Minor League Discussion & Boxes, 6-16-26

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Scheduled Games (Central Time):

Iowa vs. Indianapolis, 6:38 pm
Knoxville vs. Chattanooga, 6:00 pm
South Bend at Fort Wayne, 6:05 pm
Myrtle Beach at Delmarva, 6:05 pm
ACL Cubs at ACL A's, 8:00 pm
DSL Cubs Blue at DSL Arizona Black, 5:00 pm
DSL Cubs Red vs. DSL Blue Jays Blue, 10:00 am

Probable Starters:

Iowa: LHP Jordan Wicks (34 IP, 6.09 ERA, 6.66 FIP, 26 K, 17 BB)
Knoxville: RHP Connor Schultz (14.2 IP, 6.14 ERA, 3.79 FIP, 21 K, 6 BB)
South Bend: RHP Kevin Valdez (41.1 IP, 4.14 ERA, .99 FIP, 40 K, 17 BB)
Myrtle Beach: RHP Braylon Myers (33.1 IP, 2.43 ERA, 2.81 FIP, 41 K, 13 BB)

[Butch Gernant]

How long are we going to have to put up with J. Wicks?

[JunkyardWalrus]

Until he stops being the second 1st round bust in a row by Jed etm? (Or, never in other words)

[Jason Ross]

3 hours ago, Butch Gernant said:

How long are we going to have to put up with J. Wicks?

Someone has to pitch in Iowa. Why are we complaining that a former 1st round pick is pitching in Iowa? It's this or the corpse of Kenta Maeda. Even the best pitching organizations have guys like Wicks in their Triple-A affiliates. 

Sure he hasn't worked out at the MLB level through a combination of injuries and development, but we don't need to whine that the Cubs have a Jordan Wicks type in Iowa. 

[mul21]

1 hour ago, JunkyardWalrus said:

Until he stops being the second 1st round bust in a row by Jed etm? (Or, never in other words)

Holding the 2020 draft against any GM is just silly.  The whole first round was a dumpster fire and like 12 of the 37 first/competitive balance round picks have even gotten to MLB, one of them being PCA.

[Bertz]

I know no one's interested in a nuanced conversation about Wicks but I'll throw these out there:

- The International League is insanely hitter friendly, with a 4.84 ERA.  And then Iowa is a hitters' park even within the context of that league.  Legitimately an average ERA at Iowa should probably be considered a little north of 5

- Wicks was really good at Iowa last year, ERA and peripherals all in the mid 3's

- Jordan Wicks missed spring training with a minor injury, and when healthy did his buildup/progression directly at Iowa

- Jordan's stuff is largely flat year over year

- Wicks' peripherals have been fine to good in MLB the last year and a half in a tiny sample.  The .447 BABIP in 20 innings is doing most of the heavy lifting on that inflated ERA

[mul21]

3 minutes ago, Bertz said:

I know no one's interested in a nuanced conversation about Wicks but I'll throw these out there:

- The International League is insanely hitter friendly, with a 4.84 ERA.  And then Iowa is a hitters' park even within the context of that league.  Legitimately an average ERA at Iowa should probably be considered a little north of 5

- Wicks was really good at Iowa last year, ERA and peripherals all in the mid 3's

- Jordan Wicks missed spring training with a minor injury, and when healthy did his buildup/progression directly at Iowa

- Jordan's stuff is largely flat year over year

- Wicks' peripherals have been fine to good in MLB the last year and a half in a tiny sample.  The .447 BABIP in 20 innings is doing most of the heavy lifting on that inflated ERA

The fact that he probably should have gotten an additional couple of starts at Iowa before even being considered for the MLB roster has to be taken into account too.  Unfortunately, injury timing didn't allow that to happen.  I'm not done with him, but the likelihood of him even being a viable back end of the rotation guy is dwindling quickly.

[squally1313]

While I appreciate the Wicks discussion I'd just like to request that they send Hartshorn and/or Rojas to Arizona on Mondays so I don't have to go a day without seeing what they're doing. 

[We Got The Whole 9]

8 minutes ago, squally1313 said:

While I appreciate the Wicks discussion I'd just like to request that they send Hartshorn and/or Rojas to Arizona on Mondays so I don't have to go a day without seeing what they're doing. 

[Outshined_One]

I go back to a discussion from last year where some of us kicked around the idea of implementing player rentals, where guys like Wicks/Alcantara would have benefited from going to another team for 2026 where they'd have guaranteed playing time in the majors, take their lumps, and then get sent back for 2027.

I have zero idea how that could be structured or implemented, but it always drives me nuts to see AAAA guys wasting away in Iowa.