Will the Cubs Pick Up Juan Camacho in the Off-Season?
From Central League :
The Central League has named El Paso 1B Juan Camacho its 2005 Player of the Year, as voted upon by league managers. Last week, he was also named the CL’s all-star first baseman on the 11-member postseason all-star team.
The Maracaibo, Venezuela, native led the league with 100 RBI, finished the season second with 21 home runs, second with a .598 slugging percentage and eighth with a .328 average as the Diablos narrowly missed the playoffs in their first season in the Central League.
This was the 24-year-old’s eighth season in professional baseball; signed as a nondrafted free agent by the New York Yankees in 1997, Camacho spent six seasons in the Yankees organization, leading the New York-Penn League with 51 RBI for Staten Island in 2001. Last year, he split time between Pennsylvania of the Atlantic League and Gary of the Northern League.
Juan Camacho's accomplishments in independent baseball have certainly earned him a spot in the Cubs' future. Will the Cubs pick him up in the offseason? During the Hendry tenure (actually throughout the Cubs history after independent baseball started its comeback in 1993), the Cubs have been laggard in pursuing quality independent league players. Will team GM Hendry try to sign Camacho up or will he sit back and risk the chance that another NL Central team will do so to the Cubs's detriment in the future?
- Charles Rector's blog
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My first question ...
Can he play a position other than first base? The Cubs are covered at first. Derrek Lee is going to be in Wrigley for awhile, and minor leaguers Brandon Sing and Brian Dopirak provide first base prospects in the Cubs' minor league system already.
Camacho
Judging by his 18 errors at first, I doubt it.
Indy league players
I certainly agree with you, Charles, that the Cubs could be doing a much better job with this kind of thing. I was right there with you on Matt Bailie, and look what he did. Nonetheless, looking at Camacho's stats, I see the same kind of good power, no patience hitter that are a dime a dozen in the minors. Jason Dubois comes immediately to mind as an example, as does Julio Zuleta, Roosevelt Brown, Scott McClain, Phil Hiatt, and any number of guys the Cubs have had in their minor league system through the years.
Granted Camacho has some prob
Granted Camacho has some problems, but there is such a thing as coaching that, if properly applied in the Cubs minor league system, could result in Camacho's becoming a MLB caliber player. Also, you don't really know if any of those 1B prospects in the system right now will pan out and as for Lee staying in Wrigley for a long time to come, remember he may regress to his normal level next year and in time to come, he could get severely injured and he could always opt for Steinbrenner's big bucks.
What you need in your club is depth. Adding Camacho and coaching him adds to that depth and also provides insurance down the line.