Chicago Cubs Minor League Recap: Pete Crow-Armstrong and Owen Caissie dominate

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Over the last week, only the Iowa Cubs were in action as the lower levels of the minor leagues won’t begin until this weekend.

That being said, the core of this Iowa roster likely deserves its own breakdown anyway as they have (for the most part) played together as a part of the team that won the High-A championship with South Bend in 2022 as well as the AA championship last season in Tennessee.

This Iowa roster has top prospects all over the lineup and the rotation and they’ve begun the season almost identically to the major league squad. They dropped two of three in their opening series against the Omaha Storm Chasers, but won the next two of three against the Toledo Mud Hens.

In those six games, there were two hitters and a pitcher that stood out in a positive way as well as one hitter that’s going to need to wake up in order to live up to the hype that we heaped upon him this offseason.

Hitters of the Week

Pete Crow-Armstrong

.308/.357/.654 1 HR, 2 3B, 2 2B, 7 R, 4 RBI, 3/3 SB

If you’re shocked to see the Cubs’ number one prospect on this list then you haven’t been paying attention.

Did he struggle in his cup of coffee appearance with the major league squad at the end of last season? Sure. Could he have done more with his opportunity in spring training this year? Also, sure.

It seems like Cubs fans have some level of prospect fatigue when it comes to Crow-Armstrong. He’s been too good for too long and fans don’t realize just how good he is and have moved on to loving other prospects with “louder tools”.

The thing that people don’t seem to realize is that Crow-Armstrong’s tools are like a heavy metal concert. If you like Owen Caissie’s power, then you should know that Crow-Armstrong has more homers, more extra-base hits and a higher slugging percentage through the first week at AAA than Caissie has, while also playing Gold Glove-caliber defense at a premium position and stealing three bases in his three attempts.

Pete Crow-Armstrong is a star, and if he could play third base he’d be a star in the majors right now.

Owen Caissie

.391/.481/.522 3 2B, 2 R, 5 RBI

Owen Caissie absolutely lit up spring training and he hasn’t slowed down since arriving in Iowa for his first stint against AAA pitching in his career.

If you were to look at the slash line for Caissie and Crow-Armstrong it would be reasonable to think that they should be flipped. Caissie is not necessarily known for his ability to hit for average due to his high strikeout totals and Crow-Armstrong isn’t considered the stronger of the two prospects, but for this week both have excelled across the board.

Caissie has big, in-game power already. He's progressed through the system at basically one level at a time but it’s reasonable to expect that trajectory to change this season. He’s simply too good of a hitter to keep stashed away in AAA all year when the major league team may be in need of a power boost later this season.

If Caissie continues to mash to this extent we could see a similar situation occur with him and Crow-Armstrong as the one that happened last season with Matt Mervis and Christopher Morel getting called up within a few days of each other in May after obliterating AAA pitching.

Pitcher of the Week

Thomas Pannone

LHP

2 GS, 10.2 IP, 0.00 ERA, 4 H, 2 BB, 11 K

I certainly didn’t expect Thomas Pannone to be the first pitcher of the week for the 2024 season but here we are.

The 29-year-old journeyman was originally drafted by the Cubs in the 2012 draft but he chose to go to college and would eventually be drafted by Cleveland in the 2013 draft. He’s spent some time in the majors with the Milwaukee Brewers and Toronto Blue Jays and he’s pitched in the KBO as well.

Whatever he’s doing differently so far this season to produce the results he’s gotten in his first two starts is obviously working for him. With Jameson Taillon and Justin Steele on the shelf for at least a little bit longer and Craig Counsell deploying the bullpen in a way that Cubs’ fans aren’t accustomed to seeing, it’s not out of the realm of possibilities that Pannone gets a spot start or two with the Major League squad.

Bounceback Candidate

BJ Murray

.095/.174/.095 11 K, 2 BB, 0 XBH

Oof. That is not the stat line you want to see from the player that just about a month ago we said could wind up being the best of all the prospects in this loaded system.

That being said, he’s at his lowest right now and has the ability and skill to bounce back in a very big way.

There is a lot of thunder in his bat. In 2023 he had 54 extra-base hits and in 2022 he led all Chicago Cubs prospects in OBP with a .410 on-base percentage.

The strongest factor working in his favor though, may be that he can play third base. At the time of writing this piece, Christopher Morel has three errors in seven chances at third base which gives him an incredibly bad .571 fielding percentage. Beyond that, Patrick Wisdom is still on the injured list and the jury is out on Nick Madrigal.

If Craig Counsell were to stop utilizing the DH position as a means to get guys rest in the field and instead utilize Morel’s bat there without having to deal with the growing pains associated with his glove at third base, then Murray would definitely have a path to playing time at the highest level.

He’s just got to get himself back on track at the dish, which all prior evidence seems to point to being a reasonable expectation.

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