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Chicago Cubs: Young pitching depth performing remarkably well this year
The Chicago Cubs are proving it takes more that the guys you break camp with to get through the grind of a season. The team’s reliever merry-go-round continues to impress.
Competitive Major League teams need arms that don’t cost $20 million annually. We’re talking about innings eaters and prospects getting a cup of coffee at the big league level throughout the season. For the Chicago Cubs, it’s become an integral success of the team early in 2018.
Inevitably, Triple-A pitching depth will be called upon to fill in for an injured and struggling pitchers. Someone from a team’s Triple-A pitching depth might get called up to be a fresh arm after the bullpen has been used heavily for multiple games in a row. Sometimes, one of these pitchers is called up to make an emergency start or be the extra man on the roster for a doubleheader.
More from Cubbies Crib
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- Cubs starting pitching has been thriving on the North Side
- Make no mistake: the Cubs are very much about power hitters
- Cubs are giving pitcher Javier Assad a deserved shot
- Cubs: It’s time to start thinking about potential September call-ups
Often managers of competitive teams try avoid using these pitchers in meaningful innings. After all, these are the pitchers that weren’t good enough to originally make the 25 man roster.
For most of last season, the Cubs had only two pitchers bounce back and forth between the Cubs bullpen and triple-A Iowa. Felix Pena pitched 34 1/3 innings with a 5.24 ERA. Dylan Floro pitched 9 2/3 innings and had a 6.52 ERA. I wouldn’t say that either one of them pitched very well.
2017 – quality was lacking
The Cubs called up three prospect toward the end of the season. Rob Zastryzny missed most of last season due to injuries. But he did pitch 13 innings with a 8.31 ERA. Dillon Maples pitched 5 1/3 innings with a 10.13 ERA. Jen-Ho Tseng made a six-inning start in which he gave up five runs for a 7.50 ERA. I wouldn’t categorize any of those performances as successful in total.
As if that isn’t bad enough Seth Frankoff had a 9.00 ERA in two innings and Jack Leathersich had a 27.00 ERA in less than an inning. Pierce Johnson and Zac Rosscup both had 0.00 ERA, but they pitched less than two innings total.
The best contribution by a pitcher who was called up from Triple-A last season was without a doubt Eddie Butler. Butler made 11 starts and two relief appearances totaling 54 2/3 innings pitched and a 3.95 ERA. The positive signs he showed last season are part of the reason Butler beat out Justin Grimm to earn a spot on the Opening Day roster this season.
So, for the most part Joe Maddon needed to manage around the Cubs Triple-A pitching depth last season.
Chicago Cubs: More quality innings from their depth guys
This season the Cubs have gotten more meaningful contribution from their Triple-A pitching depth. Luke Farrell has pitched the most (17 1/3 innings) and he has a 3.63 ERA. Amongst those appearances are the five scoreless innings he pitched in a 14-inning win against the Mets on June 2.
Randy Rosario (ERA 1.76, 15 1/3 IP, Justin Hancock (ERA 1.50, 12 IP), Cory Mazzoni (ERA 1.17, 7.2 IP), Anthony Bass (ERA 1.29, 7 IP) and Rob Zastryzny (ERA 0.00, 3 1/3 IP) all have sub-2.00 earned run averages. Along with Farrell, those six pitchers have combined to throw 62 2/3 innings with a cumulative ERA of 1.45.
Those numbers are fantastic. However, their performance might not be sustainable. For instance there are some things in Rosario’s peripherals that indicate he might not be able to continue to getting such good results.
Some names you might not see
More from Cubbies Crib
- Cubs should keep close eye on non-tender candidate Cody Bellinger
- Cubs starting pitching has been thriving on the North Side
- Make no mistake: the Cubs are very much about power hitters
- Cubs are giving pitcher Javier Assad a deserved shot
- Cubs: It’s time to start thinking about potential September call-ups
But not all of the pitching depth has been throwing well. Shae Simmons is another name that is supposed to be included in the list above. He was a candidate to make the Opening Day roster. Simmons is already on the 40-man roster. But so far he hasn’t even been pitching well at the Iowa.
Tseng made another start this season, but only lasted two innings this time and gave up three runs. After pitching well, Adbert Alzolay seemed a likely arm to reach the bigs.
After reaching Triple-A Iowa, all signs pointed to an eventual date at Wrigley Field. But the team’s top pitching prospect suffered a lat strain, costing him the rest of the year.
Guys to keep an eye on
The depth in the system remains, even with so many young arms joining the big league club. Dillon Maples hasn’t appeared in the majors yet this season. Jed Hoyer recently said that Maples has been pitching well recently. If you think that the Cubs should give him another chance, you aren’t the only one.
The Cubs traded Donnie Dewees to the Royals for Alec Mills after the 2016 season. Unfortunately he missed most of the 2017 season due to injuries. But this season he is healthy and Mills has been pitching well recently as a starting pitcher with Iowa.
Chicago has two other pitching prospects who are already on their 40 man roster. Duance Underwood Jr. is already at Iowa While Chris Gimenez was there, Underwood benefited from working with the veteran catcher.
Oscar De La Cruz is also on the Cubs 40-man roster. He is currently pitching for Tennessee. Without pitching at Iowa, De La Cruz seems far less likely to see Chicago this year.
Chicago Cubs: Thankfully, improved contributions from youth
With the exception of Butler, the Cubs got very little from their Minor League pitching depth last season. This year, when a guy gets the call, he steps up in a big way.
When a team’s young pitching depth successfully pitches meaningful innings, it has a dramatic effect on not only the whole roster, but on the team’s win-loss record. Imagine how much worse off the Cubs would be this season if Farrell, Rosario, Hancock, Mazzoni, Bass and Zastryzny hadn’t pitched as well as they have.
Next: Looking for positives from Cincinnati series
With Yu Darvish, Carl Edwards, Eddie Butler and Brandon Morrow injured, depth plays a bigger role than ever. The team remains heavily dependent on young pitching depth.
True in Saturday’s game, the Cubs started Farrell. He he allowed three runs and failed to make it out of the third inning. But did you notice that both Bass and Zastryzny added another pair of scoreless innings?
Probably not.