Another good game for Candelario... 3-5, 2B, 2RBI

Looks like they are going to keep Bruno in the lineup and move him around like they do Craig in St Louis.

He keeps hitting so thats a good thing.

Schweet! He's a kid I'd love to see with my eyeballs play...

Yes. 13th round pick Bijan Rademacher had 4 hits. Bruno's triple into right field was lost in the lights. I am sure now the same thing happened to Rademacher the night before. Right fielders are looking west into the stadium lights with some light in the sky behind them at that time of the evening.

Spokane played the worst defensive game I have ever seen this side of pony league. The errors came in bunches and they almost seemed contagious. It also seemed as if there were credits for hits given to Boise that were poorly played on top of the 9 errors. The infielders were matadors out there. I lost track.

The Texas Rangers front office have got to be shaking their heads today.

AZL Cubs won again 12-8. They are 7-2.

Justin Berg pitched 2 scoreless innings in his first outing since TJ surgery.
Vogelbach is batting .414

http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=milb&t=g_box&gid=2012_06_30_royrok_cubrok_1

Thanks alot for posting this stuff SJ. I know its alot of work, but if it isnt too much more trouble, when you post this stuff, maybe you could also post the position played and the age of the player.

This might be helpful for us that dont follow the farm as closely to better understand what positions are being played and how realistic (age) or close some may be to getting to the big club.

Just thought I'd ask.

Thanks just the same for your usual postings.................

Vitters is turning the corner. I think he will be up before September especially considering our need at 3B. I like Valbuena with the glove but he is pretty much a yawn at the plate. Let's see what our future holds and give him a post all star break look-see.

Candelario and Baez are the Cubs two prospects I'm most excited about. I think both can be ++/impact hitters in the Majors (they certainly project that way). We shall see.

Now that it's July, it will be interesting to see how moves will be made later in the month or early August. I could see moving 7th round pick infielder Steve Bruno and 9th round pick catcher Chadd Krist on up to Peoria because of their experience and age. Their "ABS" (aluminum bat syndrome, if that's what they had) seems to be behind them. 13th round pick Bijan Rademacher could move up, too. That would move them past kids like Amaya, Hernandez, Candelario, Contreras and Dunston, but they are still barely teenagers and have more time.

It will depend a lot on how many in Peoria will be ready to move on to Daytona, but some of the more knowledgable posters on here would know a lot more about that.

Age and primary position are all things you can find by searching the player on milb.com.

You have to get to the box scores to see where they played that day.

I don't expect Vitters to come up before September, if at all this year. As Dale most recently said, he needs to improve his defense and work on his approach before being called up.

Getting hot doesn't necessarily mean he's advanced in his development. I think this regime has already proven that it is not going to rush guys up until they're ready, no matter what the needs of the big league team are. Remember they've said that they like hitters to get the equivalent of a full AAA season. This is Vitters's first season up in Iowa.

I liked how starting pitcher Jose Arias was handled last night. He had been pitching well for Boise. Last night he pitched himself into trouble, but Mark Johnson and pitching coach David Rosario let him pitch himself out of it. Arias went 5 innings and allowed 5 earned runs, all in one bad 3rd inning. In the 3rd he gave up those runs with 5 hits, 3 of them doubles, and hit a batter, dropping a 2-0 lead.

Nobody got up in the bullpen. Arias settled in after that one bad inning, and went 2 more innings, giving up only one bunt single. He retired Spokane in order in the 5th. And he did not walk anybody.

Meanwhile, Spokane began imploding and Arias got the win.

Just so you know, the new bats they use in College baseball are deadened to be more in line with wooden bats. It was done 2 to 3 years ago as a precaution for safety reasons involving the pitchers.

As such, offensive totals in College baseball are way down across the board now. Scouts say its back to the old days of measuring kids.

"I have questions about the use of aluminum bats at the college level, which I don't follow much. Is their use at that level pretty much universal? How long does it usually take for minor league position players drafted out of college to transition effectively away from them?
"

Under new NCAA rules Div 1 teams no longer play with the traditional aluminum bat. The new bats are composite bats or metal bats that acts much more like wood. The HR numbers are way down but it should make scouting easier, since the pitchers can throw inside more than before. Statistics will be more similar to wooden bats.

http://www.ncaa.com/news/baseball/2011-07-26/new-bats-are-hit-some

High schools are also using similar bats.

http://www.newsobserver.com/2012/05/01/2036574/new-bats-reduce-high-school-baseball.html

Depending on the design the bats also sound different. Some do not have the distinctive ping of the old bats...and some sound more like wood.

He's a lefty but also started throwing righty when he was 6... so he's done it for many years.

July 1st Report

Matthew Cerda demoted to Daytona Cubs from Tennessee Smokies.
Greg Rohan promoted to Tennessee Smokies from Daytona Cubs.

Peoria 2 Kane County 7 Peoria is 3-7

Zeke DeVoss 1-3 .241 W E(13)
Taiwan Easterling 3-3 .240 SB(15)
Dustin Geiger 2-3 .325
Paul Hoilman 0-4 .274
Javier Baez 1-3 .299 HBP
Wes Darvill 0-2 .226 W SF
Yasiel Balaguert 0-4 .234
Yaniel Cabezas 0-3 .206 W
Oliver Zapata 1-4 .256

Team RISP: 1-for-4.
Team LOB: 7.

Starling Peralta (L, 1-3) 8.0ip 2er 3r 4h era 3.77
Larry Suarez 1.0ip 4er 3h era 7.23

Chatt. 3 Tennessee 0 Tennessee is 5-6

Logan Watkins 0-3 .266 W
Jae-Hoon Ha 1-3 .259 2b W
Junior Lake 0-4 .289 2E(20) 1 Throw 1 Fielding
Justin Bour 3-4 .288 2 2b
Juan Apodaca 1-4 .243
James Adduci 0-4 .301
Nelson Perez 0-3 .129
Greg Rohan 0-1 .000 First AA AB!
Nate Samson 2-4 .254
Michael Burgess 0-2 .268

Team RISP: 0-for-8.
Team LOB: 10.

Nicholas Struck (L, 9-7) 5.0ip 1er 2r 5h 3W 2K era 3.64
Casey Harman 2.0ip 1er 3h era 4.67
Casey Weathers 1.0ip 0er 0h era 4.43

Lakeland 5 Daytona 3 Daytona 6-5

Arismendy Alcantara 0-3 .298 W E(31) Fielding
Ronald Torreyes 0-2 .236 HBP SAC
Matthew Szczur 1-3 .290 2b W
Rebel Ridling 2-3 .333 2 2b W
Micah Gibbs 0-2 .204
Rubi Silva 0-2 .283
John Andreoli 0-2 .270 W HBP
Taylor Davis 0-4 .230
Chad Noble 0-3 .177
Dustin Harrington 0-1 .221
Elieser Bonne 1-3 .253

Team RISP: 0-for-4.
Team LOB: 5.

Matt Loosen (L, 6-3) 6.0ip 3er 4r 6h era 3.14
A.J. Morris 2.0ip 0er 0h era 3.00
Jeffrey Lorick 1.0ip 1er 2h era 3.63

Arismendy Alcantara SS
Class A Advanced Florida State League
AVG: .301 HR: 5 RBI: 46 SB: 24 E 31!
Full Name: Arismendy Alcantara
Born: 10/29/1991
Birthplace: Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Height: 5' 10"
Weight: 160
Bats: S
Throws: R

Junior Lake SS
Double-A Southern League
AVG: .295 HR: 4 RBI: 13 SB: 8
Full Name: Junior Osvaldo Lake
Born: 03/27/1990
Birthplace: San Pedro, Dominican Republic
Height: 6' 2"
Weight: 215
Bats: R
Throws: R

I also think those two will be on the fast track to the majors like Castro was.
I would not be surprised to see them up in 2014.

I'm thinking a position change is needed for Alcantara .
I don't know what the record for most errors in a season is but he's got to be on pace to break it.

"I also think those two will be on the fast track to the majors like Castro was.
I would not be surprised to see them up in 2014."

That would be much different that Castro. Castro was 20 when he came up.