Posts Tagged Blake Parker

August 26th, 2009

Cubs Fall Leaguers

By Bob Romashko

There’s nothing really to say about last night’s loss - the Cubs sucked and they lost to a terrible team, dropping ever further out of a playoff spot they’re no longer in contention for anyway. But the team named its Arizona Fall League players yesterday, so let’s talk about some future Cubs instead of the current bunch. The Cubs prospects who will be on the roster of the Mesa Solar Sox are Josh Vitters, Wellington Castillo, Andrew Cashner, Starlin Castro, John Gaub, James Russell and Blake Parker. Here’s what they’ve all done this season:

  • Josh Vitters: After tearing it up at Peoria, Vitters was promoted to High-A Daytona, where he’s struggled a little bit and has battled a hand injury. His line there is .245/.265/.371. That’s bad, but not as bad as it looks - if you adjust for his park and luck, his line becomes .287/.306/.420. That’s still not what you’d want to see out of your supposed best hitting prospect, but he’s still young enough that it’s not panic time just yet.
  • Welington Castillo: Castillo came into this season as one of the Cubs’ best prospects, a 22-year-old catcher who seemed to have found his hitting stroke. But he had dismal numbers with the bat the first three months of the season. They’ve ticked upwards since then, and in the last month he’s hit .303/.338/.500, so a good performance this fall could go a long way towards easing concerns about him.
  • Andrew Cashner: Cashner pitched well enough at Daytona to get himself promoted to AA this season, and his AA numbers are a mixed bag. On the one hand he’s sporting a 3.5 ERA, which is good. On the other hand he’s given up seven unearned runs to 18 earned runs - he seems to be allowing a lot of balls that his defense, for whatever reason, can’t handle. Maybe it’s on his defense, maybe it’s on him. But his 24 walks in 45 innings are not too encouraging, either.
  • Keep reading →

Mouthpiece Links