Josiah Hartshorn's latest crazy feat ties him to a former Cubs disappointment

Josiah Hartshorn, still only 19 years old, is looking more and more like a future stud for the Chicago Cubs with each passing week. The team's top-ranked prospect began the year in Class-A Myrtle Beach, then made the jump to High-A South Bend - and all he did was get better.

He's more than three years younger than the average High-A player, but that hasn't stopped him from carrying a .936 OPS across more than 300 plate appearances. His latest home run, his 15th with South Bend and 20th on the season between the two levels, is something we haven't seen any teenage Cubs prospect do in the last two-plus decades.

This weekend, he became the first teenage Cubs prospect since Corey Patterson in 1999 to hit 20 home runs in a single season. Fans old enough to remember Patterson might recall he was a former third overall pick of the team in the 1998 MLB Draft, and he made his big-league debut just two years later as a 20-year-old outfielder.

It took him a few years, but he really started to get his feet under him in 2003 (who could ever forget that incredible Opening Day performance) and, in 2004, turned in his best season in a Cubs uniform, a 3.0 bWAR campaign in which he hit a career-high 24 home runs. That was really the high mark of his time in Chicago, and he spent the better part of the next decade bouncing around the league on a number of minor-league deals.

Cubs hoping the future is brighter for top prospect Josiah Hartshorn

Hartshorn, while still probably two years from the big leagues, could give the Cubs an impressive young duo in the outfield with MVP candidate Pete Crow-Armstrong. Again, there's a huge difference between putting up a .285/.402/.516 slash line before you sniff Double-A and putting up those numbers in The Show, but it's still worth taking note of regardless.

Next year will be big for Hartshorn as he starts to push his way into the upper levels of the system - especially considering the potential turnover that's coming for the Chicago outfield at season's end.

But for now, let's just take a pause and appreciate what this kid is doing. Because it's truly something special.

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