Cubs Minor League Daily: Rain, Errors, and MLB Draft Takes

May 19, 2018, by Luke Blaize Chicago Cubs

It what is becoming a common theme around these parts, yesterday was rainy. That rain knocked out half the Cubs’ farm system, and the other half would probably have preferred to have been rained out themselves.

I haven’t been paying much attention to the Midwest this spring, but Maryland went from cold and rainy to warm and rainy with about ten days of nice weather in the middle. On the good side, that means I’ve only had to mow the yard twice this year. On the bad side, I’ve only been able to grill out once.

Triple A: Iowa Cubs
Omaha 8, Iowa 6
The Cubs rallied for two in the ninth, but needed five.

Duane Underwood: 5.1 IP, 6 R, 11 H, 1 BB, 3 K
Brad Markey: 2.2 IP, 2 R, 4 H, 3 K
Rob Zastryzny: 1 IP, 1 K
Mike Freeman: 2 for 4, HR, BB, SB
Efren Navarro: 2 for 4, BB
Chris Gimenez: 2 for 4, 2B
Wynton Bernard: 3 for 4, HR

Double A: Tennessee Smokies

The Smokies were rained out.

High A: Myrtle Beach Pelicans

The Pelicans were also rained out.

Low A: South Bend Cubs
Fort Wayne 13, South Bend 2
The Cubs committed more errors (seven) than they had hits (five).

Rollie Lacy: 4 IP, 9 R (1 ER), 5 H, 3 BB, 5 K
Jhonny Bethencourt: 2 for 4
Miguel Amaya: 1 for 4, 2B
Michael Cruz: 1 fro 3, HR

Other Notes

It always feels strange typing “The Pelicans were rained out”. Pelicans are aquatic birds. They’re waterproof. A little rain probably doesn’t bother them, and I bet they’d love a nice wet field. Preferably one underwater and full of fish.
Chris Gimenez has a six game hitting streak going, and has hit safely in 10 of his last 11 games. On May 1 he had a line of .200/.270/.236. Those figures now read .240/.322/.298. His OPS for May is .694. That’s substantially better than his April figure, but still on the weak side, particularly in the power department. If the Cubs wanted to get him to Chicago on the belief that he will help Darvish (a move I right now would not support), his bat has warmed up enough that he wouldn’t be an utter disaster at the plate. It makes more sense today than it did three weeks ago, at least as far as Gimenez is concerned.
I cannot recall a game in which a pitcher was more completely deserted by his defense than Rollie Lacy was for South Bend last night. Lacy gave up eight unearned runs in a game in which he really didn’t pitch all that badly. Lacy got 10 outs on groundballs. That is fantastic. Unfortunately the Cubs infield accounted for six errors on the day. For a groundball pitcher, games don’t get much worse than that.
Even as South Bend catcher Miguel Amaya attracts more of the prospect spotlight and starts to charge up the prospect rankings, don’t forget about Myrtle Beach catcher Jhonny Pereda. Pereda is also breaking out this year, if not quite to the degree as Amaya, and currently sports a line of .313/.383/.409 with a 10.2% walk rate and a 14.1% strikeout rate.
In light of recent mock drafts, I have been asked a couple of times if there are any high school pitchers I see as possibilities for the Cubs in the first round. The answer is no. Even if one of the top two or three high school arms falls to the Cubs at the end of the first – still no.
Why? Take a look at the draft history for pitchers. High school pitchers do not dominate the success list in any way. The overwhelming majority of the pitchers drafted since 2010 to reach the majors were taken from college. The overwhelming majority of the fWAR earned went to college draftees. The majority of aces drafted were college guys. Drafting high school pitching in the first round is very, very risky stuff, and the Cubs cannot really afford to gamble this first round pick. If they take a pitcher, it will be a college one. More likely, I think, they’ll take the best bat on the board. And even then I think they’ll favor a college bat to try to get a prospect who can move quickly. If they are on the board, my picks remain SS Jeremy Eierman or OF Steele Walker.