The Children Are The Future-Cubs Minor League Update Sponsored by Death Row Records

In News And Rumors by Obstructed View Staff87 Comments

Well yesterday was interesting here in the great midwest. After 3 days of the media beating us over the head with forecasts of DOOM! it finally arrived in the form of 99 tornadoes all hitting Salina. Which is fine because Salina sucks. Anyways, the only tornado near me was actually near my hometown so naturally I got in a large truck with my kinfolk and took some video. Check it out on Facebook if you are allowed access. If not then reflect on why you aren't allowed to be a eFriend of mine and cry.

 

Iowa

The offensive machine that is our AAA club continued to roll last night. Beef Castle picked up 3 hits and is now hitting .500. Brett Jackson hit his 2nd homerun is as many nights and Josh Vitters had a two double. Even Tony Campana got in the action stealing his 5th base of the year and raising his average to .333.  Its weird that we have two CF's in AAA that are better than our starting CF on the big league club but winning PCL titles is part of the master plan I'm sure. Sadly for the offense the corpse of Nate Robertson came in and shit the bed in relief and the Iowa Cubs lost 6-5.

Smokies

Wichita KS native Logan Watkins continues to have a good season as his first HR of the year helped Tenn win 5-2. Watkins could have a future as a utility player as he has some time at SS and 2B. What's interesting about him is that every year he moves up a level and he doesn't really get much worse. He just puts up a decent numbers wherever he goes. Kevin Rhoderick who I think we will see at some point in the bullpen this year worked a scoreless 9th for the save. Rhoderick has a slider that will make your think of the Carlos Marmol of old and now has 6 K in 5.1 IP while only giving up 1 run.

Daytona

Maybe its time for Zach Cates to take the bullpen test because he is awful as a SP. A week after laying a major egg Cates went out and duplicated his dubious feat giving up 8 R (5 ER) in 3.1 IP. After two starts he now has allowed 20 baserunners in 4.1 Innings and sports an ERA of 22. Tony Zych had a good outing striking out two in 1 inning of work. 

Peoria

Zeke DeVoss! went deep for his first HR of the year and continues to justify my man crush. Ben Wells had another strong outing. He worked 5.2 IP and gave up 3 runs while striking out 5. All the damage vs Wells was in the first inning. True to form his heavy fastball caused 8 groundouts to zero fly outs. There is a lot to like with this kid and he's definitely of the best pitching prospects we have. (Which isn't saying much) 

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  1. Berselius

    LIneup vs RHP Jake Westbrook

    RF Johnson (wut)
    2B DeWitt
    SS Castro
    1B Baker (wut)
    3B Stewart
    LF Mather (wut)
    C Soto
    CF Byrd
    P Maholm

    Did the Cardinals switch to a lefty starter today or something?

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  2. Author
    Rice Cube

    @ Berselius:
    Most of them want Clevenger to play more in my observation.

    Sort of playing off the conversation that ended the last thread…there have been a few blogs I’ve read online about Castro and the Cubs trading him. It seems like sort of a last resort to me but a trade would land some juicy items in return.

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  3. Author
    mb21

    Rice Cube wrote:

    Sort of playing off the conversation that ended the last thread…there have been a few blogs I’ve read online about Castro and the Cubs trading him. It seems like sort of a last resort to me but a trade would land some juicy items in return.

    I’m all for trading Castro. The Cubs can take their mediocre to bad farm system and turn it into a very good one with one trade. Add in Garza at the deadline and the Cubs would be a top 2 or 3 farm system next year.

    I should say that I’m only for trading Castro is you essentially rape another organization of talent. If all you’re getting is equal talent in return, no thanks. I think a lot of teams would overvalue Castro so give up a lot more than he’s worth.

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  4. Author
    mb21

    @ Berselius:
    Can you imagine what it would have been like if there were blogs, twitter and facebook during Ryne Sandberg’s first month with the team in 1982? Or what about Andrew Dawson’s 1989 season when he had a .227 batting average after 20 games? Or what about the last 59 games of that crucial stretch in 1989 when he batted only .231? Terrible fucking start. Terrible finish. It’s the sign of a player who doesn’t give a fuck about anything because he’s not performing when it matters. Piece of shit! That’s all we’d hear today.

    It’s almost like fans in the 80s understood small sample size and 30 years later they don’t.

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  5. Author
    Rice Cube

    mb21 wrote:

    I should say that I’m only for trading Castro is you essentially rape another organization of talent.

    I’m for this. I basically want to see whether Theo and Jed can convince a team to empty out their top 50 for Castro (dying laughing)

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  6. Author
    Rice Cube

    @ dylanj:
    Keeping Castro is probably contingent on whether or not he learns to play defense.

    The idea of shifting him to CF bugs me because you already have a capable prospect in Brett Jackson who probably gets on base better and hits for more power. If Castro doesn’t stick at SS then I don’t know why you’d want to keep him long-term…but that’s just one n00b’s opinion.

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  7. Author
    mb21

    The Cubs have never had and never will have a player I wouldn’t trade in the right deal. If the Cubs can get more value than Castro is worth how is it a bad idea? I wouldn’t trade him for what he’s worth even though Castro is probably going to be making big bucks or already be a free agent by the time the Cubs contend.

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  8. Author
    mb21

    Rice Cube wrote:

    The idea of shifting him to CF bugs me because you already have a capable prospect in Brett Jackson who probably gets on base better and hits for more power. If Castro doesn’t stick at SS then I don’t know why you’d want to keep him long-term…but that’s just one n00b’s opinion.

    Jackson could easily shift to RF and there’s still the obvious question about whether or not he’ll even be good enough at the big league level.

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  9. Author
    dylanj

    there isn’t value that i would consider = unless people got really silly about it. He hits for average, he has improved his power, his SB numbers are getting much better. He has flashed just about every tool you can. His biggest knock? He is raw at SS. So are alot of 22 year olds. Only they are raw in AA vs being a 3 year vet.

    Castro might be the most undervalued player around here. You can’t find SS like him in the bigs

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  10. Author
    mb21

    dylanj wrote:

    Castro might be the most undervalued player around here. You can’t find SS like him in the bigs

    It depends on whether you value the number of tools or the amount of value a player provides. I don’t care if he’s got 1 tool or 37. He’s a damn good ballplayer and he’ll improve over the next few years. I don’t exactly know how I could be undervaluing a player that I think is a very good player. Is he a superstar? No. Not now and more than likely not ever. That doesn’t mean he’s not a very valuable player though.

    PECOTA sees Castro being worth a little over 15 WAR over the next 5 years (before free agency). CAIRO would be similar and so would all the others. That’s a reasonable expectation for Castro. I’m not even being reasonable. I think he’ll be worth about 20 so among the many things people can call me pessimistic about, this sure as hell ain’t one of them.

    But when it comes to whether or not you trade someone there are only a couple things I care about. First, that you at least get equal value in return and second, you do so in a way that will free up payroll down the road. With Castro, because I think he is so good, I’d only trade him for more than he’s worth, but his salary will begin to increase next year. By the time the Cubs contend he’ll be making at least $10 million per year. Maybe more if he’s already a free agent at which point he’d be making exactly what he’s worth.

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  11. Author
    mb21

    Realistically though, teams aren’t going to be emptying their farm system for Castro. I think he could fetch more value in a trade than he’s worth, but even that it’s still not going to be enough for what I’d really want to see in return. I’d want 2 elite prospects and a third one that’s a very good prospect. Castro just isn’t the type of player you’re going to see teams emptying their system of that much talent for. Few players are.

    So I think the Cubs would be wise to sign him to an extension for 6, 7 or 8 years. By that time he’ll be in his late 20s, certainly moved away from SS by then and beginning to decline.

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  12. Author
    Mish

    I agree with mb for the most part, but for some reason,. I actually do see a team overvaluing Castro enough to get back at what I would want in return. Which is, at the bare minimum, two top flight prospects + other major league projectable players.

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  13. Author
    mb21

    @ Mish:
    If the Cubs can get that then I think they have to pull the trigger. That’s just more valuable to the Cubs and their time frame they’re looking at to contend than paying Castro a lot more money by the time that happens. I can’t imagine Theo and Hoyer saying no to such an offer.

    I don’t see anything getting done until the rape investigation is complete. I don’t think any team would even give up a top 20 prospect for him with that over his head. I wouldn’t even think about an extension until I knew that investigation was complete and that he would not be arrested for it.

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  14. Author
    mb21

    Speaking of the investigation, is it typical of investigations like this to last this long? It’s basically a he said/she said crime unless physical evidence exists. I would think the police would have collected all the physical evidence (if it exists) at this point. It would have to have been collected shortly after the assault. Maybe this is typical, but it doesn’t seem like that to me.

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  15. Author
    mb21

    One thing Castro could do to improve would be his splits. His splits are wider than the average player. If he could continue to hit lefties as he has so far and improve vs righties we could probably add another half win per season. What’s more likely to happen though is that his splits vs lefties come down. He’s only had 313 PA vs lefties (nearly 1000 vs righties).

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  16. GW

    Went to the I-Cubs game.

    Bert’s double was kind of a squib to left; he showed off his speed making it to second. His homer was also to straight away left field. It didn’t look like he got much of it at all. The wind definitely helped; I estimate it went about 350 feet. He also misplayed a low liner to center field that didn’t cause much trouble because Campana was very fleet-footed in backing him up.

    You can definitely tell why the scouts like Vitters. His double was crushed off the base of the left field wall. He also had at least one cringe-inducing swing at a Zach Jackson curveball in the dirt. He’s also a lot more slender than I had anticipated. Not quite Campana out there, but stands out compared to Rizzo, Valbuena, and Bert, who are all built like brick shithouses.

    Rizzo hit into two double plays, a 6-4-3 that was well struck with a nice play made by the shorstop, and a 3-6-3 that was pretty vanilla. His double was a line drive to right center.

    Overall, the I-Cubs tagged the lefty Jackson, who was throwing hard relative to Wood, but the radar gun wasn’t on. Campana had an outfield assist(!). Or so it is claimed. I missed it waiting in line for beer.

    I took some shitty iphone videos which i may or may not get around to posting.

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  17. Author
    mb21

    @ GW:
    Cool story, bro! (dying laughing)

    Thanks for the report. Early on Vitters has had a good start. I hope he can keep it up. If It’s easier for you, you can send me the videos and I can embed them in a player that’s available through our host.

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  18. Author
    ACT

    Seriously, this whole deal of rearranging the lineup based on 1 year of platoon splits pisses me off. It’s so basic. I don’t think Quade ever did something that dumb.

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  19. Author
    Rice Cube

    @ ACT:
    Also, if it’s what Bob Brenly said, then Bob’s just dumb, but what did Sveum say about it? Maybe he’s just trying to get his righty guys some action. *shrug*

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  20. Recalcitrant Blogger Nate

    The Cardinals announcers blow. I hate them. Asshole is saying Castro “looks bored” in the field; “just looks like he doesn’t want to play ball”. Also said that Maholm was a FB pitcher. Career 52 GB%

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  21. Author
    josh

    @ mb21:
    who knows where the investigation is? The timeframe for a big department like Chicago could take months. they may be trying to track down witnesses, or waiting for lab results from a backed-up lab, or maybe the investigation is complete and sitting at the bottom of a huge stack of cases on the DA’s desk. It seems slow, but it also seems not unreasonable to me.

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  22. Recalcitrant Blogger Nate

    Randy Wells 2IP, 6R, 7H, 2K, 2BB
    Campana HR (yea, you read that right)
    Jackson, 0-1, BB, K, R
    Valbuena 2-2, HR
    Rizzo 2-2

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  23. Recalcitrant Blogger Nate

    @ Rice Cube:

    Would Wade Davis be enough return for Geo? Could the Cubs even get that back at this point? If Castillo can handle starting by 2013, or even if a platoon of Clevenger and Castillo will work, I expect Soto to be dealt

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  24. Recalcitrant Blogger Nate

    @ Berselius:
    I think it might be Casey Coleman’s turn. Wells was today, Wood yesterday, and I think Jackson before that

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  25. Author
    ACT

    I hope we get another post-game interview with Byrd about the caught stealing.

    Did you get the steal sign?

    Did I go?

    I said, did you get the steal sign?

    I said, did I go?

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