Gerardo Concepcion has reemerged.
Before last year the Cubs signed Concepcion to a fairly large contract, then watched him get battered around the Midwest League before he came down with mononucleosis and was shut down for the season. The Cubs moved him off the 40 man roster over the winter, and the lefty had been quietly recovering and rehabbing ever since.
Now in the Arizona Rookie League Concepcion is beginning his rehabilitation tour. The initial outcome was good – two innings pitched, one hit and one strikeout last night – but that came against a young team. As a veteran of the Cuban leagues, Concepcion should be able to handle Rookie League hitters without much difficulty (assuming he is healthy and recovered, of course).
So what should we expect from Concepcion now that he is back to pitching? Not much, really.
When this guy was signed he was billed as a reasonably polished pitcher with the upside of a back of the rotation starter, but who could be able to move quickly up the minor league ladder. In short, replace Concepcion with a college senior taken in the June draft who has the upside of maybe a Chris Rusin and you have a pretty good idea of the best case scenario. Despite his struggles last year, that is not a bad thing to have in the system.
Scores From Yesterday
Iowa – Iowa falls to ten games under .500 with this 6-3 loss.
Tennessee – Tennessee led for most of the game, but only the by thinnest of margins. They still won, though, 3-2.
Daytona – Despite piling up twelve hits, the Cubs needed a rally in the ninth to secure a 2-1 win.
Kane County – Kane County has been winning with some regularity of late. They took this one 6-3.
Boise – Two errors did not help as Boise lost this one 7-4.
Arizona – Some very nice pitching carried the AZL Cubs to a 2-1 win.
Performances of Note
[Iowa] Justin Grimm fanned 5 in his 5 innings of work. Along the way he gave up 2 runs on 4 hits and 3 walks.
[Iowa] Marcos Mateo struck out 3 of his own in his 1.1 innings of work at the end of the game.
[Iowa] Jae-Hoon Ha is starting to heat up. Three of his last five games have been multi-hit outings. That’s a good sign for the young outfielder.
[Tennessee] After totally dominating High A over the past few weeks, Matt Loosen has been returned to Tennessee. In his first start back with the Smokies he tossed 5.1 innings, struck out 3, walked 4, and gave up just 3 hits.
[Tennessee] Walks were a problem for Jeffry Antigua as well. In his just his second game with the Smokies this season (nearly a month after his first game at that level), he walked 3 and struck out 3 over 2.2 innings.
[Tennessee] Javier Baez homered (his 11th for the Smokies), walked (third game in a row), and struck out twice. I suppose it couldn’t all be good news.
[Daytona] Ivan Pineyro cruised through 6 innings of 3 hit ball, striking out 7 in the process. His Daytona ERA now reads 1.96.
[Daytona] Anthony Giansanti doubled as part of his 3 for 4 game. Pin-Chieh Chen finished 3 for 3, and Chadd Krist chipped in 2 singles.
[Daytona] Dustin Geiger launched his 11th home run in this win. He finishes July with a very nice line of .293/.414/.435 as the most dangerous hitter in a much depleted Cubs lineup.
[Kane County] Add another scoreless inning to the perfect season of Michael Hamann. With one month to go, his ERA remains 0.00.
[Kane County] Sheldon McDonald also pitched well for the Cougars. After this scoreless inning his KC ERA is down to 0.87.
[Kane County] Jeimer Candelario (his 7th) and Rock Shoulders (his 17th) both homered and had two hits in this one. Gioskar Amaya also had two hits, including his 22nd double.
[Boise] Trey Masek was very impressive. The 2013 draftee struck out 5 in his 2 innings of work and allowed a run on 2 hits in the process.
[Boise] Yasiel Balaguert hit his 5th home run as part of a 2 for 4 game. Jacob Rogers and Kevin Encarnacion also enjoyed multi-hit games.
[Arizona] Kelvin Freeman doubled twice and finished with three hits. His was the only multi-hit game for Arizona, and he had the only extra base hits as well.
Other News
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