This is something interesting to document that doesn't deserve a real post.
I was curious to see what Cubs are "young" for their level. So, what I've done is gone through each minor league system the Cubs contribute to and looked to see if any Cubs are in the Top 10. Here are the results. Note: only prospects who had appreciable time at each level were counted, at my discretion. Also, they had to be in the top 100 in batting average for the league (which is why Brett Jackson is not on this list). It's dumb, but it made this a lot quicker. I'm also not torn up about it too much, because it helps separate the chaff "prospects".
Dominican Summer League
Hitting
None
Pitching
Carlos Rodriguez, Age-16 (71.2 IP, 2.01 ERA, 9.2 K/9, 2.5 BB/9)
Arizona
Hitting
None
Pitching
Paul Blackburn, Age-18 (20.2 IP, 3.48 ERA, 5.7 SO/9, 3.0 BB/9)
Boise
Hitting
Jeimer Candelario, Age-18 (.281/.345/.396)
Darien Martin, Age-18 (.270/.318/.377)
LEAGUE LINE: .249/.331/.359
Pitching
None
Peoria
Hitting
Javier Baez, Age-19 (.333/.383/.596)
Pin-Chieh Chen, Age-20 (.259/.345/.347)
LEAGUE LINE: .254/.326/.379
Pitching
None
Florida
Hitting
Ronald Torreyes, Age-19 [Youngest player in the league] (.264/.326/.385)
Arismendy Alcantara, Age-20 (.302/.339/.447)
LEAGUE LINE: .255/.326/.373
Pitching
None
Tennessee
Hitting
Jae-Hoon Ha, Age-20 (.273/.352/.385)
Pitching
None
Iowa
Hitting
Josh Vitters, Age-22 (.304/.356/.513)
Anthony Rizzo, Age-22 (.342/.405/.696)
LEAGUE LINE: .278/.345/.430
Pitching
None
Pretty hilarious and sad that we don't have a single level-young prospect at A and above. This also gives me more confidence in Vitters. He truly is still very much a prospect, and he gets a bad rap for taking a little longer to climb to the majors even though he's still been level-young and competent everywhere he's been. Obviously, he needs to stick at third for that to happen. He should get a bunch of chances, in my opinion, because he's not blocking anyone unless you think Junior Lake is the answer.
What about that fat kid everyone is always talking about?
joshQuote Reply
I’d add the three 19-year-olds from Boise: Gioskar Amaya .298/.381/.496 (3rd in OPS among qualifiers), Marco Hernandez .286/.310/.416 and Dan Vogelbach .322/.423/.608 (in 168 PA). The average age in the NWL is close to 21.
cubsinQuote Reply
Vogelbach! That’s his name.
joshQuote Reply
I’d also add Tayler Scott from Boise, born 6/1/92, second youngest in the top 10 ERA leaders in the NWL, 5-1, 2.52 ERA, 1.33 WHIP, 0 HR allowed
cubsinQuote Reply
Hernandez/Amaya/Vogelbach is 12th/13th/14th.
Scott is 19th.
They are still real young but I BELIEVE it does order them by age to the day.
MylesQuote Reply
@ Myles:
What’s funny is that I only just now read the paragraph of your post where you actually explain what this list means.
joshQuote Reply
Wow. Paul Blackburn is the only pitcher that made this list. That surprises me and I’ve not at all been optimistic about our pitching in the minors (not that others have, but I’m even less optimistic).
Regarding Vitters, I think age is important, but I also think years of service is. A 22 year old in AAA with 800 minor league plate appearances is more than likely a superior prospect than a 22 year old with 2118 minor league plate appearances.
Personally, I think Vitters numbers are basically average and although he’s young, I’m not sure he’s young in the traditional sense. He’s been around a long time and has had years of professional coaching.
Not to mention, the number of players who have started their careers like Vitters have almost never (maybe never) amounted to much of anything. Maybe Vitters will, but I don’t buy it.
dmick89Quote Reply
Here’s something I just put together on BRef’s Play Index: http://bbref.com/pi/shareit/16v6m
There just aren’t many on that list who turned out to be very good.
dmick89Quote Reply
dmick89 wrote:
SVBQuote Reply
dmick89 wrote:
Well said; however, not being a great player doesn’t be he can’t be an average one. There is inherently value in learning how to “pass” each level, a task he has completed, basically, once a year. It took Denard Span essentially 6 years to make the big leagues (another 1st round HS draft pick). The odds are against him, looking at recent 1st round HS draftees, though. That’s for sure.
MylesQuote Reply
I agree with that and Span is a good counterpoint. I’d add, however, that Span is a really good fielder and well above average baserunner. Vitters, on the other hand, may not even be able to stick at 3rd so he’s probably a below average fielder and I feel confident in saying he’s a below average baserunner. He’s going to have to hit very well at the MLB level to be of much value and I just don’t see that. He doesn’t have the on-base skills and he doesn’t have the power. I’d love to be wrong, though.
dmick89Quote Reply
Baez got bumped up to Daytona and is three months younger than Torreyes, so he might be close to the youngest in the league this year. Looking forward to see what kind of numbers he puts up there once he adjusts.
Carne HarrisQuote Reply
@ dmick89:
I think most if not all of Vitters’ coaches were drinking buddies of Hendry and Fleita, and perhaps not so “professional.” The turnover in that department suggests that Theo agrees with my long-held view that the Cubs’ development staff was woefully inadequate.
Vitters has a beautiful swing, and I suspect his various coaches were under orders not to mess with it. They left it up to him to make the necessary adjustments at each new level.
cubsinQuote Reply
There is turnover for coaches on every minor league team. Many of these coaches are with other teams now and most of the ones the Cubs had and currently have came from other teams. I don’t buy that the past Cubs minor league coaches did anything they didn’t do elsewhere or are doing elsewhere now. I could be wrong, but there would have to be a lot of GMs in this game who don’t give a crap about winning and for everything that can be said about Hendry, nobody can say he wasn’t interested in winning. When he was involved in player development for the Cubs, they had one of the best minor league systems in baseball.
Vitters has multiple problems. He’s poor defensively, poor on the bases, lacks power that you typically see from corner infielders and is terrible at getting on base. I’ll give you pretty swing, but that doesn’t fix all the problems.
dmick89Quote Reply