Minor League Line of the Week

In Iowa, Tennessee, Florida and Illinois there were some great performance by both players and teams in the first few minor league games. The first Line of the Week award could have gone to first round pick Hayden Simpson for his seven strikeout performance, and probably would have had he stayed in the game longer. It could have gone to any of Brett Jackson, Steven Clevenger, Josh Vitters, Pierre LePage, or Scott Moore, among others, for their fantastic starts to the season.

But I went in a different direction this week. This week’s honor goes to a player we knew very little about before games began, but who I think we will be hearing a lot more about in the next few years. For the week ending April 10, the Minor League Line of the Week goes to….

Rubi Silva.

His overall stats for the season aren’t quite up there with LePage, Szczur, Jackson, or several other players, but those guys aren’t playing in their first professional games in a new country after defecting from Cuba either. In particular, I want to draw attention to his game on Sunday, April 10th for Low A Peoria. Playing in center and batting second, he went 3 for 4 with a double and a home run, scored twice and struck out once. That is just about as good an offensive game as anyone has had in the Cubs system this season. Through Sunday night, he had a very respectable OPS .924, and had already swiped two bases.

I’m not sure just yet how to rank Silva on the list of Cub outfield prospects. In the early going it would be tempting to list him alongside Jackson and Szczur, but it is very early yet. If you are in the Peoria area, make sure you get to the ballpark to see this guy play a few times, and let us know what you think.

Congratulations Rubi Silva.