Chicago Cubs Minor League Recap: David Bote's heroics still on display in the minors

It was a week filled with losses for the Chicago Cubs affiliate teams, but there were some truly exceptional individual performances from players you want to see it from. 

The Iowa Cubs continued their downward slide as they went 1-5 against the Omaha Storm Chasers and the Columbus Clippers. They’ll finish their series with the Clippers this weekend and move on to the Syracuse Mets next week. 

The Tennessee Smokies started the week hot by finishing off the Biloxi Shuckers with three straight wins last weekend but this week they’ve struggled against the Chattanooga Lookouts and finished the week 3-3. They’ll look to get back on track against the Lookouts the rest of the weekend and they’ll start a six-game set against the Rocket City Trash Pandas next week. 

The South Bend Cubs had an identical 3-3 record to the Smokies this week as they took two out of three against the Lansing Lugnuts and dropped two out of three to the Cedar Rapids Kernels. They’ll finish their series with the Kernels this weekend and start a six-game series with the Fort Wayne TinCaps next week.

Finally, at Low-A Myrtle Beach, the Pelicans went 2-4 against the Salem Red Sox and the Augusta Green Jackets. They’ll finish their series against Augusta this weekend and then start their series against the Fredericksburg Nationals next week.

Hitter of the Week

David Bote

3B (Triple-A Iowa Cubs)

.412/.412/.941 2 HR, 3 2B, 3 RBI, 4 R

Every once in a while, David Bote puts together a week that makes you wonder how the Cubs were never able to find a place for him in the lineup or defensively on the diamond and this was definitely one of those weeks.

He had five extra-base hits this week while playing perfectly adequate defense at first base, second base, shortstop, third base and left field. On the year, he’s hitting .326/.404/.609 with nearly as many walks (5) as strikeouts (8). 

When you see a week like this one, the question that comes to mind is: Why does Miles Mastrobuoni continue to get opportunity after opportunity at the Major League level while Bote offers the same level of defensive versatility and is wasting away in Iowa?

Honorable Mentions

Felix Stevens 

OF (High-A South Bend Cubs)

.375/.500/.938 3 HR, 4 BB, 8 RBI, 6 R 

Felix Stevens had the best week of his career with the Cubs this week as he hit three homers and dominated the younger competition that High-A offers. 

He’s been extremely boom-or-bust so far this season as he carries just a .192 batting average on the year but a .466 slugging percentage thanks to the six homers and 37 strikeouts he has in 73 at-bats. 

He’ll be 25 years-old in July and he’s already nearly two years older than the average competitor at the level so there’s not much long-term upside here, but it’s good to see a guy that grinds at his craft put together a solid week like this one. 

Ty Johnson

RHP (Low-A Myrtle Beach Pelicans)

1 GS, 4.0 IP, 0.00 ERA, 0 H, 1 BB, 9 K

Last week, the Cubs had three of their 2023 draft picks listed as honorable mentions. This week, Ty Johnson continued to make that 2023 class look like the best one of all thirty teams in the league when the 15th round pick struck out more than two batters per inning. 

He’s older than the average competitor at Low-A but he’s dominated all season to the tune of 28 strikeouts in just 19 innings. He’s carrying a 2.37 ERA and while he’s still walking more batters than you’d like to see, the number is considerably lower than it was while he was in college so the Cubs may have helped him figure something out. 

Johnson has started in three of his six appearances so far this year and while there’s not much information to draw from appearances in this level of the minors it is at least a little intriguing to see that he finished a game as well. It could be nothing, but the Cubs love high-strikeout guys that can move quickly through the minors in the bullpen and they may have found another one with Johnson.