Minor League Discussion & Boxes, 6-12-25

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Scheduled Games (Central Time):

Iowa vs. Louisville (game one), 12:38 pm
Iowa vs. Louisville (game two), 6:38 pm
Knoxville at Columbus, 6:05 pm
South Bend at Fort Wayne, 6:05 pm
Myrtle Beach vs. Hickory, 6:05 pm
ACL Cubs at ACL A's, 8:00 pm
DSL Cubs Blue at DSL Pirates Black, 10:00 am
DSL Cubs Red vs. DSL Pirates Gold, 10:00 am

Both DSL teams have the day off

Probable Starting Pitchers:

Iowa (game one) RHP Will Sanders (11 IP, 5.73 ERA, 4.49 FIP, 9 K, 4 BB)
Iowa (game two): TBD
Knoxville: RHP Antonio Santos (26.2 IP, 1.35 ERA, 2.31 FIP, 24 K, 9 BB)
South Bend: LHP Evan Aschenbeck (37.2 IP, 3.82 ERA, 3.65 FIP, 30 K, 9 BB)
Myrtle Beach: RHP Kevin Valdez (34 IP, 5.29 ERA, 4.51 FIP, 35 K, 26 BB)

[CaliforniaRaisin]

 

[CaliforniaRaisin]

DSL Cubs Blue: 

Juan Tomás went 1/2 with a K with a single that was his first pro hit. He did get pulled in the 4th; hope he didn't get hurt.
Julio Acosta: 1/3 with his first pro HR

DSL Cubs Red: 

Wilfri de la Cruz: 2/3, BB, 3B (1)
Luis Abreu: 2/4
Luis León: 2/3, 2B (3)
Jeury Ramírez: 2/4, K

Juan Cabada had the day off.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

 

[CaliforniaRaisin]

 

[Bertz]

Caissie really desperately needed a stretch where he went nuclear, so these last few days have been very good to see.

[We Got The Whole 9]

Franklin and Mo each with 3 walks. Talk about setting the table.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Sanders: 5.2 IP, 7 H, 2 ER, 2 BB, 7 K on 99 pitches

[CaliforniaRaisin]

 

[We Got The Whole 9]

So what are the characteristics of this dude's fastball? It's 93.7 and he throws it 65%. Effectively they had him nearly scrap his slider in favor of increasing his fb usage by 20%. It must have insane IVB or something. 

 

Jason?

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Triantos rehabbing with South Bend.

[Bertz]

So uhhh why is Eriandys Ramon at AA?

I could see if there was an injury and Tenn just needed a warm body for two days, but he's now been up since Saturday and getting a more appropriate warm body over the Monday off day should have been easy enough.

[JunkyardWalrus]

4 hours ago, CaliforniaRaisin said:

 

That's not a real name

[CaliforniaRaisin]

No Jefferson Rojas for a third straight game.

[Bertz]

 

 

[Jason Ross]

5 hours ago, We Got The Whole 9 said:

So what are the characteristics of this dude's fastball? It's 93.7 and he throws it 65%. Effectively they had him nearly scrap his slider in favor of increasing his fb usage by 20%. It must have insane IVB or something. 

 

Jason?

Riley is straight up my favorite story in the system. Signed for peanuts (like a few K) out of a tiny, nothing school for slot savings before the new rules, he's got a good enough fastball and a *killer* curve*. I'm a bit limited with Triple-A, it means TJ Stats and my eyes. so bare with me a bit! You've got to give me a little lee-way on my eye test. 

The way his arm slot is, I'm guessing he's got some good ride. We will verify this when he makes the MLB, but he's getting guys off with his shape. Stuff+ loves his FB shape, I can get into individual game statcast stuff and he's getting some sick ride - less glove side run than Shota (who has a flatter arm angle from the eye test), so It think it's that. This helps him get the ball up-and-away from LHP and into the hands of RHP. Because he's got a sick curve, he's able to split-neutral on his breaking ball. They seem to tunnel well out of the hand - the fastball play up (and either in on RHP, or away from LHP) and the curve sits opposite)

I think he's a dude. I've written a little about him in the past, but I do think he's a dude. I don't think he's like, a closer. But if you told me he was Caleb Thielbar 2.0? Yeah. I'd buy it. In fact, he's my favorite comp if he can figure the walks at the major league level. Or, in other words, he's almost like...LHP Ben Brown? 

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Evan Aschenbeck: 7 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 5 K - took a perfect game into the 6th

Kevin Valdez: 7 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 K

Ethan Flanagan: 4 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 4 K

Ronny Cruz is getting hot: 3/5, 2B (4), K. OPS up to .638 (he'd been struggling)

Derik Alcántara: 2/3, 3B (15). OPS up to .931.

[craig]

Nice to see Flanagan with a good outing!  

[craig]

Thanks for Riley Martin notes, Jason.  Will be interesting to follow him moving forward.  He actually signed for $1K.  He's been a high-K guy for a couple of years now.  But he walked a lot of guys, and he was variably inconsistent.  Would have a bunch of high-K outings, but then some bad ones, high-walk ones, would mix in.  

Seems like the results recently have been more consistent.  But also have have a higher strike-percentage?  I often look at the strikes-pitches numbers in box scores.  He's recently been sequencing a lot of good ones, with high strike/pitch ratios, per my subjective observation.  

Not sure whether he's just locked in, for a while, and this too will pass?  Or whether he's better figured out what works?  Earlier, I think he was a multi-pitch guy.  Maybe if he's largely simplified to fastball/curve, maybe it's easier to throw strikes?  

Kinda crazy, Cubs have so many bad bullpens over my memory, it's kinda hard to envision a scene where a guy could be running as hot as Riley, but still get no opportunity (yet) because there aren't really any glaring weak-links in the big-league pen.  

 

[CaliforniaRaisin]

 

[Jason Ross]

 

 

[We Got The Whole 9]

I'm just really intrigued by Franklin. He feels like a guy who will slug better in the majors under the right tutelage. He has been a well above average hitter at every single stop and "power" feels like the only notable yellow flag but it's a misnomer because he is hitting the ball hard over half the time.