JOT: Cubs Minor League Recap 6-02-13

New Orleans Zephyrs 7 @ Iowa Cubs 6

Hey, a Kevin Kouzmanoff sighting!

A fair amount of offense in this one. He had the third-best day at the plate, but Brett Jackson's 1-5, 1 walk, 1 strikeout, 1 homer performance has me the most excited, as it was 3/4 of the way to the Brett Jackson Cycle, which we haven't seen in awhile. Shame he couldn't add the SB. Brent Lillibridge went 4-6 with a double and a strikeout, so it's fair to say the Zephyrs' hurlers had a bad day. Dave Sappelt was 3/4 with a double, a walk, and a strikeout. Ian Stewart was 1-3 with a double and a K, which would be nice to see except that Donnie Murphy came in for him in a double switch and proceeded to go 2-4 with a double and no K. That's not the way to keep getting in the lineup, Ian.

On the pitching side, Guillermo Moscoso gave up 4 runs (3 earned) on 7 hits in 5.2 innings. He struck out 10 and walked 2, so all in all not a bad performance. He did give up one solo long ball to Kouzmanoff. So it goes. Hisanori Takahashi had a walk and a K in 0.2 innings. Casey Coleman had 2 Ks in a scoreless 1 2/3 innings. Eduardo Sanchez then proceeded to blow the save, giving up 2 runs on 2 hits and a walk in the 9th. Marcus Hatley dropped his huge ERA down to a mere 10.38 with 2 scoreless with 3 Ks and a hit. And the game finally ended in the 13th when Jeffry Antigua gave up the winning run in his 2nd inning of work, finishing with 1 run on 3 hits with a BB and 4 Ks in 2 IP.

Even when the I-Cubs' games are fun they're still incredibly boring.

Tennessee Smokies 3 @ Birmingham Barons 9

Tennessee got blown out again yesterday thanks to the pitching staff giving up 4 homers and a mixed bag of offense. Arismendy Alcantara led the way going 2-3 with a homer and a walk. Christian Villanueva also went deep in a 1-4 day. Matt Szczur continues to display a patient approach with absolutely no pop whatsoever, going 1-2 with 3 walks and a 1/2 day stealing. He also got picked off once. There's zero chance he keeps up a .355 OBP as he advances and pitchers stop throwing out of the zone entirely to him, right? Ronald Torreyes was 1-5 with a double.  Rubi Silva went 0-4 with a K. Chad Noble was 2-4.

Matt Loosen had a rough day, giving up 8 runs (4 earned) on 6 hits, 4 walks, 3 Ks, and 3 home runs in 5.1 IP. Frank Batista worked a scoreless inning and two-thirds, giving up 3 hits and K'ing 1. Trey McNutt continues to work towards irrelevancy, working one inning and giving up 2 hits, a walk, and a solo home run.

I'm getting really excited about Alcantara. It'd be nice to have a 2B on the roster that wasn't a vortex of suck offensively. Here's hoping he gets to Iowa soon and we see him in September.

Brevard County Manatees 5 @ Daytona Cubs 14

This game was all about Javier Baez. Javy made the front page of milb.com because he absolutely ransacked the Manatees hurlers for a 5-6 day with 3 doubles and a 3 run homer, raising his batting average by 10 points in a single game. His season slash line now sits at .277/.319/.519/.838, which looks pretty respectable given his dreadful start to the season. But he struck out once, so to hell with him.

Jorge Soler's 2-5 day with a blast of his own seems almost like an afterthought after Javy's high-A coming out party, but he's hitting .282/.378/.487 over his last 10 games and .295/.367/.509 on the year and I'm wondering what's taking so long to promote him. I heard Keith Law say the defense isn't quite what they might've expected out of Soler, but surely that's something that can be worked on just as well in Tennessee.

Dustin Geiger's 2-4, 2 double, 1 BB day looks pedestrian comparatively, but he continues to rake. Ben Carhart went 3-6 with 2 doubles and a K. Chadd Krist was 2-3 with a double and a K. Tim Saunders was 2-4 with 2 walks. Taiwan Easterling went 0-5 for the second consecutive day. Wes Darvill was 3-4 with a walk and a K. And Taylor Davis was 2-5 and struck out twice.

On the pitching side, P.J. Franceson had a nice day, tossing 6 innings of one run ball with 6 punchouts and scattering 5 hits throughout. The bullpen tried real hard to undo all that good work by apparently pitching to the score, with Austin Reed allowing the same 5 hits on only 2 innings worked, giving up 3 runs and 2 walks while striking out 3, and Sheldon McDonald going a home run short of the box score cycle, giving up a hit, a run, a walk, and a strikeout on 1 inning pitched.

Cedar Rapids Kernels 15 @ Kane County Cougars 2

Well, this was ugly. No Buxton on the other side today and the Kernels still destroyed the Cougars pitching, which did not matter in the slightest because the offense couldn't do anything anyway. Albert Almora was 2-4, Gioskar Amaya was 1-3, Jeimer Candelario was 2-4 with a K, and Carlos Escobar was 1-3 with a double, a K, and a walk. Other than that, nobody really did anything. Dan Vogelbach, Rock Shoulders, and Reggie Golden were all 0-4, with Voges striking out once while the other two were punched out twice.

Tayler Scott gave up 7 runs on 7 hits with 1 home run in 4 IP, walking 2 and striking out 4. Ian Dickson tried to match him, giving up 5 runs on 3 hits with 2 HRs in 3 IP, walking 5 while only striking out 2. Nathan Dorris tried to stop the bleeding, working a clean 1 hit inning, but David Bote insisted on being generous, adding 3 more runs on 3 hits and two walks in his 9th.

All in all, the Cougars continue to be surprisingly disappointing. I would have had them pegged as the best team in the system going into the year, but they've really yet to do much of anything. Quite unfortunate.

  DSL Yankees1 2 @ DSL Cubs 3

So this is apparently a thing that's happening now.

VSL Cubs 1 @ VSL Mariners 4