Skip to content

User login

Buy Tickets & Other Merchandise

Don't miss out on any games this baseball season! Buy Cubs bleacher tickets, Brewers Opening Day tickets and Padres baseball seats. Coast to Coast Tickets can be your source for cheap Chicago Bears tickets, the best price on Chicago Bulls tickets and countless other events!


Baseball Tickets


Chicago Cubs Caps


JustGreatTickets.com has the most sought after Chicago Cubs tickets, the the best deals on all Chicago tickets, MLB Tickets including Red Sox Tickets and Yankees Tickets and more.


Find the perfect Cubs tickets for the perfect price here at OnlineSeats. We have an incredible selection for seats at Wrigley Field and every other MLB baseball stadium.

Welcome to CubsNet.com

A home for Cubs news, commentary, blogs, video, and discussion, along with news and blog aggregation.

Home » Blogs » Charles Rector's blog

Will the Cubs Pick Up Juan Camacho in the Off-Season?

August 24, 2005 by Charles Rector

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?

Permalink

Comments

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

My first question ...

August 24, 2005 by cubsnet, 4 years 28 weeks ago
Comment id: 581

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

August 25, 2005 by Brian C, 4 years 28 weeks ago
Comment id: 582

Judging by his 18 errors at first, I doubt it.

Indy league players

August 25, 2005 by Brian C, 4 years 28 weeks ago
Comment id: 583

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

August 31, 2005 by Charles Rector, 4 years 27 weeks ago
Comment id: 619

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.

AdaptiveThemes