rafael dolis – Obstructed View

JOT: Cubs Minor League Recap 5-18-13

Chris Rusin threw 6.2 innings, allowed 5 hits and 4 runs. He walked 2 and struckout 3. He also hit a batter. Zack Putnam struckout the only batter he faced. Rafael Dolis gave up 2 hits and struck a batter out in an inning of work. Blake Parker pitched the 9th and allowed a walk and a hit. He struck a batter out.

The I-Cubs only had 6 hits and a walk in this one. Logan Watkins had one of the two extra base hits as he went 1-4 with a double. Ian Stewart also doubled and was 2-4. Donnie Murphy was 2-3.

Tennessee Smokies 7 @ Chattanooga Lookouts 5

Dallas Beeler had another strong outing. He went 6 innings, walked 2 and struckout 6. He gave up 4 hits and 3 runs. Trey McNutt struckout 2 in an inning of work.

All of the position players in the lineup had a hit. The top of the order did this:

Matt Szczur 3-5, double
Ronald Torreyes 2-5, double
Arismendy Alcantara: 3-4, 2 doubles, home run

Jair Fernandez was 2-4 and Anthony Giansanti was 2-4 with a double and a triple.

Daytona Cubs 6 @ Lakeland Flying Tigers 5

Zach Cates walked 2 and only struckout 1 in 5.2 innings. He gave up 5 hits and 3 runs. David Cales threw 2.1 innings, allowed 3 hits and 2 runs. He walked a batter and struckout 4. Hunter Cervenka struckout 2 in an inning of work.

The Cubs acquired Cervenka, along with Michael Bowden, in the Marlon Byrd trade with the Red Sox. He’s appeared in 9 games this season and has thrown 17.2 innings. He’s allowed just 7 hits and 4 runs. He’s struckout 16, but he has walked 10. He’s had a tendency to walk a lot of batters so there doesn’t see to be much improvement there. He’ll either need to improve that or he may only have a career of a LOOGY ahead of him.

Zeke DeVoss and Dustin Geiger were 2-5. Geiger doubled. Javier Baez had another good day at the plate going 3-5 with a double. That’s two days in a row he’s had good results. More of it, please.

Jorge Soler continues to rake. He was 2-4 with a walk and a strikeout. Wes Darvill was 3-5.

Kane County Cougars 4 @ Cedar Rapids Kernels 0

Pierce Johnson had his best start of his career last night. He threw 6 innings and struckout 9 batters while walking only 1. He’s having a great year so far. Over 8 starts and 40.2 innings, he’s walked 12 and allowed only 1 home run. He’s struckout 45. Pierce turned 22 a week ago and it won’t be long before he’s in the Daytona rotation if he keeps this up.

Justin Amlung walked 2 and struckout 3 in 2 innings. Jeffry Antigua struckout 2 and and allowed a hit in 1 inning. The Cougars pitchers struckout 14 batters and walked only 3.

Dan Vogelbach and Rock Shoulders were both 2-4. Vogelbach had a double and a strikeout while Shoulders struckout twice and hit his 9th home run of the season. Jeimer Candelario doubled in 4 plate appearances. Oliver Zapata was 3-4 with a home run.

VSL Cubs 3 @ VSL Rays 2

The VSL Cubs had allowed a ton of runs so far. They’ve allowed 22, 8, 15, 15 and now 2 runs. It’s nice to see them play a game that I can be certain is actually baseball.

JOT: Cubs Minor League Recap 4-30-13

Round Rock Express 2 @ Iowa Cubs 7

Guillermo Monosco threw 5 innings, allowed 3 hits and a run on a walk, 6 strikeouts. The run he allowed was on a solo home run. Yoanner Negrin threw 2 innings, allowed 3 hits and a run. He struckout 3. Casey Coleman allowed a hit in an inning pitched and Rafael Dolis struckout 2 in an inning.

Logan Watkins took a walk in 4 plate appearances. He also struckout. Brett Jackson’s new swing struckout 3 times. Brent Lillibridge was 2-4 with a home run, his 2nd at Iowa. Brian Bogusevic just keeps hitting. He was 3-4 with 2 doubles and a triple. Brad Nelson was 2-2 with a home run and 2 walks.

That was Bogusevic’s 1st home run, which is kind of surprising when you consider the season he’s had at Iowa so far. In 24 games he’s hitting .420/.500/568. He has 7 doubles, a triple and that home run.

Palm Beach Cardinals 4 @ Daytona Cubs 11

Zach Cates threw 6 hitless innings last night. He pitched 6 innings, allowed 0 runs, walked 3 and struckout 7. On April 19th, Cates threw 0.2 innings, allowed 3 hits and 3 walks and 6 runs. Other than that awful outing, he’s pitched 22 innings, allowed 14 hits, 4 runs, 0 home runs, 8 walks and 22 strikeouts.

David Cales threw an inning, allowed 2 hits and a walk and struckout 1. Starling Peralta hadn’t appeared in a game since April 11th (only his 2nd start of the year) and came out of the bullpen last night. It didn’t go well. He allowed 2 hits and 2 walks in 1.2 innings. He gave up a home run and all 4 baserunners scored. Frank Del Valle finished the night and gave up a hit and a walk in 0.1 innings.

Tim Saunders was 1-3 with a walk, 2 strikeouts and an HBP. Zeke DeVoss batted 2nd last night for what I’m pretty sure was the first time. Guess what. He walked. He was also 2-3 with a double. Javier Baez was 1-5 with a double and 2 strikeouts. Guess what. Baez had an error. His 12th. He’s now on pace for roughly 67 errors this year.

Jorge Soler was 1-4 with a double. Ben Carhart was 2-4.

Kane County Cougars 13 @ Lake County Captains 9

Lendy Castillo makes me laugh. The Cubs picked this guy in the rule 5 draft last year. He was on the MLB team for part of the season. Usually with rule 5 picks, if they stick around, they’ll often get sent to AAA the following year. Maybe AA. Not Castillo. He didn’t even go to A+. He went to fucking A ball. Last night he sucked and in his 4 starts this year, only once has he allowed fewer than 5 runs. I’m guessing he’s sent to Boise when the short-season leagues begin. Maybe by that time they’ll send him to do DSL.

Justin Amlung threw 3 innings, allowed only one hit, a home run, walked 1 and struckout 2. Nathan Dorris threw 2innings, struckout 4 and allowed 2 hits.

RF Pin-Chieh Chen was 4-6 with a double. That improved his batting line to .242/.338/.303. Gioskar Amaya was 0-4 and it completed a terrible month for him. 24 strikeouts to 3 walks and a .560 OPS.

Dan Vogelbach was 4-6 with his 5th home run of the season. Vogelbach’s power didn’t come on right away, but it’s here. He’s hit 4 home runs in the last 10 games and has his slugging percentage up to .494.

Rock Shoulders was 2-5 and Willson Contreras was 2-4 with a walk and a home run. Yaniel Cabezas, a catcher, was 3-6. Cabezas is 24 years old.

JOT: Cubs Minor League Recap 4-28-13

Iowa Cubs 10 @ Omaha Storm Chasers 6

In 6 innings today, Brooks Raley struck a batter out, walked 3 and gave up 2 home runs. He only gave up 4 runs, which is kind of impressive when you look at what I wrote first. It’s not at all impressive though.

Hisanori Takahashi struck a batter out in one inning and Zach Putnam gave up a hit and had 1 strikeout in 1 inning. Rafael Dolis gave up 2 hits, one of which was a home run and struck a batter out in the 9th. He gave up 2 runs.

The I-Cubs offense was actually worth talking about for a change. They scored 9 runs on 13 hits and 4 home runs.

Ian Stewart is probably close to returning to the MLB team, but I don’t really know why. He did take 3 walks in 5 plate appearances and struckout in the only official at-bats he had. He also had his 4th error. They should just put him on whatever DL Josh Vitters is on. You know, the one where they protect you from actually facing any good hitters? That one.

Brett Jackson’s new swing hit his first home run of the season, walked once and was 1-5. He continues to suck and if I don’t know how much of him sucking has to do with that new swing, but if any of it does, get rid of it. Now.

Logan Watkins was 2-6 with a triple. Ryan Sweeney was 1-4 with a home run and a walk. Hide your children was 3-4 with a walk and a home run. Brian Bogusevic hit the other home run and had an identical box score as Lillibridge.

Palm Beach Cardinals 4 @ Daytona Cubs 7

PJ Francescon threw 6 innings, allowed 4 hits, one of them a home run, walked 2 and struckout 5. He gave up 2 runs. In 5 April Starts, Francescon threw 24 innings, walked only 6 and struckout 22. He gave up 4 home runs though. He gave up 26 hits and 16 runs.

Austin Reed threw an inning, allowed a hit and a walk and struckout 2. Frank Del Valle threw 2 innings, gave up 3 hits and 2 runs. He walked 1 and struckout 3. He also gave up a home run.

Zeke DeVoss was 0-3 with 2 more walks. He has 20 walks and 20 strikeouts in 21 games played. His .427 OBP will actually go down after today. I love this guy’s patience.

Tim Saunders was 2-5 with a strikeout and Javier Baez continues to hit. He was 2-4 with a home run and a strikeout. He now has 5 home runs on the season and while there is still quite a bit needs to improve, all things considered, it’s been a pretty good month for him. He also had 2 more errors today, which gives him 10 on the season already.

Dustin Geiger was 1-1 with a double and 3 walks. Ben Carhart was 3-4.

The Smokies double-header was postponed. So was the Kane County Cougars game.

JOT: Cubs Minor League Recap 4-25-13

Iowa Cubs 9 @ Omaha Storm Chasers 3

Barrett Loux isn’t very good at baseball. He threw 4.2 innings, gave up 8 hits and walked 4. That’s almost 3 baserunners per inning. Esmailin Caridad walked 2 and struckout 3 over 2.1 innings. Cory Wade gave up 2 hits and a walk in .2 innings. Rafael Dolis got the save with 1.1 innings of work, 2 walks and 2 strikeouts.

I-Cubs pitchers gave up 10 hits, one of which was a home run, and walked 9 batters yet somehow gave up only 3 runs.

Logan Watkins was 0-2 with 2 strikeouts. He walked 4 times. The Cubs had 10 walks on the night.

Hide your children was 4-5 with a walk. Ryan Sweeney had the big night again going 4-5 with a triple and a home run. He walked and struckout also. Darnell McDonald was 2-5 and Edwin Maysonet was 2-4 with a walk.

Pensacola Blue Wahoos 1 @ Tennessee Smokies 2

Dallas Beeler threw 7 shutout innings and allowed 7 hits. He walked 1 and struckout 2. The right hander was selected by the Cubs in the 2010 draft in the 41st round. In 4 starts so far this season he’s thrown 31.1 innings and allowed only 17 hits. He’s struckout only 7, but also shown really good control in walking only 7. He’s been a bit BABIP lucky to date and doesn’t have the ability to strike a lot of batters out. He struckout 70 last season in 136 innings.

He made 9 starts for the Smokies in 2011 and returned there for the entire season last year. He’s now made 40 starts in AA so will probably see a promotion to Iowa at some point before too long.

Zach Rosscup allowed a walk, hit and a run in his inning while Brian Schlitter didn’t allow any hits or walks. He struck a batter out in 1 inning.

Ronald Torreyes had a great night as the leadoff hitter. He was 3-3 with a walk. He had a single, double and a triple. The rest of the Smokies combined for only 3 hits. Jae-Hoon Ha and Christian Villanueva were each 1-4. Ha struckout twice and Villanueva struckout once. Catcher Rafael Lopez was 1-3 with a double.

This week’s prospect profile will be Jae-Hoon Ha who deserves more attention than I’ve given him.

Lakeland Flying Tigers 3 @ Daytona Cubs 5

Zach Cates allowed 4 hits and no runs in 5 innings. He walked 1 and struckout 4. Yeiper Castillo struckout the side in the 6th. Austin Reed’s struggles continue. He gave up 3 hits and 3 runs in 1 inning pitched. He also walked 3. More on him in a moment. David Cales threw the final 2 innings, allow no hits or runs, walked 2 and struckout 4.

Austin Reed was a 12th round pick in 2010 and after a season as a starter, the Cubs move him to the bullpen in 2012. He wasn’t going to have any success as a starter considering he barely struck anybody out. He had a decent season in relief last year at Peoria, but so far this year he’s given up 15 hits in 7 innings. He’s allowed 9 runs, walked 6 and struckout 6.

Everybody in the Cubs lineup had a hit and they had 12 in total so let’s just stick with the guys who had more than 1. Javier Baez homered in the 1st inning and singled in his final at-bat. He struckout once and was picked off. Hopefully we’ll start to see him improve at the plate, but to be honest, I’m not concerned about that. I’m confident he’ll hit better, but the question is whether he’ll walk enough and strikeout less. Without improvements there, he’s going to struggle at some point. Maybe it’s this year. Maybe it’s next year, but he can’t continue to strikeout as much as he has to this point in his career and walk as infrequently as he has.

Chad Noble was 2-3 with a home run and a walk. Anthony Giantanti was 2-3 with a walk.

Kane County Cougars 4 @ Fort Wayne TinCaps 6

Lendy Castillo sucks. There. After 6 shitty innings by Castillo, Justin Amlung struckout 2 in an inning of work. Steve Perakslis gave up a hit in 1 inning. He also struck a batter out. Did I mention that Lendy Castillo is terrible? He is.

Pin-Chieh Chen was 1-4 with a walk. Dan Vogelbach was 0-4 with a walk and his 2nd stolen base of the year. Go figure.

Rock Shoulders, Marco Hernandez and Willson Contreras were each 1-3. Both Shoulders and Hernandez took a walk. Bijan Radenmacher was 2-4.

Lendy Castillo still sucks. In case I have not been clear, Lendy Castillo blows ass. Ass.

JOT: Cubs Minor League Recap 4-22-13

Iowa Cubs 5 @ Memphis Redbirds 2

Brooks Raley gave up 5 hits and 2 runs in 5.1 innings. He walked 2 and struckout 3. Zach Putnam, Rafael Dolis and Blake Parker finished the game without allowing any runs. He did give up 3 hits and walked 3 while striking out 5.

1B Brad Nelson was 2-4 with a home run and a strikeout. I expected to be writing his name in these recaps frequently, but he's gotten off to a slow start. Nelson is the perfect example of a quad-A talent.

Brian Bogusevic was 2-4 with a double. Ian Stewart and Logan Watkins were both 1-3 with a double. Watkins also walked twice.

Montgomery Biscuits and Gravy 3 @ Tennessee Little Smokies 9

Eric Jokisch gave up 8 hits and 3 runs, only 1 of which was earned, in 6.1 innings. He struckout 3 and walked 2. He has an impressive 1.11 ERA over his first four starts and this last one was actually his worst. He's struckout 20 and walked 5 over 24.1 innings. He's allowed 19 hits.

Brian Schlitter threw the final 2.2 innings, didn't allow a hit or a run and struck a batter out.

Arismendy Alcantara was 2-4 with a home run. Everyone else in the lineup had one hit with the exception of Ronald Torreyes who went 0-3.

Matt Szczur and Christian Villanueva were each 1-4 with a double. Jae-Hoon Ha and Rafael Lopez were each 1-3 with a double and a walk.

Daytona Cubs 7 @ Dunedin Blue Jays 4

In Austin Kirk's 4th start of the season he threw 5 innings and allowed 4 hits and runs. He also gave up a home run. However, He struckout 8 and walked 2. It was his best strikeout to walk ratio of the season. In 18 innings he's struckout 16 and walked 10.

Zach Cates walked a batter in 1.1 innings. He didn't allow any hits or runs. Hunter Cervenka walked a batter and struckout 2 in 2.2 innings.

Javier Baez had a good day at the plate. He was 3-5 with a double and a strikeout. Over his last 10 he's started to hit, but still has not gotten on base nearly enough. His batting average is just over .300 and his OBP is .289. He's slugged over .550 so he's made up for it, but over that span he has 12 strikeouts and 0 walks. On the season he has 24 strikeouts and 2 walks and a .250ish OBP.

Zeke DeVoss was 0-3 with 2 walks. This guy can get on base. He's struggled a bit over the last 10. His batting average is barely over .200 and his slugging is under .300, but his OBP is over .425.

Dustin Geiger was 3-5 and Jorge Soler was 0-5. That's the first 0-fer I can remember for Soler.

Peoria Chiefs 9 @ Kane County Cougars 6

Michael Heesch is off to a pretty good start this season. He threw 6 innings, allowed 5 hits and 2 runs. He walked 2, struckout 5 and did allow a home run. In 3 starts this year, he's thrown 14 innings, allowed 11 hits and 5 earned runs. He has allowed 9 overall runs, a 5 walk and 12 strikeout rate isn't too bad. It's not great by any means, but it could be a lot worse. He's had 2 pretty good starts and a terrible start.

I've known 3 guys in my life named Brian Smith. I met one in high school, another while in Iowa City and the other one in Des Moines. There's a writer on Fangraphs named with the same name, though his name is spelled Bryan. There's also a Brian Smith with the Cougars and he sucked in his most recent outing. He allowed 3 hits, walked 2 and gave up 5 runs though only 1 was earned.

Smith is a left-handed reliever born on December 12, 1992. In 8 innings this year he's walked 7 and struckout 7.

Matt Iannazzo pitched 2.1 innings, gave up 5 hits and walked 3 and escaped while allowing only 2runs.

Dan Vogelbach was 2-4 with a home run and Marco Hernandez was also 2-4. His two hits were doubles. Pin-Chieh Chen was 2-4 with a walk and Gioskar Amaya was 2-5. Jeimer Candelario had 2 walks and a hit in 5 plate appearances.

Kyuji Fujikawa placed on DL

The Cubs new closer, Kyuji Fujikawa has been placed on the 15-day DL. He has what they're calling a right forearm strain.

"It can't get worse right now and being in an important role with the team if it's not helping the team and it's hurting them, it's better to make that decision," Fujikawa said through an interpreter.

Fujikawa recently took over the closer's role when teammate Carlos Marmol faltered. Fujikawa said his arm started bothering him a "couple of days ago" and considered not pitching on Friday. He gave up three hits in his one inning of work, raising his ERA to 12.46.

"I definitely felt my command wasn't there," he said.

Fujikawa indicated he's had a similar strain to his arm "once or twice" in the past and it usually resides after about 10 days.

A forearm strain is sometimes related to a torn ligament in the elbow. Rafael Dolis has been called up to replace him.

Journeymen of Tomorrow: 4-9-13

Iowa Cubs 2 @ Round Rock Express 4

The Iowa Cubs are off to a fantastic 0-6 start after losing yet again last night.

Chris Rusin threw 6 innings and allowed 7 hits and 4 runs. He walked 4, hit a batter, allowed a home run and struckout only 2. To give up only 4 runs was rather lucky. In two starts Rusin has walked and struckout 6, allowed 7 runs (6 earned) on 11 hits in 11 IP. He's also hit a batter.

Zach Putnam and Rafael Dolis each threw an inning and allowed a hit. Putnam struck a batter out.

Brett Jackson's new swing was 2-4 with a double and a strikeout. Darnell McDonald was 1-3 with a home run and a walk while Ty Wright was 2-4.

The Cubs had only 7 hits so there's just not a lot to talk about.

Clearwater Threshers 5 @ Daytona Cubs 4

Zach Cates only threw 3.2 innings and allowed 6 hits, but he struckout 7 and didn't walk a single batter. 3 runs ended up scoring, but thanks to 4 Cubs errors, only 1 of them was earned. Cates isn't a strikeout pitcher though. He was acquired along with Anthony Rizzo for Andrew Cashner. Last season he struckout only 46 in 65.1 innings of work.

Eduardo Figueroa pitched 2.2 innings, allowed a hit and walked 2. He gave up 2 runs and struckout 3. Sheldon McDonald also threw 2.2 innings. He didn't allow any runs. He gave up 2 hits, walked 2 and struckout a batter.

Dustin Geiger had a bad night. A really bad night. He was 1-4 at the plate with a strikeout, but committed 3 throwing errors. That's hard to do.

Zeke DeVoss hit his first home run of the season. Tim Saunders was 0-2 with a walk before being replaced by Taiwan Easterling who went 0-1. Not sure what happened to Saunders. If anything.

Javier Baez has been struggling. He was 1-5 with a triple and 2 more strikeouts. He's struckout 8 times in 22 plate appearances and hasn't drawn a walk yet. He's struckout in over 20% of his plate appearances in the minor leagues so far and it increased to 24.4% last year at Daytona. The season is young and the sample size is small, but that's a lot of strikeouts so early in the season. And no walks.

On the other hand, Jorge Soler has struckout only 3 times and has 3 walks so far this year. He's also hit a couple home runs. Soler was 2-4 with a walk and a strikeout last night.

LF John Andreoli was 1-2 with 2 walks. He moved to CF when Easterling replaced Saunders.

Clinton LuMberKinGs 5 @ Kane County Cougars 6

After getting hit awfully hard in his 2013 debut, Pierce Johnson rebounded and had a fairly decent outing. He threw 5 innings, allowed 6 hits and walked 2 while striking out 4 and allowing 2 runs. It's not at all a great outing, but it's much improved over his opening day start.

Jeffry Antigua pitched 3 innings, allowed 4 hits and a run while walking 0 and striking out 1. Eduardo Orozco pitched an inning, didn't allow a hit, but walked a batter who scored (another one scored also) and struckout no one.

CF Oliver Zapata has cooled off. He was 0-5 today with a strikeout and is 0-9 in the last 2 games with a walk and 2 strikeouts. Gioskar Amaya was 2-5 and struckout in every plate appearance he didn't get a hit.

The 2 through 6 hitters in this lineup combined for 11 hits. Along with Amaya's 2-5, Dan Vogelbach was 3-5. Jeimer Candelario was 2-5, Rock Shoulders was 2-3 with a home run (2nd on the season) and a walk.

In the 6th spot, Marco Hernandez was 2-4 with a couple runs scored. We haven't said his name much so far this year. He was 1-18 with 3 strikeouts prior to today's game. He also had a stolen base today.

RF Bijan Radenmacher was 2-3 with a double and a walk. After an 0-9 start, he's 5 for his last 10 with a walk.

Journeymen of Tomorrow: 4-6-13

Iowa Cubs 3 @ Alburquerque Isotopes 8

There’s not a whole lot to like about the Iowa pitching staff. Brooks Raley threw 4 innings, allowed 7 hits and 4 runs. He struckout 3 and walked 2. Soon to be 29 year old Yoanner Negrin struckout 3 and walked 1 over 2 innings of work. Zach Putnam pitched 1.2 innings, allowed 3 hits and 3 runs while Rafael Dolis recorded an out and gave up 2 hits and a run.

Logan Watkins has gotten off to a good start this season. He hit very well the first couple games and last night he was 1-4 with a walk. Brett Jackson’s new swing was 1-4 with a strikeout and I’m not exactly sure why, but he was taken out of the game late. Ryan Sweeney was 3-3 with a walk.

That’s about all that happened for Iowa. They’ve started their season 0-3.

Tennessee Smokies 9 @ Pensacola Blue Wahoos

When I went to bed this game was 1-1 in the 9th inning so I thought the score was a misprint. Turns out the Smokies scored 8 runs in the top of the 12th inning.

Eric Jokisch pitched 6 strong innings. He allowed 3 hits and a run while striking out 7 and walking 2. The Smokies got 6 shutout innings from their bullpen. Kevin Rhoderick pitched 1 inning, Marcus Hatley 2, Frank Batista 2 and Brian Schlitter 1. Only Hatley’s performance is worthy of noting. He struckout 4 and walked 1. The Smokies gave up only 5 hits all night and walked 4 batters.

3 position players had performances worth noting. Matt Szczur was 2-7 with 3 RBI. Jae-Hoon Ha was 3-5 and Christian Villanueva was 2-5. Other than those 3, nothing really happened. Those 3 are also the ones who have been consistently hitting for the Smokies the first 3 games of the year.

Brevard County Manatees 2 @ Daytona Cubs 4

The Cubs had 3 pitchers pitch 3 innings apiece. Austin Kirk started, allowed 4 hits and a couple runs on 2 walks and 2 strikeouts. Yao-Lin Wang replaced him and struckout 4. Frank Del Valle finished the game and struckout 6 and walked 1.

Frank Del Valle was signed in June, 2011 and has been OK so far. His control has been good, but he hasn’t struckout a lot of batters. Maybe last night was the start of an improvement for him, but probably not.

Jorge Soler was 2-3 with a walk and his first home run of the year. He’s gotten off to a fantastic start so far. Stephen Bruno was 2-3 and Tim Saunders was 3-4. Javier Baez was 0-4 and has struggled a bit in this first series.

Quad Cities River Dogs 13 @ Kane County Cougars 10

Jose Arias put this game out of reach early, but somehow the Cougars came back to tie it. Arias allowed 7 hits and 7 runs in 1.2 innings. Nathan Dorris allowed a run in 2.1 innings while striking out 3 and walking 2. Then Ian Dickson mostly kept the game where it was as he threw 5 relief innings and allowed 2 runs, which allowed the Cougars to come back from down 8-1 to tie it in the 9th 10-10. They’d lose in the 13th. Steve Perakslis threw 2 innings, allowed 3 runs on 3 hits.

Rock Shoulders was 4-6 last night. The big game belongs to outfielder Oliver Zapata who was 3-6 with a triple and a home run and 5 RBI. Pin-Chieh Chen, Gioskar Amaya and Jeimer Candelario were each 2-6. Dan Vogelbach was 3-6 with a double. Catcher Willson Contreras was 3-5 with a double and a walk. Poor Marco Hernandez. Guy has been odd man out in this lineup a couple times already. He was 0-6.

Journeymen of Tomorrow 4/4/13

The minor league season is officially underway. All four full season affiliates began their season on Thursday. I would think these updates would evolve as the season goes on. I’d really like to highlight players we don’t typically consider prospects, as well as covering the prospects we all know about. My intention is to let the first part of that develop so as the season goes along and the performance accumulates, then it will be a good time to do that.

I don’t know about the rest of the you, but I couldn’t really care if the Iowa Cubs won or lost. We follow the minor leagues to get an idea how the players are doing. Those players, any of them really, who could wind up at the big league level helping the team in games we actually care about.

I’m not sure how Myles will do these on the weekend and hopefully they’re a bit different than mine. My plan isn’t to tell you who won or lost. I’ll provide the box score from milb.com and even the score, but I’m not going to talk about that inning the Tennessee Smokies let the game get away after they led off the inning with a single, infield hit and walk.

On Thursday, the Cubs minor league teams scored only 11 runs combined. If you add in the MLB team, the 5 teams scored a combined 14 runs. Four of them scored 3 and another 2. Only the Chicago Cubs won their game.

Iowa Cubs 3 @ Alburquerque Isotopes 10

The PCL is back. The league that’s sure to provide you some high scoring games did that on Opening Night. Even though the Cubs scored only 3 runs, both teams had 11 hits.

Cubs starter Chris Rusin was even decent. He threw 5 innings, allowed 3 runs, only 2 of which were earned, walked a couple and struckout 4. Casey Coleman and Rafael Dolis would throw a scoreless 6th and 8th inning, but they had trouble getting any Isotope out in the 7th.

Jensen Lewis recorded an out and gave up 4 hits and 5 runs. Zach Putnam finished the inning and allowed 2 more runs on 3 hits.

Brian Bogusevic (1B) had the best night among the hitters as he collected 3 hits, all doubles, in 5 plate appearances. Ty Wright (LF) and J.C. Boscan (C) were each 2-4.

Logan Watkins (2B) batted at the top of the order and was 1-5 with 3 strikeouts. Brett Jackson’s new swing went 1-4 with an HBP and 2 strikeouts. Brad Nelson (3B) added a couple walks in 4 plate appearances.

Tennessee Smokies 3 @ Pensacola Blue Wahoos 7

The Smokies allowed 4 home runs in 8 innings pitched. Starter Dallas Beeler gave up 3 of them in 5.1 innings. He also allowed 7 hits, struckout 5 and walked 1. Beeler also hit 2 batters. You won’t win many games when you give up that many baserunners and that many home runs.

A.J. Morris pitched 1.2 innings and allowed a hit, a home run, struckout 2 and walked 1. Tony Zych finished the game. He allowed 2 hits and 2 runs, neither of them earned, in an inning of work.

Matt Szczur was in LF and Jae Hoon Ha in CF. I guess I had expected Szczur to play CF and Ha in RF. Both of these players will have to stick in CF if they’re to have much value to the Cubs down the road.

Szczur got off to a fast start. He was 3-4 with a run scored. Arismendy Alcantara (SS) was 2-3 with a walk and a home run.

The middle of the Smokies lineup (3-6) combined to go 0-16 with 4 strikeouts. Jae Hoon Ha, Justin Bour (1B), Christian Villanueva (3B) and Rafael Lopez (C) were each 0-4 with a strikeout. Johermyn Chavez (RF) added the only other Cubs hit.

Brevard County Manatees 4 @ Daytona Cubs 3

Groundballer Ben Wells got the start for the Cubs and pitched pretty well in his debut. He’s young for the level. He lasted just 4 innings and if you look at the hits or runs allowed you might not think it was so hot. He gave up 7 hits and 2 runs scored, but more importantly than either of those, he struckout 4 and walked no one. If you could only know two things about a pitcher’s performance, you’d want to know his walks and strikeouts. Those are about as good as it gets in terms of predicting future success. Not that 4 innings will do anything like that, but it was a pretty good debut.

He was relieved by Sheldon McDonald who threw 2.2 innings, allowed 3 hits and a couple runs while striking out 3 and walking 1. Eduardo Figueroa threw 2.1 scoreless.

Zeke DeVoss led off and played CF for the Cubs. He was 1-3 with a walk and a strikeout. Tim Saunders doubled in a run and scored one himself in 4 plate appearances while Javier Baez was 0-3 with a sac fly. Jorge Soler singled twice in 4 plate appearances. Stephen Bruno (2B) and John Andreoli (LF) collected the only other two Cubs hits.

Soler was was also picked off 1st base.

Quad City River Bandits 7 @ Kane County Cougars 2

It’s a little more difficult to argue Pierce Johnson had a good night than it might have been for Ben Wells. While Johnson struckout 4 and walked 1 in his full season debut, he also gave up 6 hits and 5 runs in 2.1 innings. He kept the ball in the yard and the 1st rounder will have many more starts this season.

Johnson was relieved by Justin Amlung who threw 2.2 innings, allowed a run on 2 hits, walked 2 and struckout 2. Brian Smith struckout 4 in 2 innings while walking 2 and allowing a run.

Rock Shoulders hit a 2-run home run and struckout twice in 4 plate appearances. He drove in the only runs of the game for the Cougars who had only 5 hits on the night.

Pin-Chieh Chen and Gioskar Amaya combined to go 0-8 out of the top two spots in the order. Dan Vogelbach batted 3rd and went 2-4 (both singles). Jeimer Candelario was 1-3 with a walk and Willson Contreras was 1-2 and was hit by a pitch.

Cubs players who are out of options

There are 6 Cubs players who are out of options meaning they cannot be optioned to the minor leagues. They would have to be placed on waivers instead. Those players are: Michael Bowden, Welington Castillo, Rafael Dolis, Jeff Samardzija, Luis Valbuena and Travis Wood.

There are no concerns that Jeff Samardzija would need to be optioned to the minors, but that's not necessarily true of the others. The next safest player would be the Cubs starting catcher, Welington Castillo, but even he is no lock to nail down the job.

There are two reasons why Travis Wood is all but assured of being in the rotation when the season opens: he's one of the five best starters and because he's out of options. Well, he could go to the bullpen, you might say. The Cubs already have James Russell as their LOOGY and don't really need another lefty in the bullpen. Travis Wood has a lot more value in the rotation than he does in the bullpen. It doesn't hurt that he's also better than Carlos Villanueva and Scott Feldman. We already know that Feldman will be the team's 4th starter.

Although Brent Lillibridge will probably make the team out of spring training, so will Luis Valbuena. If or when the Cubs decide they need to get rid of Valbuena, it won't be a major decision and his lack of options won't be much of a factor.

The same is true for Rafael Dolis and Michael Bowden. Neither are especially good pitchers and Dolis was probaby the worst choice possible to replace Carlos Marmol as closer last season.