South Bend Cubs

Today was a long day. I left a little bit after 8 AM this morning and arrived in Appleton a little bit before 11. Three days ago, it was supposed to be rainy and cold but it actually turned out to be a nice day as the sun was shining and it …

As was predicted this morning, Robel Garcia of the Iowa Cubs was named the International League HItter of the Week as Garcia hit 6 HRs and drove in 9 as the Cubs went 5-1 on the week. Tennessee's Peyton Remy won the Southern League's Pitcher of the Week for his part in …

I mentioned in last week's Breakdown how good of a week that was as the system went 17-7. This week, the affiliates did even better coming it at 20-5. Let’s get right to it this week! With today being the exact middle of the month, I thought today would be a good …

Matt Mervis – Picture by Rikk Carlson When the Cubs signed Matt Mervis as a nondrafted free agent in 2020, I was pretty sure the Cubs were going to take him and turn the two-way player into a one-way player. With his power hitting profile at Duke, it was clear that side …

Jeremiah Estrada – Pic by Todd Johnson In looking back at last night's action in the minor leagues, most people are probably go to focusing on the Tennessee Smokies for throwing the second no-hitter in the Cubs' system in 10 days. That would probably be what most people would focus on from …

In terms of wins and losses, this was the best week of the year for the Cubs' system as the four affiliates went 17-7 highlighted by South Bend's six game sweep of Peoria. However, in terms of individual performance, there were some exciting moments taking place this week. To keep things different …

Over the next 10 days to two weeks, I’m going to be doing a four-part series that looks at each affiliate. Some thoughts will be more organized than others but each “affiliate update” will take a look at just exactly where the affiliate is at that point in time . Since I …

As I mentioned this morning in The Breakdown this morning that it was difficult to pick our Hitter of the Week as both players just raked. Pete Crow-Armstrong hit .480 and had an OPS of 1.159 while Alexander Canario was smoking hot at .500 and 1.536 with 4 dingers and 9 RBI. …

Game: 4/26 South Bend Cubs and Quad Cities River Bandits Final: Cubs 8, River Bandits 2 Summary: A Game You Would Expect From South Bend Jordan Wicks started the game for the South Bend Cubs and went 4 innings, giving up 1 run, 4 hits, 1 walk, and struck out 5 batters. …

Who Is Heating Up Heading into May? Before I left to go to the game in Davenport yesterday morning, I became engrossed in the stats page for each affiliate. Minor League Baseball now has several drop-down tabs that allow you to sort through the stats. This is going to make my job …

You cannot stop Myrtle Beach right now. Buddy Bailey has all facets of the team working like a well oiled machine right now. Tonight, they steamrolled Columbia 9-1 and it was never close as the Pelicans scored early and often. Meanwhile, South Bend was homer happy as they used 3 dingers from …

A strange thing happened this week – Back in early April, the Cubs announced which prospects were going to be at which affiliate. At that time, they did not include any players that were injured or left behind in extended spring training in case of injuries. And there was only one player …

Porter Hodge – Picture by Stephanie Lynn To be quite frank, it was weird being home for the night after being at the ballpark twice this week. I had one eye on the draft and the other on the MiLB slate of games. I did spend most of the night watching Myrtle …

Luis Verdugo – Picture by Todd Johnson In 2015, the Cubs went hog wild in signing international free agents for the second time in three years. As a result, the Cubs were given a two-year penalty where they could only spend so much money and the highest they I could sign a …

Picture by Todd Johnson Yesterday was fun getting to go see South Bend play in the Quad cities. Weather permitting I’ll be back there again tomorrow. Tonight, it was good to get back in the swing of things and watch baseball from the comfort of my nice warm chair rather than sitting …

Manny Espinoza – Picture by Rebecca Snyder After a stellar 2019 campaign in their Arizona Rookie League, I thought Manny Espinoza was going to be one of the best pitchers at Myrtle Beach when baseball resumed in 2021. In rookie league, he had a 2.49 ERA which was one of the best …

It is hard to believe it’s Monday already and that another week of the minor league season has passed. However, it was quite exciting as there seemed  to be something big happening every night this week. Whether it was two dingers by Jared Young on Tuesday, a 17 run outburst by Myrtle …

Tonight was a weird one for me. The whole fact that South Bend had a rain delay just threw everything off for me. That included feeding the dogs and making supper for me and my wife. But once the games began, I was too busy thinking about what was going to happen …

Fabian Pertuz – Picture by Larry Kave/Myrtle Beach Pelicans The last time I wrote about Fabian Pertuz at length, he just finished a scintillating campaign in the Dominican Summer League. In 2018, the then shortstop led the entire Cubs system in wRC+ at 147. A lot has happened since that profile over …

Nelson Velazquez – Picture by Todd Johnson “The sleeper has awakened!” That line from Frank Herbert’s Dune could describe the young Cubs' bats tonight. Everywhere you looked, there was hit after hit after hit after hit. The Myrtle Beach Pelicans had 15 hits themselves including Yeison Santana with four and three by …