Matt Shaw – Picture by Rich Biesterfeld

A lot of stuff went down this week as minor league camp opened. Players posted their bio pics on Instagram, the Smokies’ players got their rings, and some new guys arrived in minor league camp. It was busy!

The big league club made several roster cuts this week:

– Optioned to Triple-A Iowa: RHP Ben Brown, INF Luis Vazquez, OF Crow-Armstrong and OF Brennen Davis.
– Optioned to Double-A Tennessee: RHP Michael Arias, RHP Porter Hodge and OF Alcántara.
– Reassigned to Minor League camp: RHP Ethan Roberts, RHP Riley Thompson, C Pablo Aliendo, INF Matt Shaw, and OF Caissie. And then on Saturday, Chris Clarke, Sam McWilliams and Brad Wieck were sent to minor league camp.

The sad news of the week was that Caleb Kilian, who been fantastic this spring injured his shoulder and will miss half the season. I was hoping his spring performance was leading to bigger and better things.

Breakout Series

Greg Zumach broke the initial roster earlier this week. PCA was added to the roster later in the week. That is going to be some roster filled with talent facing the White Sox.

Matt Shaw of the Week

The Cubs’ 2023 number 1 draft pick was tearing up spring training this week. Everything he hit seemed to be an impact hit with doubles everywhere and his first home run of the spring. He also got in a lot of time at third base this week. Whether he stays there this year is up in the air, but from the looks of it, the Cubs are going to do their due diligence. They might also put Shaw in the arm strengthening program that the pitchers do throughout the season. That includes the use of plyometric (weighted) balls to improve velocity and that could work for Shaw. I was all set to dictate a post about the possibility of Shaw making the big league squad before he was sent down late this week.

He is a Matt Shaw interview from CHGO that you should check out!

Another New Guy

The Cubs signed non-drafted free agent Hunter Viets to a deal and assigned him to the ACL Cubs. The righty from Florida A&M should be getting a “Prospect Profile” here at North Side Bound in the next week or so. Thanks to Rich Biesterfeld from seeing him on the backfields and breaking the news.

Pics of the Week

With Rich Biesterfeld at the Sloan Campus most days, its cool to see some new guys doing their thing. This week, Rich snapped pics of the recently acquired trio of Viets, JC Coronado, and Matthew Thompson. 

Prospect Update, Dinger of the Week, and Bat Flip of the Week

Yonathan Perlaza is hitting dingers already in Korea. Go figure!

Pics of the Week

Prospect List Season nears an End with 2 New Lists and a Farm System Ranking

Keith Law released his top 20 Cubs list late last month and I checked it out on Monday. Then, MLB Pipeline dropped their top 30 on Tuesday. And on Friday night, Pipeline released their farm system rankings and the Cubs came in at #2!!!

With just FanGraphs and Lance Brozdowski left to go, the Prospect List standings are coming into focus. Here are the current standings and prospect points

PCA 80
Horton 69
Shaw 61
Caissie 51
Alcantara 50
Wicks 31
Ballesteros 26
Rojas 21
Triantos 18
Busch 17

Just a reminder, Busch was acquired after 5 of these lists were done, so he could be the biggest mover on the next two lists.

Coming Up on North Side Bound

There is not a lot going this week other than some profiles coming on some newly acquired players. Matt Thompson should be up first followed by Hunter Viets and JC Coronado. I finished my busy season at school and I will probably ease back into writing some more over the next two weeks. There are still two weeks until spring break when I plan to start my five round mock draft. Some draft boards should change by then as will my first pick at 14.

Jam of the Week

I am going into uncharted territory this week with Marshall Crenshaw’s swinging “The Usual Thing” from his debut LP in 1982. I love everything about that record and was surprised how crisp it sounded this week. It is one of my favorite records of the 80s.