Chicago Cubs Minor League Recap: Matt Shaw is too good for Double-A pitching

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. 

Iowa continued a strong start to their season as they went 4-1 against the St. Paul Saints and Louisville Bats. They did have a rainout on Thursday but made it up with a double-header yesterday. They’ll complete their series with the Bats tomorrow and then have a six-game set with the Buffalo Bison.

Tennessee had had a rough week again, but they picked up a few wins going 3-4 since last Saturday. They dropped both legs of a double-header against the Chattanooga Lookouts on Sunday, but are looking for a series win against the Montgomery Biscuits this weekend. Next Week they’ll have a six-game series with the Rocket City Trash Pandas. 

South Bend has continued to look bad, but thanks to the Myrtle Beach Pelicans they’re not the worst team in the system. At the time of writing, they’re 3-9 on the season and they took a 2-5 last week. There are players worth watching at South Bend, but at the moment they’re struggling to put it all together as a team. 

Finally, Myrtle Beach has been painfully bad. This week, they went 1-5 which brings their season record to 3-9, but they’ve continued to be a punching bag for opposing offenses. In the six games they played last week, they gave up 53 runs. When you combine that with the 52 they gave up last week, you can see that this team simply isn’t going to win many games unless something changes. 

Pitcher of the Week

Chase Watkins

RHP (A+ South Bend Cubs)

2 G, 4.2 IP, 1.93 ERA, 3 H, 0BB, 7 K

Chase Watkins could become a player the Cubs will eventually utilize out of the bullpen. The two games he appeared in this week were both relief opportunities and of the outs he managed to record 50% of them came via strikeout.

He’s a big lefty, much like Luke Little, who was sent down to AAA Iowa earlier this week, and so far this season he’s pitching incredibly well, carrying a 2.16 ERA over 8.1 innings with 13 strikeouts. 

It’s worth remembering that relief pitchers can fly through the system and that pitchers in general, don’t have a linear progression. Some players require more time than others to be ready for the big time, and the University of Central Florida product that the Cubs drafted in the 9th round of the 2021 MLB Draft may finally be finding his stride.

Or we’re just a couple of weeks into a season where he’s considerably older than the average age of the competition. Only time will tell. 

Honorable Mentions

Andy Garriola 

OF (A- Myrtle Beach Pelicans)

.368/.350/.789 2 HR, 2 2B, 4 R, 4 RBI

Garriola had an interesting week but we’ll start with the good: four extra-base hits in 19 at-bats is fantastic and that’s how you earn a .789 slugging percentage. 

That being said, it’s incredibly difficult to have a higher batting average than on-base percentage and that is a feat that Garriola did manage to pull of this week in Myrtle Beach by hitting a sac-fly that didn’t negatively impact his average but did impact his OBP.

You’re unlikely to find the 24-year-old Garriola on any top prospect lists, but late bloomers exist and there’s a chance that his newfound power is for real and that he can eventually help the Cubs in one way or another. 

Moises Ballesteros

C (AA Tennessee Smokies)

.300/.462/.600 1 HR, 1 R, 1 RBI, 2/2 BB/K

Much like Shaw, Ballesteros saw his name in the honorable mentions list last week as well. He may be looking forward to Shaw getting promoted to the majors more than anyone else so that he can receive the recognition he deserves and stop being overshadowed by Shaw’s greatness. 

Ballesteros has been exceptional since turning professional. He’s a career .273/.374/.444 as a catcher and he’s still just 20 years old in AA. Perhaps his most impressive characteristic is his eye, as he has 130 career walks compared to just 152 career strikeouts. 

The best thing that he has going for him right now though is the fact that the Smokies have split his time between catcher and DH, implying that the Cubs intend to fast-track him to get his bat into the major league lineup as soon as possible. 

What we said last week still holds true:

MLB Pipeline has already predicted the future and they see Ballesteros as the top Cubs prospect by the time 2026 rolls around, but if Ballesteros continues to mash like this he could already have a year’s worth of MLB at-bats under his considerable belt by that point.