Cubs Minor League Daily: HugWatch Ends … Sort Of

Today is the non-waiver Trade Deadline. As Brett mentioned earlier today, that doesn’t mean that trades can’t happen after today. It just means they become more complicated.

And the Cubs have probably pulled off their big shot involving prospects, having reportedly agreed to send Jeimer Candelario, Isaac Paredes, and a Player To Be Named Later to the Tigers for Justin Wilson and Alex Avila.

That means we can’t completely lay #HugWatch aside for the year. But, really, we pretty much can. The easiest way to handle a prospect return in an August waiver trade is to use Player(s) To Be Named Later, and if the Cubs make such a deal in August, that is likely how they will do it.

But that’s tomorrow. Deals can still be struck today, and for today the HugWatch teams to watch are…

None of them. They all have night games, so by the time they take the field, even if there were more trades on the horizon for the Cubs, the trade deadline will have come and gone by then. So sit back and enjoy the Blogathon and we’ll see what happens.

Triple A: Iowa Cubs
Iowa 5, Albuquerque 4
Candelario wasn’t in the lineup! What, you knew that already?

• Rob Zastryzny: 3.2 IP, 4 R, 4 H, 1 BB, 2 K
• Justin Hancock: 2.2 IP, 3 H, 1 K
• Jack Leathersich: 1.2 IP, 3 K
• Dillon Maples: 1 IP, 1 K
• Jemile Weeks: 3 for 5, 2B
• Taylor Davis: 2 for 5, 2B
• Justin Hancock: 1 for 1. He is now batting .500.

Double A: Tennessee Smokies
Tennessee 4, Jackson 2
Underwood had another pretty good game. It would be very good if he could turn his season around.

• Duane Underwood: 7 IP, 2 R, 5 H, 3 BB, 4 K
• David Garner: 1 IP, 3 K
• David Bote: 2 for 4, BB
• Ian Rice: 1 for 2, 2 BB
• Charcer Burks: 2 for 4
• Erick Castillo: 2 for 2, BB

High A: Myrtle Beach Pelicans
Potomac 4, Myrtle Beach 2
The Pelicans’ slump continued…

• Tom Hatch: 5 IP, 3 R (2 ER), 7 H, 2 BB, 4 K
• Trent Giambrone: 2 for 3, BB

Potomac 3, Myrtle Beach 2
… as they were swept in a doubleheader.

• Ryan Kellogg: 5 IP, 1 R, 5 H, 1 BB, 2 K
• Vimael Machin: 2 for 3, 2B
• Tyler Alamo: 2 for 3

Low A: South Bend Cubs
Bowling Green 4, South Bend 3
The Cubs jumped out to an early lead, but it didn’t last.

• Tyson Miller: 5.1 IP, 3 R, 5 H, 1 BB, 8 K
• Chad Hockin: 1.1 IP, 1 H, 1 K
• Isaac Paredes: 2 for 4
• D.J. Wilson: 1 for 3, 2B, BB
• Jhonny Pereda: 2 for 3, BB
• Luis Ayala: 1 for 2, 2B

Short Season A: Eugene Emeralds
Eugene 9, Hillsboro 1
Eugene is again tied for first with Hillsboro.

• Bailey Clark: 5 IP, 1 R, 3 H, 4 BB, 3 K
• Ben Hecht: 1 IP, 3 K
• Brian Glowicki: 1 IP, 3 K
• Jhonny Bethencourt: 1 for 5, 2B
• Aramis Ademan: 2 for 5, 2B
• Austin Filiere: 2 for 4
• Michael Cruz: 2 for 4, 2B, HR
• Jose Gonzalez: 3 for 4, 2B

Rookie: AZL Cubs
Reds 4, Cubs 3 in eleven innings.
Cubs tied it up in the eighth and then rallied in the eleventh. But nope.

• Alfredo Colorado: 5 IP, 1 R, 4 H, 3 BB, 6 K
• Brendan King: 3 IP, 1 R, 3 H, 4 K
• Chris Singleton: 2 for 6
• Jonathan Sierra: 2 for 5
• Yonathan Perlaza: 2 for 4, 2B
• Kevin Zamudio: 2 for 3, BB
• Luis Vazquez: 4 for 5, 2B

Other Notes

• As you probably already know, the Cubs agreed to send Jeimer Candelario and Isaac Paredes off to Detroit last night (or early this morning). Once again, the price of trading for relief help proves high, but given that’s just where the relief market is, this is a pretty solid trade. Wilson has another year under control, so it isn’t purely a rental deal, and that is definitely a good thing.
• Still, in the past twelve months and a few days, the Cubs have sent out a lot of talent for bullpen help. And some of that has been very good talent that is not going to be easily replaced. I’m not sure how much longer the Cubs can continue to trade for high-end relievers every six months (Chapman, then Davis, then Wilson), but without signing high end relievers to expensive free agent contracts (also a scary idea), I’m not sure how they get off the bullpen-by-trade approach.
• I have suspected for some time that the Cubs had begun developing some pitchers specifically as relievers in the minors. Normally we look at a guy being moved to the bullpen in the minors as not entirely a good thing – only pitchers without the stuff to stay in the rotation make that move. Now, though, I wonder if the Cubs are looking at the bullpen trade treadmill they are on, looking at the rapid pace at it which it is depleting their remaining prospect resources, looking at the length of the competitive window in which they’ll need to keep trading for bullpen help on a regular basis unless something changes, and are starting to try to focus on building a dedicated relief help pipeline on the farm.
• We’ll find out over the next twelve months, I suspect. We’ll likely get a pretty good idea when we see how they approach replacing impending free agents like Davis, Uehara, and Duensing this winter.
• Zastryzny was very good through three innings for Iowa, but ran into trouble in the fourth. He threw 60 pitches total.