Bryant, Schwarber Promoted
I'm not around much this week, but a quick note to give you a new thread to chat on. 4th overall pick Kyle Schwarber assaulted the Northwest League for a few days and got a quick promotion to Kane County and the Midwest League yesterday. Then after Kris Bryant won the home run derby in the Southern League All-Star game, he got his promotion to AAA to play along side Javier Baez. I haven't seen what the Iowa roster shake-up will be to make room for Bryant to play 3b, but demoting Christian Villanueva would probably make the most sense. I did see something that Villanueva may try some other positions as well.
On the rumor front, the Cubs have upped their offer to Samardzija on a deal that would be in the 5-year range (sans no-trade clause). The amount hasn't been uncovered, but Homer Bailey's $17.5M per year average would probably have to be the baseline to get Samardzija even interested. Presuming Samardzija spurns them again, the front office is still checking out offers with the Giants (Kyle Crick being their top pitching prospect) and Royals (Kyle Zimmer would be theirs) being the most prominently named.
Recent comments
-
crunch 7 hours 37 min ago (view)
kevin rizzo is in camp with the cubs and is in workouts with the team.
very tiny guy, no power, but he can run down a ball in the field and he's almost impossible to pitch to. time to give him a contract and put him in the OF.
https://twitter.com/Cubs/status/1366081602242023425
-
crunch 8 hours 17 min ago (view)
Marquee has added a tuesday game, so now the first televised cubs game is March 2nd (3pm EST)
-
Arizona Phil 18 hours 7 min ago (view)
The DFA of Robert Stock to make room for Kyle Ryan coming off the CoViD-related IL wil need to be followed by removing another player on the 40 to make room for Ryan Tepera.
It's possible somebody (like a pitcher) is injured to the extent that he might be placed on the 60-day IL, or else maybe somebody else will go on the CoViD-related IL (which is 40-man roster exempt) in the coming days to make room for Tepera.
-
Arizona Phil 18 hours 42 min ago (view)
The Cubs have signed LHSP Ben Holmes (ex-LAD) and RHRP Jose Moreno (ex-NYM) to 2021 minor league contracts. Both were post-2020 minor league 6YFA and neither has been on an MLB 40-man roster.
Holmes pitched collegiately at Oregon State and has some AAA experience, but Moreno hasn't pitched above Lo-A over the course of seven seasons in the Mets organization.
-
crunch 1 day 3 hours ago (view)
side note...k.wong is on 1st putting on one of those "baserunning mitts" (hand protection for sliding) that's extending past the length of his hand/fingers by at least 2-3 inches.
they're going to have to start regulating this piece of equipment if this keeps up...
-
crunch 1 day 5 hours ago (view)
Q with LAA in his debut for them...HBP, a wild pitch, and BB through 7 pitches...then 3 pop-outs to follow.
blah blah spring training...
baseball on TV...neat.
-
First.Pitch.120 1 day 9 hours ago (view)
We just traded for Maddux!!! ......... nope, the other one.
-
crunch 1 day 21 hours ago (view)
yeah, i'm just saying i did consider piling onto it with a troll-level post about the trade...it's practically asking to be written that way.
jeff passan did it quite well... https://twitter.com/jeffpassan/status/136577746706...
that said, i had no idea zach bryant existed before today, but his early numbers looked oddly good (which means nothing without context that early in his career).
-
Charlie 1 day 22 hours ago (view)
Oh, I mean the trade. You were quite diligent in posting!
-
crunch 2 days 1 hour ago (view)
i contemplated writing the post totally trolled out as hell with "zach" coming after a wall of text.
i decided the cubs being cheap was enough pre-season punishment without piling on.
-
Charlie 2 days 2 hours ago (view)
This is a straight up troll
-
crunch 2 days 4 hours ago (view)
rsox aquiring ZACH bryant from the cubs.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player...
ptbn from the josh osich deal.
totally useless trade...hopefully not a terrible loss.
-
Hagsag 3 days 5 hours ago (view)
Chase Strumpf and Andy Weber invited to the ML camp.
-
Dolorous Jon Lester 3 days 10 hours ago (view)
Ryan Tepera returns. Major League deal
-
crunch 4 days 8 hours ago (view)
spring training TV is usually fluid...adding and subtracting broadcast games...
first cubs TV (as of now) is March 3 (wednesday) on ESPN at 3pm EST.
radio broadcasts available for almost every game that's not televised. the cubs get going on monday and some other teams will start the day before.
-
crunch 5 days 5 hours ago (view)
dj snelton's left elbow is screwed up...6 weeks rest then re-evaluate.
looks like he's going to try to avoid having surgery.
Comments
Thanks Reds
Hell of a game today.
Arrieta's slider has been
Arrieta has actually looked
Must say I am pretty excited
I completely agree. They had
I just realized I'm very
I just watched some Kris
I like to focus on the "or
viz to AAA (about time).
Rivero headed to AAA with
And, yes, I have purchased my
Already had the Thursday game
Yeah, I'd like to see all the
MarlinsAlamos in a decade or so.kershaw no-hitter through 8..
...and he gets his no-hitter.
Where is Wellman?
Still here, E-Man. I'll see
Still here, E-Man. I'll see what I can do. Planning to be there tonight, weather permitting, which is iffy...
You will be the AZ Phil of
Atta boy Mike! Will be
Cherry-picked WGAF stat, but
I'm very curious to see how
I'm not a big fan of his
I'm never 100% what people
I don't have exact numbers
21% for a power hitter is
21% for a power hitter is close to fantastic
So What Should a Jeff
nice notion...if one wants to
http://www.youtube.com/watch
"Teams that have spoken with
BOB R: Mark this on your
BOB R: Mark this on your calendar:
Best bet is that Jason Hammel will be traded on Wednesday July 2nd, the first day of the 2014-15 International Signing Period (ISP) and the first day that a club's 2014-15 International Signing Bonus Pool (ISBP) Signing Bonus Values (SBV) can be traded. In fact, that may not be the only trade the Cubs make that day.
Because the Cubs way overspent on International Free-Agents subject to ISBP last year, they can't sign an IFA subject to ISBP for more than a $250K bonus in the 2014-15 ISP that runs from July 2nd through June 15, 2015, so their nearly-$4M in 2014-15 ISBP doesn't have much value to the Cubs, but the four Cub 2014-15 SBVs should have value to other clubs that can spend freely on IFA subject to ISBP restrictions in the 2014-15 ISP.
Cubs 2014-15 ISBP SBV #1: $2,288,700
Cubs 2014-15 ISBP SBV #2: $458,000
Cubs 2014-15 ISBP SBV #3: $309,300
Cubs 2014-15 ISBP SBV #4: $206,700
NOTE: Cubs 2014-15 ISBP SBV #1 (the one worth $2,288,700) can ONLY be traded to HOU or MIA if the entire SBV is to be used, because for all other clubs a $2,288,700 SBV would exceed their pre-assigned 2014-15 ISBP by more than 50%, and a club cannot acquire an SBV that is more than 50% of the club's orginally-assigned ISBP for that International Signing Period. However, a club other than HOU or MIA could acquire Cubs SBV #1 and then subtract as much of it as is necessary so that the final total of Cubs SBV #1 is no more than 50% of the new club's originally-assigned 2014-15 ISBP (and then the balance of Cubs SBV #1 would just be forfeited).
All clubs receive an additional $700,000 in their ISBP that cannot be traded, so the Cubs 2014-15 ISBP is just under $4M.
Last year on July 2nd the Cubs traded Scott Feldman and Steve Clevenger to the Orioles for Jake Arrieta and Pedro Strop and a BAL SBV, traded 2B Roni Torreyes to the Astros for a HOU SBV, and traded Carlos Marmol and one of their own SBV to LAD for Matt Guerrier... all on July 2nd.
So look for the Cubs to trade Hammel and one or two of of their four SBV someplace on July 2nd (a 2014-15 SBV cannot be traded until July 2nd and it cannot be used to satisfy a PTBNL, so it has to be traded at the time the trade is made), and an additional trade or two involving Cubs 2014-15 SBV on 7/2 is certainly not out of the question.
At least as far as the Cubs are concerned, July 2nd could be as big a day as the July 31st non-waiver trade deadline or the August 31st post-season roster deadline.
Also, the 2014 Rule 4 Competitive Balance Draft Lottery will be held on Juiy 21st, so a 2015 Rule 4 Competitive Balance draft pick could be part of a trade involving Jeff Samarrzja if the Cubs wait until the last ten days of July to trade The Shark and the deal is made with a club that has a Competitive Balance draft pick to trade.
EXAMPLE: The Cubs could trade Samardzija to BAL for (let's say) Dylan Bundy, Hunter Harvey, and the Orioles 2015 Rule 4 Competitive Balance Draft pick, although for that to happen the trade could not be made until after the Competitive Balance Draft Lottery on July 21st.
Phil, can those SBV's somehow
He covered that - (a 2014-15
Derrr ... I read through it
CARLITO: An SBV cannot be
CARLITO: An SBV cannot be substituted for a PTBNL and it cannot be sold for cash, but there is no restriction in the rule about trading an SBV for a PTBNL.
However, the problem would be that since an SBV can only be traded during the ISP to which it applies and an SBV can only be traded during the MLB regular season, the normal PTBNL requirements that a PTBNL must be named within six months and the right of the two clubs to agree in advance to a specific cash amount as a substitute for the PBNL if the clubs cannot agree on a player within six months of the trade would probably make trading an SBV for a PTBNL a bit tricky.
For it to work the PTBNL would have to be named prior to the conclusion of the MLB regular season and also the player would have to be named during the ISP to which the SBV applies, and there could be no option to substitute the PTBNL with cash. So even though there is nothing in the rule to prevent trading an SBV for a PTBNL, the MLB Commissioner might not approve the trade if there is any chance that the two clubs won't be able to agree on a player or if the PTBNL cannot be named prior to the conclusion of the MLB regular season (like if Trade Assignment Waivers would be required to make the trade).
Here is how it might possibly happen:
Let's say a club (the Blue Jays, just for an example) want the Cubs #2 SBV on July 2nd (when it has the most value) and the Cubs want a player who was selected by the Jays in the 2013 Rule 4 Draft (June Draft) in return, but the player the Cubs want did not sign until the 2013 Rule 4 Draft signing deadline (which was July 12th last year). That player cannot (by rule) be traded until the 1st anniversary of the player signing his first contract (the first anniversary being July 12, 2014). The Cubs 2014-15 ISBP is available (and 2014-15 SBVs can be traded) as of July 2, 2014, so the Cubs could trade one of its 2014-15 SBV to Toronto on July 2nd for a PTBNL, as long as the player is specifically identified and known to both clubs and to the MLB Commissioner (with no cash substitute option). Then on July 12th (the first date the player can be traded/named) the player would be transferred from the Jays to the Cubs.
It's the PTBNL cash substitute option and the right of the two clubs to wait up to six months to complete the trade that would be the hang-up.
One other thing to keep in
One other thing to keep in mind about trading an SBV versus trading a Rule 4 Competitive Balance draft pick.
Both can only be traded during the MLB regular season, but while an SBV can be flipped to a third team, a Rule 4 Competitive Balance draft pick can only be traded once.
So if there is a club that wants Jason Hammel but doesn't have any use for a Cubs SBV because the club acquiring Hammel can't or won't sign high-priced IFAs, the club to which the SBV is traded could move the ex-Cubs SBV to a third club in exchange for a player sometime later.
bryant hitting 5th...welly
Welly batting second for 1st
it's yet another reminder of
our old friend daniel bard
Thoracic outlet surgery 1,
Thoracic outlet surgery 1, Daniel Bard 0
send him down
Apologies if this was posted
Bryant, welcome to AAA. 2 run
BRING HIM UP!!!!
Dude is unreal ...
Bryant might still amount to
Not sure if an Instagram link
He of the non-jerky, non
Draft Signing Update for
it's really impressive
Seems like the norm for these
i was interested to see how
I am also impressed how Garza
Dale Sveum was the biggest
2011: Cubs signed 20 of their
2011: Cubs signed 20 of their first 22 picks
2010: Cubs signed 15 of their first 16 picks
2009: Cubs signed 14 of their first 15 picks (including first 12)
2008: Cubs signed 26 of their first 27 picks (including first 10)
2007: Cubs signed 23 of their first 24 picks (including first 18)
2006: Cubs signed 19 of their first 21 picks (including first 12)
So signing a high percentage of their draft picks (ncluding most of the high ones) is nothing new for the Cubs. They have been doing that for years.
Whether the current regime will be different from (better than) the previous one as far as developing draft picks into MLB talent is still TBD, but most of the 17 Area Scouts the Cubs employ in 2014 are the exact same ones (Tim Wilken's boys) the previous regime employed in 2011, and some of Wilken's Area Scouts were even promoted. For example, Jim "Craw Dad" Crawford (the former Cubs Arkansas Area Scout who recommended Hayden Simpson to Wilken in 2010) was promoted to Scouting Supervisor by the current regime, and a couple of others were transferred to the Professional Scouting section or promoted to a National Cross-Checker position.
The big change is in the area of Professional Scouting (the section responsible for scouting the minor leagues and independent ball). The Cubs have doubled their number of Professional Scouts, and most of the Professional Scouts the Cubs employed in 2011 were fired. That's where the big changes were made. Not in amateur scouting (area scouts).
Putting a greater emphasis on Professional Scouting allows the Cubs to have updated scouting reports available on all players in the minor leagues, which they use when making trades, waiver claims, and selections in the Rule 5 draft, and also for future use in the event the player reaches the big leagues. The Cubs also "self-scout" their own system instead of just relying on reports from their minor league managers and coaches.
The Epstein/Hoyer/McLeod regime also hired more scouts in Latin America (especially in Venezuela). Even though they just built a new academy in the Dominican Republic, the Cubs now sign as many Venezuelan players as they do Dominican players (it used to be about 60% Dominican and 40% Venezuelan), and the Venezuelan players they sign now stay in Venezuela and play for the VSL Cubs instead of playing in the DSL.
Putting a greater emphasis on scouting in Venezuela is the Cubs taking advantage of a "market inefficiency," as many MLB clubs have reduced their presence in Venezuela over the past few years.
The Cubs still have a scouting presence in the Pacific Rim, but the new regime has not signed any Australian players (the last one was signed in 2008) and the Cubs have signed only one Taiwanese player and one South Korean player since 2010. The Cubs have also not signed any European players since Italian catcher Alberto Mineo in 2010.
I think the bigger surprise
JOHANN: Chris Huseby, Drew
JOHANN: Jeff Samardzija, Chris Huseby, Drew Rundle, Cliff Andersen, Jordan Latham,. and Nate Samson in 2006, Ryan Acosta and James Russell in 2007, Logan Watkins and Matt Cerda in 2008, Brooks Raley, Nick Struck, Trey McNutt, and Austin Kirk in 2009, Austin Reed, Dustin Geiger, and Ben Wells in 2010, and Dillon Maples, Shawon Dunston Jr, Rock Shoulders, Trevor Gretzky, Kevin Rhoderick, and Michael Jensen in 2011, were all considered "tough" signs at the time they signed.
Wow...Drew Rundle, Cliff
DUSTY B: At the time they
DUSTY B: At the time they were drafted, Baseball America had Drew Rundle ranked in their top 125, Chris Huseby had been one of the top-rated HS juniors in 2005 before suffering a torn elbow UCL and undergoing TJS, and Cliff Andersen was a two-sport player (baseball and football). All three players were considered tough signs with all three having signed NLIs with college baseball power-houses, and so all three of them wanted more money than their projected draft position would warrant.
Huseby was going to Auburn, Rundle to the U. of Arizona, and Andersen was headed for Oklahoma State to play baseball and football (Andersen's father played college football at BYU and his younger brother Boo was a star linebacker at the U. of Utah). The Cubs gave Huseby "1st round money" to forgo his scholarship at Auburn.
Huseby was ranked by Baseball America as a Cubs Top 10 Prospect after his first season, he led the organizatiion in ERA in 2008, and he was a MWL All-Star closer in 2009, but he came down with a real bad case of "Steve Blass Disease" (could not throw strikes) and was eventually moved to the OF. The Red Sox signed Huseby after the Cubs released him and moved him back to pitcher, but it didn't work out.
Rundle was a very good defensive outfielder (he was a WR in HS so he was great at tracking fly balls) with a really good batting eye (took a lot of walks), but he was a poor hitter (passive with soft contact) and never developed any power and so he was eventually moved from OF to LHP. He signed with the Phillies after the Cubs released him, but it didn't work out there, either. (Rundle was a lot like Garrett Schlecht, the Cubs 9th round pick in 2011 out of an Illinois HS who was converted from OF to LHP this season by the Rockies after the Cubs released him).
Andersen was an outstanding defensive CF flyhawk (he was football safety) but he had a below average arm and he had difficulty making contact. He was a VERY raw hitter. Too many swings & misses. I did see him hit a 450-foot HR over the Batter's Eye at Fitch Park in an EXST game, however, and so the talent was there, it just never developed.
Again, its the process versus results. The process was actually solid, but the results unfortunately were not. And that's the danger when you draft & sign raw HS kids with "upside." You are depending heavily on the Player Development people to work their magic, except the Cubs Player Development Dept. under the previous regime left a lot to be desired.
Needless to say, there was a bit of a disconnect between scouting and player development under the previous regime.
COACH: Why did they draft this guy!?
SCOUT: What have they done to my boy!?
Now Jason McLeod is in charge of both scouting & player development, so hopefully the Cubs will do a better job of drafting & developing high-ceiling HS kids.
BTW, I wouldn't be surprised to see McLeod get an MLB GM job somewhere in the next couple of years. He is a bright bulb.
In talking to lots of scouts
In talking to lots of scouts over the years, I would say the consensus seems to be the following:
In general, the type of draft picks who are the best bets to succeed go like this...
1. College hitters
2. College pitchers
2. HS pitchers
4. HS hitters
With a few exceptions (the elite talents), it is best to stay away from HS hitters. You usually have to overpay to buy them out of their scholarship, and the track record is minimal. Too much projection, not enough performance.
Generally speaking.
AZ: That's interesting to
Well, there is really no
So then why did the new
So then why did the new regime retain the vast majority of the Area Scouts they inherited (even promoting a couple)?
Apparently the new regime was satisfied with the amateur scouting. The big chenges were made in Professional Scouting and Player Development. The Player Development Dept. just could not consistently develop the many highly-regarded drafted and IFA players they were given.
They may have kept scouts but
Theo changed the way they
JOHANN: I wasn't being
JOHANN: I wasn't being "disingenuous." You're full of shit. You don't even know what you're talking about.
Submitted by johann
on Sat, 06/21/2014 - 7:14am Permalink
I think the bigger surprise seems to be signing players who were considered "tough" signs in rounds 3 on. Have the Cubs done that in the past or picked "easy" signs in the past? That's the more important question.
Submitted by Arizona Phil
on Sat, 06/21/2014 - 7:36am Permalink
JOHANN: Jeff Samardzija, Chris Huseby, Drew Rundle, Cliff Andersen, Jordan Latham,. and Nate Samson in 2006, Ryan Acosta and James Russell in 2007, Logan Watkins and Matt Cerda in 2008, Brooks Raley, Nick Struck, Trey McNutt, and Austin Kirk in 2009, Austin Reed, Dustin Geiger, and Ben Wells in 2010, and Dillon Maples, Shawon Dunston Jr, Rock Shoulders, Trevor Gretzky, Kevin Rhoderick, and Michael Jensen in 2011, were all considered "tough" signs at the time they signed.
You completely were. Someone
the higher ups may be doing
This is one of the links I
JOHANN: If you want to tell
JOHANN: If you choose to tell me that I am being "ingeneuous" or that I am a "tool" then I have the right to tell you that you're full of shit, because you are full of shit.
As far as my ability to record "minutiea" (as you call it), it's information you can't get anywhere else, a lot of people seem to be interested in it, and it is a LOT of work for which I do not get paid.
So you know what you can do with yourself? Guess.
Yeah, what Johann and Cubster
Fine, except I wasn't talking
Fine, except I wasn't talking about bringing the Scouting Department into the 21st century by having the scouts file scouting reports electronically instead of by mail or using video or giving the scouts Smart Phones. I specifically was talking about the scouts themselves, who despite what yuo might think are still the backbone of any "21st Century" scouting department.
While the Cubs completely reorganized their Professional Scouting staff (the scouts who scout the Minor Leagues, Indy Leagues, and self-scout the Cubs organization), the 17 Area Scouts (Stan Zielinski, Billy Swoope, Steve McFarland, Keith Lockhart, et al -- the scouts who scout HS and college players for the Rule 4 Draft) have mostly remained exactly the same as prior to the arrival of Theo/Hoyer/McLeod, and two or three of them were even promoted, including current Cubs Scouting Supervisor Jim "Craw Dad" Crawford, the Arkansas Area Scout who recommended Hayden Simpson to Tim Wilken in 2010... the very same Hayden Simpson considered to be one of the worst Cubs 1st roumd picks in draft history.
So obviously at least as far as the players selected in the Rule 4 Draft are concerned, the scouting process outweighs results. At least it apparently does to Theo/Hoer/McLeod.
Oh, and BTW, you might want to add Josh Harrison to your lame-ass list of recent Cubs draft picks who have become useful major league players. He was pretty fucking useful last night to the Pirates at Wrigley Field, and in fact he has been a valuable "contributor" to the Pirates all year.
And once again (since you apparently skipped over this part);
2011: Cubs signed 20 of their first 22 picks
2010: Cubs signed 15 of their first 16 picks
2009: Cubs signed 14 of their first 15 picks (including first 12)
2008: Cubs signed 26 of their first 27 picks (including first 10)
2007: Cubs signed 23 of their first 24 picks (including first 18)
2006: Cubs signed 19 of their first 21 picks (including first 12)
So signing a high percentage of their draft picks (including most of the high ones) is nothing new for the Cubs. They have been doing that for years. It didn't just start in 2012 (despite what you implied).
There is no need for that.
WISCGRAD: You have to admit
WISCGRAD: You have to admit it was a lame-ass list, but the one you just posted is not.
I mentioned Josh Harrison mainly because he did have a good game against his former team last night and he has played very well this season, and so I felt it was an obvious name that you should probably include in any short list of "contributors" since the Cubs are actually playing his team this weekend.
As for the rest of it, as I said I wasn't talking about the new regime bringing the Cubs Scouting Department into the 21st Century by the use of video and electonic filing of reports, etc. I was talking about the scouts themselves, who (from having talked to dozens of them over the years) I can say are the backbone of any Scouting Dept. For some reason you decided to turn it into some kind of a post about how there is more to scouting than scouts, when I wasn't talking about thde other stuff at all. I was specifically talking about how the new regime retained the vast majority of the Area Scours they inherited.
Also: "So obviously at least
WISCGRAD: The Professional
WISCGRAD: The Professional Scouting Department was completely reorganized and expanded. That's where most of the changes in scouting have occurred over the past three years. Otherwise, Area Scouts still do what they've always done, and the changes in reportuing forms, electronic filing of reports, and the use of personal communication devices hasn't changed the way the scouts scout. Theo did NOT reinvent scouting.
The big problem Theo inherited was the Player Development Dept.
I can remember talking to players at Fitch Park over the years and you would be surprised how many players would say that one coach would tell him one thing, and a week or a month later another coach would tell him something completely different, sometimes the exact opposite. There was a manager at Extended Spring Training one year who benched guys (sometimes during a game!) if they got called out on strikes.
You might remember back in 1998 the Cubs traded 1997 #1 draft pick Jon Garland (who was struggling in Lo-A at the time) to the White Sox for journeyman MLB RHRP Matt Karchner. When the White Sox got Garland they showed him video they had recorded of him in HS before the Cubs drafted him (the Cubs didn't do video back then) and changed his arm slot back to the way he threw in HS (when he was one of the best HS pitchers in the country), and he immediataly took off and made it to MLB very quickly. That's an example of good scouting almost ruined by bad player development and then saved by a trade. Same thing happened with Donnie Veal, but he probably wasn't saved in time.
2005 #1 draft pick Mark Pawelek was a one-off freaky five-pitch pitcher when the Cubs drafted him, and his father had been his pitching coach. Pawelek threw every day when he was a HS oitcher in Utah, and he never had any arm problems, starting one day and throwing out of the bullpen between starts to "stay sharp." He threw five pitches (a conventional two-seam 91 MPH sinker, a four seam 95 MPH heater, a curve, a screw-ball, and a power slider), and he used all of them in games. He mixed the two fastballs back & forth, used the curve and screw ball as off-speed pitches, and the slider was his strikeout "chase" pitch. He was like a 12-cylinder Jaguar. He had to do everything a certain way in order for it to work, but when he did things his way, he got great results.
Pawelek pitched the way he wanted to pitch (the way he was taught to pitch by his dad) his first year in the organization, but then the Cubs told him to scrap the high-velocity four-seamer, the screw-ball, and the power-slider, and throw just the two-seam sinker, the curve, and a more-conventional change-up. He also was not allowed to throw every day. If you look at his numbers, he appeared to rather suddenly "fall off the cliff" and never was able to get back to where he was in 1995 when the Cubs drafted him, and of course because he was a "failed #1 draft pick," scouting was blamed. (It was kind of like Trevor Bauer with the Diamondbacks before he got traded to Cleveland... butunfortunately for him, Pawelek didn't get traded),
So a lot of times the scouting was actually good, but the player failed due to piss-poor player development.
The Cubs Player Development system has changed since Theo/Hoyer.McLeod took over, however. Each player is treated as an individual, and while there is a "Cubs Way," it refers to the teaching of baseball fundamentals in a certain way rather than forcing everybody to be the same player or pitcher. Also, every player has a "plan" (contract) with the organization detailing the player's weaknesses and how the player can improve. The player and all of his coaches have access to this plan at all times, and the day of one coach telling a player one thing and another coach telling him something different are gone.
My vote is that AZ Phil is
My vote is that AZ Phil is neither disengious nor a tool. I certainly think he has a much better idea of how the baseball operations actually work versus most of us with a credit card and a laptop. That all being said and to echo some of the statements others made, seems some of the scouting ways have been updated and changed, but the big difference is the decision makers and the development process. Whatever McLeod, Hoyer and Theo did in the past, they did it well and some may have been just more bonus money, but they've certainly earned the chance to fail.
"only a few guys who ever
Highlights from Last Night: