July Has Been the Month of Promotions

The MLB All-Star break is typically the time of year where we tend to see the bulk of the Minor League roster shuffle. At this point, organizations have seen enough and the small sample size alerts are thrown out the window. Half of a season at any particular level is normally enough time for the front office to decide on moving a guy up or down a level in the Minor Leagues.

The 2018 halfway point has been no different. In fact, over the last month or so, we have seen a flurry of roster moves from South Bend all the way up to Iowa. While the number of moves has been impressive, the names that have been moved may be even more crucial to the organization.

Below I’ll give you a rundown of all the moves that have occurred since June 23rd with a brief explanation of why the move is important.

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Alzolay Struggles in What Could Be His Final Tune-Up

Adbert Alzolay is the top prospect in the Chicago Cubs farm system. The 23 year old right hander profiles as a middle of the rotation starter at the big league level and has the repertoire and pure stuff to get him there.

Arizona Fall League Recap & 40-Man Roster Shuffle

The Arizona Fall League wrapped up Saturday afternoon with the Mesa Solar Sox, the squad with all of the Cubs’ prospects, falling to the Peoria Javelinas by a score of 8-2. While watching Cubs prospects make it all the way to the league’s championship game is fun, the most important thing is seeing each player’s individual success (or lack thereof) while down in Mesa.

Iowa Cubs Season in Review

You hear it said about Minor League Baseball all the time. The minors are a place to develop players into Major League products. While this season wasn’t as much of a success as you would like to see from a team standpoint with a record of 67-72 and a fourth place finish in the PCL American North Division, the team still showed success in other aspects of the game.

With Jen-Ho Tseng making his MLB debut today with his start on the bump, he marks the 8th Iowa Cubs player to make his debut with the big boys this season. Not only that, but Tseng will also be the 20th player overall to play for both the I-Cubs and in Chicago in 2017.

So who lead Iowa to success? Who held the team down over the course of the season? Who is on our radar for 2018 and beyond? Let’s take a look.

Get to Know Dillon Maples

Dillon Maples is not a new player to the Cubs system. In fact, he has been around as long as just about anyone in the system. He was drafted in the 14th round of the 2011 draft and lured away from his commitment to the University of North Carolina with a $2.5 signing bonus which was pretty unheard of at the time in such a late round. A high school player with electric offerings and a very athletic frame, it did not take long for Maples to begin cracking top prospect lists as he made it all the way up to number 12 in the Cubs system the following year in 2012 according to MLB.com.

Get to Know Jen-Ho Tseng

If I told you that the Chicago Cubs had a pitcher in Triple-A that was sporting a 1.67 ERA and 1.12 WHIP at the highest level of the minors at just age 22 would you be impressed?

What if I told you that the same pitcher has a career minor league ERA of 3.19 and has already racked up a Cubs Minor League Pitcher of the Year award?

This player just HAS to be one of the best prospects in baseball and fans must be dying to call him up to the bigs and watch him dominate, right? Well you would think so, but instead, Jen-Ho Tseng is still relatively unknown by the general population of Cubs fans. Tseng finds himself stuck down at #13 on the MLB Pipeline Cubs Prospects.

Prospects in Iowa Wait for Their Opportunity

The 2017 Chicago Cubs are loaded with talent up and down the lineup card and as fans of the Major League product, that makes life about as good as it can get. But the lack of holes in the order and the amount of depth at the MLB level makes it hard on rising prospects in Triple-A Iowa to find their way to the big leagues. The Iowa Cubs roster is filled with guys that are no slouch at the plate either. With several players that could have impacts on Major League rosters right now, let’s take a look at who those guys are and what we can expect from them now and into the future as it pertains to their role in Chicago.