Welly Goes A-Ballin' at Riverview Park

Submitted by Arizona Phil on Tue, 03/18/2014 - 7:53pm

Welington Castillo homered, doubled, and singled, Jesse Hodges doubled twice and walked, and Duane Underwood tossed four innings of no run/no hit ball, as the Kane County Cougars rallied for two runs in the bottom of the 9th to edge the Burlingtom Bees (Los Angeles Angels Lo-A affiliate) 7-6 on Field #3, while the Inland Empire 66ers (the LAA Hi-A affiliate) drubbed the Daytona Cubs 12-3 on Field #6, in Cactus League Minor League Camp action this afternoon at the Under Armour Performance Center at Riverview Park in Mesa, AZ.


Castillo was "visiting" from MLB Camp, getting six Plate Appearances total between the two games. He moved back & forth between the two adjacent fields, serving as an extra DH and getting a PA whenever the opportunity presented itself. The HR was a line drive-blast over the LF fence in the Hi-A game on Field #6, the double one-hopped the CF fence (also on Field #6), and the single was drilled through the 5.5 hole on Field #3. After bouncing out 3-1 and going down on strikes (swinging), Castillo flied out to the warning track in RF in his last AB of the day. 

Dillon Maples got the start for the D-Cubs in Field #6, and immediately threw 10 consecutive balls to start the game. Before he was relieved with one out in the top of the 3rd inning, Maples had allowed five runs on two hits (a triple and a single), six walks, an HBP, and two WP.

Duane Underwood on the other hand was absolutely masterful on Field #3, setting down the Bees with minimum difficulty. He mixed his fastball, change-up, and curve very effectively, and never was in trouble in any of his four frames.  

The defensive gems of the day were turned-in on Field #3, as CF Rashad Crawford made a spectacular diving catch in left-center after a long run, and then 2B David Bote made a two-out run-saving leaping catch to snare a screaming line-drive seemingly headed for CF (as he jumped higher than he knew how). Both Crawford (who was an outstanding HS basketball player with the nickname "Baby Jordan") and Bote are super-athlectic, and so it's not surprising that they were today's Dynamic Duo of Defense.

Here are the abridged box scores from today's Minor League games at Riverview Park (Cubs player only)

FIELD #3:

KANE COUNTY LINEUP:
X. Welington Castillo, DH #1: 1-2 (1B, F-9)
NOTE: W. Castillo hit 2nd in the bottom of the 1st & 5th
1a. Gleyber Torres, SS: 0-1 (BB, F-9, R) 
1b. Alex Sanchez, SS: 1-2 (BB, L-3, 1B. R)
2a. Kevin Brown, RF: 1-2 (6-3 DP, 1B, PO)
2b. Trevor Gretzky, RF: 1-3 (1B, P-3, 6-4 FC, R, RBI)
3. Jesse Hodges, 3B: 2-4 (2B, BB, 2B, P-4, F-7, R, RBI, PO)
4. Eloy Jimenez, DH #2: 0-4 (3-U, P-4, K, K)
5. Jacob Rogers, 1B: 1-4 (F-8, L-6, 1B, K, 2 RBI)
6. David Bote, 2B: 1-2 (BB, 1B, HBP, E-6)
7a. Alberto Mineo, C: 0-2 (1-4 FC, 1-6-3 DP, R)
7b. Rony Rodriguez, C: 0-2 (P-4, 1-4 FC, R)
8. Charcer Burks, LF: 1-3 (BB, F-8, F-9, 1B, R)
9. Rashad Crawford, CF: 2-4 (1B, 3-1, P-4, 1B, 2 RBI)

KANE COUNTY PITCHERS:
1. Duane Underwood: 4.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 2 K, 5/5 GO/FO, 53 pitches (34 strikes)
2. Erick Leal: 1.0 IP, 3 H, 5 R (5 ER), 3 BB, 1 K, 1 WP, 2/0 GO/FO, 47 pitches (23 strikes)
3. James Pugliese: 2.0 IP, 1 H, 1 R (1 ER), 1 BB, 2 K, 0/4 GO/FO, 29 pitches (20 strikes)
4. Orbandy Rodriguez: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K, 1 WP, 1/2 GO/FO, 17 pitches (7 strikes)
5. Tyler Bremer: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, 0/3 GO/FO, 8 pitches (4 strikes)

KANE COUNTY ERRORS (1): 
3B Jesse Hodges - E-5 (fielding error allowed batter to reach base safely) 

FIELD #6:

DAYTONA LINEUP:
X. Welington Castillo, DH #1: 2-4 (2B, 3-1, HR, K, 2 R, RBI) 
NOTE: W. Castillo hit 2nd in the bottom of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 5th
1. Shawon Dunston Jr, CF-LF: 1-4 (K, K, 1B, 1-3, RBI)
2. Carlos Penalver, SS: 1-4 (1B, 4-3, K, 5-3, RBI, CS)
3a. Rock Shoulders, 1B: 2-3 (1B, K, 1B)
3b. Ben Carhart, PH: 0-1 (K)
4a. Yasiel Balaguert, RF: 0-2 (5-3, P-4)
4b. Reggie Golden, RF: 0-2 (2-5-3 DP, E-6)
5a. Danny Canela, DH #2: 0-1 (F-8, BB)
5b. Zak Blair, PH: 0-1 (K)
6a. Cael Brockmeyer, C: 0-2 (K, 6-4 FC)
6b. Justin Marra, C: (0-1 (F-8)
7. Jordan Hankins, 3B: 1-3 (F-8, F-8, 1B)
8. Danny Lockhart, 2B: 1-3 (5-3, F-8, 1B)
9. Trey Martin, LF-CF: 0-2 (P-3, BB, K, R)

DAYTONA PITCHERS:
1. Dillon Maples: 2.1 IP, 2 H, 5 R (5 ER), 6 BB, 2 K, 1 HBP, 2 WP, 3/2 GO/FO, 66 pitches (29 strikes)
2. Jose Arias: 2.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R (1 ER), 1 BB, 4 K, 1 HR, 1/1 GO/FO, 38 pitches (24 strikes)
3. Justin Amlung:  1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 0 K, 1/3 GO/FO, 23 pitches (11 strikes)
4. Jasvir Rakkar: 1.0 IP, 6 H, 5 R (5 ER), 0 BB, 1 K, 1 WP, 1/1 GO/FO, 35 pitches (23 strikes)
NOTE: Rakkar's first inning was stopped with no outs and runner at 2nd base (after five runs had scored)
5. Hector Perez: 0.2 IP, 1 H, 1 R (1 ER), 1 BB, 1 K, 2 HBP, 0/1 GO/FO, 21 pitches (11 strikes)
NOTE: H. Perez's inning was stopped with two outs and bases loaded after second HBP of inning

DAYTONA ERRORS (1):
SS Carlos Penalver - E-6 (fielding error allowed batter to reach base safely)

DAYTONA CATCHERS DEFENSE:
Cael Brockmeyer: 0-2 CS
Justin Marra: 1-2 CS

ATTENDANCE: 81

WEATHER: Sunny & cloudless with temperatures in the 80's 

 

Tags: 
Cubs Minor League Spring Training Game Recap
Cubs Spring Training
Welington Castillo
Jesse Hodges
Dillon Maples
Duane Underwood

Comments

Submitted by Old and Blue  on Tue, 03/18/2014 - 8:05pm  
I wonder what a breakout season from Castillo would look like.

Submitted by John Beasley  on Tue, 03/18/2014 - 8:17pm  
30 doubles and 18 HRs? Any increase in offensive value probably has to come in slugging percentage. It's hard for me to imagine him beating the .274 batting average this time around.

Submitted by Old and Blue  on Wed, 03/19/2014 - 6:44am  
I can live with that

Submitted by crunch  on Tue, 03/18/2014 - 9:54pm  
olt and baez with back to back opposite field HRs. nice.

Submitted by Rob Richardson  on Tue, 03/18/2014 - 9:58pm  
This makes me happy.

Submitted by Cubster  on Tue, 03/18/2014 - 9:55pm  
Olt 2 run HR in top 3rd. A blast. Followed by another blast by the Cubs 2nd baseman tonight. Who is that masked man?

Submitted by Cubster  on Tue, 03/18/2014 - 10:00pm  
Even Brett Jackson looks a bit better, triple after an rbi double by McDonald. 5 run 3rd inning. 5-0.

Submitted by crunch  on Tue, 03/18/2014 - 10:02pm  
he's got a controlled/powerful swing...too bad he doesn't have the batting eye to go with it. even when he fouls stuff off, it comes off the bat 100000mph. if he squared up on the barrel more stuff that he makes contact with, things could get ugly for opposing pitchers.

Submitted by Old and Blue  on Wed, 03/19/2014 - 7:03am  
It's amazing how bad his results are for a guy who looks like such a good baseball player.

Submitted by Ryno  on Wed, 03/19/2014 - 7:20am  
If he's built well and keeps doing things right, his numbers will come around.

Submitted by Old and Blue  on Wed, 03/19/2014 - 7:38pm  
Whenever I see Jackson I think of Corey Patterson. Patterson never looked like he had baseball-type skills. He was a good raw athlete, but didn't look like a baseball player to me. Jackson has a classic "pretty" swing, which may be a way of a guy like me who maybe doesn't know every nuance of baseball of saying he looks good trying, but he just up till now hasn't had it click for him. I assume it's routine for baseball teams to give eye checkups, but sometimes it just seems like he doesn't see the ball. I had bad vision as a kid and had trouble hitting a softball.

Submitted by Rob Richardson  on Tue, 03/18/2014 - 10:00pm  
Nice AB by Jackson on his triple.

Submitted by Rob G.  on Tue, 03/18/2014 - 11:11pm  

Cabrera has a 1-2-3 inning in 6th including striking out Profar.

Submitted by Rob G.  on Tue, 03/18/2014 - 11:26pm  

scoreless 2nd inning of work by Cabrera, gets Choice, Fielder and Rios out. 2 hard hit balls out of the 6 outs, but has to give him an edge considering he's out of options.

Submitted by Rob G.  on Tue, 03/18/2014 - 11:16pm  

and Baez with a double...BEAST MODE

Submitted by Rob G.  on Tue, 03/18/2014 - 11:19pm  

and steals 3b (with 2 outs for some reason), altough should have been out. Kouzmanoff (still alive) missed the tag. Looked like a delayed steal of some sort.

Submitted by crunch  on Tue, 03/18/2014 - 11:19pm  
followed by a steal of 3rd

Submitted by Rob G.  on Tue, 03/18/2014 - 11:50pm  

former Cub Jim Adduci destroyed a Rivero fastball to tie game in 8th, 6-6.

Rivero does look to have some late-inning potential, big, tall kid...hit 97.

Submitted by crunch  on Wed, 03/19/2014 - 12:01am  
haven't seen b.schlitter in a few years...he's working on a hell of a head of hair.

Submitted by Rob G.  on Wed, 03/19/2014 - 12:14am  

sweet, extra innings means bonus Javier Baez AB

rips a liner straight to shortstop

on a Baez note, doesn't look like he has a body that is going to keep him at shorstop or 2b his entire career.

Submitted by John Beasley  on Wed, 03/19/2014 - 4:34am  
I was watching him last night, thinking that he reminds me of a RF in a lot of ways. I wouldn't be surprised to get him work there eventually, especially if Soler doesn't pan out.

Submitted by crunch  on Wed, 03/19/2014 - 12:30am  
this one ended in spectacular cubs-like failure with 2 outs in the bottom 10th...up at one point 6-0, lose 6-7 after 10. at least the damage in the 10th (and 7th) came from guys who doesn't have a chance of making the MLB club.

Submitted by crunch  on Wed, 03/19/2014 - 3:34am  
spring don't mean a thing...and all that...but... j.lake is 4/28 with 1 walk (.143/.167)...no x-base hits...and 13Ks. r.sweeney is 2/26 with 1 walk (.077/.111)...no x-base hits...and 6Ks. these are supposedly the cubs 1+2 options for CF (with lake being the majority player) unless they plan on shuffling ruggs (who's having an awesome spring) up to majority CF duty and leaving lake/sweeney to scramble for playing time. at least there's options and all 3 are expected to make the team...and r.kalish is waiting around as a capable backup...boni can play CF, but offers little else outside of speed and hitting singles as a starter...i don't wanna talk about b.jacKson. fwiw, lake had a rather good winter ball...could be a small sample size or whatever...not like he's expected to be a superstar anyway. the Ks more than the avg/ob% slash line bothers me, though.

Submitted by Rob Richardson  on Wed, 03/19/2014 - 8:42am  
If (when) Lake scuffles I expect Jackson will get another shot.

Submitted by Hagsag  on Wed, 03/19/2014 - 5:11am  
Hoping for a breakout year for Underwood!

Submitted by Rob G.  on Wed, 03/19/2014 - 10:44am  

Levine says Tigers "top executive" watching Barney and Schierholtz.

Submitted by crunch  on Wed, 03/19/2014 - 11:28am  
pretty much expected...especially since they seem to not be in on the ARZ SS surplus that the mets are heavily scouting.

Submitted by crunch  on Wed, 03/19/2014 - 6:50pm  
and on the j.rollins front from his happy home in PHI... "I don’t care which way it is tried to be twisted or said, or if it is exactly how it was said, or even if it was said, I can’t be traded," he said. "It doesn’t matter. If I was tradable it may have weight because that means I could be moving soon. But I am not tradable and so it doesn’t matter."

Submitted by The Joe  on Wed, 03/19/2014 - 6:59pm  
Dude is a motherfucking poet.

Submitted by Rob G.  on Wed, 03/19/2014 - 12:39pm  

still searching for a few more owners for a Fangraphs Ottoneu League, We have 3-6 spots open (a few folks I'm waiting on). Need to fill league by this Friday. It's a $9.99 fangraphs points league, but we'll be doing another $40 or so buy-in using leaguesafe.com. Current draft day is Sat, April 5th at 10am CST, but that is subject to change if that's your hold-up.

Pains in the asses need not apply...

drop your email here or use contact form in upper right (send to Rob G. of course)

Submitted by The Joe  on Wed, 03/19/2014 - 5:25pm  
I can vouch that this is THE league of the season. It's a virtual who's who that? of internet baseball. If you've ever wanted to rub digital elbows with the type (get it?) of people who moniker themselves with a direct article (and thrive in the realm of wordification and transpartofspeachification), this is the place.

Submitted by JoePepitone  on Wed, 03/19/2014 - 5:10pm  
Hoo boy! This comment is a little wordplay gem all in itself!

Submitted by crunch  on Wed, 03/19/2014 - 3:36pm  
chc/col live tonight on MLB Network, 9:40pm (ET) fwiw, it will most likely be the ROOT Network (COL) providing the feed.

Submitted by Rob G.  on Wed, 03/19/2014 - 3:52pm  

No Olt today, was suppose to play 3b...shoulder still bugging him a little.

-edit- apparently gonna start tomorrow at 3b instead

Submitted by Ryno  on Wed, 03/19/2014 - 7:38pm  
I could literally just watch replays of Javier Baez homers all day long.

Submitted by Old and Blue  on Wed, 03/19/2014 - 7:41pm  
I kinda want to see him play Iowa down here in Round Rock - but I more wanna see him push Theo into a too early call up.

Submitted by Carlito  on Thu, 03/20/2014 - 12:06am  
I see this service-time issue becoming HUGE in future negotiations with the players' union. And frankly I agree that holding back players so you have longer club control is bad for the game. Not sure what can be done about it? But it really does suck for the fans and the players . . . especially great players who might be missing an opportunity to log lifetime stats towards HOF careers etc. It'll be interesting to watch in coming years . . . you can already sense the frustration bubbling.

Submitted by crunch  on Thu, 03/20/2014 - 12:23am  
players union doesn't care about kids. the number of them losing 50+ games to suspensions over smoking some weed is absolutely asinine. they're not even held to that standard in the bigs. but yeah, it does suck to see the service time issue held over players...TB has been "abusing" it for years...though "abusing" might be a bit harsh for a team that's operating on their kind of revenue. either way, situations where kids could/should be up don't materialize too often because of the service clock issue.

Submitted by Carlito  on Thu, 03/20/2014 - 4:03am  
"We have always believed that the game suffers when teams make roster decisions based on factors other than player performance," union chief Tony Clark told FOX Sports. "The 25 players who give each team the best chance to win should be on the Opening Day roster." Kind of a FOX Sports puff piece on the subject: http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/system-dis...

Submitted by Ryno  on Thu, 03/20/2014 - 7:34am  
I really like the system they have in place where guys have to meet certain goals before being promoted. It takes the mystery out of what's going to happen for these younger players. Instead of thinking about whether or not they will get the call up, they can focus on improving their game. Their future is in their hands and based on their performance. That said, I agree Baez should be in AA/AAA this year. There's no rush. He's not going to put the Chicago Cubs over the top. And I don't think it's going to hurt the game or hurt Baez's career, they just want to protect his value as a prospect and keep him under club control as long as they can.

Recent comments

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  • crunch 20 hours 36 min ago (view)

    hell of a loss.

    killer 9th inning drama all going LA's way.  wow.

    it says a lot that the packed house in LA was still almost all there through the last pitch of the game.

     
  • crunch 21 hours 37 sec ago (view)

    ESPN...it's all bad, all the time.

     
  • BobbyD 21 hours 5 min ago (view)

    I'm just glad it worked out for the diarrhea girl and her date. I don't know which is worse, Arod or that fucking commercial 8 times a game. 

     
  • crunch 21 hours 11 min ago (view)

    sitting in the dugout, it looks like kyle schwarber has an unfortunate touch of matt williams style early onset baldness coming on...or he recently got a way-too-close-on-top haircut.

    dude just turned 26 a few months ago.

     
  • crunch 22 hours 16 min ago (view)

    i dont have ESPN anymore since DirecTV Now raised their prices, so I have to rely on...umm...very legal and very cool ways for my ESPN fix.

     
  • Hagsag 22 hours 24 min ago (view)

    Pat and Ron, no Aroid for me.

     
  • crunch 22 hours 35 min ago (view)

    phew...last ESPN sunday cubs game until the williamsport little leage classic game Aug 18 vs PIT.

    i really like the LLClassic and i'm stoked the cubs will play this year.  i hope it sticks around for a long time.

     
  • QuietMan 23 hours 20 min ago (view)

    Picture:

    https://twitter.com/klocky7/status/113676604403350...

     
  • crunch 1 day 4 min ago (view)

    t.barnette and d.hultzen worked today's IOW game.  nice to have emerging options...

    d.mekkes is continuing to be a future end-game reliever to keep an eye on, too.  he's not making many team prospect lists, and he's not blowing anyone away, but he's steady getting it done.

     
  • crunch 1 day 10 min ago (view)

    mike trout will be a cub soon enough.  woo!  if they package both together the cubs might be able to snag griffin canning along with him.

     
  • Arizona Phil 1 day 3 hours ago (view)

    If Ben Zobrist were to return to baseball sometime in the next few weeks or next couple of months, keep in mind that he does have a minor league option left, so he (like Craig Kimbrel) could consent to an Optional Assignment to the minors to get into playing shape. 

     
  • Arizona Phil 1 day 4 hours ago (view)

    As of today (6/16), Daniel Descalso and Brad Brach no longer have Article XX-B "no trade" rights and so they can be traded without restriction. 

     
  • Arizona Phil 1 day 4 hours ago (view)

    LF Nelson Maldonado, 3B Grayson Byrd, CF Zac Taylor, INF Jacob Olson, and INF-OF-C Bryce Windham (the five college senior position-player draft picks who officially signed last Tuesday and who have been active in AZL mini-camp for almost a week) should be ready to play in AZL games right from the gitgo. 

    The sixth college senior position player draft pick signed by the Cubs (LF Darius Hill, who signed officially on Thursday) might not be quite ready on AZL Opening Day.   

     
  • Arizona Phil 1 day 4 hours ago (view)

    Cubs 24th round draft pick 3B Grayson Byrd looks exactly like Justin Turner (at least above the neck). Long red hair and a full red beard. Now if he could only hit like Turner... 

     
  • Arizona Phil 1 day 4 hours ago (view)

    INF-OF Bryce Windham (32nd round pick - Old Dominion) worked out at catcher in "live" BP yesterday, so he could be the 6th Cubs AZL catcher (they really need three on both squads) if they don't add another catcher this week. 

     
  • Arizona Phil 1 day 6 hours ago (view)

    JustSayin': Brendan Sagara is the Mad Scientist who developed & implemented the high-tech Cubs Pitching Lab at the UAPC in Mesa. The Pitching Lab can't turn everybody into Jacob deGrom, but so far it has helped to develop Tyson Miller into a legit MLB SP prospect and bring Danny Hultzen back from the dead. 

     
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