Jason Ross

Busch didn't have terrible splits against LHP in Triple-A. He actually struck out at a better rate against LHP than RHP last year. What does seem to go is the power. I don't think Busch should be treated as a full-platoon option at first and this feels like the kind of LHP that Busch should be given goes against. With the Marlins sporting a heavy rotation on lefties, he'll probably sit once or twice later in the week already. I'd be inclined to have him start tonight.

The Chicago Cubs are currently getting key contributions from rookies Michael Busch, Ben Brown, and Luke Little. How has the next wave of Cubs' prospects faired in their second week of action? And who might be next? Image courtesy of © GREG SWIERCZ / USA TODAY NETWORK With all of the excitement of the home opener, the sweep of the Rockies, and taking two of three from the Dodgers, it would be entirely understandable if you missed that last weekend was also the first weekend of a full Cubs minor-league slate. How did the young Cubs fare? Iowa Cubs (4-2) On the road against the St. Paul Saints, the Iowa Cubs kept the good times rolling (at least in the win column) by taking four of six from the Minnesota Twins' affiliate. The Cubs will be back at home this week, playing the Reds' Triple-A team, the Louisville Bats, as they look to win a third straight series. ?Jameson Taillon: 3.2 IP, 4 K, 1 BB, 0 R, 0 ER: In what will be his last minor-league tune-up before making his return to the Cubs, Taillon looked very sharp. Throwing just under 70 pitches, Taillon blanked the Saints for almost four innings. While he's still working on his stamina, his return will be good news for the Cubs, who have had a skeleton crew for a rotation for most of the 2024 season so far. ?Luis Vazquez: 324 wRC+ 21.7 K%, 17.1 BB%, 3 HR: That'll do, Luis, that'll do. The shortstop, who was added to the 40-man roster this winter, keeps putting pressure on the Cubs to eventually give him a look at the MLB level. In many organizations, that time would have come by now, but being blocked by Dansby Swanson and Nico Hoerner isn't making it easy. With that said, if an injury were to occur, it'd likely be Vázquez getting a call to fill in, at least partially. ?Matt Mervis: 280 wRC+, 34.8 K%, 4.3 BB%, 4 HR: Matt Mervis had a really good week in the power department, hitting four home runs. The strikeout rate is a bit troublesome, but overall on the season, the man called Mash has had a nice start. I'm giving it a few extra weeks to start to look into the Statcast data to see if there's been an appreciable change in approach, but Mervis is doing well to force himself into a position to be called up if an injury requires it. ? Pete-Crow Armstrong: -56 wRC+, 57.9 K%, 0 BB%: Eleven strikeouts in four games will land you on this list. Woof. There's not much more to say about a no-good, rough, week for the center fielder. Let's just hope it's a blip. ?‍⚕️ Kohl Franklin: If you missed it, Franklin experienced forearm discomfort in his first start of Triple-A. I'm not going to post the video, but it didn't look good. With the recent addition of Julio Teheran on a minor-league contract, I fear the worst for the right-hander. For someone who's worked very hard this year on his command/control and who will be a minor-league free agent at season's end, I sincerely hope it's not a UCL tear. It didn't look good. Tennessee Smokies (2-3) Weather played a large part in the Smokies' trip to Chattanooga this week. With wet and stormy weather early in the week, the Smokies lost two of five, including dropping both sides of a doubleheader on Saturday. The Smokies return home this week to host the Montgomery Biscuits. ? Matt Shaw: 314 wRC+, 25 K%, 20 BB%, 1 3b, 2 HR: Shaw's week was so good that when I originally looked at his stat line, I thought his 314 wRC+ was so high that it had to be his batting average. The K's are up a wee bit right now, but so are the walks. Regardless, Shaw looks like a machine at the Double-A level and I wonder just how long the Cubs will go before they have seen enough and move him to Iowa. ?Moises Ballesteros: 224 wRC+, 11.8 K%, 17.6 BB%, 1 2b, 1 HR: Much better week from Ballesteros. Big Mo hit his first Double-A home run (a shot down at his ankles, it felt like) and walked more than he struck out. ? Kevin Alcantara: -24 wRC+, 35 K%, 13 BB%: Alcantára does not have a hit yet on the 2024 season. We're just a handful of games in, so there's no reason to panic, but I think we can all agree this isn't the best start for the Jaguar. Hopefully, a good week will come next and he'll get off and running. ? James Triantos: -17 wRC+, 15 K%, 10 BB%: When you lose three of five, it's probable that your best players struggled. In this case, some of the culprits are James Triantos and the aforementioned Alcantára. Triantos had a good first series, but didn't crush it this week. That's okay! Hopefully, next week is a bounceback for him and the club in general. South Bend Cubs (2-4) South Bend had their first home series of the year spoiled by the visiting Wisconsin Timber Rattlers. Much like Tennessee, South Bend had to deal with rainouts and a doubleheader. Upward and forward, the Cubs go on the road to Beloit this week. ? Brett Bateman: 123 wRC+ 30.4 K%, 21.7 BB%, 2 2b: The strikeout rate is a bit high, but Bateman has barely struck out over his MiLB career, so I'll ignore it. Bateman, a favorite of NSBB, has started the year well. I still have some hesitations over his profile, but the more he hits, the more I'm a believer. ?‍♂️ Jefferson Rojas: 202 wRC+, 4.5 K%, 0 BB%, 1 3b, 1 HR: At this point, you're probably wondering why the shrug here; Rojas crushed it at the plate. He's also up to five errors on the season. So the good news is that Rojas is killing it at the plate, but he's been a bit shaky defensively. His sticking at shortstop is a coin flip; he might shift to second or third base down the road, but if he can stay at short, all the better. Hopefully, small mistakes early in the year are just that and will be ironed out. The bat is playing well above his age group. ? Will Sanders: 2 IP, 2 K, 3 BB, 3 R, 3 ER: Making his first start since being drafted with the Cubs, Sanders struggled with command and control. The real hope here is that he's just warming up and we'll shrug this off until later. It's not a terrible outing, but it's not good. It's just one. There are many more to go for Sanders. ? Tyler Schlaffer: 2.2 IP, 2 K, 4 BB, 4 R, 4 ER: On one hand, it's really good to see Schlaffer making appearances again, as he missed the entire 2023 season. Schlaffer had some helium in 2022, so the hope is that he can recapture some of that in 2024. Sadly, this appearance wasn't it and he's still rusty. No worries yet, lots of time! Myrtle Beach (1-5) Making a trip down to face the Columbia Fireflies in Columbia, Georgia, the Myrtle Beach Pelicans struggled to get off the ground. Winning just one of six, it was a bad week for the Pelicans overall. Next up, a home series against Kannapolis. ? Reginal Preciado: 191 wRC+, 17.9 K%, 3.5 BB%, 1 2b: Okay, there still isn't a ton of power or plate discipline being shown, but this is much better from Preciado, who's struggled since the Yu Darvish trade. There were high hopes for the Panamanian a few years ago, and he's struggled. Hopefully, a quick start will get Preciado promoted to South Bend and get his career back on track. Good week! ? Juan Bello: 3.1 IP, 5 K, 2 BB, 2 R, 2 ER: Another solid outing for Bello. The right-hander is up to 12 strikeouts in just over six innings. The 20-year-old is starting to become a name to keep tabs on based on his first two starts of the season. ? Drew Bowser: -63 wRC+, 40 K%, 0 BB%: The 20th-round selection out of Stanford struggled in his professional debut in Myrtle Beach. Struggling to make contact, the first baseman is going to need to hit if he's got any future as an MLB hitter. Let's hope as the year warms up, so, too, does Bowser. View full article

Good to see Valdez back.

Yeah, I'm pleasantly surprised. His Triple-A data, especially this year, looked horrible. He looked toasted. I don't know what's happened, or why he's gone from 91mph to hitting 95mph in,,,a weekk, but Keegan at 95 mph plays. I'm more than happy to look like the idiot who wrote an article on Friday about how bad I thought he was going to do, only to end up with egg on my face.

I would guess based on the amount of time spent playing already, the answer will be "Tauchmann" most of the time, which is probably the correct call. With that said, I think Canario would be given opportunities, I'm sure, and he's got enough electricity in him that he could really add some thump.

Yeah...that feels like an injury. Who/where/what? I'm not entirely sure. But it feels like one. My best hope is that this is Mastro down, and maybe Suzuki taking 2-3 days off for Canario. What I fear is an IL trip.

It's an MiLB contract.

I think he's got an argument. It's not a winning argument IMO over Horton or PCA...yet. But he's got an argument.

If I was a Mariners fan, I'd probably be annoyed. There's got to be an angle that is better, I guess? But I'm not a Mariners fan. So good call!

The only logical thing to do is put him in the Hall of Fame *now* and just save us all the time waiting.

Ah, I assumed that was more elbow related. Clearly, as we can all see, there is a reason I don't teach biology...

That's somewhat promising, compared the alternatives could be worse, like the elbow or shoulder.

Not excited about those walks, but yeah, Porter's a dude. I wrote about him in...uh...January? December? As a guy I really liked coming into the season based on his secondaries. But his fastball jumping too is huge. Just throw enough strikes and he's a true leverage guy.

Yeah it looks bad. Best case would be like a pinched nerve/hyperextension... But I'm guessing it won't be good. It looked bad.

Love this. Hodge has been a personal favorite of mine dating back to 2021. Last year was rough with the control but he's throwing much better this year. His slider is very much like Brown; unicorn shape, release point and movement. A one of one. If he can throw just enough strikes, there's an MLB leverage type there.

The velo drop has been in Triple A. As was the spin rate. Yes, both have been down all year. This isn't 2023 to 2022, it's his 2022 to...well...yesterday. The Cutter RPM and the fastball velo has been down all five appearances in Triple A. He's also lost movement. His velocity was sitting 92-94 last night. He's been around 91 to 92 prior. Why the velo was up last night is an interesting question. And if the velo bump is real (and not adrenaline, max effort, etc) than my opinion on his ability to have success would change a bit. His control issues were due to a release point problem (all of this can be found in my article btw) that has been cleaned up. But I'm not making this up. This is all from baseball savant. He was presenting as a player who had issues. Why those issues vanished last night is an interesting data point, however.

Flip side; they're running a skeleton rotation of two rookies (Brown and Wicks) and someone deemed the sixth best SP at the star of the season (Assad) without their Cy Young contending arm. Could you expect many six inning outings?

Wicks just hasn't been super economical lately. The whiffs are up but he's now working through a bit of strike throwing. Young pitchers...I guess. Damn.

Bummer. That 3-2 pitch was real good. Behind the plate umpire has been *real* good. There's been plenty of games we have played that's a strikeout. Julio makes you pay.

Murray...on my cold list.

Busch with a double. Really, really like him.

All I'm saying is this: Koen Moreno: on my cold list. Ballesteros: on my cold list Who you want to do well next week, good sir? I'm taking requests.

If that's the case, then he's robbing Peter to pay Paul (though there's nothing but speculation there). The reality is, at 91-92 mph with less spin, he's likely going to be hit real hard. Throwing more hittable strikes isn't a recipe for success. He already had a weirdly homogenous arsenal between fastball, slider and cutter. With lower velocity and less spin/tilt from the cutter, he's in no-mans-land with the differentiation of pitches. As a Cub fan I'm rooting for him, but nothing he's doing is a recipe for MLB success currently.