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December 17, 2012

Minor League Update

Checking in on Some Hard-Throwing, Command-Challenged Pitching Prospects

by Jason Martinez

With pitchers as fragile as they are these days, most organizations would rather send their top pitching prospects home for the winter unless they happened to miss significant time during the regular season. Many of those top prospects have the mid-90's fastballs, wipe out breaking pitches, and enough command to dominate in these leagues. Those who end up pitching in the Caribbean Winter Leagues, however, typically do not. And that's why it's rare to see a performance like Alberto Cabrera had for the Toros Del Este in the Dominican Republic on Sunday. The 24 year-old Cubs prospect walked six -- this is why he's not relaxing at home for the winter -- but he tossed no-hit ball over four shutout innings with 10 strikeouts. This is why the Cubs still think he can help them in the future.

When Cabrera does throw strikes consistently, as he did in 2012 (55 IP, 14 BB, 74 K between Triple-A and Double-A), he looks like a future big league setup man. He was back to his wild ways, though, during a late-season big league promotion and his struggles with control continue in the DWL. If he can re-capture what he was doing during the 2012 minor league season at some point next year, he's sure to get a shot in a very thin Cubs bullpen.

Here are some updates on a few other hard-throwing pitching prospects that have the stuff to dominate ... IF they can find the ability to know where the heck the pitch is going once it leaves their hand.

• Jose Dominguez, RHP, Los Angeles Dodgers (Dominican Republic): 0.2 IP

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