Bertz

The farm is down a good bit from where it was entering the year. The biggest reason is that Shaw and Horton have successfully graduated, which is obviously great news. The rest is a bit of a mixed bag, probably a bit more bad than good: The Good - Wiggins and Rojas' stocks are both way up. If they keep going like this they'll be top 50 prospects over the winter - The pitching at South Bend and Tenn has wildly exceeded expectations. Sanders, Gallagher, Kipp, etc. are all arrow way up - Jonny Long confirmed that he's a dude, and could probably come up tomorrow if we needed him to - Ballesteros and Cristian Hernandez both look better than they did last year, and were both obviously already a thing The Bad - Caissie and Alcantara are both stock down. Neither has been a disaster, but expectations were for them to look much more ready than they have to this point - Myrtle Beach has been a disaster. It's a pretty young roster so here's to hoping the second half goes better but it has been so so so bad to this point - James Triantos has been a huge mess. There's been some injury, I'm hoping we can blame that, but WOOF I think Jed's still in a position where he could trade for more or less anything he wants if he has the appetite. Something hugely valuable, like Mackenzie Gore or one of the Mariners guys, would take MLB talent though. Any rental or 1.5 year talent can probably be had by a combo of one of the Iowa bats and a non-Wiggins SP prospect.

So uh, I should probably scratch his name off my list of guys who might be around at 56.

In the last 17 games the Cubs have played at Wrigley with the wind blowing in 7 times. They've faced a legitimate Cy Young contender 5 times. Yesterday they did both. In the games where neither of the above factors were in play, they averaged 6.2 runs per game. If you watch sports and can't draw a line between things like the quality of the opponent and the weather and how they might impact the game, it might be time to start challenging yourself a bit more.

Curious what the schedule for Hodge looks like. Go again tomorrow, then two more times next week, and meet the team in St. Louis?

The Cubs have scored 3.5 runs a game over this stretch you're losing your mind over. They've allowed 2.8. How do you not see the relationship there?

Hey if you want to keep crashing out you do you, but you stomping your feet doesn't make it any less dumb.

A weather machine?

So it's definitely starting pitching. But I do think if we're getting pedantic I might say "impact pitching" and not necessarily delineate between starter and reliever. Like if my options are: 1. Another Taillon caliber starter and another 7th/8th inning type for the pen or 2. Another Colin Rea caliber starter and a closer caliber reliever I'm absolutely hammering the button for option #2.

It looks like 4 are out of the zone, 2 way out of the zone ("Chase" pitches as defined by Statcast). I'm personally a pretty firm believer in lineup diversity, so I wouldn't change him at all. You don't want a lineup with 9 guys swinging this recklessly, but I do think you want one or two.

Division lead up to a season high 5.5. Cards now in 3rd place after getting manhandled by Jake Misiorowski in his MLB debut.

Callis this evening Despite being a big fan of his namesake I'm not super excited for Aloy

Yeah I think it was certainly this. The 8th was the higher leverage inning tonight. Pressly's out of the doghouse but every indication is still that Palencia's the closer. At least until Hodge is back, I'm curious to see who it is then.

Brown did not have an opener against Detroit

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.

If Wicks is this close to returning he should still be fairly stretched out. It's only been about three weeks.

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

I was just reading about AJ Russell at Tennessee, and he basically sounds like a carbon copy of the Jaxon Wiggins situation. He'd be a really fun get at 56. I'm all about pitching this draft though. Give me Witherspoon/Bremner/Quick at 17. Then at 56 take a swing at another frontline pitcher, even if you have to swallow some risk. Russell is probably my favorite, but Forbes or Wood out of college or of course a HS pitcher would fit the bill too.

I think if you're expecting urgency on addressing the bench you're going to be sorely disappointed. - As others have pointed out Craig is barely using it because of how locked in the starting 9 is - Given the talent down at Iowa, we don't necessarily need a strong bench to insulate the team from injury - Turner is a big time vibes guy, and so particularly with a 5 game division lead you don't kick him to the curb to wring a couple extra runs out of that roster spot. Also probably worth noting that his xwOBA says he's been a little unlucky - Notable deals don't get done in June, you'd just be making eyewash junk in junk out moves such as the Jake Burger example I do suspect the bench will look different as we get closer to the end of the year. I think Brujan will be replaced by someone more useful. And I think one of the kids will come up and take Turner's spot, with Turner going on the IL for something made up and shifting into more of a cheerleader/extra coach sort of role. I'd be pretty surprised if either of those happen anytime soon though.

Keith Law has the Cubs taking Gavin Kilen in his mock draft this AM. The writeup makes it sound more like speculation based on fit and type (he has some Matt Shaw vibes) than anything sourced.

Looks like he was sitting 94 topping 96 https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/gamefeed?date=6/8/2025&gamePk=780752&chartType=pitch&legendType=pitchName&playerType=pitcher&inning=&count=&pitchHand=&batSide=&descFilter=&ptFilter=&resultFilter=&hf=playerBreakdown&sportId=11&liveAb= Still down from last year, but not as bad as the stadium gun. If you look at that game as well as today https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/gamefeed?date=6/11/2025&gamePk=781285&chartType=pitch&legendType=pitchName&playerType=pitcher&inning=&count=&pitchHand=&batSide=&descFilter=&ptFilter=&resultFilter=&hf=playerBreakdown&sportId=11&liveAb= It looks like Neely's traded some velo for some horizontal movement on the fastball. Question then becomes is that velo gone, or is the temporary focus on getting the movement right at something less than max effort. We've seen temporary drops in velo before. Keegan Thompson stands out because he was down like 4 MPH at I believe the start of the '23 season and ot all came back immediately when he got called up.

What do we think the point of this is? I was just looking and he's made 3 rehab outings in AZ already as well. Like when Kenta Maeda has a double digit ERA and is Iowa's #3 starter, are we really not able to find a spot for Clarke? It's not April so it's not a weather thing. Is this a backdoor into coaching? A way around the 180 person minor league roster max?

I don't think Franklin has the oomph needed to bring back lot of trade value. That's not a problem though, he's basically Gen Z Reed Johnson and that fits this roster like a glove.

Jack Neely seems to be fixed. Not a huge rush with Luke Little dominating and Porter Hodge likely due back within the next fortnight, but still really good to see.

What a weird matchup. Two guys pitching like high end #2 starters both with ugly ERAs because they've been BABIPed into oblivion. Who will the baseball gods screw over harder today? Tune in at noon to find out!