Minor League Discussion & Boxes, 6-14-25

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Scheduled Games (Central Time):

Iowa vs. Louisville, 6:08 pm
Knoxville at Columbus (resumption of 6/13 game), 4:05 pm
Knoxville at Columbus (game two), TBD
South Bend at Fort Wayne (game one), 4:35 pm
South Bend at Fort Wayne (game two), TBD
Myrtle Beach vs. Hickory, 5:05 pm
ACL Cubs at ACL Reds, 1:00 pm
DSL Cubs Blue at DSL Cubs Red, 10:00 am

Probable Starting Pitchers:

Iowa: RHP Tommy Romero (17 IP, 6.88 ERA, 6.23 FIP, 10 K, 13 BB)
Knoxville (game two): RHP Jaxon Wiggins (24.1 IP, 2.22 ERA, 2.01 FIP, 30 K, 7 BB)
South Bend (game one): LHP Erian Rodríguez (14.1 IP, 3.77 ERA, 3.89 FIP, 11 K, 5 BB)
South Bend (game two): RHP Ryan Gallagher (42 IP, 3.00 ERA, 2.64 FIP, 55 K, 12 BB)
Myrtle Beach: RHP Jostin Florentino (4.2 IP, 3.86 ERA, 4.46 FIP, 4 K, 4 BB)

[craig]

Anybody have info on Nick Dean's velocity?  Draft reports had him as an 88-91 type of guy, but made reference to touching up to 93 late last spring.  Any update or increase?  All the reports mention the good changeup.  Changeups can be great, but that's a hard pitch to control every outing.  Hadn't expected Dean to be pitching in AA this quickly.  And 16K/3BB in his first 3 starts, 13.1 IPS, is pretty good in the eensy-teensy small sample.  Would be fun if his velocity played up enough to have a shot.  

[Donzo]

Imanaga; 4IP 3H 0BB 4K 0R

Looking like a start for Iowa around the 19th then back withe Cubs in St Louis around the 25th.

[Bertz]

1 hour ago, Donzo said:

Imanaga; 4IP 3H 0BB 4K 0R

Looking like a start for Iowa around the 19th then back withe Cubs in St Louis around the 25th.

Wow I did not expect 4 innings.  Yeah you probably give him one more but it wouldn't be crazy to bring him back against the Mariners next weekend.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Get him to AA

[Bertz]

Gallagher threw 102 pitches.  A year or two ago that would have been insane to expect to see him allowed to do that.

[We Got The Whole 9]

Damn, that dude is gonna fly through the system

[Bertz]

If Andy Garriola was 22 instead of 25 but otherwise exactly the same he'd absolutely be in my top 20.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Jaxon Wiggins is near untradeable at this point.

[Outshined_One]

11 minutes ago, CaliforniaRaisin said:

Jaxon Wiggins is near untradeable at this point.

He's making a damn good argument for being the best prospect in the system and could end the season in the "best pitching prospect in baseball" conversation.

[Jason Ross]

I only have the gameday app up for the game right now, but on his third walk, the app had three of the four balls he threw pitches as "strikes" 

[Bertz]

Jack Neely 5 batters faced 4 Ks including 8 swings and misses

[Jason Ross]

Erian Rodriguez with SB has been great tonight. 6IP, 5K, 1 BB, 4H, 0 R, 0 ER

[CaliforniaRaisin]

 

[We Got The Whole 9]

Jed is gonna have a hard time selling Caissie or Alcantara over Mo, Wiggins and Rojas. Gallagher will be a white hot name as well.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

 

[CaliforniaRaisin]

 

[We Got The Whole 9]

Is he gonna get promoted?

[craig]

Can somebody give me the updated scouting info on Erian?  He was injured so started the season late, correct?  What was his injury?  

Reports have been that he has good velocity, touches upper 90's, correct?  Any idea whether that's velocity with movement, electric?  Or maybe more straight and not that super hard to hit?  (Pearson-esque, perhaps?). 

Any idea on his breaking pitch(es)?  he hasn't been a high-K guy thus far, so I assume he hasn't really mastered a killer breaking pitch?  But, that's development for you, work in progress?  

He's kind of a fun developmental story, seems to me.  Rookie league, 2022, 11.6 ERA.  Myrtle, 2023, 6. 5 ERA, 45 walks in 69 innings, very wild.  His walk-rate has declined each season thus far.  

[Donzo]

10 hours ago, We Got The Whole 9 said:

Is he gonna get promoted?

I think he needs to stack some more success at AA, where he only has six starts. I'm thinking if he has around four more quality starts then get him to Iowa for the 2nd half of the season.

We'll see.

[Donzo]

11 hours ago, CaliforniaRaisin said:

 

That's a nasty fastball/curveball combo. That's true #1 starter stuff.

[Donzo]

15 hours ago, Bertz said:

Wow I did not expect 4 innings.  Yeah you probably give him one more but it wouldn't be crazy to bring him back against the Mariners next weekend.

Depends on his pitch count and FB, I'm guessing. If he got up to 60 pitches and was hitting 92+mph, he was 89/90 in first rehab game, then he'd look to be ready.