Chicago Cubs Prospects of the Week: Ben Brown and Rafael Morel give a glimpse of the future

Chicago Cubs A Pitcher of the Week: RHP Michael Arias (21 Years Old)

1 G, 5 IP, 0.00 ERA, 2 H, 1 BB, 10 K

Find me a better story in the Chicago Cubs’ system than Michael Arias. I’ll wait.

The Blue Jays gave up on Arias as a shortstop prospect and the Cubs swooped in and converted him to the mound. He’s struggled with walks this year, but so have Ben Brown and DJ Herz, and they’ve been pitching professionally for a combined decade. Young pitchers struggle with walks, that’s just the way it goes.

When you remove the walks from his game though, Arias has been absolutely dominant. This week he struck out 10 in five innings. He’s got 58 strikeouts on 37.2 innings so far this season. He’s only allowed one home run all season. This is a guy that hitters haven’t been able to figure out except for when he’s wild and he misses bats as well as anyone in the system.

I miss the 2011 and 2012 Cubs because that’s when the minor league system was booming with top-hitting prospects. The Cubs system this year is booming as well, but instead of guys with 80-grade power and a propensity to strike out, we have guys with 80-grade fastballs and the propensity to strike guys out. Let’s see how that goes.

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