The farm system does not exist in a vacuum. These guys know who they play for, and they pay attention to the major league games. Losses like last night can echo a bit. You better believe the players in Iowa know that there could be some roster slots opening up in Chicago soon if things don’t turn around. And the players in Tennessee know that too, and they wonder if that might not turn into a few promotions to Iowa. And the players in Daytona are eyeing the Tennessee roster. And so on.
These players also know that when the calendar flips over to May we can expect to start to see some roster shuffling throughout the minors. Trouble at the top breeds opportunity in the ranks, and right now there are a number of quality prospects angling to take advantage of that opportunity.
Scores From Yesterday
Iowa – Iowa led the entire game in this 5-2 win. Tennessee – A big sixth inning carried the Smokies to an 8-3 win at home. Daytona – The Cubs took control in the first two innings and never looked back. They won it 7-4. Kane County – The Cougars had ten hits, but it was not enough. They lost 9-6.
Performances of Note
[Iowa] Chalk up a double and two more walks for Logan Watkins. Thanks to the previously-existing slump, his average is down to .224, but his OBP is holding strong at .375. Imagine if he was hitting .250.
[Iowa] Blake Parker picked up his second save of the season without allowing a hit. We’ll just not talk about those two walks.
[Tennessee] Arismendy Alcantara hit his fourth home run in this game as part of a two hit night. He also stole two bases and now has ten for the year.
[Tennessee] Brian Schlitter had another 2.2 scoreless frames in relief for the Smokies. His ERA remains at 0.00.
[Daytona] Javier Baez had a good day at the plate. His three hits included his fourth double of the season. Dustin Geiger also had three hits.
[Daytona] Give the Cubs credit for some solid pitching in this game. Austin Kirk struck out eight in five innings, Zach Cates allowed nothing but a walk in 1.1 frames of work, and and Hunter Cervenka closed it out with 2.2 innings of hitless baseball.
[Kane County] Daniel Vogelbach launched his second homerun of the season, and his two hit game raised his average to .323. That’s good, but not as good as Rock Shoulders (who is hitting .410 (and walked three times in this game)).
Alcantara is flirting with a breakout season, but remember that there are serious concerns about his ability to stay at shortstop long term. He is absolutely no threat to Castro with the glove. His bat, though, could start to put more pressure on Barney sometime next year.
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