Author Topic: On The Farm  (Read 324297 times)

Ron

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craig

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Re: On The Farm
« Reply #7501 on: June 08, 2020, 12:46:25 pm »
Thanks, Ron.  That was really, really interesting. 

“Ultimately, we turned what were some pretty generic Zoom calls into essentially video review sessions with the players,” Kantrovitz said. “We were able to talk through at-bats with them in real-time, assess their recall, their thoughtfulness and just general awareness of their mechanics.”

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I wonder what kinds of constraints there are on compensation for free agents, guys taken after round 5?  I assume there are plenty of rules in place, either from the past or perhaps newly added, to keep teams from finding workarounds to make signing more appealing to $20K-bonus guys.  But I was just kind of wondering. 

For example, months before the pandemic and the revised draft, there was some discussion about the low pay-scale for minor leaguers, and whether the Cubs could/should raise theirs. 
*So, for example, could a team say, "Hey, we can't offer more than $20K; but we're going to triple the minor-league salary scale that we used last year!" 
*Or, "meal-allowance was $25/day?  We're going to now make that $100, and what you don't spend you can keep". 
*Or, "we've provided housing for rookie league and Northwest league players, but full-season guys have always paid for their own apartments.  We're going to provide $2K/month for housing...." 

Just wondering whether there will be any creative workarounds to increase the $$ incentive beyond the $20K threshold? 
*For HS or JC guys, could they really strengthen the college scholarship offers?  Full room-and-board, even if it's an expensive private school? 
*How about performance-based incentives?  "If you perform well enough to move up the full-season leagues, $40K bonus each for reaching A, AA, and AAA?"

I assume baseball has ways to prevent any such incentives.  And I assume in a competitive game where other teams have pushed well beyond ethical boundaries into "cheating" areas, I'm guessing the Cubs are pretty by-the-book and not likely to dabble into anything cheater-ish.   

Bennett

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Re: On The Farm
« Reply #7502 on: June 09, 2020, 07:13:13 pm »

craig

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Re: On The Farm
« Reply #7503 on: June 09, 2020, 07:57:47 pm »
Thanks, Bennet.  I'd wondered what time Thursday would resume. 

CUBluejays

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Re: On The Farm
« Reply #7504 on: June 10, 2020, 08:49:18 am »
Mooney put out six names for the Cubs at 16.

Garrett Mitchell, OF, UCLA
Austin Hendricks, OF HS
Pete Crow Armstrong, OF HS
Ed Howard, SS, HS from Chicago
Nick Bitsko, P, HS
Mick Abel, P, HS

That's a strong list.  They also released a podcast talking about the draft and how the used player dev people in the interview process.  According to some agents the Cubs came off as one of the better prepared teams in the draft process and that might help them get some undrafted free agents.

Law has them taking Justin Foscue, 2B, Mississippi State, but for the first time says that Abel is legit candidate to go there.  Previously he had said there is no chance that the Cubs would take a high pitcher.  He has Crow Armstrong and Howard picked before the Cubs get a chance.
« Last Edit: June 10, 2020, 08:58:52 am by CUBluejays »

Dave23

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Re: On The Farm
« Reply #7505 on: June 10, 2020, 09:34:10 am »
This was the excerpt I liked...from Sharma a few days ago on the Athletic...

“Ultimately, we turned what were some pretty generic Zoom calls into essentially video review sessions with the players,” Kantrovitz said. “We were able to talk through at-bats with them in real-time, assess their recall, their thoughtfulness and just general awareness of their mechanics.”

These calls went beyond breaking down the game. With only five rounds of the draft, building relationships had become all the more important. With more players potentially sticking to their college commitments or draft-eligible college players remaining in school for another year, there will be plenty of quality undrafted talent available (for $20,000 max bonuses) that would normally be scooped up and given sizable bonuses in rounds 6-10. At times, the calls were seen as essentially a recruiting pitch.

“We put a lot of effort and time into showing players what we, the Cubs, have to offer,” Kantrovitz said. “Things like developmental resources, technology and how thoughtful our player development operation is in general. Rather than just telling players that we were impressed with them, I think we took it a step forward and showed them. What I mean by that is, in some cases, we literally created an example player plan similar to what our current minor-leaguers see. So we gave them an idea of, one, why we like them, and two, how we think they could thrive in our system.
 
“The players seemed to really appreciate seeing how our scouting and player development work together, obviously backed by a pretty powerful R&D engine. But really all towards the singular goal of developing them. I think that’s something that really resonated with the players we spoke with.
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CUBluejays

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Re: On The Farm
« Reply #7506 on: June 10, 2020, 10:18:53 am »
This was the excerpt I liked...from Sharma a few days ago on the Athletic...

“Ultimately, we turned what were some pretty generic Zoom calls into essentially video review sessions with the players,” Kantrovitz said. “We were able to talk through at-bats with them in real-time, assess their recall, their thoughtfulness and just general awareness of their mechanics.”

These calls went beyond breaking down the game. With only five rounds of the draft, building relationships had become all the more important. With more players potentially sticking to their college commitments or draft-eligible college players remaining in school for another year, there will be plenty of quality undrafted talent available (for $20,000 max bonuses) that would normally be scooped up and given sizable bonuses in rounds 6-10. At times, the calls were seen as essentially a recruiting pitch.

“We put a lot of effort and time into showing players what we, the Cubs, have to offer,” Kantrovitz said. “Things like developmental resources, technology and how thoughtful our player development operation is in general. Rather than just telling players that we were impressed with them, I think we took it a step forward and showed them. What I mean by that is, in some cases, we literally created an example player plan similar to what our current minor-leaguers see. So we gave them an idea of, one, why we like them, and two, how we think they could thrive in our system.
 
“The players seemed to really appreciate seeing how our scouting and player development work together, obviously backed by a pretty powerful R&D engine. But really all towards the singular goal of developing them. I think that’s something that really resonated with the players we spoke with.


On the podcast they said that the Cubs also gave some of the players access to the app that the Cubs use for player development and what it will do for them.

JR

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Re: On The Farm
« Reply #7507 on: June 10, 2020, 11:16:39 am »
Hopefully the Cubs being one of the leaders in most minor leaguers cut won't come back to hurt them too badly on this...

Quote
Jon Heyman

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Royals did the right thing, and it’s going to pay off big-time for them

Jeffrey Flanagan

@FlannyMLB
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There's talk around baseball that once the 5-round MLB Draft is over, the Royals are in prime position to attract/sign top non-drafted players because of their decision not to cut Minor Leaguers or salaries. One agent told me: "KC knows how to treat players. They do it right."

CUBluejays

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Re: On The Farm
« Reply #7508 on: June 10, 2020, 11:41:15 am »
The Cubs are still paying the minor leaguers that they cut through at least June.
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craig

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Re: On The Farm
« Reply #7509 on: June 10, 2020, 12:07:56 pm »
Yeah, I thought that Sharma piece a couple of days ago was really good and encouraging.  To some degree, I'd think the Cubs should be in a good place with this.  They should be pretty smart and savvy, and good communicators, and have pretty good technical stuff.  I'd think that other than this releasing fringe minor league players, that the Cubs have typically had a really good record of treating players super well, perhaps coddling them, really, so I doubt their reputation among agents or scouts will work against them. 

craig

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Re: On The Farm
« Reply #7510 on: June 10, 2020, 01:07:31 pm »

I really wonder how this is going to go for players who are limited to $20K deals.  Last year even 3rd-day 11th rounders could still get $100K, right? 

So if I'm a college junior, who hardly had any opportunity to raise my stock this spring, don't I probably want to go back, and hope that I can play my way into a good-money draft round next year?  Or go back, and figure that even if I don't play my way back into a good-money round, that I can still play my way into a $100K 3rd-day contract? 

For college guys, will they get an extra year of college eligibility because this season was mostly cancelled?  I don't know baseball, but I think in basketball if a guy gets injured early and only appears in ≤5 games or whatever, he can get that year of eligibility back?  Will that happen for all baseball guys?

Or maybe I just want to get started on developing my pro career?  It's not totally clear how real or open colleges will be?  Maybe I don't have any summer-league this summer in which to develop, and maybe there won't be any fall practice either?  And who knows whether there will even be a college spring season next year?  So maybe I'd rather sign now, get down to Mesa and get working in pitch lab and with all of the developmental labs, take my $20K and whatever my monthly salary is for a developmental-camp player?    And who knows what the draft will be future, maybe that won't go back to what it was formerly anyway, and there will never be $100K bonuses for 15th rounders again anyway? 

Hard to figure the pros-and-cons.  I also wonder how much "agent" help college prospects who aren't top-200 guy get in filtering through the pros and cons....

CUBluejays

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Re: On The Farm
« Reply #7511 on: June 10, 2020, 02:05:04 pm »
Baseball only gets 13.5 scholarships.  It is very rare to get a full scholarship so with more guys going back to school the limited scholarships are going to get split up further, increasing the cost to go to school for kids.

chgojhawk

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Re: On The Farm
« Reply #7512 on: June 10, 2020, 09:47:54 pm »
Baseball gets 11.7 scholarships per school. The NCAA has granted an extra year of eligibility to all spring athletes including baseball players but some schools are not allowing their players that option (which seems a bit jerky to me). I BELIEVE the NCAA is allowing additional scholarships for this coming year for those taking advantage of the additional season.

Reb

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Re: On The Farm
« Reply #7513 on: June 10, 2020, 10:29:14 pm »
In case anybody hasn’t seen it yet, Longenhagen’s Cubs prospects roundup at Fangraphs.

https://blogs.fangraphs.com/top-41-prospects-chicago-cubs/
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CUBluejays

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Re: On The Farm
« Reply #7514 on: June 17, 2020, 07:16:26 pm »
Manny Rodriguez is throwing off the mound again after leaving Spring Training with an arm injury.