Article: It's Ben Brown Season: Cubs Call Up Brown To Replace Injured Justin Steele

[Jason Ross]

Despite losing the game, the Cubs' biggest loss on Opening Day was watching their de facto ace, Justin Steele, injure his hamstring. Speculation was rampant about who would take the opening spot, but reports are that that has been answered. Enter Ben Brown.

Image courtesy of © Allan Henry-USA TODAY Sports

When Justin Steele awkwardly fielded a swinging bunt in the fifth inning of Thursday's Opening Game, Cubs' fans held their breath as the lefty lay on the ground holding his hamstring. Despite walking off under his power, once the Cubs acknowledged it was "a hamstring injury" mid-game, the obvious outcome was that Justin Steele would miss time, leaving a hole in the Cubs' already thin rotation. Questions about who would take the open roster spot took hold of discourse, both on NSBB and Cubs Twitter, as there were three apparent candidates: Drew Smyly, Hayden Wesneski, and Ben Brown. While Smyly offered the easiest plug-and-play, Wesneski, and more specifically Ben Brown, offered greater upside. Today, we got our answer, as reports from Tommy Birch, who covers the Iowa Cubs, as pointed out that Ben Brown is no longer with the Iowa Cubs. The only possibility is that he's on his way to Texas to join the parent club.

It's always hard to tell what a young player will do when given an opportunity on the highest level, but it's probably even harder to pin down Ben Brown. I wrote about Brown over the offseason a few times and again when I ranked him as my personal 10th-. If we're looking at his most recent MiLB data, it is fair to worry a bit about the powerful righty; he's got a fantastic fastball-curveball combination, but his fastball command has yet to show consistency at the Triple-A level. Our own Mathew Trueblood also highlights how high his release point is on the pitch and the issues it may cause. There's been a real fear that Brown's best bet to MLB usefulness would come out of the bullpen, especially at the start of that career.

With the doom-and-gloom out of the way, some real excitement brewing with Brown. First, Brown showed significant improvement in his fastball command this spring. The 6"4 righty did walk five in fourteen innings but gave up only a single run. His calling card, his curveball, is especially deadly and is a true "unicorn" pitch based on its spin and tightness. CHGO's Brendan Miller highlighted in his tweet that Brown's curveball moves more like a traditional slider, and yet, no one in baseball throws a slider like him. This type of pitch, coupled with the uniqueness of where he releases his fastball, will give him a good leg-up as he continues to refine his command; MLB hitters will never have seen someone like this before.

Brown is not the safe option here. There's a chance his command doesn't play, that the Cubs have brought him up too quickly. However, the Cubs are in a situation where their rotation is already a bit depleted with Jameson Taillon on the shelf, and Ben Brown offers things the Cubs don't have: a RHP who throws hard. While someone like Drew Smyly or Hayden Wesneski are more known quantities, the Cubs took the upside play here. Regardless of if you think he's ready, the Cubs do, and this will be a fun experiment. Make sure you clear your schedule because when Ben Brown debuts, whether it's great, awful, or somewhere in the middle, the Ben Brown experience will be something unlike any other starting pitcher in the entire league. 

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Do you think the Cubs should have called up Ben Brown? Would you rather have seen Hayden Wesneski or Drew Smyly? Let us know the comment section below!

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[Hairyducked Idiot]

As TT said in the other thread, if he's actually getting called up today, that would imply he's not here to actually start.  Or maybe he's joining the team today but not formally rostered until the next rotation turn comes up?

Anyways, he's not a floor prospect where he needs to show incremental steps until he's big-league useful.  He's a "maybe someday his command will snap into place and he becomes a superstar" prospect.  Which does happen sometimes for pitchers.  Maybe it's happened with him.  If it hasn't, if he's the same guy he was at AAA last season, he's going to get abused by MLB hitters.

[Rcal10]

Maybe this allows the Cubs to see Brown for 5 or 6 starts and he proves he deserves to be in the rotation. Not suggesting Steele getting hurt is a good thing. IT IS NOT. It is very bad. Just saying if Brown proves he belongs the Cubs could take a huge negative and mitigate it a bit by Brown showing he belongs. 

[Guest234]

Well he has a cow flop ERA now.

[Bertz]

Results obviously weren't great in that second inning but Brown threw a lot more strikes last night than he did overall in AAA last year.

I wouldn't want him taking an upcoming start but I'm not sure he's not major league ready.

[Guest234]

Triple negative?

Very similar to what Killian did his first time up, and has not erased as yet.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

I'm going to continue to assume that Ben Brown is a bad pitcher until he shows otherwise.  Which he might.

He's not a guy you plan around or try to hold a spot open for.  He's a guy you keep in the organization because the small chance he does a 2014 Arrieta is worth the opportunity cost of keeping him.

[LBiittner]

Counsell will find his solution has always been Smyly. 

[CubinNY]

22 hours ago, LBiittner said:

Counsell will find his solution has always been Smyly. 

No

[Stratos]

On 3/31/2024 at 11:53 AM, Hairyducked Idiot said:

I'm going to continue to assume that Ben Brown is a bad pitcher until he shows otherwise.  Which he might.

He's not a guy you plan around or try to hold a spot open for.  He's a guy you keep in the organization because the small chance he does a 2014 Arrieta is worth the opportunity cost of keeping him.

Brown has been really good pretty much his whole pro career besides last year where his control fell apart for whatever reason.  He never had issues with walks before that.   So seems pretty fixable.  No idea of it's fixed as of now but I still like him as a prospect.  

[Jason Ross]

1 hour ago, Stratos said:

Brown has been really good pretty much his whole pro career besides last year where his control fell apart for whatever reason.  He never had issues with walks before that.   So seems pretty fixable.  No idea of it's fixed as of now but I still like him as a prospect.  

Brown has had fastball command issues for a while. It's more that Triple-A hitters are better than lower levels, and the competition level has caught up than anything. His MiLB walk rates haven't reflected the command issues, but they aren't new like the number suggest, either.

[Stratos]

6 minutes ago, 1908_Cubs said:

Brown has had fastball command issues for a while. It's more that Triple-A hitters are better than lower levels, and the competition level has caught up than anything. His MiLB walk rates haven't reflected the command issues, but they aren't new like the number suggest, either.

Not saying he's Gred Maddux, but a pitcher doesn't have his BB/9 jump from 3.4 to 6.3 going from AA to AAA just because the hitters have better plate discipline.  If it jumped to 4.5 then sure maybe.

[Jason Ross]

11 minutes ago, Stratos said:

Not saying he's Gred Maddux, but a pitcher doesn't have his BB/9 jump from 3.4 to 6.3 going from AA to AAA just because the hitters have better plate discipline.  If it jumped to 4.5 then sure maybe.

I mean, it does. Especially when you consider he had the advantage of the pre-tacked baseball in the Southern League last year. 

Players hit cliffs with their skills at different levels. This isn't a rare phenomenon. Players who didn't struggle with, say, strikeouts suddenly do when they jump a level because they were playing with fire previously. That isn't to say that Brown can't improve or advance in that aspect (he seems as though he has) but once again: statistics hide issues when competition level isn't high enough. Line scouting is helpful, but it can hide issues in plain sight.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

3 hours ago, Stratos said:

Brown has been really good pretty much his whole pro career besides last year where his control fell apart for whatever reason.  He never had issues with walks before that.   So seems pretty fixable.  No idea of it's fixed as of now but I still like him as a prospect.  

3 bb/9 in the low minors is pretty iffy, and he's frequently struggled to dominate the minors 

[Stratos]

1 hour ago, 1908_Cubs said:

I mean, it does. Especially when you consider he had the advantage of the pre-tacked baseball in the Southern League last year. 

Players hit cliffs with their skills at different levels. This isn't a rare phenomenon. Players who didn't struggle with, say, strikeouts suddenly do when they jump a level because they were playing with fire previously. That isn't to say that Brown can't improve or advance in that aspect (he seems as though he has) but once again: statistics hide issues when competition level isn't high enough. Line scouting is helpful, but it can hide issues in plain sight.

I agree stats can hide issues in the minors.   Not saying command wasn't an issue before, but I've never really seen BB/9 jump that much, almost double, simply because of going up a level,  Even going from AAA to MLB it most often doesn't jump that much.

The tacked baseball could be part of the issue, but that's totally different than players in AAA having better plate discipline than AA and below.  Maybe his BB/9 rate won't fall back to around 3.00 consistently but it's hard to believe he'll stay up around 6.  If he can manage around 4 he should be ok.

[Stratos]

7 minutes ago, Hairyducked Idiot said:

3 bb/9 in the low minors is pretty iffy, and he's frequently struggled to dominate the minors 

I disagree with both points.

[Stratos]

On 3/31/2024 at 1:01 PM, LBiittner said:

Counsell will find his solution has always been Smyly. 

I looked into Smyly's numbers a bit.   His walks and HR/FB and GB% were the things he struggled with last year compared to 2022.  His xwoba was actually the same both years.

He had really good command in 2022. His K% actually went up in 2023.  The curve was still very good per the stats, and the fastball was still bad.  Not sure it's a stuff issue.   I think he overachieved in 2022 and underachieved last year.  Maybe he can be a 4.50 guy this year.  He's looked bad though,  might be a pen guy at this point.   His velo goes up about 1 mph in the pen,

Edited April 2, 2024 by Stratos