NEWSLETTER
There is just so much Cubs prospect stuff to get into that has piled up on me the last few days. Good stuff! For as rough as the big league season has turned (and figures to keep turning), it’s been a great couple weeks down on the farm.
Some things to note and enjoy …
⇒ We talked yesterday about how Pete Crow-Armstrong’s early performance has left some in the Cubs organization “taken aback” by just how good he’s looked. Well, he immediately followed that with another multi-hit game, including this rocket homer:
Swung on, GONE. pic.twitter.com/jKv2yj2OPb
— Myrtle Beach Pelicans (@Pelicanbaseball) April 30, 2022
Can’t. Be. Stopped.
With two more hits tonight including a two-run homer, Pete Crow-Armstrong is your Waccamaw Dermatology Player of the Game!#MBPelicans pic.twitter.com/VE2k9Ds8MX
— Myrtle Beach Pelicans (@Pelicanbaseball) April 30, 2022
⇒ PCA is now hitting .373/.479/.610 with a 200 wRC+, a .237 ISO, and matching 12.7% walk and strikeout rates. His is the second best wRC+ in his league, behind only a guy two years older. Incredibly, he tells BA that he’s still getting himself back to full strength: “My body feels great. No little hitches, no little kinks, nothing. But I think there’s a lot of work to be done still. There’s a lot of strength to get back. For a while my swing didn’t really feel like my swing and I’m still trying to figure that out too, but I’m giving it time …. The people that have had the same surgery as I have, the people I’ve been able to talk to about it, they’ve all said you don’t’ feel like yourself for a year or so. If that’s the case, then I’m cool with that. I’m just going to continue to take it day by day. I feel great right now and I’m doing what I can with what I got.”
⇒ More in that article on how PCA trained with the Cubs when he couldn’t swing, and how he felt it set him up for success once he could. Plus bits on how infielder James Triantos corrected a little mechanical issue in his swing, and how good lefty Luke Little can look.
⇒ Speaking of Low-A players who were performing at a ridiculous clip, pitcher Riley Martin got the early-season promotion to High-A South Bend after very clearly demonstrating that Low-A was not a sensible level for the older relief prospect.
Riley Martin has been promoted to High-A South Bend. His final line with @Pelicanbaseball
13.1 IP, 0.68 ERA, 56.3% K, 8.3% BB
Opp. slash line: .068/.146/.114— Greg Huss (@OutOfTheVines) April 28, 2022
Stambaugh was signed as a free agent last June after the Orioles released him. His line at South Bend: 8.2 IP, 5 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 10 K. Batters hit .161/.212/.226
— Jordan Miller (@Miller_MiLB) April 28, 2022
⇒ I really love Chase Strumpf’s swing:
Chase Strumpf’s 4th HR of the year pic.twitter.com/Asju9lji1F
— Jordan Miller (@Miller_MiLB) April 29, 2022
⇒ Strumpf, the Cubs’ 2nd round pick in 2019, has gotten himself above-average by wRC+ (112), but it’s been such a weird year for him so far. It seems clear that there was a conscious effort to get him to tap into his power more (hence that beautiful lofted swing there and a fantastic .254 ISO), but his strikeout rate has *EXPLODED* even as he’s repeating Double-A (38.6%). Might just be a process of betting finding that balance, and we’ll see if he gets a look at Triple-A in the second half if he does find that balance. His last 10 games have been scorching hot overall (K rate still up there at 31.0%, though). Strumpf, 24, is Rule Five eligible after this season.
⇒ Speaking of (hopeful) power breakouts at Tennessee, Bryce Ball has absurd raw power, but he’s not yet been able to convert it into much game power. My eye says it’s because of his whippy, downward swing – I’m #NotAScout, so I could be wrong, but something has always just looked off about it to me; kinda Jason Heyward-like. Has he made some tweaks, though? This homer looks a little more naturally lofted:
Bryce Ball with a 3-run HR. That ball got out in a hurry. pic.twitter.com/rM3wnStU7V
— Jordan Miller (@Miller_MiLB) April 29, 2022
⇒ Like Strumpf, Ball just got his wRC+ over 100 at Double-A, and has done so with some really funky numbers compared to his career marks. For one thing, Ball is walking just 5.5% of the time, which is wild for a guy who had historically been closer to 17.5%. He’s also cut his strikeouts to under 20% when he was previously up in the 27.5% range. My guess, therefore, is he’s being a lotttt more aggressive up there. Seems to be paying off, as the power is up slightly and the BABIP is way up. Ball, 23, was the return in the Joc Pederson trade last year, and he’s a first-base-only guy.
⇒ A name to have on your radar if it wasn’t already:
Porter Hodge’s night is done and it was quite the performance.
5 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 3 BB, 6 K
Here’s all 6 punchies (and I’m missing some serious swords in early counts) pic.twitter.com/Uy5bMvm3El
— Greg Huss (@OutOfTheVines) April 30, 2022
Porter Hodge is done for the night – 5 IP, 0 Runs, 2 hits, and 6 Ks. His ERA for the month of April is a studly is 1.56….no that is not a typo. 1.56. 1.56. 1.56. pic.twitter.com/XACK7ih38j
— Todd ⚾️🐻🦌 (@CubsCentral08) April 30, 2022
Watching back Porter Hodge’s outing from last night, and it was one of those experiences of seeing something and knowing “okay, I have to write about this guy.”
This is a prospect that should be finding his way onto radars, and I’ll have more on that in the coming week at BN.
— Cubs Prospects – Bryan Smith (@cubprospects) April 30, 2022
⇒ Hodge, 21, was the Cubs’ 13th rounder back in 2018, and he took a huge developmental leap last year. Looks like it is carrying forward quite well.
⇒ Cristian Hernández has such an advanced swing at such a young age – he’s playing, and homering, in extended Spring Training right now:
https://twitter.com/RushingBaseball/status/1519692666228903939
⇒ Stray draft bits:
The good news for the Cubs continues to be that there are about 8 or 9 prospects in this draft that feel like no-brainer awesome gets at 7, so multiple of those guys will still be on the board for them. It is a great year to have a top 8/9 pick.
— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) April 30, 2022
Draft news per sources:
1. The 1st day of the 2022 MLB Draft will cover 2 full rounds, which is 80 picks.
2. Any of the 330 players invited to MLB’s pre-draft combine (regardless of attendance) cannot have private workouts with clubs after the combine. The gap is almost a month
— Kiley McDaniel (@kileymcd) April 29, 2022
The prohibition on private workouts is only for physical elements; meetings/visits still allowed.
If a player submits to a physical at the combine (including MRI), club has to offer him 75% of slot (or $50K after 10th round) or else the player becomes a free agent.
— Kiley McDaniel (@kileymcd) April 29, 2022
⇒ Now this would have been an all-time weird sports injury:
https://twitter.com/FoldenFastpitch/status/1519723504123396098
⇒ Maybe the fish will be a turning point for Davis, who is still having an exceedingly rough go to start his season at Iowa (.194/.286/.313, 36.4% K rate). My hope is that he’s been working on some specific things on his swing/swing decisions that had led to an elevated strikeout rate as he climbed the ladder – if so, you generally find that struggles like these can be a good thing in the long-term for development. It’s worth remembering just how little pro experience Davis has overall, and that it wouldn’t at all be strange for the 22-year-old to only get a cup this year in September, rather than coming up in the summer and being a contributor. It’s possible he wouldn’t come up at all if the struggles persist, but I tend to think that won’t happen, and I also would point out that he’s gotta go on the 40-man roster by November anyway, because he’s Rule Five eligible. Thus, even if the Cubs aren’t expecting him to be an everyday big league regular to open 2023, it still might be worth bringing him up in September to get some experience against big league pitching. Lotta possible paths ahead for Davis, development isn’t linear, etc., etc.
Pi.
— Cubs Prospects – Bryan Smith (@cubprospects) April 28, 2022
He's in a real funk, no doubt, looking unsure of his own swing decisions as he's making them. I'm not worried about his future projection — he's so good at making adjustments, he'll bust this slump — but I do think we might have to alter our K% expectations for him a touch.
— Cubs Prospects – Bryan Smith (@cubprospects) April 28, 2022
