Sunday was not a good day for the farm system. The four full season league teams, Iowa, Tennessee, Daytona, and Peoria all lost. All of those losses were close, but that almost makes it worse. There is something calming about a blowout that is so out of control all you can do is laugh it off. It’s the close games that make your hair turn gray (those of you who still have hair, that is).
Since I happen to like the color of my hair (what’s left of it, anyway) just as it is, I’ve decided not give in to the stress of close losses. I’m going to embrace the negativity, or something like that. Instead of bringing you the best performance from the farm system for Sunday, I am going to bring you the worst of all that Sunday baseball in the Cubs’ farm system had to offer. Instead of the usual Peformances of the Day, I’ll highlight the two worst performances from every team in the farm system. We’ll leverage the negative synergies into getting two birds in the bush to make lemonade out of saved pennies, or something of the kind. This is a one day event, so let’s have some fun with it.
Scores From Yesterday
Iowa – The Cubs pitchers had a good day, but the offense was shut down. Iowa lost 2-1. Tennessee – Tennessee failed to take advantage of three Jacksonville errors as they lost 5-4. Daytona – Daytona led early but ultimately lost 4-2. Peoria – Peoria was out hit 9-5 as they lost 3-2. Boise – Boise did win their game. It took eleven innings, but they escaped with a 10-9 win. Arizona – The Cubs’ Minor League futility extended all the way down to Arizona. The AZL Cubs gave up two big innings in this 8-6 loss.
(Bad) Performances of the Day
[Iowa] The worst performance in Iowa belongs to James Adduci. The outfielder finished this game 0 for 3 with a walk and three stikeouts. His Triple A batting average fell all the way down to .366.
[Iowa] Greg Rohan also had a rough game for Iowa. He did finished with one of Iowa’s five hits, but he also had the team’s only error. He was playing at third base in this game.
[Tennessee] Several Smokies had pretty good days at the plate on Sunday. Junior Lake was not one of them. He finished 0 for 4 with two strikeouts.
[Tennessee] Michael Burgess had an even rougher day. He finished 0 for 4 with three strikeouts. As a result, his season OBP dropped to .354.
[Daytona] Javier Baez was also 0 for 4 with three strikeouts. And if that were not enough, he committed his first High-A error in this game.
[Daytona] Other than Baez, the only other Cub to strike out multiple times was catcher Micah Gibbs who finished the game 1 for 4 with two strikeouts. In his last ten games he has nine walks against eleven strikeouts.
[Peoria] Led by Paul Hoilman (four strikeouts) and Oliver Zapata (three strikeouts), the Peoria Chiefs struck out 14 times in this game.
[Peoria] For the second game in a row Zeke DeVoss was kept off the bases altogether. That is not easy to do. Even though he is only hitting .231 this season, he is getting on base a .365 clip.
[Boise] Even though Boise won, they do not escape the scrutiny on the bad. Thanks to what is perhaps his worst ever game as a professional, Gioskar Amaya makes the cut. Incredibly, he struck out five times in six at bats. He now has 39 strikeouts in 45 games this season.
[Boise] And it wasn’t just Amaya. The top four hitters in the Hawks’ lineup finished a combined 3 for 21 with two walks against eleven strikeouts. Meanwhile, the bottom three hitters were 9 for 14 with seven RBI.
[Arizona] Duane Underwood made his professional debut in this game, and it did not go according to plan. Let’s just gloss over the details and say he pitched a third of an inning and now has an ERA of 81.00.
[Arizona] Arizona actually played fairly well in this game, but we still need a second poor performance to highlight. I suppose I’ll go with Albert Almora. He did finish 1 for 5, but he left two men in scoring position with two outs, and he grounded into a double play. If there is such a thing as clutch, that isn’t it.
Other Minor League Notes
If I were talking about the positives today, which I’m not, I would probably suggest popping open the Iowa box score and taking a look at the day Casey Coleman had.
In keep with today’s theme, I should also mention that Eric Jokisch gave up a home run in the Smokies loss. If he hadn’t struck out six over five innings, that might have been enough to make the (Bad) Performances of the Day.
Starting pitcher P.J. Francescon left the Daytona game after two innings, and I am really not sure why. He was pitching well through those two innings.
Arizona plays virtually nothing but night games. Even so, the temperature at game time for Sunday’s contest was 102. No wonder few people show up to watch Arizona Rookie League games.
And that concludes today’s special Negatives Edition of the Minor League Daily. We’ll get things back to normal tomorrow.
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NEWSLETTER
Sunday was not a good day for the farm system. The four full season league teams, Iowa, Tennessee, Daytona, and Peoria all lost. All of those losses were close, but that almost makes it worse. There is something calming about a blowout that is so out of control all you can do is laugh it off. It’s the close games that make your hair turn gray (those of you who still have hair, that is).
