Yander Maria – Pic via HD Baseball Academy

It was a fairly busy week for minor league news. The week began with the start of the 2024 international free agent signing period. The Cubs wound up getting 13 new players on Monday, the most notable being shortstop Fernando Cruz.

Pictures of the Week

In addition, players started showing up this week in Mesa a month early to get ready for spring training. The report date is February 15, but it was fun to see our own Rich Biesterfeld get some shots of some players working out. Head on over to his X (Twitter) account to see more pics and give him a follow!

Prospect Lists

Both Baseball America and Baseball Prospectus put out their new top prospect list. Baseball prospectus had nine Cubs in their top 101 while Baseball America only had five. MLB Pipeline will release their top 100 next Friday night, the 26th.

In the meantime, Pipeline was extra busy this week releasing their top 10 players at each position and let’s just say the Cubs were pretty busy getting accolades and plaudits this week.

Things began with Cade Horton being named the number three right handed starting pitcher in all of minor league baseball. The next day, Jordan Wicks was listed at number 10 on left-handed starters. Ironically, Jackson Ferris was number seven. For catchers, Moises Ballesteros got the eight spot. And on Friday, two Cubs made the top 10 for first baseman – Matt Mervis and Haydn McGeary. I was a little stunned that Haydn got in. Highly thought of the in the Cubs system, it’s very cool to see him rank that high against other first baseman all throughout the minors.

The order for next week is second basemen on Monday, shortstops on Tuesday, third basemen on Wednesday, and outfielders on Thursday, and the top 100 on Friday. We may see James Triantos, PCA, Matt Shaw, and hopefully Owen Caissie make those lists.

The Video of the Week

On signing day, one of the cool surprises was to find a video of newly signed pictureYander Maria. There’s a lot to like here including mid 90s heat and a developing off speed pitch as well as a full body player with lots of physical projection left. I’m looking forward to seeing how he does in the Dominican this summer and if he can get the rare in-season promotion to Mesa.

Cubs Convention Baseball Itch

There’s a lot of waiting in the offseason for baseball to return. But once the convention happens, I start to get the itch. I looked at South Bend’s schedule a little bit more in detail this week and I started to map out what my photography schedule might look like this summer.

I plan on going to opening day in Davenport to see South Bend. That’s a three game series, and if the weather is anything like last year, it’s going to be a great opening day. Last year was sunny and 70. Then two days later, it was a high of 45.

I will also see South Bend play in Beloit in April for a week. Once I got through the schedule, I realized that is their only trip there this year. I was quite disappointed to see that as it’s only 35 minutes from my garage to the front door of the stadium.

At the end of May, I’ll be back in the Quad Cities and June will find me in Peoria and then I will take a trip up to Appleton for two or three days. There’s another trip to Appleton in July and then I’ll head over to Cedar Rapids in early August and that’s it. After seeing them over 30 times last summer (12 in Beloit), I’m really looking forward to the Appleton and Cedar Rapids trips because they’ve only been going there once a year the past couple years and it was usually while I was still in school. 

Coming up Next Week on NSB

On Monday, right-handed starting pitchers will be ranked in the system series. I think you know who is number one on that list. On Wednesday, I will profile Nazir Mule as a breakout prospect for the 2024 season. On Thursday, I have a 3.5 round mock draft. I will explain why it’s a 3.5 rounder in the article. That was a lot of fun to do because I did it over Christmas break as I got to know most of the top 100 players on most boards. And then on Friday, I’m going to take a look at Tennessee’s rotation.

Jam of the Week

I am going back to the late 80s with a track off of the Cowboy Junkies “Trinity Session” which was just the band sitting in a circle using 1 mic. It is a complete mood record from beginning to end that is a mixture of folk, blues, and the now classic “Sweet Jane.” However, today I am rolling out with the ultra bluesy “I don’t get it.”
https://youtu.be/1B_f4gqPwAA?si=0PxJb2naMAM0syM3