Cubs Minor League Daily: Welcome Back, Minor League Baseball!

[adinserter block=”1″]Minor league baseball is back, and so is the Minor League Daily. The Daily will still be here for you, bright and (relatively) early every morning, but it isn’t quite the same as it was last season.

For one thing, the format has changed a little. The box score for each game will still be linked from the scores, and the homepage for each team is still linked from the team name, but the Performances section is gone. Instead, the key stat lines for each game are provided right under the game scores. The goal here is to make it a little faster and easier to find the stats you’re looking for.

The other major change is that the Daily is once again going to be a true Daily. After taking the weekends off the past couple of seasons, for 2016 the Daily will return to being published seven days a week. ‘This Week In The Minors’, the old Sunday feature, will go away, but the standings survey that featured in that article will still appear on Sundays as part of the Daily.

That’s probably enough changes for now. Let’s get to baseball.

[Brett: I’m so happy this is back. I look forward to it every morning.]

Triple A: Iowa Cubs

Round Rock 7, Iowa 3
Not the best start for Iowa, but not a bad day for two of Iowa’s best prospects.

  • Ryan Williams: 3 IP, 7 R (6 ER), 6 H, 2 BB, 2 K
  • Dan Vogelbach: 2 for 3, 1 BB
  • Willson Contreras: 2 for 4
  • Double A: Tennessee Smokies

    Tennessee 7, Mobile 3
    Six good innings from the starter, three home runs, good day to be a Smokies fan.

  • Rob Zastryzny: 6 IP, 2 R, 4 H, 2 BB, 6 K
  • Jacob Hannemann: 2 for 4, 2 SB
  • Chesny Young: 2 for 2, HR, 2 BB, SB
  • Victor Caratini: 1 for 4, HR
  • Mark Zagunis: 1 for 3, 2B, BB
  • Bijan Rademacher: 1 for 1, pinch hit HR
  • High A: Myrtle Beach Pelicans

    Myrtle Beach 5, Frederick 2
    The Pelicans got their five runs on just five hits in this one.

  • Jonathan Martinez: 5 IP, 1 R, 3 H, 2 BB, 1K
  • David Berg: 1 IP, 1 H, 2 K, Save
  • Gleyber Torres: 1 for 4, 2B
  • Jeffrey Baez: 1 for 3, 2B
  • Low A: South Bend Cubs

    West Michigan 9, South Bend 4
    A rough start and three errors led to a loss, despite the Cubs out hitting West Michigan 12 to 11.

  • Preston Morrison: 4 IP, 8 R (3 ER), 7 H, 2 BB, 2 K
  • Kyle Twomey: 4 IP, 1 R, 3 H, 1 BB, 7 K
  • Eloy Jimenez: 2 for 4, 3B
  • Eddy Martinez: 2 for 4. More on him down below.
  • Donnie Dewees: 2 for 5
  • Other Notes

  • Just like last year, this is the place to find miscellaneous thoughts, notes, and links relevant to the minors. Speaking of links, here’s one for the Bleacher Nation Top 40 Prospects List. As links go, I think it is a pretty useful one.
  • Paul Blackburn, number 31 on the Top 40, makes his first start of the season for Tennessee tonight at 7:05. You can catch the game on MiLB.tv.[adinserter block=”2″]
  • South Bend has a very good MiLB.tv feed, and that means last night I finally got my first look at Eddy Martinez in action. I don’t want to rush to any conclusions based on a very tiny sample size, but first impressions were positive. From what I saw of his speed and arm in right, both will play just fine in center (Dewees was in center last night). The bat is fast, and he laid off pitches that were obviously off the plate. His swing looked fairly flat, but that could have been an artifact of camera angles. It’ll take awhile for us to accumulate enough data to know for sure what the Cubs have in Martinez, but it was good to finally see him in action.
  • The conditions for the Iowa Cubs game were especially nasty, so that may have had an impact on Ryan Williams’ ugly debut.
  • The Myrtle Beach Pelicans are once again putting together post-game packages of highlights and sharing them on their YouTube channel. I highly recommend subscribing to that channel. The highlight reel for last night, featuring some very good base running by Gleyber Torres, can be found below.
  • written by

    Luke Blaize is the Minor League Editor at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @ltblaize.

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