Cubs Win Playoffs! Daytona, Boise, Tennessee Final Games

Birmingham Barons 7 @ Tennessee Smokies 4

The Smokies lost in the first round of the playoffs. Javier Baez went 1-4 with a home run and 2 SO, and ended the series with a .211 average and a pair of jacks. He was also hit by a pitch in this game. Arismendy Alcantara had a pair of singles and a stolen base, but also pretty much blew the game with a pair of errors (Baez also had an error). Matt Szczur doubled, singled and walked, and Christian Villanueva had a pair of hits as well.

Neil Ramirez took the loss with a pretty bad outing. He had 3.1 innings and allowed 5 runs (3 earned), and struck out 0. Matt Loosen came in relief and had 5.1 strong frames. He allowed 2 runs, 1 earned, and fanned 7. Armando Rivero recorded the last out of the year.

Boise Hawks 0 @ Vancouver Canadians 5

Due to a visa issue, the Hawks were forced to play this one short-handed. They committed more errors (5) than they scored hits (4). I'm just moving on. I will not that Zack Godley, who has pitched really well this year, gave up 3 runs in 1.2 innings.

Daytona Cubs 5 @ Charlotte Stone Crabs 0

World Champions! The Cubs are World Champions! It was essentially all Dan Vogelbach, who had a trio of singles and an RBI, though Chadd Krist actually scored the most runs (2). Krist and Wes Darvill had a pair of singles each, and it was death by a thousand cuts; no extra base hits, just 1 walk and 11 singles. Kris Bryant was held hitless in the game, but drew the team's only walk and still ended the series with a .350 average. He's a good baseball player, that Kris Bryant.

I'll have more on C.J. Edwards later today, but in this game he was pretty damn good. He didn't strike out nearly as many as he usually does (3 in 5 innings), but of course he allowed a single hit and walked 2. Ryan Searle pitched 4 innings of relief for the save. Awesome!

This is the conclusion of the minor league season. It was pretty much an unqualified success; the Daytona squad won the championship, the Tennessee squad was unquestionably the best in the division (they lost their 2 top starters at the end of the year), and one other team made the playoffs. Perhaps more importantly, Iowa looks to be an incredibly stacked team next year; you could conceivably see Baez, Alcantara, and Villanueva all in that infield. The pitching should be pretty nice too.

Of course, our coverage of the minors is far from over. We still have more than half of our prospects to review, and we might even have a little surprise coming down the pike!