Jordan Wicks – Picture by Todd Johnson

Today was a busy day in terms of news for the system. There were a couple pieces of information I wanted to go over before we get to tonight some players of the day.

Former Tribune writer Mark Gonzalez reported early this morning that Pete Crow Armstrong will be representing the Cubs in the futures game on the 16th of this month. I wrote about who the Cubs could possibly send last week.

In addition, the Cubs also announced that the players of the month for June where outfielder Ezekiel began of Myrtle Beach and Daniel Palencia of South Bend. Congratulations to both!

It was weird having Tuesday off this week because of the Fourth of July holiday. So my body was all out of whack and I was even more out of whack online having to do transactions today along with answering questions about my top prospect list. Jimmy Nelligan will have his list tomorrow and then Greg Zumach will have it on his on Friday. Then on Monday, we will add everything up, assigns points, and see who are our top 30 or so Cubs prospects.

Debut of the Day

Storm of the Day

Luckily, the I-Cubs are not home this week. 

Let’s get to the action on the field.

Web Gem of the Day

Dinger of the Day

Yohendrick Pinango went 2-for-4 with a HR and drove in all three of South Bend’s runs tonight! Very studly! He wins today’s Dinger of the Day for this monstrous HR.

Starting Pitcher of the Day

Jordan Wicks had one of the best starts of his career tonight and it might be his last in South Bend. The Cubs 2021 #1 pick threw 5 scoreless frames, struck out 6, and only allowed 2 hits. I could see him heading to Tennessee next week. Honorable mention goes out to Riley Thompson of Tennessee who threw three innings tonight and did allow a run and struck out 4 while allowing 1 hit. He is still on a pitch count for the foreseeable future after missing the past two years.

Reliever of the Day

Luis Devers was the man in South Bend. In his Midwest League debut, he went three innings and struck out three in relief of Jordan Wicks. Runner up goes to Bailey Horn who threw scoreless frames for Tennessee and got 3 Ks. As well, my man Jeremiah Estrada struck out 2 of 3 in the ninth to seal the win for the Smokies.

Hitter of the Day

First player of the month honors and now Hitter of the Day??? Ezequiel Pagan had himself a night going 3-for-4 with 4 RBIs en route to Myrtle Beach’s bludgeoning of Columbia. Honorable mentions go out to Pinango and Luis Vazquez who went 4-for-4 with 2 RBI.