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Juan Yasser Serrano
Cubs Triple-Down on A's at Fitch Park
Rafael Disla, Cody Shields, and Xavier Batista ripped RBI triples in a five-run Cub 7th, leading the EXST Cubs to an 8-3 victory over the EXST A’s in Cactus League Extended Spring Training action at Fitch Park Field #3 this morning in Mesa.
21-year old Cuban Defector RHP Juan Yasser Serrano got the start for the Cubs and went three innings, allowing one run on four hits and a walk, while striking out two. This was Serrano’s third appearance in the last week, and his pitch count has been increased each time out (one inning - 13 pitches last Saturday, two innings - 23 pitches this past Tuesday, and now three innings - 40 pitches today), as it appears that the Cubs are making an effort to get him through Extended Spring Training as quickly as possible. Serrano received a reported $250K bonus (essentially equivalent to "4th round money") when he was signed by the Cubs this past March.
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Guyer Lone Bright Spot in Cub Loss
The EXST A’s defeated the EXST Cubs 5-1 in Cactus League Extended Spring Training action at Papago Park Field #2 in Phoenix this morning.
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Cuban Defector Makes U. S. Debut at Fitch Park
Jae-Hoon Ha went 4-4 with two triples, a double, and a single, scored three runs, and drove-in two more, Jesus Morelli reached base four times on a single, a double, a triple, and a walk, scored twice, and knocked-in three, and George Matheus had two singles, a double, and two RBI, but it was left to Wes Darvill to drive-in the winning run as the youngster bounced a single through a drawn-in infield with one out and the bases loaded in the bottom of the 7th, rallying one squad of Cubs to an 8-7 victory over one squad of the Giants on Field #3, while over on Field #2, Alvaro Ramirez doubled and tripled, drove-in one run, and scored another, Chris Huseby doubled, walked and scored a run, and Pin-Chieh Chen had two hits, a run scored, and an RBI, but the other squad of Giants clubbed five triples, a double, and a home run, and took advantage of two costly Rafael Disla errors to score four unearned runs, en route to an 8-4 victory over the other squad of Cubs, as the EXST Cubs and EXST Giants split a Cactus League Extended Spring Training split-squad doubleheader this morning at Fitch Park in Mesa.
21-year old RHP Juan Yasser Serrano made his debut with the Cubs on Field #3, tossing a 13-pitch, ten strike, 1-2-3 inning (4-3, 4-3, and 5-3). Serrano is the Cuban Defector who was signed by the Cubs for a reported $250K bonus this past March, and he appears to be a polished hurler who should advance quickly through the system. I would think he will probably get assigned initially to Daytona (fellow Cuban Defector OF Smaily Borges is already there), once he has gets his arm strength up to where it needs to be. Serrano is not a big guy (maybe 6’1), and he has a solid (almost stocky) build.
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TCR Friday Notes
A chance to comment on some happenings from the past week....
- The Cubs signed Cuban defector Juan Yasser Serrano and while he may not be able to hit a curveball, he probably can throw one. At a $250K bonus (about 4th/5th round money), I don't think the expectations are going to be to high. An "insider" of Caribbean Baseball didn't give a flattering report back in April of last year:
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Recent comments
crunch (view)
it is taking more than a minute for me to get used to craig counsell being the cubs manager.
he's going to take the field on opening day at wrigley and get massively cheered.
that is weird. that's a thing that's happening, though.
history aside, while i am horrified at the amount of money they're paying him, i welcome his style of management over what d.ross has given the team. love d.ross and how chill + ready to deliver he kept the team, but he had a serious pitching short-hook problem that exhausted the pen and some very questionable bench/pinch-hitting use.
Arizona Phil (view)
FINWE N: If you go by what Counsell did with the Brewers, he is much more likely to go with younger players than Ross was. I think part of it was that Ross was a "veteran players manager," meaning he was well liked and respected by veteran players because he was inclined to play them over younger unproven guys.
And that actually might have been OK if the Cubs had been "sellers"at the trade deadline (as they clearly had planned to be before suddenly deciding to go fr it), because Ross would have played the veterans a lot the first four months of the season (which would have maximized their trade value), and then Ross would have had no choice but to play the younger guys the last two months after the veterans were traded.
But of course it didn't work out that way.
One thing about Craig Counsell that might have attracted Hoyer to him is that Counsel is very "collaborative" as a manager and welcomes and even demands lots of input from the analytics department. In fact I have heard tell that Counsell knows at least as much as the geeks know and that he routinely goes to them for information rather than waiting for it to be offered. So think of Ross as a Chevy pick-up truck, while Counsell is a Tesla.
crunch (view)
with candelario off the board to the reds, it looks like it's chapman or trade...or another year of gambling cheap on someone like gio urshela or a meh-D donovan solano.
of course there's also this guy with a rocket arm named morel that could have played a bit more 3rd in 2023 seeing if that could be his thing, but whatever i guess. i know accuracy isn't a strength with those throws from 3rd, but still, for his cost and a supporting middle-IF that's one of the best in MLB (if not #1) it's not the worst use of a very cheap talent.
Arizona Phil (view)
FINWE N: I believe Jeimer Candelario offers more roster flexibility in 2024 and beyond than players like Matt Chapman and/or Rhys Hoskins would, not to mention costing a lot less $$$$ (and signing Chapman would also cost the Cubs a draft pick because Toronto extended a Qualifying Offer to Chapman).
Also, I can't help but see visions of Trey Mancini whenever I think about the Cubs signing Rhys Hoskins.
Arizona Phil (view)
FINWE N: Time will tell.
Certainly the Cubs are not exactly flush with lefty relievers in the system. so Adam Laskey was not redundant.
As far as Sheldon Reed is concerned, he pitched very well the last month of the season at South Bend and I thought that would have earned him a spot on the Iowa reserve list.
I presume the Cubs had good reasons for not assigning Laskey and Reed to the AAA reserve list (thus making them available for selection in the AAA Phase of the Rule 5 Draft), but without knowing who was on the AAA reserve list instead of Laskey and Reed, I can't offer an informed opinion.
BTW, the same thing happened last year when I had LHP Luis Angel Rodriguez on the AAA Iowa roster but the Cubs left him off and then he was selected by the Houston Astros in the AAA Phase. I couldn't figure that one out, either.
crunch (view)
reds snag candelario...
Finwe Noldaran (view)
Arizona P:
Would Candelario be someone that is able to take a bench role once some of these younger players are coming up and need playing time and latitude?
So crazy that his career has come full circle like this.......
Finwe Noldaran (view)
Arizona P:
Do you feel that Counsel will be more apt to play out some of the young guys, rather than mainly sticking with veterans like Dross?
Finwe Noldaran (view)
Arizona P:
Do you think they weren't protected in the AAA phase because the organization feels they're redundant or at lesser value than other players they protected, or was this just poor managment?
George Altman (view)
Even more reason that Jed needs to bring back Bellinger and his LH bat.