Young Cubs: Almora Stays Hot, Johnson Notes, Baez Dazzles

Sorry for skipping the week wrap, here’s an extra meaty edition to make up for it.

Bad time for the Torres and Happ connection to slump down in Low-A South Bend. Both of these players have been playing for a much longer time than they ever have in their lives, some fatigue is to be expected after a long season…Albert Almora has torn it up in the second half and will finish the season with a decent slash line. His propensity to make weak contact was exposed early in the season, he’s made some adjustments since then, but there’s still a concern that he loves swinging a bit too much. The next step for Almora remains recognizing bad spin…I will have a snippet in the next Beer List about McKinney’s rise this season. He’s been very impressive, and while the OFP isn’t all that exciting, he still profiles as a useable player who will be cost-controlled for six years. That’s a major win…Pierce Johnson isn’t on the radar as a September call-up for the big-league club. He still has a lot of work to do regarding his command, and the health issues pushed back the work he needs to get in to be successful…Duane Underwood Jr. showed a lot of positives this year before an injury took a sizable chunk out of his season. His progress is definitely worth monitoring…Tseng notched nine strikeouts in seven innings of work, an impressive total for the young pitcher. I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating with Tseng: there’s not much growth potential here, but he can turn into a solid high-four starter for the Cubs…Javier Baez is hitting .386 over his last 10 games which is just ridiculous. He’s flashed the leather as well, and it will be interesting to see how the Cubs use him in September…Eloy Jimenez hit two home runs in a game this week and is having a small coming out party of sorts. There’s still work to do with his swing, but he’s progressing along pretty well. It’s going to be tough to leave him out of the Cubs Top-10 list…There are tons of rumors about various farm hands being called up for a September run yet very few, if any, mention Arismendy Alcantara. I don’t think that’s folly on anyone’s part either. He hasn’t progressed as well as some had hoped. It’s not going well for the do-everything man.

What to watch for

This is it, last week of the season and only Eugene has a share of first place. Myrtle Beach will qualify for the playoffs because MiLB playoff rules are a little wonky. They won the first half and will play against the second-half division winners which looks like it’ll be the Winston-Salem Dash, the White Sox affiliate. Tennessee’s elimination number is two, South Bend finished the first half 11.5 games out of first and are on a similar trajectory in the second half. Iowa’s elimination number is six so they still have some faint hope, but it’s going to take some work.

We’ll do a final wrap next weekend and that’ll be that for the season.