Third in the series. Today we look at the Cubs\u2019 young DH\/C\/1B.<\/p>\n
In previous episodes, we looked at the Cubs\u2019 two catchers, Miguel Amaya and Carson Kelly, indulged in a little speculation, and had video of some of their exploits.<\/p>\n
As we move on to the rest of the roster, it seems reasonable to look next at the Cubs\u2019 left-handed DH, Mois\u00e9s Ballesteros<\/a>, who isn\u2019t ready for prime time (and perhaps never will be) as a catcher, though the Cubs still continue to float the idea that he\u2019s just a few reps away from competence.<\/p>\n A lot can be said about Ballesteros\u2019 defensive deficiencies, but that tale has been told, and so we\u2019re only saying this little bit \u2014 he has a career .985 fielding percentage. Baseball consensus also has it that he\u2019s probably too short to make the scoop at first base, but I\u2019m not really concerned about him playing defense for extended periods.<\/p>\n Because the real tale is about his bat, which is ready for prime time, and is why he\u2019s in The Show. His bio has it that he\u2019s 5\u20198\u201d, 215, and he looks every bit of 215. He\u2019s husky but he does tend to a bit of avoirdupois weight \u2014 however, he has shown a good bat path and quick hips which enable him to get around on any pitch with facility. He was clearly not overwhelmed at the plate in his rookie season, with a slash line of .298\/.394\/.474 lending credence to the idea that he could be a full-time or LH\/Platoon Designated Hitter. Most predictives<\/a> have him somewhere around .260\/.330\/.410, with 7-10 HR and 40-45 RBI. The SLG and power numbers look a little low to me but \u2018ballpark\u2019.<\/p>\n I\u2019m sure we\u2019d all like it if he exceeded those numbers, and I\u2019d give him a good chance. He\u2019ll probably log a few innings at catcher in the spring. If he doesn\u2019t, then we can probably abandon that part of the narrative. Likewise first base, where Tyler Austin and Jonathon Long offer preferable RH alternatives if the left-handed Busch isn\u2019t going.<\/p>\n Austin is penciled in to back up both Ballesteros and Michael Busch, and will be the subject of our next profile.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Third in the series. Today we look at the Cubs\u2019 young DH\/C\/1B. In previous episodes, we looked at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":539181,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2399],"tags":[5,138,24,70392,4245,161,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-539180","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-cubs","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-chicago-cubs","11":"tag-chicago-cubs-player-profiles","12":"tag-chicagocubs","13":"tag-cubs","14":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115962713594006860","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=539180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/539181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}