No big league Cubs baseball for another 48 hours, which means I would like to enjoy some Cubs-related goodness in the interim.
We are a now a year removed from the odd 2020 draft, but the odd development process continues for the players taken last year. Not only were they unable to join a professional league for the experience right out of the draft, but many of them hadn’t played at the amateur level earlier in the year either. So, for prospects like last year’s Cubs first rounder Ed Howard, this year represented not only a huge developmental leap from whatever level of baseball they last played, it also represented their first real league activity in as much as two years.
So, anyway, that’s all to set up the reality that, yeah, it was going to take time for Howard to adjust to full-season Low-A professional baseball after last playing as a junior in high school. You’ve started to see his name popping up in the recaps, though, and the previously-egregious 41.0% strikeout rate has been down to 21.6% the last two weeks. Remember, he’s facing guys two, three, four years older, many of whom have been professionals for years.
Tonight, Howard is going off a bit, with two singles and a stolen base, AND his second homer of the year. I wanted us all to enjoy it this evening:
Fifth-ranked #Cubs prospect Ed Howard lines his second homer for @Pelicanbaseball. pic.twitter.com/GHi0YBbyn0
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) July 14, 2021