Stuck at AAA

The Cubs have a 26-year old player named Jake Fox at AAA Iowa this year who has an unbelievable 1.467 OPS so far this season.  He leads the Pacific Coast League in OPS by an astounding 377 points.  He’s doing it with a .431 batting average and a .954 slugging percentage.  The problem is that the Cubs don’t need another outfielder.  They are already trying to find ways to get 29 year old Micah Hoffpauir more AB’s.  Hoffpauir is another 4-A player who had two big seasons at Iowa in 2007 and 2008 before breaking through to the majors late last year.

Here’s a blog post about Fox.  Fox is obviously having a year much better than his career norms, but he does have a very strong career minor league OPS of .886.  Some team ought to look at him for a trade if the Cubs don’t call him up soon.

In another note, the A’s just claimed former Twin pitcher Craig Breslow off waivers.  Breslow is 28.  He had a sensational year last year for the Twins, with a 1.63 ERA in 42 appearances, but he was pitching terribly this year with a 6.28 ERA in 17 appearances.  What the A’s obviously like about him are his ratios (WHIP, K’s to BB’s, etc.)  In his professional career (89.1 major league innings and 384 minor league innings, he has a line of 473.1 IP, 419 hits, 204 walks and 496 K’s.  On top of that, he’s also a left-hander.  The Twins apparently cut him in order to bring up 23 year old Anthony Swarzak, a former 2nd round draft pick.  The Twins’ decision makes sense, but the A’s may have gotten themselves a good pitcher on the cheap.