I hate wallpaper. I really, really hate wallpaper. I spent most of the weekend on a scaffolding scraping/washing wallpaper paste off a fourteen foot high wall. Do you know what you can’t do while scraping wallpaper paste off a wall? Watch baseball, that’s what.
I don’t feel too bad about that, though, since the Shoulders One Man Wrecking Crew was not available on video anyway. Nor was Soler’s Florida State Batting Practice. One of these days I really hope all the Cub franchises are hooked into the internet streaming video service. There is just too much awesomeness happening outside of Chicago, Iowa, and Tennessee that we can’t watch. I want to see all the baseball.
And I don’t want to see wallpaper ever again.
Scores From The Weekend
Iowa – Friday – The Cubs turned a strong start from Loux into a 5-0 win. Saturday – Despite outhitting the Redbirds, Iowa fell 8-5. Sunday – This was a nail biter, but Iowa came up short 1-0.
Tennessee – Friday – The Smokies scored five times in the first and rolled to an easy 8-1 win. Saturday – The Smokies pounded out 13 hits in this 11-4 blowout win. Sunday – It went eleven innings, but Tennessee lost 9-6.
Daytona – Friday – The Cubs fell behind early and never recovered. They lost 8-3. Saturday – They tied it the seventh but lost it in the ninth. The final was 6-4. Sunday – Daytona manged just two hits in this one. The ugly final was 9-1.
[Iowa] Brian Bogusevic continues to put up some good numbers in Triple A, but it is hard to see a path to Chicago opening up for him soon. The Cubs are crowded in the outfield right now, and even a line of .380/.475/.440 might not be enough to warrant a promotion.
[Tennessee] Matt Loosen (4 IP, 8 K), A.J. Morris (3 IP, 2 K) and Brian Schlitter (2 IP, 3 K) combined in Tennessee’s dominant win on Friday. This was Loosen’s first start for the Smokies this season. If he keeps striking people out that rate, he may find himself in Iowa fairly soon.
[Tennessee] Through six games and eight innings Zach Rosscup has continued to impress. The lefty has struck out 13, walked just 2, and given a up a single run.
[Tennessee] It has only been eight games, but Ronald Torreyes has yet to strike out. His line of .333/.483/.381 features a double and five walks, but not a single strike out.
[Daytona] It was a bad weekend for Javier Baez. 1 for 10 with a single and four strikeouts is not going to win that guy any fans in the front office. The Cubs brought him into the game from the bench on Sunday, and he responded by striking out twice.
[Daytona] And on the other end of the spectrum is Jorge Soler. The right fielder went 3 for 11 with two doubles, two walks, and three strike outs. Soler has hit safely in every game he has played in (only 10, thanks to the suspension) and has reached base at least twice in all but two of them.
[Daytona] John Andreoli is up to six steals now and is tied with Zeke DeVoss for the team lead in that category. Tim Saunders and Taiwan Easterling are falling behind at three steals apiece.
[Kane County] Pierce Johnson struck out six over fine innings in his Saturday start. Nathan Dorris again looked very good in relief.
[Kane County] The Best Name In The Minors had a weekend to remember. Rock Shoulders finished up the three games 7 for 10 with two doubles, two home runs, one walk and one strikeout. The lefty slugger is smashing right handed pitching to the tune of .452/.500/.810. His OPS against lefties is a more human 0.833.
[Kane County] I started talking about Jeimer Candelario during his DSL season, a season in which he finished with more walks than strikeouts. He’s doing it again. Through 15 games, the young third baseman has 9 BB against 8 Ks.
Other News
With Brent Lillibridge and Darwin Barney passing through town lately, the Iowa Cubs have a bit of a positional traffic jam at second base. Logan Watkins, despite a recent slump that has dropped his batting average to .218, has both hit well (OPS .758) and played well there defensively. Fortunately, Watkins is a flexible defender. The Cubs moved him over to shortstop for a few games recently, and on Sunday they stuck him in center field. I’d prefer to see Watkins groomed as an everyday second baseman, but his value to the major league team is no doubt higher (for now) as a super-sub with very good defense and a high OBP left handed bat off the bench.
Speaking of second basemen… sort of… Anthony Giansanti appeared at second base for the Tennessee Smokies on Sunday. This is fairly surprising for two reasons. First, Giansanti has played a grand total of five games in Daytona in his career. Second, he hasn’t played second base since 2011.
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NEWSLETTER
I hate wallpaper. I really, really hate wallpaper. I spent most of the weekend on a scaffolding scraping/washing wallpaper paste off a fourteen foot high wall. Do you know what you can’t do while scraping wallpaper paste off a wall? Watch baseball, that’s what.
