Minor League Daily: Jimenez Hits 3 HRs, Dewees, Baez, Tseng, Silva, Vogelbach

eugene emeralds logoLuke’s still out, so please accept this fill-in Daily offering. Thanks to last night’s super late game – it didn’t end until after 1:30am ET – and the early-morning requirements of parenthood, I’m going offer up some quick bullets on the Cubs’ minor league games yesterday, and you can see all of the box scores here.

  • The Eugene Emeralds played two games yesterday – one scheduled, and one completing the previous day’s – and Eloy Jimenez erupted to the tune of THREE homers. Once he figures out how to use all of the levers in his unnaturally large, strong, and gifted body, watch out. At just 18, Jimenez is hitting .286/.332/.439 in his short-season Low-A debut, which is plenty good for a young man who was as raw as he was, and who had his 2014 season and development interrupted by injuries. He’s shown a solid walk rate around 7%, and a low strikeout rate under 17%. You want to peg an offensive breakout prospect for 2016? This is your guy. (Well, also a bunch of other guys because the Cubs are kind of ridiculous at it.)
  • Speaking of which, Donnie Dewees extended his hitting streak to 18 games during those two Eugene games. It hasn’t been an overwhelming debut for the Cubs’ second round pick, but he’s got his line up to .275/.313/.398 and it’s not like he’s striking out much. Might have just needed a little more adjustment time than you typically see for high-end college positional prospects debuting in short-season. I’m still very intrigued on him, heading into 2016.
  • And speaking of hitting streaks, Javier Baez bumped his up to 11 yesterday.
  • Jen-Ho Tseng had what might have been his best start of the year last night for the Pelicans, striking out nine in seven innings, and allowing just four hits and one walk. It hasn’t been the best year for last year’s breakout pitching prospect, but he’s been fantastic over the last month (you love to see a guy finishing strong), and is still just 20 years old pitching in High-A. We all know that Tseng’s ceiling is probably limited because of a lack of high-end velocity or nasty stuff, but the big leagues remain very much on the radar. Middle-of-the-rotation starters are mighty valuable, too.
  • Outfield prospect Rubi Silva has been released. A seven-figure Cuban signing back before the 2011 season, Silva, 26, flashed power at times, but never quite got down the plate discipline thing. He had a pretty great year at AA in 2013, and looked like a near-term contributor (so much so that the Cubs brought him to the rookie camp and Cubs Convention in early 2014). Didn’t materialize, though. Given the increasingly crowded minor league system, you’re going to see more and more familiar names like that heading out on their way.
  • Dan Vogelbach, who’d missed a lot of time with an oblique injury and only just recently returned to AA, left the Smokies’ game last night after just one at bat. No word on the reason.
  • 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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