Kevin Alcantara – Picture by Todd Johnson
This week was a quick change of pace as the minor league baseball season officially kicked off! Thursday night was a big night as three affiliates were in action, followed by a Friday slate that saw all four teams in play as South Bend opened their season. We’ve been waiting for this all winter, and now that it’s here, I’m not really sure where it’s going to go but that’s OK.
Things pretty much get back to normal starting tomorrow with “The Breakdown,” which will look at how each affiliate did this past week. We will also have our player of the week awards. On Tuesday, Greg Huss will be publishing his weekly podcast “Cubs On Deck.” I will also have Tuesday Transactions, which are a pretty big deal at certain points throughout the year. Other than that, we will be following the action on the field. As well, Greg Zumach is diligently working on his second first round mock draft,
Affiliate Preview List
If you didn’t catch our affiliate previews, you should check them all to get ready for the season.
Iowa | Tennessee | South Bend | Myrtle Beach
First Week Buzz
It was a slow week for news off the field, but there was plenty of buzz going around each affiliate, as some players got off to a hard start. In addition, some guys performance may have shown a little improvement over 2022. Let’s look at a few names that are garnering more attention than they probably would have last year.
Iowa – Riley Thompson’s first start at Iowa was a good one is a Threw for innings, allowed one run, and struck out six. He only allowed one head, gave him a 0.50 WHIP to go along with a 0.37 batting average against. I am so ready for him to make start number two. If he can replicate that performance, big things could be happening for Mr. Thompson this season he may jump ahead of every starter in Iowa to get called up when needed. That day is going to come, it’s not a question of if.
Tennessee – PCA has been as good as advertised and the more he gets acclimated to the level, the less he will be in Double-A. In addition, SS Luis Vazquez is showing he should be at Triple-A as he bat is quickly catching up to his glove, In fact, he was doing that last year at Tennessee.
South Bend – Everyone knows about Kevin Alcantara, but Haydn McGeary is going to be a beast at the plate. He has not hit a homer yet, but his time will come.
Myrtle Beach – 17th round pick Andy Garriola is having quite the full season debut after just three games. On Friday night, the gargantuan left fielder drove in six runs, four of which came on a grand slam. But not only that, he is hitting the ball extremely hard every chance he gets.
Quote of the Week
As well, check out Lance’s full prospect list from yesterday!
Prospect List News
It was cool to see Cade Horton get put on MLB Pipeline’s top 100 prospect list this week. He did not make his debut last night for the Pelicans because of a rain out.
Card of the Week
I made over 20+ on Saturday morning. It was some good times! This one of Jeremiah Estrada was made from a pic by Dylan Heuer.
Draft News
We are just about at the three month window for the draft. We have, in fact, actually gone under 100 days until the draft. With that being said, there was some news this week as bonus pools were announced. The Cubs will have approximately $8,962,000 to spend this summer on their draft class. They can actually go 5% over that and not incur any penalties.
In International Free Agency, the Cubs will have $5,152,200 to spend in international free agency next year.
DL and IL Updates
Now that the opening rosters are set, the injured list and development list are also out there. Here is the full list for each affiliate.
Iowa
IL 7 Day Ben Leeper (will move to full season IL soon), Alexander Canario
IL 60 Day Jordan Holloway, Scott Kobos, Marquez
Development List Chris Clarke, Jake Washer, Eric Stout, Curtis Taylor, Levi Jordan
Full Season – Brad Wieck
Tennessee
IL 7 Day – Burl Carraway, DJ Herz, Zac Leigh, Eduarniel Nunez
IL 60 Day – Luis Devers, Stephen Gonsalves
Full Season IL – Jack Patterson
Development List – Peyton Remy, Max Bain, Kyle Johnson, Danis Correa, Sam Reyes, Blake Whitney
South Bend
IL 7 Day – Ed Howard, Ezequiel Pagan, James Triantos, Manny Espinoza
IL 60 Day – Derek Casey, Yovanny Cruz, Tyler Schlaffer
Development List – David Avitia, Yeison Santana
Myrtle Beach
IL 7 Day – Drew Gray
IL 60 Day – Garrett Brown, Kenyi Perez, Shane Marshall, JP Wheat IL
Full season – Will Frisch, Anthony Mendez, Nazier Mule
Development List – Malcolm Quintero
Interview News
I am excited to see how Ben Brown dominates this year! Check out this snippet from Marquee’s Weekly podcast!
In my own world, I interviewed poet and Cubs fan Sandra Marchetti about her upcoming book of poetry about baseball and the Cubs called 228. It is available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. I should have that interview out some time this week. My goal is transcribe the interview tonight and possibly wrap it tomorrow A.M.
Jam of the Week
Last go back to the aughts today and bring back some Queens of the Stone Age with “No One Knows.” I just loved them and how original they were. They rocked hard but singer Josh Homme didn’t have to scream to do so. Great stuff!
