Jaque Fleet Feet on Display at Riverview
Erbin Jaque belted a two-run inside-the-park HR, Pedro Ramirez singled, doubled, and drew a walk, and Haydn McGeary singled twice and drove-in a run, as the Cubs "Blue Squad" blanked the Cubs "Red Squad" 4-0 in AZ Instructional League intrasquad game action Monday afternoon on Field # 1 at the Riverview Baseball Complex in Mesa, AZ.
The game was pre-planned as a seven-inning contest.
Pedro Ramirez saw his first-ever pro game action in CF, as the Cubs are attempting to exploit his power / speed combo all over the diamond. He was mostly a SS in the DSL in 2021, but was moved to 2B in the ACL this season to accommodate Cubs top SS prospect Cristian Hernandez. Ramirez also played some 3B in the ACL.
The Jaque inside-the-park HR was amazing. It was like watching "The Freeze" race a fan at an Atlanta Braves game. The hit itself was an oppo-field line-drive into the right-centerfield alley, and CF Ismael Mena got to it quickly. Parker Chavers was on 1st base and was running on the pitch, but Jaque caught up with him at 3rd base and they both scored standing up about a foot apart.
Jaque may be the fastest runner I have ever seen on a baseball diamond. He is really, really fast. That said, there may be some issues with his hit tool. Despite the blazing speed displayed with the inside-the-park job, he also struck out swinging against DSL Cubs Blue Pitching Coach Jose Zapata.
Cubs 2022 4th round pick Nazier Mule once again served as a DH, the second time he has done so in a Cubs AZIL intrasquad game. He singled, stole second, and scored a run in the top of the 5th. Although he has not yet appeared in an AZIL game as a pitcher, he has been throwing bullpen side sessions and metriculating in the Pitch Lab on Camp Days. He also has taken ground balls at SS in infield practice. By all appearances, the Cubs do intend to allow Mule to be a two-way player. He is a very unique five-tool SS / RHP.
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Cubs vs. Phillies: Series Thread (Games 154-156)
The Cubs have greet the Phillies to begin the final homestand of 2022. This will also be the Cubs' final chance to play spoiler for the season as the Phillies fight off the Brewers for teh final Wild Card spot. See below for pitching matchups.
McCullough, Birdsell, and Scalzo Dominate at Riverview
Cubd 2022 10th round draft pick Brody McCullough, Cubs 2022 5th round draft pick Brandon Birdsell, and Myrtle Beach closer Frankie Scalzo Jr combined to hurl five innings of no run / no hit ball with nine strikeouts, and Parker Chavers walked, stole a base, and drilled an RBI single to account for the lone run in the game, as the Cubs "Blue Squad" blanked the Cubs "Red Squad" 1-0 in AZ Instructional League intrasquad game action Saturday morning on Field # 1 at the Riverview Baseball Complex in Mesa, AZ.
The game was pre-planned as a five inning affair.
Pitchers Shine at Riverview Park
Four pitchers combined to hurl ten innings of shutout ball with 17 strikeouts, as the Cubs "Blue Squad" and the Cubs "Red Squad" played to a scoreless tie in AZ Instructional League intrasquad game action Thursday morning on Field #1 at the Riverview Baseball Complex in Mesa, AZ.
The game was pre-planned as a five inning affair.
Here is the box score frrom the game:
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Cubs @ Pirates: Series Thread (Games 150-153)
With only three series remaining in the 2022 season, the Cubs travel to Pittsburgh to play four games against the Pirates. See below for pitching matchups.
Reds Toss No-Hitter and Cristian's brother Goes Deep in Mesa
Marino Santy, Yoendris Gonzalez, and Eligio Paredes combined to hurl a no-hitter and Alexis Hernandez belted a solo HR over the LF fence and onto Field # 2 to account for game's lone run, as the Cubs "Red Squad" blanked the Cubs "Blue Squad" 1-0 in AZ Instructional League intrasquad game action Wednesday morning on Field # 1 at the Riverview Baseball Complex in Mesa, AZ.
The game was pre-planned as a six-inning affair.
As things stand right now, the Cubs will be playing only intrasquad games at instructs. Of course the DSL guys are used to that, since DSL Cubs Blue plays DSL Cubs Red in the DSL and have for many years. The Cubs also had two AZL teams in 2018-19, where the AZL Cubs Blue would play the AZL Cubs Red as part of their schedule.
Here is the box score from the game:
Cubs @ Marlins: Series Thread (Games 147-149)
The Cubs hop down to Miami to begin a 7-game road trip. They'll face the Marlins for three in Florida to start the week. See below for pitching matchups.
Cubs vs. Rockies: Seies Thread (Games 144-146)
The Cubs and the Rockies face off for a weekend series at Wrigley. See below for pitching matchups.
Cubs @ Mets: Series Thread (Games 141-143)
The Cubs depart the friendly confines and make their way to the NL East. See below for matchups in a 3-game series against the Mets.
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Cubs vs. Giants: Series Thread (Games 138-140)
Wrigley field welcomes the Giants for a three-game series. See matchups below.
Recent comments
crunch (view)
madrigal at 3rd...morel at DH.
making room for madrigal or/and masterboney to get a significant amount of ABs is a misuse of the roster. if it needed to get taken care of this offseason, they had tons of time to figure that out.
morel played almost exclusively at 3rd in winter ball and they had him almost exclusively there all spring when he wasn't DH'ing.
madrigal doing a good job with the glove for a bit over 2 chances per game...is that worth more than what he brings with the bat 4-5 PA a game? it's 2024 and we got glenn beckert 2.0 manning 3rd base.
this is a tauchman or cooper DH situation based on bat, alone. cooper is 3/7 with a double off eovaldi if you want to play the most successful matchup.
anyway, i hope this is a temporary thing, not business as usual for the rest of the season.
Arizona Phil (view)
There are two clear "logjams" in the Cubs minor league pipeline at the present time, namely AA outfielders (K. Alcantara, C. Franklin, Roederer, Pagan, Pinango, Beesley, and Nwogu) and Hi-A infielders (J. Rojas, P. Ramirez, Howard, R. Morel, Pertuz, R. Garcia, and Spence, although Morel has been getting a lot of reps in the outfield in addition to infield). So it is possible that you might see a trade involving one of the extra outfielders at AA and/or one of the extra infielders at Hi-A in the next few days.
Arizona Phil (view)
18-year old SS Jefferson Rojas almost made the AA Tennessee Opening Day roster, and he is a legit shortstop, so I would expect him to be an MLB Top 100 prospect by mid-season.
Arizona Phil (view)
Among the relievers in the system, I expect RHRP Hunter Bigge at AAA Iowa and RHRP Ty Johnson at South Bend to have breakout seasons on 2024, and among the starters I see LHP Drew Gray and RHP Will Sanders at South Bend and RHP Naz Mule at ACL Cubs as the guys who will make the biggest splash. Also, Jaxon Wiggins is throwing bullpen sides, so once he is ready for game action he could be making an impact at Myrtle Beach by June.
Arizona Phil (view)
I expect OF Christian Franklin to have a breakout season at AA Tennessee in 2024. In another organization that doesn't have PCA, Caissie, K. Alcantara, and Canario in their system, C. Franklin would be a Top 10 prospect.
Arizona Phil (view)
The Reds trading Joe Boyle for Sam Moll at last year's MLB Trade Deadline was like the Phillies trading Ben Brown to the Cubs for David Robertson at the MLB TD in 2022.
Arizona Phil (view)
Javier Assad started the Lo-A game (Myrtle Beach versus Stockton) on the Cubs backfields on Wednesday as his final Spring Training tune-up. He was supposed to throw five innings / 75 pitches. However, I was at the minor league road games at Fitch so I didn't see Assad pitch.
crunch (view)
cards put j.young on waivers.
they really tried to make it happen this spring, but he put up a crazy bad slash of .081/.244/.108 in 45PA.
Childersb3 (view)
Seconded!!!
crunch (view)
another awesome spring of pitching reports. thanks a lot, appreciated.