Eddie Butler

[Outlander]

Surprised the Cubs gave a decent relief prospect for Butler as it isn't going to be real easy making the Cubs big league club.

 

Edit: I guess Butler has a fourth option which I didn't even know existed. If you have player that has five or fewer professional seasons that has already burned through three options then the player gets a 4th. Knowing this now I guess Corey Knebel also has an option left, which could come in handy during the season.

[adambr2]

Farris wasn't even listed among the Cubs Top 30 prospects before the trade and isn't among the Rockies top 30 now. I doubt the Cubs are really sweating his loss.

[Greenleaf1]

Jacob Barnes wasn't a top 30 prospect for us (or maybe just barely was at some point) and looks like he could be our closer by 2018. Relief prospects don't get a lot of love on those top 30 lists, but that doesn't mean Farris won't be valuable.

[monty57]

Farris wasn't even listed among the Cubs Top 30 prospects before the trade and isn't among the Rockies top 30 now. I doubt the Cubs are really sweating his loss.

 

He's a 24-year old reliever who was in AA last year, so that's not surprising. Looks like he strikes out a decent amount and doesn't give up many HR (two in his entire minor league career), so could be a decent pick-up for a team based in Colorado.

 

I think both teams did okay here. Cubs took more risk with higher upside, while the Rockies traded a guy who doesn't appear to be able to pitch in the thin air for a solid relief prospect who should be pretty well MLB ready with six years of control. Not a blockbuster, but makes sense for both teams.

[Eye Black]

I realize this ship has sailed (and it is obviously a small sample size), but early results like this make it hard to not at least think of the Cubs previous pitching prospect reclamation project, Jake Arrieta...

 

From Fangraphs Sunday Notes:

 

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 that’s 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 I’d 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.”