Bryant and his future

Creating a new thread because too many threads are getting taken over by topics unrelated to the OP. This one is about Bryant and his future promotion.

:fap:

Captain Obvious said:

You still haven't addressed how you know that FAs don't want to come here. If the Cubs offer the most money, why wouldn't they?

Click to expand...

I never said I KNEW. You really gotta stop these strawmen. The fact is the Cubs have not landed any marquee FA in recent years. Former Cubs have been reporting the horrible times they had as a Cub. The place they play in is unsuitable for play in this current market. The few free agents they get are retreads or they overpay for marginal talent (See Jackson). Improving the MLB Club is attractive for a player. Deny that all you want.

I'm all for giving Bryant the everyday 3B job. In about a month. It's not worth 11 million dollars to give it to him now. That's just the example that was used early, but a months worth of games are not worth it. If Bryant is going to produce this year, he'll still do it in a month.

Click to expand...

Why not keep him down there for longer that way you can pay him minor league dollars longer. And where is this 11 million coming from?????

Again, if you move Bryant up to AAA, then Villanueva is screwed. That's also not worth it.

Click to expand...

Villanueva will NEVER have value for the Cubs. He'll never play enough in the bigs to make himself tradeable. He's a toss in.

No one has mentioned any reason why Bryant should be at AAA, what benefits does he get by playing there?

Click to expand...

He gets challenged more. It's been mentioned that he has nothing to learn at AA.

In all honesty, I don't think AAA is going to challenge Bryant any more than AA. Plus Iowa is in the PCL which means he's likely going to rake as much if not more given how hitter friendly the parks are. Typically, the reason players go to AAA is because they need to see older pitchers who have better command of breaking pitches. Often the "better" pitching prospects are actually in AA. However, those prospects are often younger and haven't learned to command breaking pitches in the same manner as their fastballs.

In Bryant's case, he's really not swinging and missing much. If the minors had pitch fx i could better illustrate this but they don't. Best I can do is talk about his BABIP. Bryant currently has a .441 BABIP which means he's either stupidly lucky or the pitches he's putting into play are pitches he is driving. Given his ridiculous .365 ISO I think it is pretty clear it's him driving pitches. That then begs the question why the high k rate? I've not personally seen many AA games but from reading what others have said, it sounds like he's being too patient. Given his 14.2% walk rate that's not too out of the question to believe.

In that case, it's not really a giant flaw in his hitting that needs improvement. It's more a case of him learning to put some more of the close pitches into play rather than sitting and waiting for "his pitch." If that is indeed his issue, that's not something that needs more advanced pitching. It's just something he needs more reps with. If you contrast that with why Baez has a high K rate, Baez strikes out a lot because he's over aggressive and swings at too many pitches. He needs to see the advanced pitching because they can exploit that aggressiveness with breaking stuff they can locate. I don't think Bryant will be challenged until the MLB level and even that may not be a huge step up for him given his advanced approach. The last person that had a wRC+ of over 200 in the Southern League was Giancarlo Stanton. He skipped AAA and hit .259/.326/.507 his first year in the majors.

As for promotion, I'm assuming they will promote him in late july/early august and give him an extended look at 3B in the majors. If he rakes, then that's great. If he doesn't, then he has all of the off season to work on the aspects he struggled with. This allows them to evaluate him in spring training and potentially give him a month or so in 2015 at AAA if he needs it. This is similar to what the Angels did with Trout. They called him up from AA skipping AAA earlier(july 8th) and he struggled in 2011. In 2012, he started in AAA for about 3 weeks and on April 28 they called him up for good. I don't think the cubs will cut it anywhere near as close super two wise. So, we probably will see him later in july if not later but I think a similar path.

@BleacherNation: Re-upping with Cubs, maybe? RT @smokiesbaseball We've got a big announcement coming around 3:00 today... Stay tuned!

Maybe its to announce Bryant promotion
A farewell to the greatest hitter in Smokies history. . ; ))

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I527 using Tapatalk

chibears55 said:

@BleacherNation: Re-upping with Cubs, maybe? RT @smokiesbaseball We've got a big announcement coming around 3:00 today... Stay tuned!

Maybe its to announce Bryant promotion
A farewell to the greatest hitter in Smokies history. . ; ))

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I527 using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

Not gonna get my hopes up...

chibears55 said:

@BleacherNation: Re-upping with Cubs, maybe? RT @smokiesbaseball We've got a big announcement coming around 3:00 today... Stay tuned!

Maybe its to announce Bryant promotion
A farewell to the greatest hitter in Smokies history. . ; ))

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I527 using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

Seriously doubt they would break the news of Bryant re-upping and/or promotion but we'll see.

beckdawg said:

Seriously doubt they would break the news of Bryant re-upping and/or promotion but we'll see.

Click to expand...

I was joking. . they do have an announcement but I think its for the tean itself. ..

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I527 using Tapatalk

chibears55 said:

I was joking. . they do have an announcement but I think its for the tean itself. ..

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I527 using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

I was aware. I was just commenting on the bleacher nation portion as well. If the minor league team's twitter is announcing something it's gotta be some sort of promotion you would think.

AA the same as AAA? AA he's tearing it up. Let him do so in AA against as you said better pitching. Or bring him up to the Big Club. But only negative things at this point can happen for Bryant in AA and that should be avoided at all costs. It's not worth the risk. Getting hurt while trying to learn is fine, but getting hurt where you shouldn't even be at is a solid mistake!

@TheCCO: RT @BroadcasterMick The new extension @smokiesbaseball @Cubs with last through 2018. pic.twitter.com/l0BlCHfWbJ

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I527 using Tapatalk

Their maybe value in him seeing AAA pitching.

AAA is a cesspool of career minor league players that have seen playing time here and there.

Case in point: Brett Jackson powered up to AAA then hit a road block. Reason: He went up against vet replacement quality players.

This year: Baez. Seeing Replacement quality pitching.

Hendricks: Seeing replacement quality hitting. His roughest patch thus far in the minors.

So yes Bryant playing in Iowa has meritt.

But holding him back to dominate in Tenn does not.

AA has more players in development. He has proven he is better than that.

AAA has failed major league players dominating the league.

My opinion is the same as always. If a player dominates the level he is playing in then promote him to the next. Having him dominate lesser quality pitching will not help him on the Cubs.

Olt never dominated AAA. He has no business being on a major league team.

It is not about how fast. It is about providing a challenge to learn and grow from. Right now Bryant is not being challenged as a hitter by the pitching.

CSF77 said:

Olt never dominated AAA. He has no business being on a major league team.

It is not about how fast. It is about providing a challenge to learn and grow from. Right now Bryant is not being challenged as a hitter by the pitching.

Click to expand...

but but but but he leads the rookieszzzz in NL with HRs at whatszzz 9zz???


Sent from Whitesox901s Vagina
using Tapatalk

DewsSox79 said:

but but but but he leads the rookieszzzz in NL with HRs at whatszzz 9zz???


Sent from Whitesox901s Vagina
using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

george springer says hi

Sent from my SCH-I200 using Tapatalk

Why do sox fans care so much about what the cubs and their players do ?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-T217A using Tapatalk

chibears55 said:

Why do sox fans care so much about what the cubs and their players do ?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-T217A using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

The Sox are always gonna be the second baseball team in Chicago... apparently even with their own fans...

chibears55 said:

Why do sox fans care so much about what the cubs and their players do ?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-T217A using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

we are baseball fans..try it, great sport

Sent from my SCH-I200 using Tapatalk

theberserkfury said:

The Sox are always gonna be the second baseball team in Chicago... apparently even with their own fans...

Click to expand...

attendance argument...typical

Sent from my SCH-I200 using Tapatalk

Impact players usually don't see much of AAA ball....most of them go right to the majors from AA. Guys like Harper, Trout etc. I think Bryant is that type of player. Bring him at the end of the month....if they do, he'll never play another minor league game.