Jorge Soler has played in five games this season. He also has a five game hitting streak, and in every one of those games he has doubled. We are still waiting for his first Double A home run, but in the mean time we get to enjoy the fact that he is walking as often as he strikes outs.
Sample sizes are very small here, but it is good to see Soler get off to a good start. Because of his professional background in Cuba I have always suspected he would turn out to be a fairly polished hitter who may not need a great deal of work in the minors, and while the jury is still out on that front his start does lend some small support to that hope.
Naturally, the Cubs would love for Soler to be the sort of hitter who can move up the minors quickly and, just maybe, reach Wrigley in September. Given the currently anemic state of the Cubs outfield, I don’t think anyone would blame you for dreaming on a near future that includes Bryant in left, Alcantara in center, and Soler in right.
Scores From The Weekend
Iowa – Friday – This game was postponed by rain. Saturday – Iowa was out hit eighteen to nine and lost this game 10-1. Sunday – The Cubs needed three big innings, including a rally in the eighth, to pull off this 12-11 win.
Tennessee – Friday – Tennessee rallied in the ninth, but fell short. They lost 6-4. Saturday – A whopping eighteen hits carried Tennessee to a 10-6 win. Sunday – At one point the Smokies trailed by six runs, but when this wild game ended it was Tennessee who had the 17-13 win.
Daytona – Friday – They allowed just one bad inning, and that’s all it took. The Cubs lost 5-2. Saturday – This score was the same as the score before. The Cubs lost 5-2. Sunday – This was a scheduled day off.
Kane County – Friday – Another late rally led to another Kane County win. The final was 5-2. Saturday – The Cougars took this game into extras before winning 2-1. Sunday – Sunday was a scheduled day off.
Performances of Note
[Iowa] Lars Anderson finished Sunday 2 for 3 with 2 walks. Chris Valaika, playing left field, finished 3 for 4 with a walk and a strike out.
[Iowa] This is one of the questest stretches of Javier Baez‘s short career. After finishing the weekend with just a walk to his name, he remains without an extra base hit in the month of May.
[Iowa] Carlos Pimentel struck out 6 in his 4 innings of 3 hit relief on Sunday.
[Tennessee] Kris Bryant finished the weekend with 5 more hits, his 10th home run, one walk, and 4 strikeouts. He has multiple hits in 4 of his last 5 games.
[Tennessee] John Andreoli had another typical weekend. He reached base in all 3 games and finished up with his 18th steal, 3 walks, 3 hits, and 3 strikeouts. His OBP is now .427, and it is trending upwards.
[Tennessee] Stephen Bruno must have gotten bored of all those doubles, so he varied thing up a bit by hitting 2 home runs on Saturday. He now has 3 homers on the season.
[Tennessee] Rubi Silva‘s transformation continues. He finished the weekend with no walks, one strikeout, 3 doubles, a triple, and a remarkable 9 total hits.
[Daytona] Zack Godley made his Daytona debut on Friday, and the results were the same as in Kane County. Over 2 innings he allowed a walk and no hits while striking out 3.
[Daytona] After going 0 for 3 on Friday, Bijan Rademacher rebounded with a 2 for 4 game that included his 6th double.
[Kane County] Daniel Lockhart was late to arrive on my radar, but he has definitely captured my attention. After 2 more doubles this weekend his OPS is up to .619 after a very slow start. The eyecatcher, though, is that in 141 plate appearances he has 11 walks to just 7 strikeouts. That’s a 5% strikeout rate.
[Kane County] Will Remillard is still hitting. His 9th double came on Saturday and ticked his OPS up to .963.
[Kane County] Gerardo Concepcion pitched 2.1 innings of one hit ball on Friday, and struck out 5 in the process.
[Kane County] James Pugliese had a great game on Saturday. In 3 relief innings he allowed virtually nothing and struck out 7.
Other News
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