Alexander Canario – Picture by Micah Manuel/Tennessee Smokies

Yesterday, Alexander Canario and Luke Little were named the Cubs minor league players of the month! Good for both of them!

Making the Case for Canario

Alexander Canario has been on a tear since the last week of June. Over the last 6 weeks, he has pretty much destroyed the Southern League. It doesn’t look like he’s stopping anytime soon. I know there are people out there that don’t have him ranked as high as I do. I think the main reason for that is they’ve never seen him in person. You’re not going to get the full Canario effect by just watching him on an MiLB TV. You need to go see him swing the bat and hear the bat as it goes through the strike zone. Sometimes, I feel like I felt a breeze when he swung. You need to watch him in BP. You need to see him run routes after fly balls. You need to see him throw. He is truly a 5 tool player. Even Greg Zumach is getting on board the Canario Prospect Hype Patrol.

There’s no way that if you went and saw Alexander Canario play in person for a week that you would not have him as one of the Cubs’ top prospects. There’s just no way. He’s a freakish athlete who has amazing potential. I thought the same thing of Chris Morel the last 3 years and I was mocked for keeping him at number six heading into this year after a rough season at Double-A in 2021. It happens. Now look at Morel. For Canario, it took him about six week weeks to adjust to the new level. Right now, I am hoping Canario is in Iowa by the end of this month.

Polls of the Week

It was a good week for polls. I put out two. The first one was how people on Twitter would rank four pitchers the Cubs got this summer. Wesneski came out on top followed by Cade Horton.

The second poll I put out was one on how many prospects the Cubs are going to add to the 40-man roster by November 18 to protect them from losing them in the Rule Five draft. I was surprised that most only saw them protecting 1 to 6 out of the 73 Cubs that are eligible to be taken

Playoff Chases

Iowa – The I-Cubs keep slipping a little bit every week. They’ve been out of it for quite a while now. 15.5 games back now.

Tennessee – It’ll be interesting to see how the bullpen changes with Jeremiah Estrada now in Iowa. Hunter Bigge is there in his stead and he did well in his first outing. In addition, Ben Brown could stabilize the rotation as he is a big power arm who was a lot of fun to watch pitch Saturday. Currently, the Smokies have a one game lead over Rocket City (who won the first half) and Birmingham is 2.5 games back.

South Bend – They are in the midst of a 12 Game road trip. I’ll be with him for part of next week. There’s not really a weakness on this team as they currently have a 4 Game lead over Beloit and 5 over Wisconsin, who they play this week. How they replace Tyler Schlaffer in the rotation is going to be a storyline to follow in the next week. Will it be Tyler Santana? Will Bradford Deppermann return?

Myrtle Beach – I don’t know how Buddy Bailey’s doing it but the Pelicans are right in the hunt for another division championship. Their rotation has been blown up along with their bullpen yet, pitching coach Clayton Mortensen has been able to assemble a pitching staff to keep them in it. They are currently 3.5 games back even though they’re already in the playoffs from winning the first half. This week saw some bullpen issues creep in as the blew leads, including a 9 run one, in two straight games.

Video of the Week

Here’s a fun video of PCA and Kohl Franklin talking with David Kaplan of NBC Sports.

Starting Pitcher of the Week

This came down to three guys – Jordan Wicks, Ben Brown, and Tyler Santana. Brown and Santana both excellent single games while Wicks had two excellent starts. It was a tough choice as Santana had 7 IP, 10 Ks, and only allowed1 run while Brown had 9 Ks in just 5 frames. Wicks, on the other hand, had 15 Ks in 9 scoreless boxes.

I decided to go with Jordan Wick because of the totality of his results.

Hitter of the Week

Yonathan Perlaza – Rocket City may never want to see him again. He hit .417 on the week with 5 HRs and 8 RBI. His OPS for the week was over 1.600.

Reliever of the Week

Danis Correa was nails this week. 7 Ks in 3 IP this week, all in shut down mode with 0 runs allowed.

I will be back tomorrow with a look at Myrtle Beach in an affiliate update first thing in the morning. Around noon, Tuesday transactions will be out, and I will wrap it up with Players of the Day from a hotel in Wisconsin.