Luis Devers – Picture by Todd Johnson

Today was not a crazy day nor was it unexpected in terms of what went down. I mentioned earlier this week that once the trade deadline passed that there would be some movement later this week. Well, today, we saw a lot of movement.

The big move was Jeremiah Estrada getting promoted from Tennessee to Iowa. That created a chain reaction of moves. Hunter Bigge moved from South Bend to Tennessee. To replace Bigge, Alfredo Zarraga moved from Myrtle Beach to South Bend and shortstop Liam Spence was called up to Myrtle Beach from Mesa. South Bend also sent Bradford Deppermann to Arizona on a rehab assignment.

In addition Matt Warkentin, Tanner Jessen-Dalton, and Brandon Leibrandt were all released today. We also got word that the newly acquired Hayden Wesneski will start tomorrow for Iowa and that Ben Brown should be going on Sunday for Tennessee.

As well, the Cubs signed their first nondrafted free agent today in 6-foot-6 Yale pitcher Grant Kipp.

And, four Cubs were named players of the month in their respective leagues.

Let’s just say that today had a lot of action off the field, at the plate, on the mound, and in the field. And somehow, Myrtle Beach blew a 9-0 lead and lost 14-13. Well, maybe it was a crazy day.

Web Gems of the Day

Sometimes, I have a Web Gem of the Day, today I have three. The first one is by Alejandro Rivera of Myrtle Beach who robbed a guy of a home run. The second one is of Kevin Made in slow motion getting to a ball he had no business getting to and the third one is Adam Laskey snagging a liner hit right back at him.

Hitter of the Day

Fabian Pertuz almost single-handedly wound up beating Fort Wayne if not for a late rally. He went 3-for-5 on the day with two home runs and four runs driven in.

Honorable Mentions – Ezequiel Pagan went 4-for-5 and keeps confirming why he should be in South Bend. He had 1 HR and 1 RBI. His teammate, Ethan Hearn went 3-for-4 with 2 RBI and fellow Pelican Felix Stevens went 3-for-5 with 2 RBI.

The Don’t Hit That Guy Award

Rocket City somehow thought it would be a good idea to hit Yonathan Perlaza. He did not take kindly to such action as you can tell in this video.

Starting Pitcher of the Day

Luis Devers is not going to need to start next year in South Bend. He should begin the year at Tennessee. Tonight, he went five innings on just 58 pitches. He allowed just two hits and one walk. He did not allow a run and he struck out six while he lowered his ERA to 0.34 at the Cubs High-A affiliate. Now you can see why he does not need to come back to South Bend to start 2023.

Reliever of the Day

For a while I didn’t think I was going to have one until Gregori Montano of Myrtle Beach came in and was just throwing darts. He threw 1.2 innings and struck out three as a set up man for the Pelicans.

I will be back in the morning with a look at Brandon Birdsell, the Cubs 5th round pick this year.