Cubs Minor League Daily: So You Want To Watch Some Baseball? Good News

The All-Star break is like a blast of winter in the middle of summer. There is no baseball to watch except for a glorified exhibition game for pretty much of the week, and staring out the windows waiting for spring Friday starts to get old about Tuesday.

Fortunately, if you want to watch some baseball before the weekend arrives, the minor leagues have you covered.

To start, watch the incredible catch made by Eloy Jimenez in the Futures Game last night. And then watch his equally ridiculous home run. As for the rest of the week, the only bad news that there are no Iowa games to be had until Thursday. Triple A follows the Major League All-Star schedule.

Tonight you have three viewing options. Tennessee is at home with Jen-Ho Tseng on the mound against Chattanooga, but unfortunately the Smokies’ video feed is not the best. Tseng is having a nice year, but low resolution video could make this one a pass.

Starting at 7:05 PM ET (same time as Tennessee) is South Bend. They send 6’6″ Canadian starting pitcher Ryan Kellogg to the mound against a pretty good Bowling Green team. Kellogg is a quality back of the rotation starting candidate, the South Bend Cubs are stacked with talent and playing great baseball, and their video feed is one of the best in the game. South Bend is a good choice tonight.[adinserter block=”1″][adinserter block=”10″]

For the late night crowd, Eugene is at home starting at 10:05 PM ET. The Emeralds are also stacked with talent, the Eugene video feed is a pretty good one, and they have a guy named Dylan Cease heading to the mound. If you haven’t watched Cease pitch yet, then make plans to be in front of a computer at 10:05 PM ET tonight. He is arguably the best pitching prospect in the organization and one of the few pitchers in the system with true number one starter potential.

The catch with all these contests is that you will need to be a subscriber to MiLB.tv.

Triple A: Iowa Cubs
Colorado Springs 7, Iowa 4
The Cubs saved all their runs for the last two innings.

Drew Rucinski: 6 IP, 2 R (1 ER), 4 H, 3 BB, 2 K

John Andreoli: 2 for 4, 2B, BB

Matt Murton: 2 for 5

Mark Zagunis: 0 for 2, 2 BB

Kristopher Negron: 1 for 2, 2B, BB

Double A: Tennessee Smokies
Tennessee 5, Chattanooga 4
This time the back end of the bullpen came up big.

Tyler Skulina: 5 IP, 3 R, 5 H, 3 BB, 3 K

James Farris: 1.2 IP, 3 K

David Berg: 1 IP, 1 H, 1 BB

Bijan Rademacher: 3 for 4, HR

Trey Martin: 3 for 3, HR, SB[adinserter block=”2″]

High A: Myrtle Beach Pelicans
Myrtle Beach 9, Wilmington 1
Half of the Pelicans’ ten hits went for extra bases.

Zach Hedges: 6 Ip, 3 H, 8 K

James Pugliese: 2 IP, 2 H, 1 K

Charcer Burks: 2 for 5, 2B

Rashad Crawford: 2 for 5, SB. That’s sixteen steals for Crawford.

Gleyber Torres: 1 for 5, SB. And sixteen steals for Torres.

Ian Rice: 1 for 2, 2B, BB

Jason Vosler: 1 for 4, 2B

David Bote: 2 for 4, 3B, HR, BB

Low A: South Bend Cubs
South Bend 10, Bowling Green 6
There was no ninth inning drama in this one. The Cubs led since the fourth inning.

Tanner Griggs: 2.2 IP, 1 H, 1 K

Dillon Maples: 1 IP and a line of zeroes.

Carlos Sepulveda: 2 for 5

P.J. Higgins: 3 for 5, 2B

Donnie Dewees: 1 for 4, SB

Eddy Martinez: 2 for 4, 2 2B, BB

Jesse Hodges: 2 for 4

Alberto Mineo: 2 for 4, 2B

Roberto Caro: 1 for 2, 2 BB

Bryant Flete: 1 for 4, 2B

Short Season A: Eugene Emeralds
Hillsboro 10, Eugene 2
The game stayed close until Hillsboro scored six times in the ninth.

Pedro Silverio: 4.2 IP, 4 R, 4 H, 4 BB, 7 K

Michael Knighton: 2.1 IP, 3 K

Yeiler Peguero: 3 for 4, 2B, SB

Kevonte Mitchell: 1 for 4, 3B

Robert Garcia: 1 for 4, 3B[adinserter block=”3″]

Rookie: Arizona Cubs
Giants 12, Cubs 3
The Cubs started the bottom of the ninth down eleven.

Jack Leathersich: 1 IP, 1 H, 3 K

Jose Leidenz: 1.1 IP, 2 K

Luis Ayala: 2 for 5

Gustavo Polanco: 2 for 4

Jhonny Pereda: 0 for 2, 2 BB

Jhonny Bethencourt: 2 for 4, 2B, 3B

Other Notes

No player name links this morning. The automatic script that Baseball Reference provides to set these up is not working right now. Odds are good the links will be back tomorrow.

It should come as no surprise to anyone that Jimenez is drawing interest from other teams, or that the Cubs are reluctant to move him. This probably isn’t a case of the Cubs wanting to horde their prospects; it probably comes down to valuation. Very good prospects in Low A are still a long way away from the majors and therefore tend to be valued less than a prospect with a lower ceiling in Double A or Triple A. If the Cubs are convinced that Jimenez is going to be very good, and why wouldn’t they be, then they’ll probably only move him if they feel they are getting full value for him. While he’s in Low A, that seems somewhat unlikely (but not out of the question). Given how many other prospects are in the organization, I suspect Jimenez is still a Cub when August rolls around.

And finally, how about some Eloy Jimenez batting practice:

.@Cubs No. 10 prospect Eloy Jimenez (@SBCubs) takes his BP cuts at the #FuturesGame pic.twitter.com/Lu7IA51Iqr

— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) July 10, 2016