Chris Valaika was 1-4 with 2 strikeouts and Logan Watkins was 1-1. That’s all the hits this team got. Maybe the Chicago Cubs offense is finally beginning to show in the minors. They’re all ready!
Tsuyoshi Wada threw 8 very good innings. He allowed just 3 hits and a run (a home run). He walked 1 and struck out 5. Marcus Hatley would have gotten the save in the 9th if the offense could have managed to score just 2 runs.
Jon Andreoli was 1-4 with a double and a walk. He struck out twice. Rubi Silva was also 1-4 and Jeudy Valdez, batting 9th, was 2-4.
The story for the Smokies last night and this season has been Kris Bryant. He was 2-4 with a home run. He has 4 on the season now. It’s very early in the season, but you’ve got to be impressed. He’s already walked 10 times and that’s good for a walk rate over 18%. He has struck out 14 times (over 25%), which is alarming, but his ISO is .333. He’s slugging .643 and his wRC+ is in Bondsian territory (224) and that follows a 212 wRC+ last year at Daytona so the kid can hit baseballs.
There probably already are a lot of calls from fans to bring him and the injured Javier Baez to Chicago since the big league Cubs may already be mathematically eliminated from winning the division. I’d like to see what he can do over a month or so at AA, but if he continues to hit anywhere close to what he’s done so far, you’ve got to send him to AAA, don’t you? If he hits well there for another month, I expect we’ll see him in Chicago in June or July.
Daytona Cubs were saved from another humiliating loss by the weather.
The Cougars totally Cubed it last night managing only 5 hits and no runs. They’re off to a hot start so we can let that go. Jacob Hanneman, Carlos Penalver, Daniel Canela, Danny Lockhart and Shawon Dunston each hit hits. Penalver walked twice.
24-year old Juan Paniagua, still stuck in Low A, threw 5 innings, allowed 6 hits and 5 runs. He walked 4 and struck out 1. Justin Amlung was even worse. He threw 1.2 innings, allowed 5 hits and 4 runs. Josh David pitched 1.1 innings and allowed a hit and struck a batter out.