Cubs Minor League Daily: Javier Baez Blows Up

javier baez daytona cubs[Ed. – It looks like Luke will be back tomorrow, but, in his stead, BN’er JulioZuleta once again graciously offered to give us a fill-in. He rocks.]

Well, we had rainouts in Chicago, Iowa and Kane County.  On the bright side, the Tennessee Smokies and Daytona Cubs turned in some impressive performances.

Iowa

Iowa was rained out.  The game will be made up June 19 as part of a double header.

Tennessee

The Tennessee Smokies beat the Hunstville Stars 4-1.  Christian Villanueva broke a scoreless tie in the 6th, taking Taylor Jungman, the 12th overall pick in the 2011 draft, deep for a 3 run shot. Twenty three year old Northwestern product Eric Jokisch started and went 6 shutout innings, allowing 3 hits and no walks while striking out 7.  On a night where offense was hard to come by, the Smokies showed a patient approach drawing 7 walks.  Arismendy Alcantara filled the stat sheet with a pretty unique line (see below).

Notable offensive performances:

  • Matt Szczur: 0-5
  • Arismendy Alcantara: 1-1, 1R, 3BB, 4 SB (2 errors)
  • Christian Villanueva: 1-3, HR, 3RBI
  • Rubi Silva: 1-4
  • Daytona

    Daytona responded nicely to Clearwater’s 27-hit outburst from Tuesday night, beating the Threshers 13-2 (What the heck is a Thresher?).  Daytona went with two “starting” pitchers; twenty-two year old Taiwanese righty Yao-Lin Wang got the start and threw 4 innings of 1 run ball before being replaced by lefty Austin Kirk, who went the final 5 innings allowing 1 run on 3 hits.  Both guys are off to solid starts and are worth keeping an eye on.  On the offensive side, the Cubs pounded out 12 hits and drew 11 walks (!).  Javier Baez DH’d and showed signs of breaking out of his early season slump, collecting three hits, including a HR for the second day in a row.

    Also, earlier in the day Carrie Muskat confirmed that Jorge Soler will rejoin the team today (Thursday).

    Notable offensive performances:

  • Javier Baez: 3-6, HR (3), 2RBI, 2R, 1K
  • Zeke DeVoss: 1-2, 2B, 3BB, SB, CS
  • John Andreoli: 0-2, 1R, 2RBI, 3BB (has now walked in 20.6% of his plate appearances!)
  • Stephen Bruno: 1-4, 2R
  • Dustin Geiger: 3-5, HR, 4RBI
  • Taiwan Easterling: 1-3, 2B, 2R, 3BB
  • Kane County

    The Cougars were rained out.

    written by

    Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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