The Natives are Getting Restless
Alright, alright, enough already.A combination of craziness at work, travel and personal illness has kept me from writing as much as I would have liked over the past couple of weeks, but please don't take that to mean that I am done. I certainly have not retired, though one would think I would have to get paid for this gig first before I could retire (ala Eric Crouch retiring before ever playing?). You see, I'm an attorney by day and that's what pays the bills. I don't get a single penny from doing this, and I certainly don't get any money from my relatively few but pretty loyal readers. So, while I appreciate the encouragements to write again, I can't say that the sarcastic emails I received really had much of an effect on me -- it's certainly not motivating me to do this again. I particularly find amusing the notes from people acting as if I somehow am depriving them of something that is rightfully theirs - perhaps there was a check in the mail that never made it me? Alas, more than anything in the world I would rather talk about the Cubs for a living, but for the foreseeable future, these little breaks are going to happen, you can bank on it.
I wonder if anyone has written to the Lansing Lugnuts and sarcastically told them to get off their collective duffs and play?
Ok, there's plenty to talk about so I'll get right into it.
Can we release Sean Estes already? His comments in the paper today come perilously close to the drivel that made Steve Trachsel famous. You know - the "well we lost, but I didn't pitch too bad" or "I only made one bad pitch - I kept us in the game." Estes today says that he was making his pitches and starting to get back to what he used to do, but he really sounds like a guy who is making every excuse in the book for more time. Perhaps he's feeling the pressure? Perhaps he was secretly happy when Juan Cruz gave up a few runs in relief of him? I doubt that, but still, if the rest of the staff keeps throwing like we think it will, he'll be the easy answer to "which one of these things is not like the other?"
Juan Cruz. Great stuff. Should he be a closer? Count me as one of those guys who says NO. Exhibit #1, your honor, is his display of frustration yesterday during and after allowing two runs in an inning of work. Cruz was not sharp yesterday, which proves that he is human. According to Pat and Ron, he was visibly upset on the mound after a walk. Sign of maturity = being able to pitch without your best stuff. It really doesn't tell you very much about a guy's psyche when he mows people down with a 97 mph heater. It tells you about his arm and his stuff, but not his psyche. What I care about is what happens when the cards are on the table and the heater is suddenly at 92 and the slider is rolling instead of breaking. Does he have the guts to get through it? If I had a penny for every out Rod Beck has ever gritted through, I'd make as much as Dave Veres this year. Cruz is a huge part of our future, but I think he's more apt to succeed as a starter, and I hope that Dusty keeps using him this year in the mid/long relief role.
Mike Kiley says that Dave Veres' velocity is down so far this year and that the Cubs are a little concerned. This is interesting news, because while I really have no reason to doubt Kiley or his sources, I could have sworn that Veres threw at least one pitch at 88 in the game last Friday night where the Cubs came back from a huge deficit but lost by one late. I think the point is a good one, that the extra 2-3 mph will give him a larger margin for error. I hope Rod Beck is listening, but I doubt it will make much difference. But mark it here first - when Alfonseca comes back, I'll bet they create space on the roster by putting somebody like Veres (or maybe Guthrie or Remlinger) on the DL with a "sore shoulder" or some other vague reference to being old and not throwing hard. It'll buy 2 weeks of time if nothing else.
This just in: David Kelton can mash. He could probably play third right now for the Cubs and hit .260 with power. I know it won't happen, but I'm a big believer in promoting players when their confidence is at its highest - it gives them the best chance to succeed. Hopefully, if the decision is made to give Kelton a shot, they'll do it after he's hit 3 home runs in a week and has a 10 game hitting streak.
Unfortunately, Kelton suffered a hamstring injury in last night's I-Cubs loss and had to leave the game. I'm still digging, but I don't have any additional information on how long he might be out.
Elsewhere in the minors, the offense has been, well, very Cub like. If you'll remember my reports from Arizona, I speculated that the Daytona offense would be pretty weak and largely it has been. However, Micah Hoffpaiur has been on fire this young season, to the tune of a .375 average and an .814 slugging percentage. My notes on him were that he is a strong looking guy with a pretty level swing, but he looked bad on breaking stuff a number of times. Perhaps he's figuring it out, or more likely he's seeing lots of fastballs in the early going.
Sergio Mitre had a successful AA debut, proving that good sinkers are pounded into the ground by good and bad prospects alike.
Don't look now but reliever Eric Brown has 10 Ks 7 innings, included 7 over 4 innings the other night.
Is that Bobby Hill is see fading down the prospect drain? Just kidding. I hope his slow start (3/20 and only 1 BB) ends soon.
I'm going to be releasing a revised Top 30 prospects list now that I've returned from my annual trip to Mesa. Look for at least a few surprises next week when I post it.
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