Alfonsin Rosario – Pic by Stephanie Lynn

There’s a lot to discuss when it comes to the news of the week. There were some promotions to Chicago, there was some movement around the system. There were accolades for performance as well as an expanded draft list. And, surprisingly, the Cubs continued to sign minor league free agents as injuries began to pile up.

Let’s get to it!

The PCA Bomb

Pete Crow-Armstrong got called up this week to replace Cody Bellinger who has small fractures in his ribs. Pete finally got off the schnide this week and hit his first major league home run. And he’s actually had a pretty good week up there. Hello naysayers.

In addition, MLB Pipeline also had a nice article on Pete and his viewpoint on him going up again this time for a couple weeks until Bellinger is healthy. I really enjoyed this article because it talks about something that I’ve said several times and that is he’s not gonna learn to hit major league pitching in the minors. He can only do that in Chicago. He is well aware of that stipulation.

Pipeline Team of the Week

It was cool last week to see Luis Vazquez and Matt Shaw make MLB Pipeline’s prospect Team of the Week. This week, the Cubs only put one on the team and that was Kevin Alcantara who hit almost .500 after beginning the year 0-for-26. And some more good news is that he’s having a good week this week. We will deal with that tomorrow.

Jaxon Wiggins and Pics of the Week

The Cubs second round pick from last year underwent TJS last summer and was back in action this week in Extended Spring Training. While he hasn’t pitched in actual game, he had a live BP this week and Rich Biesterfeld was there to capture it.

Tweet/Stat of the Week

Another guy who is on a tear this week and could be the Hitter of the Week, or at least in contention, is James Triantos of Tennessee. He is having an extremely rare season at the plate. I’m still unsure of what his future role in the organization is going to be. Is he going to play at second, is he going to be a third, will he be a DH, or will he be someone that other teams covet in a trade? That’s a lot to think about.

MLB Pipeline Draft List

MLB Pipeline expanded their top 100 Draft Prospect List to 150 this week. I like to see that as this is usually about the time where I start working on my 10 round mock draft. I’ve still got a long way to go in that operation as I’m going to wait until school is out to begin. But having 150 names to compare to Baseball America, Prospects Live, and Future Star Series is going to help that endeavor a lot.

Transactions

There were 3 surprising moves this week. All three were from Myrtle Beach. Two of them were players the Cubs picked up as three agents. Interesting thing about Tyranski was that he was released by the Dodgers and signed by the Cubs almost immediately. I’m really excited to see what Alfonsin Rosario will do in Myrtle Beach once he gets acclimated to this level. So far, he’s struggling. Once he gets that first hit, things should begin to click.

Here is the full list of moves from this week, including promotions to Chicago. It seems as though the Pelicans and Iowa were extremely busy. I remember predicting that players are gonna go up and down quite frequently for the Birds as it is a young and inexperienced team. That may be why the Cubs brought in the two arms in Tyransky and Nico Zeglin.

Iowa – Bradlee Beesley and Brennen Davis added. Hayden Wesneski, Luke Little, Matt Mervis and PCA sent to Chicago

Tennessee – Manny Espinoza was transferred to the 60 Day IL. Ouch!!!

South Bend – None

Myrtle Beach – Alfonsin Rosario and Gabriel Agrazal Added, Nico Zeglin and Mitchell Tyranski added, Jefferson Encarnacion and Branden Noriega were assigned to the ACL, and Mason McGwire was placed on the Development List.

Coming Up on North Side Bound

With my trip to Springfield complete, I am wide-open for the next month to get some stuff done. I would love to first get profiles done on Tyranski and Zeglin. I also want to do a prospect All-Star team for the month of April. I am also thinking of switching it up this year and just doing the stat leaders at each position for the month. I haven’t decided yet.

Jam of the Week

I woke up with this little ear worm on Saturday. It is just too catchy!