Farm System

[funkster]

Gonna need him with the rotation tanking.

[Auz]

I think the goal with Cease this year will be to get a full season with a minimum amount of innings in more than anything.

[rok]

That's kind of what I figured. I suppose I'm asking too much for him to make the leap all the way to AA before season's end.

[rok]

Nice little write-up on Butler, among other things, in Fangraphs today.

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/sunday-no...oats-more/

Eddie Butler was a bust in Colorado. The once highly-regarded righty went 6-16 with a 6.50 ERA in parts of three tumultuous seasons. He wasn't much better during his stints in the high minors, putting up subpar numbers in both 2015 and 2016.


Skeptical that he'd ever put it together, the team that drafted him 48th overall in 2012 bade Butler farewell. On the first day of February, the Rockies sent him to the Cubs for James Farris and an international bonus slot.


Butler is now showing signs of putting it all together. In four starts for Chicago's Triple-A affiliate, the Iowa Cubs, the second-chance hurler has a 1.46 ERA over 24-and-two-thirds innings of work.


Going downhill has played a big role in his resurgence.


"Since I got here, (pitching coach) Chris Bosio has been getting me back to what was my norm," Butler told me this spring. "We're working on me staying better over the rubber and getting a stronger front side. That should correlate to getting out front and driving the ball downhill, which I struggled with the last two years."


According to Butler, the Rockies wanted him to get more consistency with his four-seam fastball, so that he could go down and away for a strike whenever he needed to. The result was deleterious to his go-to offering.


"The last two years I was mainly four-seam, and thats not where I need to be," said Butler. "I'm a two-seam guy. They told me I couldn't really command the glove side of the plate - everything I was throwing was arm side - and focusing my attention on that took away from what Id been doing. My extension went away, and I struggled. It's tough to be consistent, trying to do one thing when your body wants you to do another."


According to Jaron Madison, the Cubs director player development, Butler's body is doing all the right things. So are his deliveries.


"He's done a really good job of getting back to his two-seamer and his more natural slot," Madison told me earlier this week. "The life on his pitches has improved significantly, and the quality of the strikes has improved as well. He's in a really good place, both mechanically and mentally."

[funkster]

I think you got yourself a lil man crush Rok.

[rok]

Not going to deny it.

[rok]

Anyone live near Des Moines?


https://twitter.com/iowacubs/status/857993576755732486

[funkster]

10Ks for Cease tonight.

[VanSlawAndCottoCheese]

In 4.2 IP.

[Mikey]

Happ is been crushing the ball. I feel like he will be on the roster by June.

[jstraw]

Happ is been crushing the ball. I feel like he will be on the roster by June.

 

Displacing whom?

[mrfelina]

Happ up and Baez down will be the talk if those guys keep on going the way they're going.

 

I doubt Maddon would ever do that, to his credit. 

[jstraw]

Happ up and Baez down will be the talk if those guys keep on going the way they're going.

 

I doubt Maddon would ever do that, to his credit. 

 

It's not Maddon's decision, though I'm sure it would be discussed with him.

[mrfelina]

Yup, you're right.  But I think it's more than discussed.

 

If he wasn't on board with sending Baez down, if he was strongly against that move, I don't think Theo makes it.

[funkster]

Well, NSBB already writing Cease off because he's never going to improve his control and will likely be trade bait.  Of course, this same group also wrote Happ off after his first year.