Despite their lackluster record, the Kane County Cougars remain one of the most prospect-laden teams in the organization. Unfortunately, because the Kane County ballpark is not hooked up for it, the Cougars are not one of the teams we can regularly watch online. This weekend was one of the rare exceptions to that because the Cougars were in Wisconsin; hopefully many of you were able to take advantage of that.
If you missed your chance to see Kane County on MILB.TV this weekend, though, don’t panic. You still have today, tomorrow, and Wednesday to take advantage of this rare opportunity to watch the Cougars play.
Just remember, once players are promoted from Kane County they generally go to Daytona in the Florida State League, a league in which not a single team is hooked up to this service. That means it could be another year and a promotion to Tennessee before we might see that prospect in video again. Â Take advantage while you can.
Scores From The Weekend
Iowa –
Friday – It took 16 hits to score their runs, but Iowa scored enough for a 5-1 win.
Saturday – The Cubs scored four times in the eighth for the 8-5 win.
Sunday – Iowa was shut out on Sunday, though, by a final of 3-0.
Tennessee –
Friday – Wet weather scratched the doubleheader.
Saturday – This was a great game for a lot of Smokies. They won 13-0.
Sunday – On Sunday, though, they lost in ten innings 4-3.
Daytona –
Friday – Daytona poured on the runs and walked away with a big 13-6 win.
Saturday – They scored twice in the first but were blanked the rest of the way. Daytona lost 3-2.
Sunday – The Cubs were rained out on Sunday.
Kane County –
Friday – The Cougars were blanked in this one, 2-0.
Saturday – Kane County rallied for 3 in the ninth to force extra innings, but despite scoring in each additional frame they ultimately fell in eleven 10-9.
Sunday – They bounced back with a win on Sunday, though, 4-3.
Boise –
Friday – The Hawks rallied to force extra innings, and then walked away the 5-4 winners in ten.
Saturday – Despite four errors they won again on Saturday, 8-6.
Sunday – And on Sunday Boise pulled one game over .500 with a 6-5 win.
Arizona –
Friday – The AZL Cubs had Friday off.
Saturday – Even though they were out hit the AZL Cubs picked up their third win 8-6.
Sunday – Two in the eighth propelled the AZL Cubs to a 6-4 win, bringing them within a game of .500.
Performances of Note
[Iowa] Logan Watkins put together a couple of good games this weekend. On Friday he finished 4 for 5, and on Saturday he hit his eighth home run as part of a 2 for 5 day. His line for June now reads .294/.344/.454. That’s a nice recovery from a bad month of May.
[Iowa] Ty Wright, he of the Tennessee auction and Great Bat Mystery fame, has rejoined Iowa. In his first three games back in Triple A he already has 5 hits, including a double and a home run.
[Iowa] Not much to talk about on the pitching end of things for the Cubs. Chris Rusin and Brooks Raley had solid but not spectacular starts, and Brian Schlitter and Michael Bowden continued to pitch well in relief. That’s pretty much par for the course in Iowa these days.
Tennessee] Eric Jokisch started the shutout on Saturday. He struck out 7 over 6.1 innings and allowed just 3 hits. He also gave up 4 walks, but was able to escape without damage despite that. Yeiper Castillo and Tony Zych completed the shutout.
[Tennessee] Rubi Silva came up with 5 hits over the weekend, including a double and his 10th home run. Arismendy Alcantara double twice and hit his 11th homer.
[Tennessee] John Andreoli was recently promoted to the Smokies, but he seems right at home there. He came up with 3 hits on Saturday, including a double. On Sunday he hit two more doubles.
[Tennessee] Zach Rosscup struck out both batters he faced in relief on Sunday before handing the ball to Frank Batista, and Batista proceeded to do a great Marmol impersonation. Despite walking three batters and only striking out one he escaped the inning without giving up run.
[Daytona] Austin Reed struck out 5 in 3.1 innings of relief on Friday. He gave up nothing but a lone hit.
[Daytona] Home runs on Friday came from Javier Baez (his 17th), Wes Darvill (his 1st), and Zeke DeVoss (his 4th).
[Daytona] There were multi-hit games all over the lineup in that Friday blowout. DeVoss, Darvill and Baez were joined in that category by Bijan Rademacher, Taylor Davis, and Pin-Chieh Chen.
[Kane County] Michael Heesch allowed just 6 runners to reach base in his 7 innings of work to open the weekend, but one of them scored and that was enough to give him the loss.
[Kane County] He only just arrived, but Kevin Encarnacion is already having an impact on the Cougars offense. He went 2 for 4 in his first game, and 3 for 5 with a double and a steal in his second.
[Kane County] Reggie Golden and Gioskar Amaya both doubled as part of their three hit Saturday games. Golden went on to hit his 3rd home run on Sunday.
[Boise] Outfielder Jacob Hannemann just keeps on hitting. His 2 for 5 Friday included his second triple. He has not played since Friday, but I am not aware of any official reason for that.
[Boise] Also just continuing to hit is Shawon Dunston. He doubled in every game over the weekend to raise his OPS to .945.
[Boise] This must be a good time to be an outfielder for Boise. Yasiel Balaguert has also gotten hot, to the tune of home runs in consecutive games. He now has four on the season.
[Boise] 2013 draftee Trey Masek made his debut with a scoreless inning of relief on Saturday. He pitched in between excellent outings by Corbin Hoffner (3.1 innings, 4 K) and Tyler Bremer (2.0 innings, 4 K).
[Arizona] Jesse Hodges and Zak Blair both had three hits on Saturday. Blair’s day included two doubles.
[Arizona] Jeffrey Baez walked four times and stole three bases on Saturday. After another one on Sunday he is up to 9 steals for the year.
[Arizona] Here’s a name you haven’t heard in awhile. Marcos Mateo got the start on Sunday as he starts to work his way back from elbow surgery. He threw one scoreless inning.
Other News
Trey McNutt has been placed on the DL by the Smokies, and in his place the team now has the services of Jeffry Antigua. Keep an eye on Antigua. I’ve been told by a few people who know their prospects and have seen him firsthand that Antigua has a lot of potential. He has some work to do still, but reports are he could yet emerge as a quality middle relief arm for the Cubs, if not a late inning candidate. It should be interesting to see what he can do in Double A.
If you like flexibility, you’ll love David Bote. The infielder started at second base on Saturday, moved to center field when Daniel Lockhart came into pinch run for Dunston, and on Sunday was the starting shortstop.
In case you missed it on Sunday, the most recent edition of This Week In The Minors featured a primer on wOBA and a mystery concerning a bat. More evidence in the bat mystery can be found by checking out the Message Board.
NEWSLETTER
