It's Cubs Picnic Day at HoHoKam
With most all of the Cubs front office personnel, Scouting Department, and Player Development staff watching from the picnic area high above the third-base dugout, Michael Brenly singled twice and scored once, Starlin Castro singled twice (increasing his AFL-leading batting average to .433) and drove in a run with a sacrifice fly, and four Cubs pitchers combined to throw seven innings of one-run ball, as the Mesa Solar Sox dropped the Peoria Javelinas 8-1 in Arizona Fall League action at HoHoKam Park in Mesa this afternoon.
The Cubs brain-trust had a bar-b-que at HoHoKam Park today because this week is the annual Cubs "Organizational Meetings" in Mesa (sort of a "Cubs Convention" for club employees). This is the one time every year when all the scouts and coaches and managers and execs all get together in the same place at the same time, drink a lot, and decide that the lineup is "too right-handed." (If you don't think these get-togethers are dangerous, remember it was probably at the Cubs organizational meeting this time last year that the Cubs decided to not offer Kerry Wood arbitration, to trade Mark DeRosa and Michael Wuertz, and to go hard after Kevin Gregg, Milton Bradley, Aaron Heilman, and Aaron Miles),
RHP Andrew Cashner was supposed to have started last Tuesday in Peoria, but his start was pushed back to today, apparently to allow the Cubs brass to get a first-hand look at their prized phenom. That's also probably the reason six of the seven Cubs players assigned to the Solar Sox saw action in today's game. (Only Josh Vitters had the day off).
Cashner worked four shutout innings again this afternoon, on the heels of his last start a week ago yesterday when he tossed four innings of no-run, no-hit ball at the Scottsdale Scorpions. He scattered five harmless singles and hit a batter today, but he didn't walk anybody, and he struck out four (4/4 GO/FO, 49 pitches - 35 strikes).
LHP James Russell followed Cashner to the mound and had a 1-2-3 5th inning, interrupted only by an E-3 on a two-out grounder, but he then retired the side without further incident (2/1 GO/FO, 16 pitches - 10 strikes). He mixed his fastball & change-up very well today..
Hard-throwin' LHP John Gaub worked the 6th, (16 pitches - 11 strikes) and struck out the only lefty batter he faced (the Dodgers' Andrew Lambo) on three pitches, Otherwise, he pitched a shutout inning (two pop-ups in addition to the strikeout and the single).
RHP Blake Parker drew the 7th, and got into immediate difficulty when Mesa CF P. J. Phillips (Angels) lost a pop fly in the sun, allowing Peoria's Jessie Mier (Dodgers) to reach base on a gift double. Parker would later surrender an RBI single to Lorenzo Cain (Brewers),before getting the third out (he threw 18 pitches - 11 strikes), but he should have escaped the inning with no run scoring. NOTE: Phillips probably should be cut some slack as far as losing the pop fly in the sun, because at other points during the game he hit a solo HR, just missed two others (settling for doubles both times), and made a spectacular diving catch in left-center.
On offense, Starlin Castro was the Solar Sox shortstop and hit 2nd, and Michael Brenly (with dad Bob in attendance, sitting just a few feet away from me) got the start at catcher and hit 9th.
Castro grounded a single between the shortstop and third-baseman with a runner on 1st base and no outs in his first AB in the bottom of the 1st inning, but was erased on a DP.
Michael Brenly singled sharply through the box into CF with a runner at 1st base and one out in the bottom of the 2nd, and advanced to 3rd on a throwing error by Peoria CF Lorenzo Cain, before scoring on a one-out F-8 SF hit to medium-deep CF by Castro.
Brenly would later single again, as would Castro,.with Brenly's second hit a line-drive ripped to CF, and Castro's an infield grounder backhanded by Javelina SS Carlos Triunfel (Mariners) deep in the hole with no play at 1st.
Brenly also flied out to deep CF in the 4th (deep enough to allow the runner at 2nd base to advance to 3rd), and grounded out to the third-baseman in the 8th (Peoria 3B Brent Morel making a nice back-handed stop, throwing out Brenly out on a "bang-bang" play at 1st), while Castro popped-out to CF in the 4th and struck out swinging in the 8th.
Castro, Vitters, Parker, and Cashner were named to the AFL "Rising Stars Game" roster earlier this week (the game will be televised "live" on the MLB network Saturday night), but I believe Cashner will be unavailable to pitch in the game since he threw four innings today. If he had pitched last Tuesday in Peoria instead of today in Mesa, he could have thrown in the Rising Stars game on Saturday.
Comments
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that's cute, and I know Castro's the flavor of the month and I do hope he's fulfills all this promise, but Jeter showed a lot better control of the strike zone than Castro did at age 19 and the rest of his minor league career...
obviously they're planning on Castro grow into his power, so I won't go there yet, but let's just take a moment and let the kid show he belongs...by actually putting up an OPS number north of .800 and not making almost 40 errors over a full season.
after going from Hi-A to AA to AAA at age 20 in '94., Yanks were smart enough to put Jeter through a whole season of Triple A at age 21 in 1995.
I'm more than happy to wait for Castro until 2012 and I'm happy to wait until Vitters until then as well. I think they'll both be 22 by then, they got time.
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yeah I know, but he proceeded to get significantly better in that area, although I hope Castro is a lot better defensive shortstop than Jeter is...
and all the reports on Castro is that his defense is good, but let's just make sure he actually shows it on the field for a full season before handing him any starting jobs...or putting him a class with a HOFer.
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once in 159 PA's, Theriot slugged .522...
so far, Castro has a 1.67 K/BB ratio and has never quite approached 158 walks over a full season, and I don't think they were really pitching around Jeter judging by his XBH's.
nonetheless, it's one of those we shall see...I for one would like to see all this talent actually manifest into a full good season at AA or above before I anoint him a HOFer and give him a starting job in 2010.
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completely disregarding that season then, although that doesn't seem wise...
1.22 K/BB ratio
BB/PA%, - 9%, K/PA% - 11%, Castro's at 6 and 11% and a 1.67 ratio...
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i think that's what anyone not named Real Neal would call continuing a level or an early promotion the season before...
but hey, to each their own....
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Did you happen to catch an attendance figure?
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E-MAN: The announced attendance was 432, but it was a late-arriving crowd, and a lot of the fans went home early. I stayed for the whole game, though.
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Bio on Vitters
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I was talking about 2006...
he did have a .525 SLG in May last year as well in 111 PA's...
my sarcastic comment was just my pretentious way of saying I don't much stock 120-200 PA's as being reflective of a player's true talent level.
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discussed in the previous thread, but I assume you're kidding about the 2 good prospects.
I mean I'm sure they don't suck, but lefty relievers that rank in the 40-60 range, don't sound all that exciting.
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gaub and parker definitely would have gotten it done and probably would have been way too much...i am slightly disappointed in that one.
gomez is basically a cheap wily taveras, incredible defense and speed, no bat...nonetheless, they probably didn't want to deal Hardy to the Cubs.
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Jim Frey is the only guy I know of that purposely took way less talent in a trade rather than trade inter division. And that worked out spectacularly.
intriguing theory...name all the inter-division trades in the last 25 years that involved substantial talent (Tom Gordon and Jeff Fassero deals need not apply) and one of the teams wasn't obviously rebuilding at the time...
I theorized last month that Marshall,Tony Thomas and Jeff Stevens would be enough to get Hardy.
probably, seems high, well not Tony Thomas...but maybe Brewers really like Gomez and really wanted a defensive center fielder?
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yeah I was really thinking the last 15 years and 3-division format to be honest.....
a lot of those guys on your list I'd argue were rebuilding trades (Sandberg, Durham) or not substantial (Servais, Morgan)...
Francouer for Church was probably the most recent trade that would rebuff my theory and one of the very few...
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Trading Halladay is rebuilding...as were the Padres trading Peavy potentially to the Dodgers.
and it's not a uniform rule, it's a case by case basis and yeah, if you overwhelm a team they may consider but then the other team realizes, wait I'm paying too much and it almost never happens.
The Reds may have been after Hardy, but the Brewers probably didn't want to trade him to the Reds unless they were overwhelmed and then the Reds probably were thinking, well they want too much.
and yes, it's ultimately a new phenomenen mostly brought on upon free agency, 3-division format and an unbalanced schedule.
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fair deal...
Hardy's was the third best defensive player in baseball over the last 3 years according to UZR
http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/high...
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dated may 31, 2008
http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/article/12...
that most MLB teams "insure their long-term deals, even though premiums can be as high as 10% of the contract's annual value," according to Jon Paul Morosi of the DETROIT FREE PRESS. Most insurance policies "cover three-year intervals and are renewable." Policy premiums are "linked to the comprehensiveness of the coverage," and Idelson said that "most policies cover between [50-80%] of a player's salary." The NBA and NHL have "league-wide plans for their clubs," and while MLB does not, most MLB teams "obtain some form of coverage for their stars." MLB teams are "only able to collect on a policy" if a player is on the DL. And while policies "generally require players to remain on the [DL] for 60 or 90 days before the payments begin," the deductible period -- like the amount of coverage -- "can be adjusted depending on what the club is willing to pay." But MLB and insurance industry sources indicated that policies "often exclude areas of the body that have been seriously injured before."
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BR.com has 158 walks, looks like a typo by one of them....
"well south" and "much lower level" seems to be some hyperbole though... 770 is still better than Castro if it is indeed 58 walks, and just one level lower for most of the season.
Jeter was up in the 800's the next 2 years, hopefully Castro can get there and take a few more walks.
as for defense, I can only pray Castro is better than Jeter (although Jeter has vastly improved the last year or so claiming he worked out some problem with his hip).
-edit- emailed BR.com to see if they can clarify, 58 would certainly seem more reasonable and I'll happily issue a minor mea culpa for my earlier stance if it turns out to be true
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Brewers 2010 lineup?
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Castro, VItters, Cashner, Lee, J. Jackson, B. Jackson, K. Burke...3 other guys.
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Cubs to get a new CHO
Sammy looks a little different...
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Sosa Rejuvenated or Benjamin Buttons
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too lazy to look it up, but I recall him kind of whining about not being handed the starting job in Washington and then some complaints in New York about playing time and so forth...
Not a Milton Bradley malcontent, but he's not one to bite his lip if he feels he should be playing. Personally I could care less, but as I said, Lou has shown the streak of throwing anyone who disagrees with him into the the doghouse.
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