Hello, readers. Welcome again to “Young Cubs”! Finals are over and now only the summer session stands between me and receiving my undergraduate degree! Now that the main portion of my year is over and my finals are behind me, I will have even more time to devote to bringing you the best possible coverage of the Cubs farm system. Catch me on Twitter and ask me a question or just take the chance to catch up with me. I’m interested in getting to interact with the readership as much as possible and really want to embrace the BP Wrigleyville community as fully as possible. Anyways, away we go!
BP Top 10 Update (Stats for 5/4-5/7)
- SS Addison Russell, MLB: I will no longer be reporting major league stats for Russell or Bryant, as it seems a bit unnecessary.
- 3B Kris Bryant, MLB: I will no longer be reporting major league stats for Russell or Bryant, as it seems a bit unnecessary.
- OF Albert Almora, Double-A Tennessee: 3-for-7, 0 BB, 1 K; Activated on Wednesday. If I’m being totally honest, the stats here the last few days are far less important than the fact that he’s back and healthy. The Cubs aren’t going to be sending Hannemann back down unless his performance truly warrants it, so it should be interesting to see how they split CF time going forward. I would imagine that Almora would get the majority of the time there, as he’s the more valuable prospect, but this should be a fun outfield to follow regardless.
- C Kyle Schwarber, Double-A Tennessee: 2-for-12, 1 HR, 3 BB, 5 K
- OF Billy McKinney, High-A Myrtle Beach: 6-for-14, 1 HR, 1 3B, 2 2B, 7 BB, 0 K; McKinney continued to hit the ball hard this week, capped by a 10th inning walk off homer for Myrtle Beach last night. He is clearly not being challenged by High-A pitching and is simply in a holding pattern right now, waiting for a spot to open up in Tennessee. Billy the Kid is really playing some great baseball and I’m excited to see what he will do when challenged by Double-A pitching. I think he’s one of the likeliest candidates to be included in a midsummer trade, but no matter where he lands, I’m rooting for him.
- RHP Pierce Johnson, Double-A Tennessee: 7-Day DL
- SS Gleyber Torres, Low-A South Bend: 2-for-11, 1 3B, 2 BB, 3 K
- 1B Dan Vogelbach, Double-A Tennessee: 3-for-17, 1 2B, 2 BB, 8 K
- LHP Carson Sands, Extended Spring Training: Extended spring training stats are difficult to come by, but if you’re interested, Arizona Phil at The Cub Reporter does some great work covering the team out of Mesa.
- RHP Jen-Ho Tseng, High-A Myrtle Beach: 3 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 0 K
The Non-Prospects
Javier Baez: Baez had some strikeouts, a walk, a few hits, and an ejection this week. To say that he had an interesting week would be to undersell the point. Baez’s ejection came on Tuesday after a possible home run over the foul pole was called a foul ball by the second base umpire, who really should not have been making such a call. Baez proceeded to fly out and became angry with the umpire, ultimately leading to his ejection and inciting manager Marty Pevey to argue with the umpire and receive an ejection of his own. It may take some time for Baez to figure everything out, so it’s important for us to remember to just simply be patient.
Arismendy Alcantara: Mendy was the most mixed of mixed bags this week. He had strikeouts, stolen bases, extra-base hits, and ultimately contributed in ways both good and bad this week. Alcantara continues to look good most of the time, but the stats are not necessarily the most important thing to pay attention to here. The Cubs clearly have certain development goals for him to achieve and one can only hope that he progresses well and makes it back to the majors as soon as he can.
Team Updates/Standings
South Bend Cubs, Low-A, Midwest League: 15-13, 2 GB of first place, 3rd place in the Eastern Division (tied w/Dayton Dragons)
Myrtle Beach Pelicans, High-A, Carolina League: 17-10, first place in the Southern Division
Tennessee Smokies, Double-A, Southern League: 15-12, first place in the North Division
Iowa Cubs, Triple-A, Pacific Coast League: 13-14, 7.0 GB of first place, third place in the American Northern Division
Minor League Player of the Week: Jeremy Null, 21, RHP, South Bend Cubs
Null has received a lot of attention recently for going 22 2/3 innings without issuing a single walk to begin the season. He’s been simply stupendous, as he’s built back up his velocity and shown the skills that made him a favorite of scouts prior to his junior season. Null achieved his best start yet on Tuesday, pitching eight innings of scoreless baseball. Null really belongs at High-A at this point and something has to give pretty soon. Ineffectiveness, injury, and trades will all open up spots throughout the summer, allowing movement throughout the farm system. However, I would be surprised if he lasts that long in Low-A. Null has to be considered first in line for a promotion to High-A if a starting role should open up. If you’re not following his starts on MiLB.tv, now would be the proper time to start.
Last Start (5/5/15): 8 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 K
Next Projected Start: Tuesday, May 12 vs. Lansing Lugnuts, 10:35 A.M. ET
Player To Watch: Duane Underwood, 20, RHP, Myrtle Beach Pelicans
I’ve spoken before about Underwood, but it bears repeating just how exciting a prospect he is. Underwood is only 20 and is simply dealing at High-A right now. Just like any young pitching prospect, the command comes and goes, but the stuff is simply electric. He’s had himself a nice season thus far, building off the success he had last year at Low-A. I’m featuring him in this space because he put up what was likely his best start of the young season last night, going seven innings and allowing only one earned run on three hits with four strikeouts and one walk. If he can keep the walks down on a more consistent basis, he’ll move rapidly up prospect lists and draw national attention.
Tweet(s) of the Week
Rob Zastryzny often has great tweets, but I haven’t had a chance to highlight him yet in the update. This tweet, though, deserves special recognition for indicating how much Zas really cares about being a good teammate. Hispanic players are generally made to learn English, which is really no small task. It’s certainly understandable, but the unfortunate part of this is that very few American-born players take the initiative to learn Spanish well enough to be able to converse with their Latin-born teammates. More American-born players could stand to do this, as it simply shows respect for the native language and culture of many of your teammates and even a large portion of your opponents. Many Latin-born MLB players have spoken about how much they love Ichiro Suzuki, since he took the initiative to learn Spanish and was thus able to trash talk them in their native language. It’s just so much fun to see a player embrace the brotherhood of being a pro baseball player in this way.
I'm learning Spanish so I can communicate with my Latin brothers better. If anyone has an effective/cheap method, let me know.
— Rob Zastryzny (@RobZastryzny_8) May 7, 2015
Best Promotion of the Upcoming Week
If you’ve ever been to a minor-league baseball game, you’re likely aware that the teams have some great promotions. They are sometimes fun, sometimes silly, sometimes downright bonkers, and they ultimately are a large part of what make the minor-league experience so much fun. Here, I will highlight an upcoming promotion that stands out to me.
Iowa Cubs vs. Colorado Springs Sky Sox, Sunday, May 10, Mother’s Day Pampering at the Park: Take your mom to the game and she can get a mini-manicure or mini-massage. Honestly, the mini-massage sounds pretty good. Also, ya know, getting to see Javier Baez and Arismendy Alcantara is fun enough all on its own. No better way to honor the baseball-loving mothers in your life than treating them to an Iowa Cubs game.
Game(s) To Look Forward To
Myrtle Beach Pelicans @ Winston-Salem Dash, Saturday, May 9, 4:30 PM ET: Jen-Ho Tseng is always interesting to watch and this time he’s up against a White Sox affiliate. No, they’re not the actual White Sox, but they are at least in the same organization. That means you can play up the rivalry to your heart’s content. Let’s all hope for a Myrtle Beach victory and that Tseng will pitch much better than he did in his last start.
Odds & Ends
- Gerardo Concepcion was promoted to Double-A Tennessee this week. The lefty reliever has been marred by illness and ineffectiveness in his time in the Cubs organization. He hasn’t really lived up to the money given him or the expectations the front office had for him. Still, there is still at least some talent there and if he can reclaim even an inkling of it, he might yet be a major leaguer. I wouldn’t bet on it, but it isn’t totally out of the question.
- Justin Grimm rejoined the Cubs on Wednesday, which was much sooner than I had anticipated. I thought he would at least take a week or two in Iowa to get back up to speed, but it’s really great to see him back in Chicago.