CubsWin

Ha! The I-Cubs hit 1 grand slam all year last season. And 11 of those 18 runs scored after 2 outs. Clutch.

Miguel Amaya with his 4th HR of the year already. SLG is currently above .500 and has risen steadily every year of his minor league career thus far. .317 .338 .403

Dillon Maples has been called up.

Swarmer isn't off to a very exciting start with Iowa. Very true. However, this is his first go around at AAA (and there is this matter of the PCL and IL using the "juiced" MLB baseball for the first time this year with scoring and HRs being way up from the year prior). And there's his line from tonight's game. 6 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER (HR, go figure...), 1 BB, 6 K. We'll see what he does from here.

With Morrow's setback and apparently no money left to sign Kimbrel, the Cubs will have to hope for bullpen help from within this season. That said... Maples last 4 appearances: 5.1 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 9 K. (Please be real. Please be real.) Norwood and Wick haven't been bad of late either. Add in that Edwards is still very much in the picture and that's 4 righties who all have the ability to be mainstays (to varying degrees) in a major league bullpen. Mekkes, too, but he's been shaky thus far and isn't yet on the 40-man. Now the question is how long can the pen continue to pull off the smoke and mirrors charade they've got going on right now. Is Kintzler this good? Is Brach this bad? Who is the real Allen Webster? Is Chatwood truly fixed? Too much uncertainty. I need Edwards and one of Maples, Norwood or Wick to step up just for my blood pressure's sake...

That was impressive. Dude's fast. Period.

Giambrone's 6th HR of the year was a bomb to LF over the LED board. Gone the moment it left the bat.

Danis Correa report from AZ Phil: Correa's line from today's ExST game against the A's: 2 perfect innings, 3 Ks, 2 GO/1 AO, 30 pitches (19 strikes). FWIW, DSL newcomer LHP Luis Rodriguez threw a perfect inning with one K and 2 flyouts on 9 pitches (7 strikes).

Hatch blew the string of great starts by the original 5 starters in the Smokies rotation yesterday, but Cory Abbott picked it right back up going: 5.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K on 92 pitches/57 strikes.

Alzolay pitched today in ExST. From AZ Phil:

I don't remember him being a mid-90s guy very often unless you're referring to sitting 92-94 with the 94 part qualifying as mid-90s. Did I miss a report? I'll watch the game and see if they give any velos. Mostly semantics with the "mid-90's" stuff, but I remember reading someplace that he was sitting 92-94 and bumping 95. Yeah, that's what I remember, too. Watched the game. Smokies' announcers are dumb, no velos mentioned. Instead they spent quite a bit of time talking about how bright the sun is, the beautiful blue Tennessee sky and what the opponents uniforms look like...

Yeah, the potential Eugene rotation of Yovanny Cruz (19), Jeremiah Estrada (20), Danis Correa (19), Kohl Franklin (19) and Yunior Perez (20) looks to be a fun one to follow. For sure. I never get too excited about pitching prospects until they are in AA, but it never hurts to have dudes in the lower minors to follow. Did anyone see any velos for Miller yesterday? I'm interested in seeing if he is still in the mid-90's, or if he's back in the lower 90's again. I don't remember him being a mid-90s guy very often unless you're referring to sitting 92-94 with the 94 part qualifying as mid-90s. Did I miss a report? I'll watch the game and see if they give any velos.

More of that, please. All the previous AZPhil blurbs on Franklin that I've seen have him walking a couple guys and not missing many bats. Yeah, the potential Eugene rotation of Yovanny Cruz (19), Jeremiah Estrada (20), Danis Correa (19), Kohl Franklin (19) and Yunior Perez (20) looks to be a fun one to follow.

Marquez 93-96 FB, 86 SL, 78 CV

Um, Riley Thompson, everybody? Has the upside, now we are starting... starting... to see the production in full season. He's gotten a little lucky stringing out his 10 hits over 9.2 innings, but I'll take 9 Ks against 1 BB. Decent GO/AO, too. I'm getting ahead of myself but, if he can keep this up, it would be nice to see him get the promotion to Myrtle Beach mid-June and make room for Yovanny Cruz to join the South Bend rotation when ExST closes shop.

Ain't NO supreme experts around here. I'm certainly not one. I'm not even a pseudoexpert... But we can still have fun THEOrizing!

He also ended last year with 28.1 IP, 24 H, 34/7 K/BB, 3 HR in his last 5 starts. I vaguely remember reading a story last year that he made some mechanical changes that seemed to line up with his end-of-season hot streak. Would be nice if this was a real thing and not just something based on a fluff piece. It's real. It was mentioned during the broadcast of his first start this season.

Despite spending $300,000 on him, the Cubs cut LHP Jonathan Bruzual. It comes as little surprise because his numbers were ridiculously brutal. He finishes his Cubs career with a 7.77 ERA, 2.12 WHIP, walking more than he struck out (69/64), but he only allowed 1 HR in 63.2 IP, so...

Let. The boy. Watch.

Upgrading to Bryan Smith (Cubs Prospects on Twitter) over that Luke Blaze idiot they use to have is incalculable. Yup! Luke suuuuucked. Good to hear that Marquez is throwing a two-seamer. I'll be looking out for the movement on it. Though my untrained eye might miss it like those Low-A hitters...

Ernst's account is a little more glowing than I would give Marquez after watching the game. A lot of the strikes he recorded were fastballs out of the zone that were chased by Low-A hitters. The upside is definitely there, and the inconsistency he showed is almost to be expected from a 20-year-old, but there was a wide gap from when he was on to when he wasn't. When he missed, he wasn't even close. He threw his change-up once which he will need if he's going to remain a starter as he approaches the bigs. And he definitely lost velocity on his FB after the 2nd inning, throwing mostly 91-92 in the 4th. Again, this isn't out of the ordinary, but there's a LOT of development left for Brailyn before he becomes a viable major league pitcher. Now this was just his first start, and he isn't even fully stretched out yet, so a more fulsome picture will be available in May and beyond, but IF what I saw today is generally who he is right now, I wouldn't expect him to move quickly. That said, when a player is this young, he's got time to refine and repeat his mechanics and build strength/stamina, so with the assumption he'll gain consistency over time, what I'm mostly looking for is how good is he when he's on. And he was really, really good when he was. The slider works well. When the FB was below the belt, it was controlled well, though I wouldn't say commanded. He threw plenty over the heart of the plate, but hard enough to where Low-A hitters couldn't catch up. No reason to not be moderately excited about him, but (with the awareness that this was only his first start) he needs to gain quite a bit of consistency if he's going to be a top 100 prospect by season's end.

The first 4 Smokies starters (Hatch, Abbott, Thompson and Steele) have combined for: 19.2 IP, 8 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 5 BB, 21 K, 0.66 WHIP, 0.92 ERA. Tyson Miller is up next. No pressure, buddy...

You're not superstitious are you? (It's a no hitter!) It's funny. Not many other areas of my life am I superstitious, but when it comes to jinxing a no-hitter? Yes. Totally superstitious.

We've seen Hatch and Abbott put together 2 good performances thus far for Tennessee, with Hatch's being far more dominant. Keegan Thompson is keeping the line moving with a great start thru 5 innings thus far. And I mean great.

Yeah, he looked good out there today. Physically and tools wise, he reminds me of Jeffrey Baez. Let's hope he can put it together faster and more completely than he did.