example because it seemed as soon as Dale Sveum talked about Jackson needing to make changes this time last year, shit got worse for Jackson. Maybe that's just a coincidence. I don't know.

Christian Villanueva's walk rate is back down to 7%, which is about what it was before the Cubs acquired him last year. His strikeout rate has jumped to 24% or more since joining the Cubs. He's reportedly quite gifted with the glove, but these numbers, along with a lack of power, aren't going to work at 3rd base.

JOT: Cubs Minor League Recap 5-15-13

Tennessee Smokies 4 @ Jackson Generals 8

Things didn’t fall apart for the Smokies until after starter Eric Jokisch left the game. He pitched 6.2 innings, allowed 7 hits and 2 runs. He walked a batter and struckout 5. Then Trey McNutt came in and pitched 0.2 innings. He gave up 2 hits and 2 runs. He was followed by Brian Schlitter who also pitched .2 innings. He allowed 3 hits and 4 runs.

Matt Szczur was 1-4 and was caught stealing for the 3rd time. Arismendy Alcantara was 2-3 and so was Jair Fernandez. Fernandez hit a home run and drew a walk. Rubi Silva, Christian Villanueva and Jonathon Mota each added a hit.

Charlotte Stone Crabs 7 @ Daytona Cubs 1

Austin Kirk has had a rough season. He threw 4 innings and gave up 7 hits and 6 runs. He walked 4 and struckout 4. To give you an idea how useless wins and losses for pitchers are, he’s thrown 38 innings this season, given up 46 hits and 24 runs on 7 home runs, 16 walks and 30 strikeouts. Despite being awful, he’s 4-2.

Luis Liria and Sheldon McDonald each threw 2 innings and both of them allowed 3 hits. Each of them struck a batter out. Frank Del Valle pitched the 9th and gave up 2 walks, 2 hits and a run. He struckout 2.

It was another terrible night at the plate for the Daytona Cubs. They had 5 hits and a walk as they scored only 1 run. John Andreoli was 1-3 with a walk. He was drafted in the 17th round in 2011 and turns 23 in June. He’s mostly played LF in his career and has a total of 1 home run. He has played some CF, which will be necessary for him to get to the big leagues. So far this year in 34 games, he’s hit .323/.412/.425. He’s also stolen 10 bases. He only has 8 extra base hits, though.

There were four Cubs who were 1-4: Javier Baez, Dustn Geiger, Ben Carhart and Chadd Krist. The Cubs had no extra base hits. Jorge Soler was 0-4 with 2 strikeouts.

Peoria Chiefs 0 @ Kane County Cougars 4

Taylor Scott and Nathan Dorris combined on a 3-hit shutout against the Chiefs. Scott threw 7.1 innings, allowed 2 hits and 2 walks while striking out 2. Dorris pitched the final 1.2 innings and gave up a hit.

The 20-year old Taylor Scott has had a fine start to his 2013 season. The South African was picked in the 5th round of the 2011 draft out of Notre Dame Prep High. He’s not a guy who strikes many out. Last year at Boise he struckout 43 in 71.1 innings. This year he’s struckout 23 in 38.1 innings. He’s walked 15, allowed only 1 home run and given up 30 hits.

Pin-Chieh Chen and Rock Shoulders were each 1-3 with a walk. Shoulders struckout twice and Chen struckout once. Bijan Rademacher, Dan Vogelbach and Willson Contreras were each 2-4.

Jeimer Candelario was 1-4 with a strikeout. Gioskar Amaya was dropped to 8th in the order and went 0-2 with a strikeout. Marco Hernandez was 2-3.

VSL Cubs 7 @ VSL Phillies

I know next to nothing about the VSL team and probably won’t be writing much about them until later on. So check out the box score because I’m going to highlight maybe one person per game for awhile.

Amaldo Cabrera was 3-5 with 3 doubles.

JOT: Cubs Minor League Recap 4-25-13

Iowa Cubs 9 @ Omaha Storm Chasers 3

Barrett Loux isn’t very good at baseball. He threw 4.2 innings, gave up 8 hits and walked 4. That’s almost 3 baserunners per inning. Esmailin Caridad walked 2 and struckout 3 over 2.1 innings. Cory Wade gave up 2 hits and a walk in .2 innings. Rafael Dolis got the save with 1.1 innings of work, 2 walks and 2 strikeouts.

I-Cubs pitchers gave up 10 hits, one of which was a home run, and walked 9 batters yet somehow gave up only 3 runs.

Logan Watkins was 0-2 with 2 strikeouts. He walked 4 times. The Cubs had 10 walks on the night.

Hide your children was 4-5 with a walk. Ryan Sweeney had the big night again going 4-5 with a triple and a home run. He walked and struckout also. Darnell McDonald was 2-5 and Edwin Maysonet was 2-4 with a walk.

Pensacola Blue Wahoos 1 @ Tennessee Smokies 2

Dallas Beeler threw 7 shutout innings and allowed 7 hits. He walked 1 and struckout 2. The right hander was selected by the Cubs in the 2010 draft in the 41st round. In 4 starts so far this season he’s thrown 31.1 innings and allowed only 17 hits. He’s struckout only 7, but also shown really good control in walking only 7. He’s been a bit BABIP lucky to date and doesn’t have the ability to strike a lot of batters out. He struckout 70 last season in 136 innings.

He made 9 starts for the Smokies in 2011 and returned there for the entire season last year. He’s now made 40 starts in AA so will probably see a promotion to Iowa at some point before too long.

Zach Rosscup allowed a walk, hit and a run in his inning while Brian Schlitter didn’t allow any hits or walks. He struck a batter out in 1 inning.

Ronald Torreyes had a great night as the leadoff hitter. He was 3-3 with a walk. He had a single, double and a triple. The rest of the Smokies combined for only 3 hits. Jae-Hoon Ha and Christian Villanueva were each 1-4. Ha struckout twice and Villanueva struckout once. Catcher Rafael Lopez was 1-3 with a double.

This week’s prospect profile will be Jae-Hoon Ha who deserves more attention than I’ve given him.

Lakeland Flying Tigers 3 @ Daytona Cubs 5

Zach Cates allowed 4 hits and no runs in 5 innings. He walked 1 and struckout 4. Yeiper Castillo struckout the side in the 6th. Austin Reed’s struggles continue. He gave up 3 hits and 3 runs in 1 inning pitched. He also walked 3. More on him in a moment. David Cales threw the final 2 innings, allow no hits or runs, walked 2 and struckout 4.

Austin Reed was a 12th round pick in 2010 and after a season as a starter, the Cubs move him to the bullpen in 2012. He wasn’t going to have any success as a starter considering he barely struck anybody out. He had a decent season in relief last year at Peoria, but so far this year he’s given up 15 hits in 7 innings. He’s allowed 9 runs, walked 6 and struckout 6.

Everybody in the Cubs lineup had a hit and they had 12 in total so let’s just stick with the guys who had more than 1. Javier Baez homered in the 1st inning and singled in his final at-bat. He struckout once and was picked off. Hopefully we’ll start to see him improve at the plate, but to be honest, I’m not concerned about that. I’m confident he’ll hit better, but the question is whether he’ll walk enough and strikeout less. Without improvements there, he’s going to struggle at some point. Maybe it’s this year. Maybe it’s next year, but he can’t continue to strikeout as much as he has to this point in his career and walk as infrequently as he has.

Chad Noble was 2-3 with a home run and a walk. Anthony Giantanti was 2-3 with a walk.

Kane County Cougars 4 @ Fort Wayne TinCaps 6

Lendy Castillo sucks. There. After 6 shitty innings by Castillo, Justin Amlung struckout 2 in an inning of work. Steve Perakslis gave up a hit in 1 inning. He also struck a batter out. Did I mention that Lendy Castillo is terrible? He is.

Pin-Chieh Chen was 1-4 with a walk. Dan Vogelbach was 0-4 with a walk and his 2nd stolen base of the year. Go figure.

Rock Shoulders, Marco Hernandez and Willson Contreras were each 1-3. Both Shoulders and Hernandez took a walk. Bijan Radenmacher was 2-4.

Lendy Castillo still sucks. In case I have not been clear, Lendy Castillo blows ass. Ass.

JOT: Cubs Minor League Recap 4-24-13

The only team scheduled to play was the Smokies so here we go.

Montgomery Bisquick Biscuits and Gravy 5 @ Tennessee Little Smokies 4

Matt Loosen threw 4.2 innings, allowed 5 hits and 2 runs. He walked 4 and struckout 3. Marcus Hatley allowed a hit and a walk in an inning of work and surrendered a run while striking out 2. AJ Morris officially came in the game to pitch the 7th inning, but was replaced before facing any batters. There must have been some kind of injury. He’s had shoulder problems before, but this could just be a simple issue.

Tony Zych threw 2.1 innings, allowed 2 hits, 2 walks and 2 runs. He didn’t strike anybody out. Frank Batista retired the final two batters without problem.

Arismendy Alcantara was 2-4 with a double and a walk. Ty Wright was 2-5 with a double. Christian Villianueva and Rafael Lopez also had doubles. Villanueva was 1-4 while Lopez was 1-2 with 2 walks.

Matt Szczur had a walk and a hit in 5 plate appearances and Ronald Torreyes was 1-5. Szczur stole his 8th base of the season.

JOT: Cubs Minor League Recap 4-23-13

Iowa Cubs 1 @ Memphis Redbirds 4

This will be short since the I-Cubs barely hit the ball last night.

Nick Struck went 6 innings, allowed 5 hits and 2 runs. He walked 2 and struckout none. Casey Coleman struckout the side in the 7th. Yoanner Negrin gave up 3 hits and 2 runs in an inning of work.

Logan Watkins was 1-2 with 2 more walks. Brad Nelson was 1-3 with a walk. Ryan Sweeney and Brian Bogusevic were each 1-4.

Montgomery Biscuits 4 @ Tennessee Smokies 3

Kyle Hendricks struckout 9 and walked only 1 over 7 innings. He gave up just 3 hits and a run. In his 3 previous starts this season he had struckout 6 and walked 6. The walks are a bit concerning for Hendricks, who was acquired along with Christian Villanueva for Ryan Dempster. At Daytona last year he walked just 18 batters in 147.2 innings. He’s not a strikeout pitcher, but with the kind of control he showed last year at Daytona, you don’t need to be.

Zach Rosscup struckout 3 and allowed a hit in his inning. Trey McNutt proved he was Cubs bullpen ready by giving up 3 hits and 2 walks in the 9th innings. He also gave up 3 runs.

Matt Szczur was 1-3 with a walk and Arismendy Alcantara was 0-3 with a walk. Jonathon Mota was 2-4 with a double and a home run.

Daytona Cubs 0 @ Dunedin Blue Jays 3

The Cubs had 0 runs on 4 hits so there won’t be much to talk about here either.

PJ Francescon allowed 5 hits and a run over 5 innings. He struckout 4 and walked 2. Yao-Lin Wang gave up 4 hits and a walk while surrendering 2 runs over 1.1 innings. Frank Del Valle struckout 4 and walked a batter in 1.2 innings of work.

In 8.2 innings pitched so far, Del Valle has an impressive 16 strikeouts. He’s also walked 7 batters so he’s been a little like Carlos Marmol. Neither his control or strikeout ability has been this high before. He’s generally thrown strikes and struckout a bit less than a batter an inning.

Ben Carhart was 2-3 with a double. John Andreoli was 1-3 and Matt Szczur was 1-4 with 2 strikeouts. Javier Baez was 0-3, but he did take a walk in his final at-bat. More of that, please.

Jorge Soler was 0-4. He’s returned to this place called Earth since returning from his suspension. He’s 1 for his last 13, but he’s still not striking out a lot. Has 9 strikeouts and 7 walks on the season.

Peoria Chiefs @ Kane County Cougars (Postponed)

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.

JOT: Cubs Minor League Recap 4-17-13

This is a short Cubs minor league recap seeing as the Iowa Cubs and Kane County Cougars were postponed.

Tennessee Smokies 4 @ Huntsville Stars 1

Eric Jokisch struckout 7 and walked none over 6 innings today. He gave up 3 hits and no runs. The 23-year old left-hander is off to a fantastic start in AA. He's thrown 6 innings in each of his three starts and has not allowed more than 4 hits in any of them. He's thrown a total of 18 innings, allowed only 10 hits, walked just 3 and struckout 17. He's allowed 1 home run.

Jokisch was picked in the 11th round in the 2010 Draft out of Northwestern. His strikeout rate prior to reaching AA had been above 20%, but last year in 105 innings he struckout only 14.9% of the batters. He's had pretty good control over his minor league career and if he can get back to the 20% range where he was before last AA a year ago, he could be a valuable prospect.

Zach Rosscup threw 2 scoreless innings and Brian Schlitter allowed an unearned run in the 9th.

The Smokies only had 6 hits and nobody had more than 1. Arismendy Alcantara was 1-1 with 3 walks. He also stole 4 bases today, which gives him 5 on the season. Alcantara only has 3 extra base hits on the season. Two of them have been home runs and the other a double.

Christian Villanueva was 1-3 with a home run and a walk. Justin Bour was 1-2 with a couple of walks.

Daytona Cubs 13 @ Clearwater Threshers 2

Yao-Lin Wang threw 4 innings, gave up 3 hits and a walk. He allowed a run and struckout 2. Austin Kirk pitched the final 5 innings, striking out 4 and walking 2. He allowed 3 hits and a run (a home run).

Javier Baez had one of the best games of his season so far. He was 3-6 with a home run. He has 3 home runs on the season now and most of his hits have been extra base hits. The problem has been getting balls to fall in, which should change. The other problem has been walks and strikeouts and we saw both today. He struckout only once and didn't walk, but here are the number of walks for the 1, 2, and 4 hitters (Baez batted 3rd): 9.

Zeke DeVoss was 1-2 with a double, stolen base and 3 walks. Taiwan Easterling was 1-3 with a double and 3 walks. John Andreoli was 0-2 with 3 walks. The Smokies had 11 walks today.

DeVoss has 12 walks and 10 strikeouts on the season. He's hitting only .245, but his OBP is an impressive .431 and he's slugging .490 to go with it. He's not going to come anywhere close to maintaining his current .245 ISO, but this guy can get on base. A lot. He's been picked off twice in the last two days so he needs to work on that a little bit.

Dustin Geiger was 3-5 with a double and a home run. SS David Bote was 0-3 with a couple walks.

Here's how well the Daytona Cubs have hit so far (through yesterday).

Player: PA, BB%, wOBA, wRC+
Jorge Soler: 27, 14.8%, .546, 254
Stephen Bruno: 51, 9.8%, .473, 205
John Andreoli: 53, 17.0%, .420, 170
Dustin Geiger: 47, 6.4%, .394, 152
Zeke DeVoss: 60, 15.0%, .392, 151
Micah Gibbs, 33, 15.2%, .364, 133
Chad Noble, 26, 7.7%, .339, 116

Loving those walk rates even if it's this early in the season.

Journeymen of Tomorrow: 4-11-13

Iowa Cubs 0 @ Round Rock Express 2

In Brooks Raley’s first start of the season he allowed a bunch of hits, didn’t strike many out and walked nearly as many as he struckout. Last night he went 7 innings, allowed 8 hits and 2 runs. He struckout 7 and walked 0. Raley might prove to be valuable in the bullpen, but as a starter, he leaves a lot to be desired. He’s good depth, I guess, but his career strikeout rate is only 13.8% and he’s walked 9.5% of the batters.

Jensen Lewis pitched an inning and allowed a hit.

The Cubs had 3 hits and 0 runs so this will be easy. Brett Jackson’s new swing was 1-3 with a walk and an obligatory strikeout. RF Ryan Sweeney was 1-4 with a strikeout. Ty Wright was 1-3 with a strikeout. Donnie Murphy and Brian Bogusevic each walked once.

The I-Cubs are now a healthy 1-7.

Chattanooga Lookouts 6 @ Tennessee Smokies 3

Alberto Cabrera struckout 5, walked 2 and allowed a home run over 6 innings of work. He surrendered 8 hits and 4 runs, all of which were earned. Marcus Hatley threw 2 innings, allowed 3 hits and a couple of runs while walking 1 and striking out 3. The 9th inning was worked by Brian Schlitter who allowed a hit and struck a batter out.

Catcher Jair Fernandez was 2-4 with an RBI. Fernandez is 26 years old and the best he can say about his career is that he was traded for RA Dickey back in 2008. That was before Dickey was very good.

SS Jonathon Mota was 0-2 with 2 walks. Matt Szczur has been slumping the last few games. He was 0-4. Arismendy Alcantar was 1-3 with a walk. Alcantara also had his 2nd stolen base of the season.

The Smokies didn't do much offensively (5 hits, 4 walks). Christian Villanueva had the team's only extra base hit, a double. He was 1-4 with a strikeout.

The Smokies are now 2-5.

Clearwater Threshers 12 @ Daytona Cubs 2

Starling Peralta had 7 strikeouts and no walks. Great start, right? Wrong. He allowed 4 home runs, which will pretty much ruin any strikeout to walk ratio. He also allowed 8 hits and 6 runs.

No worries, Yeiper Castillo also gave up 6 runs, but in only 3 innings of work and without the help of a home run. He gave up 7 hits, walked 1 and struckout 1.

Taiwan Easterling was 2-4 with a double and 2 strikeouts. He’s 4 for his last 9 with a home run and a double.

Stephen Bruno, Dustin Geiger and C Chad Noble were also each 2-4. Bruno and Geiger doubled.

John Andreoli and Zeke DeVoss took the team’s only walks.

Javier Baez was 0-4 with another strikeout. He has 4 hits on the season, and when he gets them he’s hitting them pretty hard. Of the 4, 3 have been for extra bases. Nobody is going to have 75% of their base hits be extra base hits over a long period and Baez has to make some improvements. He’s been miserable ever since he reached High A Daytona near the end of last season.

He’s struckout at least once in each of the Cubs 7 games so far this year. He has 33 strikeouts to 6 walks in 115 High A plate appearances. It’s only 115 plate appearances, but so far this year those numbers are worse than a year ago. He’s also made 4 errors already.

Kane County Cougars @ Wisconsin Timber Rattlers

Postponed