Honorable Mention: Matteo Bocchi and Adrian Sampson
With Shelby Miller lost in the 40-man crunch, the Iowa Cubs don’t have five starters right now. Sampson, signed just weeks ago, stepped up and allowed just 1 run over 4.2 innings. Respect.
Bocchi, meanwhile, was asked to enter the South Bend game during a rainy first inning after Ryan Jensen was removed. The Cubs have a rule that if you’ve thrown 30 pitchers in an inning and aren’t yet out of it, you come out of the game. And Jensen had no feel pitching in the rain and cold last night, allowing three walks, a home run and two strikeouts. In came Bocchi, the Italian sidearmer, who ate 4.1 innings and allowed South Bend to get out of the game. (They lost it in a rain-shortened affair)
Honorable Mention: Cam Sanders, Peyton Remy, Adam Laskey
Solid but unspectacular starts from all three of the guys on the bump below the Triple-A level last night. We profiled Sanders last week, mentioned Remy as a guy that has climbed some up prospect rankings, and recently did a Twitter scouting report on Laskey (who my eyes have liked better than his numbers suggest so far).
Only two outings so far this year, but if you re looking for the first Cubs prospect who pretty clearly popped during the shutdown, it s this dude. Went from Low-A in 2019 with so-so numbers to Double-A this year with crazy early success (and scouting reports). https://t.co/1fbU4KsV6f
RiverDogs Lead from Start to Finish in 8-2 Win Over Myrtle Beach Cole Wilcox had 5 K s as the RiverDogs beat the Pelicans 8-2 on Wednesday (Source: Charleston RiverDogs) By Charleston RiverDogs | May 5, 2021 at 10:54 PM EDT - Updated May 5 at 10:57 PM
Charleston, SC Nick Schnell blasted a solo home run in the bottom of the first inning and the Charleston RiverDogs never looked back, cruising to an 8-2 win over the Myrtle Beach Pelicans on Wednesday afternoon in front of 1,753 fans at Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Park. The trio of Cole Wilcox, Jose Lopez and Angel Felipe combined to record 12 strikeouts without a walk while slowing the Pelicans bats.
Cubs minor leagues: Get to know the Myrtle Beach Pelicans
Share this story
Larry Kave/Myrtle Beach Pelicans
(tap, tap, tap.) Ahem. Is this thing on? Is it still working? I don’t remember how to turn it on anymore. We’re really going to do this thing, huh? OK. Let’s go. I’ll give it my best shot.
On September 14, 2019, the South Bend Cubs beat the Clinton LumberKings 5-0 to sweep the best-of-five series three games to none and claim the Midwest League title. Five hundred and eighty-eight days later, on Tuesday, May 4, there will be Cubs teams playing minor league baseball again.
At last viewing, the Iowa Cubs were in the middle of dropping the conference title series after winning their conference in the Pacific Coast League’s regular season. What we didn’t know then, of course, was that a novel coronavirus would begin to spread overseas a few months later, reaching the United States after the turn of the new year, and taking so much down with it, including the 2020 minor league season.
That Iowa Cubs playoff series was just over 600 days ago. The last Minor League Baseball we saw. Think about how long it’s been.
Minor League Baseball returns, finally, tomorrow. It looks considerably different than it did in those days, now with just four full-season affiliates per organization, no short-season Low-A, and everything kicking off much later than we’re used to. Fortunately for Cubs fans, the four full-season affiliates are familiar: the Triple-A Iowa Cubs (roster discussion here), the Double-A Tennessee Smokies (roster discussion), the High-A South Be