Brett Jackson Gets Back into Action at Fitch Park
Brett Jackson singled twice, walked, scored a run, and drove-in another, and Zeke DeVoss smacked a solo HR, but it wasn't enough as the Inland Empire 66ers (Los Angeles Angels Hi-A affiliate) defeated the Daytona Cubs 5-3 on Field #3, and Oliver Zapata knocked-in three runs with two run-scoring triples, Yasiel Balaguert doubled twice, Carlos Penalver walked and tripled, scored two runs, and kocked-in one, and Gioskar Amaya singled, tripled, stole a base, scored a run, and collected an RBI, helping the Kane County Cougars beat the Burlington Bees (Angels Lo-A affiliate) 6-3 on Field #2, in Cactus League Minor League Camp action this afternoon at Fitch Park in Mesa, AZ.
Jackson saw his first game action since being sidelined with a sore shoulder ten days ago, and worked as a DH in the Daytona game. He went 2-5 with two singles, a walk, a ground out, and two fly outs in six Plate Appearances, batting once in each of the first six innings. It's still possible that B-Jax could start the season on the Cubs MLB 15-day DL, but he didn't show any difficulty swinging the bat today. Of course whether he can throw without pain is another issue altogether.
Iowa SP Nick Struck was left behind at Fitch Park while his I-Cubs teammates traveled to Tempe to play Salt Lake (the Angels AAA affiliate in the PCL), and the right-hander got four AB between the two games. His job was to lay down a bunt in a sacrifice situation, and he was successful all four times. (The DH is used at all times in "A" ball, Short-season, Rookie, and Latin Rookie leagues, but the AA and AAA leagues use the DH only when an American League affiliate is playing a home game, so I-Cubs and Tennessee Smokies pitchers have to be able to handle the bat).
Erick Castillo, Ethan Elias, James Pugliese, and Jasvir Rakkar were temporarily moved-up from the Boise/Mesa squad (Extended Spring Training), and each of them saw action (E. Castillo, Elias, and Pugliese with Kane County, and Rakkar with Daytona).
Here are the abridged box scores from the two games (Cubs players only):
FITCH PARK FIELD #2
KANE COUNTY LINEUP:
1. Oliver Zapata, CF: 2-4 (3-U, 3B, 3B, K, R, 3 RBI)
2. Gioskar Amaya, 2B: 2-4 (1B, 1-3, 2B, K, R, RBI, SB)
3. Marco Hernandez, DH #1: 2-4 (1B, 3-U, 6-5 FC, 1B, RBI, SB, PO)
4. Jeimer Candelario, 3B: 1-3 (4-3, 1B, F-9, BB)
5a. Rock Shoulders, 1B: 0-3 (F-8, F-7, 1-3)
5b. Justin Marra, 1B: 0-1 (K)
6a. Willson Contreras, C: 0-3 (F-7, P-6, 1-3)
6b. Erick Castillo, C: 0-1 (6-3)
7. Shawon Dunston Jr, LF: 0-3 (BB, 4-3, 3-U, 1-3, R)
8. Yasiel Balaguert, RF: 2-3 (F-8, 2B, 2B, R)
9a. SLOT WAS SKIPPED FIRST TIME THRU BATTING ORDER
9b. Nick Struck, DH #2: 0-0 (1-3 SH)
9c. Lance Rymel, PH: 0-1 (1-3)
10. Carlos Penalver, SS: 1-2 (BB, 3B, 6-3, 2 R, RBI)
KANE COUNTY PITCHERS:
1. Brian Smith: 2.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 2 K, 45 pitches (27 strikes), 3/2 GO/FO
2. James Pugliese: 2.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R (1 ER), 1 BB, 2 K, 46 pitches (28 strikes), 3/1 GO/FO
3. Hunter Ackerman: 2.2 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 4 K, 43 pitches (29 strikes), 3/1 GO/FO
4. Ethan Elias: 1.0 IP, 2 H, 2 R (2 ER), 2 BB, 1 K, 1 HBP, 1 HR, 32 pitches (16 strikes), 1/1 GO/FO
NOTE: Game was stopped with two outs in top of 9th when Elias reached his pre-planned max pitch limit for the inning
KANE COUNTY ERRORS: 1
1B Justin Marra - E-3 (missed catch allowed batter to reach base safely)
KANE COUNTY CATCHERS DEFENSE:
Willson Contreras: 2-2 CS
FITCH PARK FIELD #3
X-1. Brett Jackson, DH #1; 2-5 (1B, 3-1, 1B, F-7, F-9, BB, R, RBI)
NOTE: Jackson batted six times, hitting third in the 1st & 4th innings, and first in the 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 6th innings
X-2 Nick Struck, DH #2: 0-0 (5-4 SH, 3-4 SH, 3-U SH)
NOTE: Struck batted three times, hitting fifth in the 1st inning, and second in the 3rd & 6th innings
1. Pin-Chieh Chen, CF-DH: 1-3 (F-8, 1B, CI-E2, 4-3)
2. Tim Saunders, 3B: 2-3 (1B, 1B, BB, L-7, R, SB)
3a. Steve Bruno, 2B: 1-2 (1B, 5-3 DP)
3b. Anthony Giansanti, 2B: 0-2 (5-3, 1-3)
4a. Dan Vogelbach, 1B: 0-2 (5-3, K)
4b. Ben Carhart, 1B: 0-1 (L-8)
5. Taiwan Easterling, RF: 1-3 (1-3, 1B, K)
6a. Yaniel Cabezas, C: 2-2 (1B, 1B, PO)
6b. Taylor Davis, C: 0-1 (5-3)
7a. Bijan Rademacher, LF: 0-2 (F-7, 4-3)
7b. Reggie Golden, LF: 0-1 (K)
8. Wes Darvill, SS: 0-3 (F-9, F-8, K)
9. Zeke DeVoss, DH-CF: 2-3 (HR, 1B+E5, 6-3, R, RBI)
1. Ben Wells: 3.2 IP, 2 H, 1 R (1 ER), 0 BB, 3 K, 2 HBP, 56 pitches (39 strikes), 7/1 GO/FO
2. Sheldon McDonald: 1.1 IP, 5 H, 3 R (3 ER), 1 BB, 3 K, 38 pitches (25 strikes), 1/0 GO/FO
3. Joe Zeller: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 K, 11 pitches (8 strikes), 0/1 GO/FO
4. Jasvir Rakkar: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K, 14 pitches (8 strikes), 1/1 GO/FO
5. Larry Suarez: 1.0 IP, 1 H, 1 R (1 ER), 1 BB, 0 K, 21 pitches (10 strikes), 2/1 GO/FO
DAYTONA ERRORS: NONE
DAYTONA CATCHERS DEFENSE:
Yaniel Cabezas: 0-3 CS
WEATHER: Mostly cloudy & breezy with temperatures in the 80's
Arizona Phil 1 hour 39 min ago (view)
More east-side AZIL games canceled today due to CoViD-19 issues. Don't know yet how it wil impact Cubs schedule.
Arizona Phil 22 hours 18 min ago (view)
Someone to keep an eye on in 2021 is RHRP (ex-1B) Jerrick Suiter.
He was selected by the Cubs from the Pirates in the AAA Phase of the 2019 Rule 5 Draft and the Cubs immediately converted him from a mediocre AA first-baseman to a full-time pitcher, having seen him throw garbage innings in blow-outs for the Pirates AA Altoona affiliate in 2019.
Dolorous Jon Lester 1 day 4 hours ago (view)
Good to see Roederer and Velasquez providing some production. From what I've followed they haven't been up to much. Granted this season isn't great for development
Arizona Phil 1 day 8 hours ago (view)
The Cubs have added OF Brennen Davis to their AZIL Active List roster.
crunch 1 day 9 hours ago (view)
"He's a strong kid and shows a lot of HR power in BP and it's just a matter of making it game-usable."
reggie golden flashblacks...if BP was a game he'd be an all-star.
Arizona Phil 1 day 10 hours ago (view)
Unfortunately for the Cubs, all of their Top 10 position-player prospects (M. Amaya, Davis, Hearn, Howard, Made, C. Morel, R. Morel, Quintero, Roederer, and Strumpf -- listed alphabetically) are two or more years away from the big leagues, in most cases more like three or four or even five years away.
Arizona Phil 1 day 10 hours ago (view)
TIM: One of the things people wonder about when they see a young shortstop for the first time is does he have the arm and range necessary to play SS or would his tools maybe be better suited for 2B, 3B or OF. So far at Instructs Kevin Made has shown all of the attributes of a SS, and he is an advanced hitter (for his age) as well.
Arizona Phil 1 day 11 hours ago (view)
AZBOBBOP: Ethan Hearn showed off his plus-arm by back-picking a runner off 1st base last week. You don't see catchers with the confidence to attempt pick-offs much out here.
He's a strong kid and shows a lot of HR power in BP and it's just a matter of making it game-usable. His hitting (contact and barreling) has improved at instructs, and that's one of the things he needed to improve.
His receiving should improve with experience as well.
azbobbop 2 days 42 min ago (view)
Phil, saw Ethan Hearn with a couple of hits today. How has he been trending?
tim815 2 days 16 hours ago (view)
That Kevin Made is already representing offensively seems, on the 1 to 10 scale with 10 being fantastic news, in the 17 or 18 range.
Nwogu in the 9 to 11 span.
Arizona Phil 3 days 9 hours ago (view)
For those of you wondering about catcher Ronnier Quintero (the Cubs #1 IFA signing in the 2019-20 ISP), he participates fully in pre-game and Camp Day work-outs and he catches bullpens, and while he has been the bullpen catcher at every AZIL game he has not yet played in a game.
As a catcher he has a lot to learn, and the Cubs would prefer that Quintero mainly concentrates on receiving and learning how to work with pitchers right now. He can learn about hitting and baserunning later.
Arizona Phil 3 days 10 hours ago (view)
In adition to the 22 pitchers originally on the Cubs AZIL Active List roster plus RHP Manuel Rodriguez (right biceps strain last March) and LHP Brad Wieck (wearing a brace on his left knee) who are on the Cubs MLB 60-day IL and are rehabbing at AZIL, the Cubs have added four additional pitchers to their AZIL Active List roster:
RHP Josh Burgmann
RHP Chris Clarke
LHP D. J. Herz
RHP Michael McAvene
Charlie 4 days 7 hours ago (view)
This is weird. He seemed well liked and shifting him to another role would've made just as much sense.
bradsbeard 4 days 12 hours ago (view)
I'd say the only guys who struggled all season were Baez and Bryant. Willson struggled for a lot of August but was one of the few who hit in September. Most of the team hit well in 2019 (including Baez and Bryant before injuries derailed them). I don't know if there's any reason to blame Ipoce in particular for the September slump.
crunch 5 days 1 hour ago (view)
iapoce expected to stay. i'm surprised. i know it's a weird/short season, but it was a season-long slump for a lot of guys and answers weren't showing up.
crunch 5 days 2 hours ago (view)
i eagerly await the espn 10 part mini-series "Rafael Palmeiro, More Like Rafael Baseballmerio" covering those 28 legendary games.