Cardinals Were the Worst, Pitcher Development, Effross, Amaya, Cubs Hiring, and Other Cubs Bullets

Oct 17, 2019

I’m eating a banana this morning, and all I can think about is wanting to know what the Gros Michel tasted like thanks to Michael’s Cubs-as-bananas post. WHAT AM I MISSING OUT ON?!?!

SCardenfreude – the Cardinals were, quite literally, the worst hitting LCS team in baseball history:

I'm sure someone else pointed this out already, but the STL .130/.195/.179 line from the NLCS is literally the weakest in ALCS/NLCS history. Some job by Nationals pitching. pic.twitter.com/TLSAy6ntdP
— Mike Petriello (@mike_petriello) October 16, 2019

Yeah, yeah, mucho credit to the Nationals’ incredible pitching. Everyone focuses on bullpens in October, and understandably so. But when you’ve got three starting pitchers like Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg, and Patrick Corbin (to say nothing of the contributions from Anibal Sanchez)? That’s quite a way to go, too. Old school. Also: very expensive.

This picture *almost* makes me feel bad before I chuckle:

This is a fantastic read not only on how relief prospect Scott Effross has evolved, but also more generally about how the Cubs are being more aggressive developmentally – taking risks, shooting for big rewards:

Scott Effross was out of action for most of June and July, but he wasn’t hurt. The Cubs asked him to throw more sidearm, so he was in Mesa Re-learning how to pitch. https://t.co/MHzd6pPmyp
— Evan Altman (@DEvanAltman) October 16, 2019

Bonus snippet in there? Extremely high praise for catching prospect Miguel Amaya from Effross: “He’s been so solid for me behind the plate. I think I could talk about him for a while but he is so advanced for his for his age. He’s just such a good catcher and he takes it so seriously back there. He’s been great for me. I ask him all the time, ‘Hey, Miggy, you see anything like I’m pulling off or whatever?’ And he’ll let me know and it’s impressive that he can do that, not only having English as a second language, but being 20 years old.”

Just think about all the Amaya is handling at his age, in a foreign country, while constantly learning new pitchers and new hitters in that administrative role as a catcher … oh, and also trying to develop himself as a catcher and as a hitter. A 20-year-old catching prospect that you know for sure is a future big leaguer, even before he plays at AA, is a rare thing. Amaya is a future big leaguer in one way or another. I’m quite sure of it.

As for Effross, what I especially love about the Cubs’ approach is that they saw a guy in his mid-20s, who was a pure relief prospect, and who was at risk for hitting the wall at AA and flaming out of the game. So they took a big risk in asking him to completely change his delivery midseason, because they’d targeted him specifically as a guy this could work for. It’s the kind of thing you *HAVE* to be able to do internally to max out your development at an organizational level. The sample is very small (most of it at High-A) post-change, so next year will really be the tell if it’s working out. The Cubs also sent Effross to the competitive Arizona Fall League to get some extra work with the new delivery, and through 7.0 innings (6 appearances), he’s allowed just 2 earned runs on 11 hits and 1 walk while striking out 8. Not a bad start.

Tools, knives, and rangefinders are among your Deals of the Day at Amazon today.

Another AFL pitching prospect to keep an eye on next year:

Uelmen in the AFL is up to 10 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 9 K.

Uelmen has allowed 23 balls in play: 12 GB (52.2%), 6 LD (26.1%), and just 5 FB, two of which have been in the infield.

Very successful fall league stint, likely has 1-2 appearances remaining.

— Cubs Prospects – Bryan Smith (@cubprospects) October 17, 2019

The Cubs are hiring, if you are super-duper qualified:

The Cubs are hiring a serious nerd (ok, technically "biomechanics analyst"), so if that's you, go here: https://t.co/wh9blbWmTg pic.twitter.com/N8vnTmYNGn
— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) October 17, 2019

In other hiring news, I was not even aware this was a question, but apparently folks wanted to know if Bob Costas was going to have a part in the Cubs’ new Marquee Sports Network. The Daily Herald asked, and Costas could not have been more emphatic in his lack of interest. It is almost comical how extraordinarily strong he’s like, no, no, nah, nope, not me, they’re great, but no, just no way. It’s a shame that we will be deprived of newer and more creative ways to describe poor reliever performances.

Good for Joe. Good for the Angels. May the Cubs and Angels meet in the 2020 World Series:

OFFICIAL: The Los Angeles Angels have agreed to terms with manager Joe Maddon. pic.twitter.com/PKZHBaljl8

— Los Angeles Angels (@Angels) October 16, 2019

Obvious Shirts has a new one for a very specific subset of fans:

Notre Dame plays Michigan in 10 days and these puppies ship for free! – https://t.co/wshPUqMBy0

— OBVIOUS SHIRTS® (@obvious_shirts) October 16, 2019

Michael still TikTok’ing:

I sure hope we haven’t seen the end of Nicholas Castellanos in a #Cubs uniform, but if we have (and even though it didn’t work out), THANK YOU for rocking.
It was an absolute blast cheering this guy on. pic.twitter.com/BEEnOyRCGO

— Michael Cerami (@Michael_Cerami) October 17, 2019

written by

Brett Taylor

Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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