Theo Tollefson

With the calm before opening weekend for MLB and Triple A, Jeremy and J.D look over early performances from the top-ranked draft prospects and who'd they take first and second overall if the draft happened today. View full video

Cody Bellinger is back to the Cubs on a three-year, or one-year deal, depending on how you look at it. How will this shake up PCA's playing time in the Cubs outfield and can Bellinger repeat his 2023 performance? View full video

The new MLB.com prospect rankings are out and after a great showing in the AFL, James Triantos didn't get the love he deserves. View full video

The best player, arguably, in the AFL so far is a Cubs prospect... and not the one you may be thinking. View full video

Pete Crow-Armstrong is high on the short-list of ROY candidates. Could Cade Horton emerge as a dark horse? View full video

Recently-drafted Matt Shaw got another step closer to The Show with a recent promotion to AA. View full video

July saw many young starters in the Cubs' farm system improve upon their seasons, but only a select few stood out as the best Minor League pitchers of the month. See which made the rankings in the first-ever Minor League Starting Pitcher of the Month for North Side Baseball. Image courtesy of South Bend Cubs This last month, a few Cubs Minor Leaguers took significant strides in their professional careers. Here is how the best in the system threw in July. Honorable Mention 3: Riley Thompson, Triple-A Iowa Cubs Riley Thompson made three starts in July that were showing a great improvement in his stuff compared to how the month of June went for him. Thompson posted a 2.08 ERA, .159 opponent batting average, allowing only seven hits in 13 innings of work. What kept Thompson from being ranked higher is his being placed on the 7-day injured list following his July 21 start where he exited the game only after throwing in the first two innings. If he can show his turnaround from June to July was not just a short-lived spark when he returns from the injured list, he could become a great asset to finish out the season in the Cubs bullpen. Honorable Mention 2: Kohl Franklin, Double-A Tennesse Smokies Kohl Franklin had a similar month of June to Thompson where the numbers didn’t look good at all coming into July. Franklin dominated in three of his four starts in July allowing zero earned runs in those starts. His fourth and final start in July wasn’t as pretty as he allowed five runs in four innings. But that last start shouldn’t take away from how the rest of the month went for him. He was tied for second on the team in strikeouts with 24, only behind now-former teammate DJ Herz, who had 34. The thing Franklin needs to work on the most is his swing-and-miss pitches as he allowed 14 hits and seven walks, and posted a WHIP of 1.24 in July. While not terrible, there’s still room for improvement for the 23-year-old. Honorable Mention 1: Luis Rujano, Low-A Myrtle Beach Pelicans Before this month, the 20-year-old signee out of Venezuela never made a start in his professional career. Luis Rujano had only come out of the bullpen for the Pelicans nine times and his transition to a starting role only seemed to make him better. In his four starts, Rujano posted a 1.98 ERA across 13 2/3 innings striking out 13 batters, surrendering only eight hits, one a homer, and posting an opponent's batting average of .170. There’s still a long way to go for Rujano as he’s only a rookie in professional ball, but his first month throwing as a starter has shown fruitful results that should give Cubs fans something to keep an eye on at the Low-A affiliate. Minor League Starter of the Month: Brandon Birdsell, High-A South Bend Cubs While the Cubs' #2 prospect Cade Horton had a bad month with the South Bend Cubs, his teammate Brandon Birdsell stepped up and showed himself to be the best Cubs minor league starter in July. Birdsell, a fifth-round draft pick by the Cubs in 2022, has had a fantastic start to his professional career with South Bend this season. He was drafted by the Twins a year before but opted not to sign with them in July of 2021. His month of July may be the best of his pro career so far as he posted a 1.35 ERA in 20 innings across four starts. He also struck out 18 hitters, while having a 1.05 WHIP and .183 opponents average. Birdsell is not commonly seen on any top 20 or 30 prospect ranking lists for the Cubs across the internet. But his month of July may earn him more consideration for whenever the next Cub prospect graduates off the list. View full article

There are many pitchers in the Iowa Cubs bullpen that are candidates to make their return to the Major Leagues. One of those guys is Tyler Duffey and he is making the most of his time with the I-Cubs on making his pitch mechanics and teammates better. Tyler Duffey is one of the newest members of the Cubs organization. Signing a minor league deal with them during the off-season, the 32-year-old right-hander saw the Cubs as a team that would be able to give him a great chance to make it back into the Majors after a disappointing 2022 season. “I liked a lot of things they had to say,” said Duffey on his negotiations with the Cubs. “A lot of it was, be who you are, just get back to what you were doing before. Basically, last season was what it was and this is just a reset button. And with the shift to spring, I was feeling normal again.” Duffey’s 2022 season out of the bullpen was one of his worst since becoming a full-time reliever during the 2017 season. In 40 outings with the Minnesota Twins Duffey had a 4.90 ERA, 4.79 FIP, and 79 ERA+ in 44 innings. His final outing of the regular season came against the Toronto Blue Jays on Thursday, August 4. He surrendered three earned runs, on four hits and a walk finishing out his time with the organization that drafted him. “I think last year was just an anomaly so to speak,” said Duffey. “My fly ball rate, 40% of those were home runs and it was just not sustainable, not really my kind of thing and it was just unfortunate.” The flyball rate hasn’t been a problem for Duffey so far in 2023 with the I-Cubs. His walk rate though has, but it mainly stems from a relief appearance on Thursday, April 6, against the St. Paul Saints, when he walked four straight hitters. “Everything feels great,” Duffey said on his start to the season so far. “Obviously, that one outing aside, I’m really happy. It's somewhere I thought I had a chance to get on the big league team and make an impact with some young guys here. And it's all been so far so good” His manager, Marty Pevey agrees his stuff is good when he is in control and he has been seeing improvements in his control of the strike zone in each outing since April 6. “His velocity has been really good,” said Pevey. “He’s got a good sinker, his slider has been good. He told me as he was walking off the mound last Thursday, ‘That's terrible. I'm better than that.’ He knows what he has to do and he knows what it takes to be successful. He's worked extremely hard with Ron Villone getting to that point and I love having him on the club.” While returning to the Majors is a top priority for Duffey, the mentorship role had come to him in Spring Training spending time with pitchers who have only had a brief brush of time in the big leagues. One of those pitchers was Hayden Wesneski, another native of the Houston, Texas, area as Duffey is, who has only had seven games in the Majors. “Guys are coming to me sometimes with stuff. You don't realize when you come to a new team, and the most tender guy on their pen probably has only four years of service. So it's just a different animal and to get an opportunity to be around some really good talented players, like Hayden, it's just one of the cool things of getting to a new place,” said Duffey. Pevey too has noticed the leadership role that Duffey has jumped into with the I-Cubs and appreciates the effort he is putting in with his younger teammates. “He's a great influence, you know, he's got the experience and he's leading by example,” said Pevey. “He's out early almost every day when we were hitting and shaggin' fly balls. I mean, he's just a great teammate. Great to have in the clubhouse and a wonderful guy to have at the back end of a bullpen.” With the first full series for the I-Cubs and Duffey being in Minnesota, it allowed a lot of time for him to catch up with old friends and teammates in the St. Paul Saints clubhouse. “Seeing Randy and Ober over there. Ryan LaMarre now I’ve played with him in three different places. The longer you’re around the game the more friends you have, the more acquaintances you make, and things like that. Ultimately, it's playing in sync, that means you're still playing the game. Every day it's about us just trying to play baseball and have fun doing it,” said Duffey. Duffey still looks back on his time with the Twins organization fondly as many players do with the team that drafted them. As the season goes on and his numbers continue to improve from a shaky April 6 outing, Duffey has great confidence he'll find himself back in a Major League bullpen in 2023. View full article

A quick update on Cubs reliever Brandon Hughes and Seiya Suzuki, who both began their rehab assignments with the Iowa Cubs on Saturday, April 8, in St. Paul, Minnesota, against the Saints. Two of the Cubs' everyday players from the 2022 season who have been out for 2023 so far, began their Major League rehab assignments on Saturday with the Iowa Cubs. Brandon Hughes and Seiya Suzuki arrived in St. Paul in time for a doubleheader against the Saints. Suzuki and Hughes appeared in game one of the doubleheader on Saturday and were both benched during the second game. Suzuki has appeared in both games for the I-Cubs since Saturday, while Hughes made only one appearance on Tuesday night. Before Tuesday night’s game, I-Cubs manager Marty Pevey gave an update on what he and the Cubs front office have coordinated with their rehab progress. “Suzuki, he's gonna play approximately seven innings a game and we'll see how it feels post-game. Then with Brandon, he's just a one-inning guy right now for us. We're just trying to get his workload up and he's healthy. He feels good. He's just got to command his fastball a little bit better but he’s been throwing real good,” said Pevey. Suzuki played a full seven innings in Tuesday night’s game going 0 for 4. Hughes came out of the bullpen in the top of the sixth for the I-Cubs. He gave up 4 hits, a walk, 3 earned runs while only retiring two batters, unable to complete the inning. Hughes is not currently on a pitch count limit according to Pevey. The results of Tuesday night’s outing for Hughes lead to him being pulled from the game before completing the sixth inning. Suzuki and Hughes can rehab up to 30 days in the Minors, but RotoWire has them projected to return to the Cubs roster within the next week. The wait-and-see approach taken by Pevey and the Cubs front office is in place to ensure both players are not rushed back too early from their injuries. The season is still young and if it takes a few more games in Iowa on rehab for both Suzuki and Hughes to be 100%, the Cubs are likely to let them have those extra few games. View full article