For young arms in the minor leagues, development and health are the paramount concerns. For that reason, you’re not going to see most starting pitching prospects going more than five or six innings in a given start, regardless of how well they are pitching.
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It is for that reason that I feel it is fair to say that top Chicago Cubs pitching prospect Dylan Cease kinda threw a no-hitter tonight:
@DylanCease throws 6 no-hit innings while also shutting out the @GreatLakesLoons offense. Finishes with 7 K's. #Cubs pic.twitter.com/wAhc6o6v7T
— South Bend Cubs (@SBCubs) April 20, 2017
Cease was already putting together a dominating start to his full-season career, having allowed just one earned run through his first nine innings with South Bend. He’d notched 15(!) strikeouts in those nine innings.
The 21-year-old righty was the Cubs’ 6th round pick in 2014, immediately underwent Tommy John surgery, and has been brought back very carefully since then. The sky is the limit for this guy.