Cubs Prospect Notes: Windham’s Unbelievable Catch, Davis’s Surgery, Kilian’s Outing, Much More

Aug 24, 2022

I have to kick these Cubs prospect notes off with an absolutely bananas play by Tennessee Smokies catcher Bryce Windham.

Windham is known as a fantastic athlete, and he showed it all off on this catch:

BRYCE WINDHAM!!!! @b_windy20 #SmokiesBaseball pic.twitter.com/vvaxub2mUq
— Tennessee Smokies (@smokiesbaseball) August 24, 2022

Brennen Davis is back in full season ball, playing for South Bend last night and blooping one in:

Brennen Davis couldn’t have thrown this ball in a better place. His 1st hit with South Bend. pic.twitter.com/J7BrXVwJKR
— Jordan Miller (@Miller_MiLB) August 24, 2022

Davis spoke with Marquee’s Lance Brozdowski about his surgery, his rehab, and where things are for him going forward:

Great to sit down with Brennen Davis and chat through his back injury and rehab process for @WatchMarquee. He plays tonight at a full-season affiliate for the first time since May 3.

The Arizona Fall League is on his radar, given all goes well over the next month. pic.twitter.com/GR1C7lwLP6— Lance Brozdowski (@LanceBroz) August 23, 2022

More details in there on just how bad his back pain was early in the year – so bad that it caused numbness in his foot – and about how the MRIs kept showing nothing. So they went in for surgery thinking there might be a herniated disc that needed cleanup, but there was nothing. Instead, they found the vascular malformation that was pushing on a nerve and causing the pain. Relatively speaking, it was an easy fix, which is why Davis was able to come back so quickly from “back surgery.”

Going forward, the idea is to just get the reps now that he’s physically able to and ready to play. Davis concedes that he’s not as strong as he was in Spring Training – that’s just the nature of being down for so long and then having to re-strengthen the core – but he’s healthy.

Patrick Mooney gets into Davis and a whole lot else around the farm here:

Cubs prospect notes:

• Javier Assad’s Wrigley Field debut

• Brennen Davis is back and expected to play in Arizona Fall League

• Scouting reports on Alexander Canario and Caleb Kilian

• Updates on Jordan Wicks, Miguel Amaya and Adbert Alzolay https://t.co/SFDooNMuxD— Patrick Mooney (@PJ_Mooney) August 24, 2022

Alexander Canario made his Iowa debut last night, ripping a single and walking twice, though he’s 0-4 with a couple strikeouts so far today.

Caleb Kilian threw five dominant and scoreless innings in that game, striking out seven, walking two, and allowing just three hits. Mooney’s piece included discussion of what comes next for Kilian after – we can be honest about it – a really rough attempted transition to the big leagues. Allow these comments from VP of Pitching and AGM Craig Breslow to take your mind in both of the possible directions: “He’s in a great place physically and mentally. There’s pressure that comes with being a highly touted pitching prospect and getting to the big leagues and maybe things not going exactly as planned. But I think even the All-Star break — giving him a chance just to catch his breath — (helped). It’s just getting back to his identity. We tried to simplify things for him: ‘Caleb, when you’re at your best, who are you?’ The answer was like: ‘I’m a guy who pounds the strike zone with a really heavy sinker.’ OK, let’s embrace that and let’s build off of it. That’s kind of become the backbone to his success over the last handful of starts. Obviously, the hope is that trajectory will continue because he’s got all of the ingredients to be a legitimate major-league starter.”

To me, that sounds like there’s still clear belief there in the stuff, but that the attempted big league stint really did go as badly as it could have gone. That, perhaps, the moment got to him a bit once the results started spiraling away. And now you just have to hope that the reset – and the offseason – work to put him in a better place for when he comes up next. I’m no longer all that sure that it will come this season.

A couple other things that jumped out at I-Cubs broadcaster Alex Cohen from last night:

Danis Correa just hit 101 mph here at Principal Park.

In five years with the @IowaCubs, that's tied for the hardest pitch I've seen thrown here.

Hunter Greene is the only pitcher I've seen hit 101 mph here in Des Moines.— Alex Cohen (@voiceofcohen) August 24, 2022

Meanwhile, two triples for Darius Hill tonight for the @IowaCubs.

He is hitting .343 with the I-Cubs this year.

In 60 games.

230 at-bats.

This isn't a fluke.— Alex Cohen (@voiceofcohen) August 24, 2022

Good thought here from Todd on some wearing down we might see over the next few weeks:

FYI – The Cubs had their top prospects in a camp all winter, then had spring training, and we are almost at a full season now. Some of these guys have to ready for some time off. That's like 10 months of constant baseball.— Todd ⚾️🐻🦌 (@CubsCentral08) August 24, 2022

Such a bummer for Tyler Schlaffer:

21-year-old righty Tyler Schlaffer put together a good run at Myrtle Beach this year, earning a promotion to High-A South Bend. But he hadn't pitched since July 27, and now we know why. Best of luck on the rehab! pic.twitter.com/f4dPFpaxFJ— Bleacher Nation (@BleacherNation) August 23, 2022

Absolutely perfect bunt from Moises Ballesteros, and make sure you watch through the celebration:

Does it get any better than this?

After one of the best bunts I’ve ever seen, Moises Ballesteros rejoices on first base.

I was laughing for a good five minutes. pic.twitter.com/snOtd1o3DB— Sam Weiderhaft (@sam_weiderhaft) August 24, 2022

The 18-year-old catching prospect is currently hitting .245/.375/.377/118 wRC+ at Low-A Myrtle Beach (remember, it’s quite unkind to lefty hitters), with a 17.2% BB rate and 21.9% K rate. And he’s 18. We probably don’t talk about the bat enough.

Speaking of 18-year-old prospects who are raking and deserve attention:

With the ACL concluding last night, Pedro Martinez finishes 3rd in the league in wRC+ among qualified hitters. Hoping we see him in Myrtle Beach for the stretch run. pic.twitter.com/N8igjl3XuT— Brad (@ballskwok) August 24, 2022

Like Ballesteros, Ramirez was kind of overshadowed by Cristian Hernández in his IFA class, and, like Ballesteros, there are questions about the body (Ballesteros is quite large, and Ramirez is quite small). But he did nothing but rake last year, and did it again this year in his stateside debut. Would love to see him get some time at Myrtle Beach before the season ends, but it all depends on his individualized plan.

Pretttttaaaaay good week for the South Bend starting pitchers:

How about @SBCubs starters during this 6-game win streak:

Hodge: 5 IP, H, O R, 4 K
Devers: 5 IP, 4 H, ER, 0 BB, 5 K
Franklin: 5 IP, 3 H, O R, BB, 9 K
Gallardo: 5 IP, 4 H, ER, 2 BB, 3 K
Palencia: 4 IP, 3 H, 0 R, BB, 6 K
Little: 3 IP, 3 H, ER, 2 BB, 3 K

27 IP & a 1.00 ERA 🔥— Max Thoma (@MaxThoma) August 24, 2022

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Cubs Prospect Notes: Windham’s Unbelievable Catch, Davis’s Surgery, Kilian’s Outing, Much More

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