NEWSLETTER
No big league Cubs today, but there are NINE minor league Cubs games today. Yes, nine. You have the four full-season leagues today, two of whom have double-headers. Then you have the ACL team underway, as well as two DSL teams. Busy day.
One of those games will be on Marquee tonight:
https://twitter.com/SBCubs/status/1534886807241953280
Some other Cubs prospect notes …
• Homers aplenty, anyone? It was a big one for Cubs prospects yesterday. Among them, Pete Crow-Armstrong somehow took out his golf club at the plate:
How did he hit this out? 🤯
No. 3 @Cubs prospect Pete Crow-Armstrong golfs his ninth homer of the year and his second for the @SBCubs. pic.twitter.com/xnDwedC0gv
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) June 9, 2022
• PCA is now up to the 6th most homers in the organization on the year, despite no one thinking he was going to be a “power hitter” coming into this season. The question was whether he could eventually grow into enough power to let the rest of his tools play up. Just an incredible breakout this year. As good as anyone could have plausible asked for.
• One of the five guys ahead of PCA on the homer list this year? Chase Strumpf hit number 11:
Chase Strumpf just squeaked it over the fence. pic.twitter.com/JxIJZfcuv2
— Brad (@ballskwok) June 8, 2022
• You wonder at what point Strumpf, the Cubs’ second rounder in 2019 (who is Rule 5 eligible after this season), will get the bump to Triple-A. He’s up to 110 games at Double-A between this year and last year, and he’s 24. Bryan summed up Strumpf’s quietly incredible season:
A lot of Cubs offensive prospects have this story that they slumped hard the first few games of the year, and then it turned on big.
Chase Strumpf, including tonight’s first 2 PA’s (2B, HR), wow.
First 10 G: 550 OPS
38 G since: 260/428/577Only 8K in last 40 PA too.
— Cubs Prospects – Bryan Smith (@cubprospects) June 9, 2022
• The strikeout rate is the big concern – it’s near 35% on the season, which is just terrifying at Double-A – but it’s solidly under 30% over the past month.
• And one more dinger to share:
After starting the month 0–for-15, Owen Caissie went three-for-four tonight including this bomb pic.twitter.com/mVzgnosz8O
— Todd ⚾️🐻🦌 (@CubsCentral08) June 9, 2022
• Caissie, who was the org’s minor league player of the month for May, was flip-flopping his months – scary bad in April, scary good in May, and then scary bad again in June – until last night, at least. He’s only 19 and at High-A. This is all just part of the development process, I expect.
• Top Cubs IFA signing Adan Sanchez is hitting .556/.600/.778 so far in his DSL debut. … through three games. Still, we’re having fun!
• Another factor to consider in when the MLB Draft is held:
FYI – Some key dates
*July 17-19 is the MLB Draft
*August 23 is when the Arizona Complex League Ends
*September 11 is when MB, SB and TN endSo, the HS draft picks are only going to get a couple weeks of action after orientation. College picks, maybe a month.
That is not a lot
— Todd ⚾️🐻🦌 (@CubsCentral08) June 9, 2022
• I think pairing it with All-Star festivities was well-intentioned, but so far, I don’t feel like it’s been better overall. Pre-change, we’d be having the draft right about now.
• Outfielder Yonathan Perlaza has really hit well at Double-A since regular playing time arrived:
Yonathan Perlaza has continued to quietly perform since Nelson Velazquez's promotion opened up every day playing time in Tennessee. pic.twitter.com/uoAF7uNJsE
— Brad (@ballskwok) June 9, 2022
• Bryan wants to get himself in trouble:
I also saw Brad's screen grab like minutes after I read Jake's piece linked below, and while I'm not comparing Judge and Mervis, it still helped highlight to me some of the what makes Matt's swing special.https://t.co/t2amGdwIQw
— Cubs Prospects – Bryan Smith (@cubprospects) June 8, 2022
• It seems that Christopher’s little brother shares his penchant for being an awesome dude:
the ACL sportsmanship award goes to Rafael Morel (17) 3B Cubs DR after a Guardians player was feeling unwell, he went to fetch that player a bottle of water #cubs #Itsdifferenthere #cubtogether #chicagocubs #gocubsgo #flythew #cubbies #EverybodyIn #Cachorros @cubszone@CubsDen pic.twitter.com/VLw3coIeoQ
— Phrake Photography (@phrakephoto) June 8, 2022
