Journeymen of tomorrow: Cubs minor league recap (6.25.16)

Nashville Sounds 4 @ Iowa Cubs 7

Iowa is trying to crawl its way back to .500. With this win they’re 35-37. Similarly to the parent club, Iowa opened up an early lead and then blew it, but came back in the end.

Mark Zagunis and Dan Vogelbach were each 0-4 with 2 strikeouts. Vogelbach walked once Zagunis was hit by a pitch so it wasn’t all bad. Matt Murton was 3-4 with a double and a strikeout. Juan Perez and Munenori Kawasaki each added 2 hits. Perez doubled twice.

Jeimer Candelario was 2-5 with 2 doubles, an RBI and 2 strikeouts. Candelario has taken a liking to Iowa. He’s hitting .358/.470/.623. He has 7 doubles, 2 triples and a home run in 16 games. He’s also walked 9 times and struckout 12 times.

Candelario is just 22 year old and already hitting well in AAA. Early in his Cubs career he was considered a top prospect, but had a pretty bad 2014 season. A lot of people kind of forgot about him, myself included. He had a big 2015 and while his 2016 AA numbers weren’t huge, they were still good (102 wRC+) and his AAA numbers are fantastic. He fields the position well enough to stick at 3rd and the fact he’s a switch hitter probably means he’s going to see some time at the MLB level this year. If not before September, he’ll definitely be up with the call-ups. He’s not a power-hitting 3rd baseman, but he can be valuable as an every day guy with his extra base hit potential. It will be interesting to see how much interest teams have in him at the deadline. There should be a lot.

Logon Watkins was batting 9th and playing 2nd base. All he did was go 4-4 with 2 runs scored.

Drew Rucinski improved to 5-6 with 5 mediocre to subpar innings. He gave up 6 hits, 4 runs though just 3 were earned. He walked 2 and struckout 3. Armando Rivero threw 3 innings, allowed a hit, walked a batter and struckout 4.

Rivero is a 28-year old, right-handed Cuban who is 6-4/190. He strikes out a lot of batters, but walks a lot too. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him get a shot in the Cubs bullpen Justin Grimm doesn’t get his shit figured out.

Pensacola Blue Wahoos 1 @ Tennessee Smokies 4

Jacob Hannemann is kind of hot right now. He was 2-4 with a triple, strikeout and run scored. Ian Happ was 2-4 with a strikeout and run scored. Victor Caratini was 1-4 with a strikeout and run scored. I wouldn’t mind seeing Caratini up with the big league club if there’s an injury to one of the catchers.

Billy McKinney was 1-3 with an RBI and a walk.

Jen-Ho Tsent threw 6 strong innings. He allowed 6 hits, a run, walked 3 and struckout 4. Jose Rosario picked up his 2nd save. He threw an inning, allowed a hit and struckout 2.

Carolina Mudcats 3 @ Myrtle Beach Pelicans 4

Gleyber Torres was 1-4 with a double, RBI, walk and strikeout. He also scored a run. Jason Vosler and Yasiel Balaguert were each 2-3. Vosler doubled, drove in a run, walked and struckout. Balaguert just struckout and walked.

Ian Rice was getting his first High A action in this game after being promoted from South Bend. Not sure why Eloy Jimenez wasn’t also promoted. Anyway, Rice was 0-3 with a walk. Rice was off to a great start. He hit .310/.417/.587 with a .454 wOBA and 191 wRC+ at South Bend. He hit 9 home runs and had 8 doubles. His walk rate was 16.7% and his strikeout rate was basically the same (17.3%).

Charcer Burks was 2-3 with a double, RBI, walk and run scored.

Erick Leal threw 6 innings, allowed 5 hits and 3 runs. He walked one and struckout 6 while allowing a home run. Daury Torrez pitched the 7th and allowed a hit and struckout a batter. Tommy Thorpe picked up the win behind 1.1 innings of 1-hit baseball. Ryan McNeil got his 7th save by striking out the only 2 batters he faced.

South Bend Cubs 4 @ Dayton Dragons 0

The Cubs have outscored the Dragons 15-1 the last two days as South Bend improves to 43-28.

The team has only 6 hits, but also took 7 walks. P.J. Higgins was 2-3 with a walk, strikeout and run scored. Eloy Jimenez was 0-3 with a walk, RBI and strikeout. Sutton Whiting was 1-2 with 2 walks and a strikeout. If Jim Hendry was the general manager, Whiting would be a player to watch. He’s a 2nd baseman who is only 5-8 and weighs 170 pounds. He’s undoubtedly a go-getter who plays scrappy and gritty baseball and has the name to prove it: Whiting.

Preston Morrison is now 7-3 with 7 excellent innings. He gave up just 3 hits, nobody scored, he walked 1 and struckout 6. Morrison’s strikeout rate has improved considerably over the last month. He’s becoming a fun prospect to watch.

Scott Effross and Craig Brooks pitched the 8th and 9th without allowing any baserunners. Effross struckout 1 and Brooks struckout 2.

Spokane Indians 0 @ Eugene Emeralds 6

D.J. Wilson was 2-5 with a strikeout and a run scored. Andruw Monasterio was also 2-5. He had 2 RBI, struckout twice and scored a run. Kevonte Mitchell was 1-3 with a couple of walks and a run scored.

Bryan Hudson threw 5 innings, allowed just 1 hit and no runs. He walked 2 and struckout 4. In 2 starts this year, Hudson has thrown 10 innings, allowed 3 hits and a run, walked 3 and struckout 7. Hudson was a 3rd round pick in 2015 for the Cubs. He’s a 19-year old lefty and is an impressive 6-8, 220 pounds. He only appeared in 5 games last year and threw 6.2 innings so there’s not much of a sample to go on.

Fangraphs rated him as the 18th best prospect in the Cubs organization. They say he’s a work in progress at this point and is more projection. He’s put on 20 pounds and his fastball has jumped from the high 80s in high school where he was a 2 sport star to the low 90s (91-93). There’s plenty of reason to believe that could improve more and he apparently has a pretty good curveball so there’s that too.

AZL Angels 3 @ AZL Cubs 4

Jose Gonzalez was 2-4 with a strikeout. Gustavo Polanco was also 2-4 and so was Rafael Mejia. Mejia recorded the Cubs only extra-base hit.

Javier Assad threw 5 scoreless innings to get his first win of the season. he allowed 3 hits, walked 3 and struckout 4. Yapson Gomez picked up a 4-inning save while allowing 4 hits and 3 runs. Not exactly a stellar save performance. He struckout 4 and walked none.

DSL Cubs1 5 @ DSL Indians 4

Jose Rules was 1-4 with a double, 2 RBI and a strikeout. Jose Rojas was 2-3 with a walk. Jose Gutierrez, Franklin Tineo and Luis Hidalgo each had hits. Rafael Narea was 0-2 with 2 walks, 1 stolen base, a strikeout and a run scored. That’s Narea’s 5th stolen base already.

Brailyn Marquez improved to 2-0 with 5 shutout innings. He allowed just a hit and he walked 3 while striking out 6. Elvis Diaz picked up a 3-inning hold (what a stupid statistic) and did so while allowing 3 hits and 4 runs. None of the runs were earned, but still. He struckout 2.

DSL Dodgers1 0 @ DSL Cubs2 3

The top 3 hitters combined to go 1-12 with 4 strikeouts so scoring runs was going to be difficult. Abraham Rodriguez was 1-3 with a run before leaving the game and being replaced by Luis Ubiera. Ubiera was 2-2 with a double, RBI and run scored. Half of the Cubs hits came from the 4th spot in the order. Richard Nunez was batting 5th and he added 2 more hits. He was 2-3 with a walk and a strikeout. The bottom 4 spots in the order combined to go 0-12 with a walk and 4 strikeouts.

Hector Garcia allowed 2 hits in his shutout performance. He walked none and struckout 6. Fauris Guerrero threw 2 innings, walked a batter and struckout 3.