You all know how excited I’ve been for Minor League Opening Day, but would you believe it if I told you I chose to play tennis instead of watching the games live last night? And I’ll tell you why: I found out Monday that my favorite coach from growing up, Tony, had passed away recently. And I just
needed to play, if that makes any sense.
Tony was my coach from ages 12-18, and while he did make me a whole lot better at the sport, I look back and realize he mostly taught me to have confidence. It’s been a long time since we last spoke, and while in these situations you always wish you’d had that one good last conversation, I also know that my relationship with him wasn’t unique. He impacted dozens of west suburban kids as much as he did me. RIP, Tone.
Cubs minor leagues: Get to know the South Bend Cubs
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Al Yellon
Our second stop in our preview of the Cubs minor league system takes us to South Bend and the Cubs “new” High-A affiliate, the South Bend Cubs.
Please note that this preview is based on the Opening Day rosters that were announced last Friday. It’s actually common to see some changes in the roster before Opening Day, as players either get hurt or get healthy in the meantime. Or in the world that we live in these days, they could be in quarantine. Let’s hope that last one doesn’t happen, but it might.
South Bend Cubs announce Opening Day roster By: Maura Johnson
SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The South Bend Cubs have announced their 2021 Opening Day roster, giving fans the chance to welcome new and familiar faces alike to Four Winds Field on game day.
The team consists of 28 players: 15 pitchers, three catchers, five infielders, and five outfielders. 14 players are rejoining the team, including six members of the 2019 title-winning team.
The South Bend Cubs are also joined by their new manager, Michael Ryan, who comes to South Bend after spending seven seasons as a manager in the Pittsburgh Pirates farm system.
Tony Cougoule will serve as the Pitching Coach and Paul McAnulty returns as the team’s Hitting Coach alongside Assistant Hitting Coach Eric Patterson.
There’s Going to be a Lot of Velocity from the High-A South Bend Cubs This Year
The South Bend Cubs also announced their preliminary 30-man roster on Friday morning, as new Cubs minor league manager Michael Ryan will lead the squad beginning at home on Tuesday night. The first thing that jumps out at me: there is a lot of 96+ MPH velocity here.
The velocity will be headlined in the rotation by 2019 first-round pick Ryan Jensen and darling of Cubs blogdom Max Bain. The bullpen will have it in spades with Burl Carraway and Brandon Hughes from the left side, Ben Leeper and Eury Ramos from the right side. And that won’t be it.
In less than one week, minor league baseball will
finallllly return. And as it does, I want to introduce a concept that will be a regular feature for me around here: trying to provide some context for what the action on the field means for the Cubs prospect rankings.
The February rankings were my best take at uncovering some of the differences we might expect as players take the field, but pretty much immediately once Spring Training began, I already wanted to make changes. That’d probably be true in any circumstance, but it’s especially true given how little information we’d had available on Cubs prospects for the previous year and a half heading into Spring Training.