Minor League Discussion & Boxes, 5-29-24

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Scheduled Games (Central Time):

Iowa at Louisville, 5:35 pm
Tennessee vs. Chattanooga, 6:00 pm
South Bend at Quad Cities, 6:30 pm
Myrtle Beach vs. Charleston, 6:05 pm
ACL Cubs vs ACL Mariners, 8:00 pm

Probable Starters:

Iowa: RHP Cade Horton (17 IP, 6.88 ERA, 5.29 FIP, 20 K, 10 BB)
Tennessee: RHP Matt Thompson (34 IP, 3.44 ERA, 4.52 FIP, 35 K, 14 BB)
South Bend: RHP Nick Dean (5 IP, 0.00 ERA, 1.63 FIP, 5 K, 0 BB)
Myrtle Beach RHP Mason McGwire (17.2 IP, 5.09 ERA, 6.47 FIP, 11 K, 15 BB)
ACL Cubs: RHP Freylin Silverio (10 IP, 5.40 ERA, 4.48 FIP, 11 K, 6 BB)

[sneakypower]

Cade gave up an oppo 3B to first Louisville batter (inches from HR) and a tape measure 439-footer 2 two batters later

he's gotten a few ugly swings on slider but fastball is bad

Edited May 29, 2024 by sneakypower

[sneakypower]

Horton hurt himself warming up for the 2nd inning and had to be removed

[CubinNY]

2 minutes ago, sneakypower said:

Horton hurt himself warming up for the 2nd inning and had to be removed

horsefeathers

[CaliforniaRaisin]

8 minutes ago, TomtheBombadil said:

Horton pulled after 1? What happened?

 

[Bertz]

Someone on Twitter said they were looking at his hand, so you hope for a blister 

[sneakypower]

Aliendo HBP in the wrist but staying in after some trainer attention

edit: mistakenly thought it was Piñango 

Edited May 29, 2024 by sneakypower

[sneakypower]

Tennessee really working top-25 prospect Rhett Lowder, a 37-pitch first inning but stranded bases loaded with just 1 run out of it

[Rcal10]

15 minutes ago, Bertz said:

Someone on Twitter said they were looking at his hand, so you hope for a blister 

Sure hope so. 

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Obviously not ideal but could’ve been a lot worse.

[We Got The Whole 9]

Man I would never have imagined it going so poorly once he got promoted to Iowa. What a bummer.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Brett Bateman hit his first pro HR tonight.

He didn’t hit a home run in his three years at Minnesota.

[Jason Ross]

5 hours ago, We Got The Whole 9 said:

Man I would never have imagined it going so poorly once he got promoted to Iowa. What a bummer.

I sincerely think the Cubs are tinkering and playing around here. I know people are going to look at the numbers and panic but let's not forget that this pitcher at Iowa last year: 

31 K%, 15.8 BB%, 5.33 ERA, 4.66 FIP, 4.53 xFIP 

Now is a: 

29.9 K%, 9.2 BB%, 2.72 ERA, 2.42 FIP, 3.28 xFIP, 1.4 fWAR

pitcher in the MLB with just an offseason between the two data points.  Cade Horton is showing some similar things: his K% remains very high at 26.3% but his GB% has tanked; there's something the Cubs are doing with him specifically at Triple-A. I know the balls from Double-A to Triple-A are different, as they begin using the MLB ball. I really think the Cubs use Triple-A as a "learning new stuff" level and then unleash pitchers to do what they do best again at the major league level. There's been talk of them playing with the shape of his fastball, and this could result in a change mechanically that he's working through, or a change in command/control as he's learning how his fastball moves now in terms of locating it properly. 

Not to say you're panicking or anything, and not to say it's not a bummer, most just saying to all...I'm not very concerned. 

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Well, I guess it could be a lot worse than back soreness: