As
we know, the horrid season of the Chicago Cubs is coming to a close. In
my opinion the Cubs are one more bad season away before they start
winning more than 70+ games. I'd like to start off by stating my
opinion on the cubs season. If you recall the cubs bullpen was awful in
the beginning to midpoint of the season. Carlos Marmol, James Russell,
Shawn Camp to name a few. The cubs had a chance in almost all those
games. I believe that the bullpen cost the cubs at least 5 wins by
blowing the lead late in the games. Besides that the cubs pitchers has
done decent for a none contending team. Jeff Samardizja has done well
for his first full season as a starter. He had some great games where he
was striking out players left and right. He flashes a starter at times
but his pitch count would stack up fast and he would not be able to go
more than 5-6 innings. Travis Wood was great in the first half almost
guaranteeing a quality start every time he started but has since then
fallen back to earth. One of my favorite moments of the year is when
Scott Feldman had his first career complete game. I was on the edge of
my seat hoping he would get done and he deserved it. When Matt Garza
returned to the rotation he was stellar to say the least and was
surprised he didn't get injured before being traded. He had the same
velocity and the stuff looked like a 2 at times which helped the cubs
get C.J Edwards, Mike Olt, Neil Ramirez and Jake Arieta. On to the Cubs
young hitters. Anthony Rizzo has done nice for his first full year as a
big leaguer. He has hit .230, 21 home runs, and getting on base at a
.326 . Starlin Castro... His season has been an underachievement after
having great seasons the past two years. He's batting .244, his onbase
is not good enough to sustain batting high in the order. Once 2013 is
over Castro must put this behind him and work hard this offseason. 2014
is a big year for Castro he could be traded if he's not performing.
That's it for mlb players, now to down on the farm. The Cubs minor
league system has been exciting to watch this year. A few highlights are
Javier Baez had a four homer game in A+ Daytona, Daytona has had two
no-hitters, lastly Baez,Vogelbach and Pierce Johnson were promoted after
having nice seasons showing they were ready for a tougher challenge.
Pierce Johnson gets my vote as pitcher of the year for the cubs minor
league system. He has shown that he can handle A- Kane County dominating
at times. At Kane county he through 69.2 innings allowing 109 hits
striking out 84 walking 43 his average against LH and average against
RH. In Daytona he has still handle the hitters with ease at times, 48.2
innings 41 hits 50 Ks and 21 walks. As for my hitter of the year Dan
Vogelbach gets the nod. His stats combined with Kane county and Daytona:
batting .284 19 homers OBP a stellar .375 SLG .449. Walk to K ratio
discounting intentional walks was a nice 70-89. Dan has a long way to go
in his journey to the show and when he does I invision him as a solid
replica of David Ortiz.
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