It was a busy weekend on the farm, with another top draft pick (Donnie Dewees) making his debut, homers aplenty, and some interesting pitching performances. Although Dewees wasn’t a first rounder in the draft, he was a first-round talent. Among the best hitters in college baseball this year, you can look for Dewees to handle the pitching in the Northwest League (Eugene) well before possibly getting a promotion – perhaps with first rounder Ian Happ – to the full-season Midwest League (South Bend) at some point.
[Iowa] Frank Batista made his Triple A debut as a starting pitcher in this game. Over 4 innings (78 pitches) he allowed 4 runs (just one earned) on 8 hits while striking out 2.
[Tennessee] Elliot Soto finished 1 for 2 with 3 walks.
[Myrtle Beach] Duane Underwood did not have a good day. Over one inning (plus 4 batters in the second without getting an out) he allowed 6 runs on 4 hits and 3 walks. He was later placed on the disabled list.
[Myrtle Beach] Victor Caratini hit his 2nd homer for the Pelicans. He also walked as part of his 1 for 3 day.
[Myrtle Beach] Trey Martin doubled and finished 2 for 4.
[Eugene] Jae-Hoon Ha struck out 3 and allowed a hit and a walk in his 2 innings of scoreless relief.
[Eugene] Donnie Dewees hit lead off and played in right in his Eugene debut. He finished 0 for 3, but did walk twice.
[Eugene] Eloy Jimenez walked and finished 3 for 3. Frandy Delarosa finished 2 for 4 with his first 2 steals of the year.
[Arizona] Robert Garcia led the team with 3 hits, including a double. Jose Paniagua also doubled as part of his 2 hit game; Wladimir Galindo walked and finished with 2 hits.
[Arizona] Erling Moreno allowed one hit but otherwise posted zeros in his 2 innings of relief. Trey Masek allowed a run on a hit while striking out 2 in his 2 innings on the hill.
Scores From Yesterday
Iowa – Iowa picked up their fortieth win in this 6-5 final. Tennessee – The Smokies opened this doubled header with a 5-4 win, but dropped Game Two 7-3. Myrtle Beach – The Pelicans again fell just short of the win. They lost 3-2. South Bend – The Cubs gave up a big eighth inning, and it resulted in this 6-3 loss. Eugene – Eugene took a shutout into the eighth inning, but they wound up losing 8-2. Arizona – A ninth inning rally fizzled way too soon as the Cubs lost 11-6.
Performances of Note
[Iowa] Gonzalez Germen allowed 5 hits in his 2.1 innings of relief, but no runs scored off of him.
[Iowa] Ryan Dent tripled (his first) and finished 2 for 4.
[Iowa] Other 2 hit games were provided by Mike Olt (with a double), Junior Lake (with a double), and Rubi Silva.
[Tennessee] Rob Zastryzny struck out 4 in 4 innings of work in Game One, allowing 3 runs on 2 walks and 3 hits. Zach Cates followed that with 2 innings of no hit relief in which he allowed a run (unearned) on a walk while striking out one.
[Tennessee] Homers in Game Two came from Dan Vogelbach (his 5th) and Taylor Davis (his 3rd). Vogelbach had a double in the first contest and finished with 3 walks on the day.
[Tennessee] Albert Almora doubled and walked in the first contest, but was hitless in a pinch hit appearance in the second.
[Myrtle Beach] Jonathan Martinez struck out 5 over 7 strong innings. He allowed a run on 5 hits.
[Myrtle Beach] The unstoppable Chesny Young picked up 2 more hits in this game. He is now hitting .348.
[South Bend] Jeffrey Baez stole both second and third base in this one and now has 11 steals on the season.
[Eugene] Andin Diaz stuck out 4 over 5.2 scoreless innings, allowing 2 hits and 2 walks.
[Eugene] John Williamson got into this game, but he only faced 3 batters. Two reached on walks, and the third on a hit. All three came in to score.
[Eugene] Ian Happ drilled his 3rd homer of the season for his only hit of the game. He also walked.
[Arizona] Dylan Cease took the mound in a professional start for the first time, and he pitched quite well. Over 2 innings he allowed absolutely nothing and struck out a pair.
[Arizona] Robert Garcia tripled and finished 2 for 3. Carlos Sepulveda doubled as part of his 2 hit game.
[Arizona] Sutton Whiting (1 for 4, double, walk) stole his 3rd bag of the season. Joey Martarano (1 for 4) swiped his first.
Other News
FanGraphs has put together another great resource, this time for the upcoming International Free Agent Signing season (starting July 2). I will warn you, though, that you might get a little disgruntled and/or depressed when you take a look at it. The highest rated player they project to sign with the Cubs comes in at number seventeen. After that, though, there are plenty of Cubs projections to be found, including six who are expected to sign for over a million bucks and nine total on the list. That is the foundation of a very nice IFA season indeed.
The reason why the Cubs don’t appear until the 17th ranked prospect is, basically, the Dodgers. The Dodgers, it appears, were late to the party on the teenage prospects and as a result are expected to just throw money at any and all Cuban prospects until they sign. That means they are expected to send $16 million to pitcher Yadier Alvarez and to ultimately outbid the rest of baseball for Eddy Martinez to the tune of at least $11 million. And then spend another $5.5 million outbidding the rest of baseball on Bahamian shortstop Lucius Fox. The key point here, though, is that neither Martinez nor Fox are firmly linked to any team. FanGraphs is projecting them to the Dodgers because the Dodgers have more money than anyone knows what to do with, but that is not a foregone conclusion.
That FanGraphs tool also allows you to check out some scouting grades. That is something we will discuss more when these signings start to become final over the next few weeks, but if you want to take a sneak preview I suspect you’ll come away pretty happy. It looks like the Cubs are going to sign a very large group of very talented teenagers soon, and I definitely think that before this signing period closes next summer they will manage to pry at least a few of the high ceiling Cuban prospects away from the bottomless money pits in LA. It is likely to be a very good IFA season for the Cubs.
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NEWSLETTER
It was a busy weekend on the farm, with another top draft pick (Donnie Dewees) making his debut, homers aplenty, and some interesting pitching performances. Although Dewees wasn’t a first rounder in the draft, he was a first-round talent. Among the best hitters in college baseball this year, you can look for Dewees to handle the pitching in the Northwest League (Eugene) well before possibly getting a promotion – perhaps with first rounder Ian Happ – to the full-season Midwest League (South Bend) at some point.
