Cubs Welcome In-State Foe for Critical Series
August 5, 2024 - Midwest League (MWL)
South Bend Cubs News Release
The Cubs are back home after a 3-and-3 trip up to Appleton where they split a series vs a team that entered with the best winning percentage in all of Minor League Baseball. South Bend fell 1-0 late Saturday and then lost a bonkers finale on Sunday, 15-12, in a three-and-a-half-hour marathon.
Now it's back to Four Winds Field as Nick Lovullo's side welcomes in their in-state rival - Fort Wayne.
Both the TinCaps and the Cubs are 40-62 on the season overall, with South Bend one game better so far in the second half at 13-23 (Fort Wayne is 12-24). Mike Daly's team just lost five-out-of-six at Parkview Field vs West Michigan and they're just 3-12 since the All-Star break.
Fort Wayne's roster looks plenty different from the first time we saw them and in fact it has lost a few pieces from just the last week. Jay Beshears, Homer Bush Jr., and Dylan Lesko were all involved in trades the Padres made prior to the deadline and on July 30 Lucas Dunn was sent up to AA-San Antonio, so there will surely be a lot of new faces the Cubs have yet to see. It would makes sense to see both of these sides make a few moves before the series begins.
Players to keep an eye on for Fort Wayne...
It's always easy when writing these to pinpoint a starting pitcher who's throwing both Tuesday and Sunday as someone on the mound who will play a major impact across this week. That's especially true when that man is LHP Jagger Haynes who's currently the highest drafted pitcher on the TinCaps roster. Haynes was elected in the fifth and final round of the shortened 2020 MLB Draft out of West Columbu High School in North Carolina, and he now ranks as the Padres No. 12 prospect. He experienced elbow problems and then needed Tommy John surgery; the lefty didn't make his pro debut until 2023. Last year he went 0-3 with a 3.91 ERA in 11 starts, all in Low-A Lake Elsinore. He's spent all of 2024 in Fort Wayne and currently carries a record of 2-5 and an ERA of 4.16 into this series. He's allowed just two runs in each start since the All-Star break though and over his last two outings he's gone 11 innings, allowing only six hits, four earned runs, and he's struck out 14. He threw against South Bend back on May 15 too and looked quite strong, tossing six frames and allowing just two runs. The lefty looks to be coming on strong and has only allowed more than two runs twice over his last 10 starts.
Next up is quite a familiar face actually in Joshua Mears. A righty handed hitter with an absolute ton of power, Mears played 52 games in Fort Wayne back in 2022 before finishing the year in AA. He only jot .169 with San Antonio though and returned to Parkview Field a season ago where he played just 62 games on the season and struck out 96 times in 190 at-bats. The 23-year-old outfielder was taken in the second round of the 2019 MLB Draft out of Federal Way High School in Kirkland, Washington. There's no doubt he can hit the ball as far as anyone in the Midwest League but he just hasn't made nearly enough contact in his pro career so far. He broke out of the gates late this year as he began the season on the Injured List and then went to the Arizona Complex League for a short rehab. On May 28, just less than two weeks after the TinCaps and Cubs met, he joined their roster for the third straight season. In 41 games since he's hit nine homers and driven in 21, but his batting average sits at .188. Lately though he's been more consistent. Since the All-Star break he leads the league with five long balls and his .556 SLG is seventh over that span. On top of that against West Michigan last week he homered four times in a single series.
Fort Wayne's roster possesses a good number of top-30 pitching prospects in the organization but we're going to finish up with another position player and one we haven't seen yet in person: Romeo Sanabria. It's been quite the start to a career for a 22-year-old kid selected in the 18th round of the 2022 draft. He played two years at Indian River State Junior College and then was drafted and signed for just $50,000. Now he's the Padres No. 27 prospect. Last year was his first full season and he hit .359 in rookie ball before a promotion to Low-A. With the Storm he hit .283 across his final 16 games of the campaign while reaching base at a .424 clip. This year he was back in Low-A for 59 games and raked. He hit .311 with eight homers, more walks than strikeouts, and a .926 OPS. The Padres had to move him up, and they did. So far through 34 games in Fort Wayne the big lefty hitter is batting .262 with a .343 OBP. The sample isn't large and the production hasn't been great but he's getting acclimated to the Midwest League, and he's been a steal for San Diego so far.
Players to keep an eye on for South Bend...
Who's swinging it better in the Midwest League than Ethan Hearn right now? Frankly, no one. Since July 19, the first game back from the All-Star break, Hern leads the Midwest League in OPS (1.226) and SLG (.750), plus he's tied for first in extra-base hits (8), and second in the league in batting average (.389). Sunday he lined out to short to start his day, as No. 4 Brewers prospect Cooper Pratt made a full extension diving catch in the hole to his left. He began 0-for-1 and still picked up a three-hit game, reaching base four times total, while scoring twice, and driving in a run. He's gotten multiple hits in 3-of-his-last-4 games and 5-of-his-last-9. Last week he scored seven runs in four games, and in game one of Saturday's double header he came less than two feet away from his third career multi-homer game. Hearn could well be in the midst of the best 2.5 weeks of his career right now, and against righties he's becoming unstoppable down the stretch of the season.
Jordan Nwogu has also been raking toward the bottom of the order. Nwogu was arguably the best slugger in the Midwest League in the second half of the 2022 season, helping lead the Cubs to a league title. Now he may have found his stroke again. On Sunday the former Michigan Wolverine tallied three base hits, scored twice, and drove in a pair of runs. Over the course of the week he went 10-for-22 with six RBIs, four runs scored, a couple walks, and two stolen bases. He used his speed to beat out a routine looking grounder that kickstarted a rally in the fourth inning Sunday and he's still got that burst in left field to track down ball in deep in the alley. Like Hearn, Nwogu is among the league leaders in many categories since the All-Star break. He ranks tied for third in RBIs (12), sixth in OBP (.421), and ninth in average (.327). If you watch him play everyday it honestly just looks like he's even playing looser and more free, smiling more and playing with joy. He was a treat to watch last week on the road.
Schedule and Probables...(Cubs pitcher listed first)
Tuesday, August 6 - 7:05 ET: RHP Nico Zeglin vs LHP Jagger Haynes
Wednesday, August 7 - 7:05 ET: LHP Drew Gray vs RHP Braden Nett
Thursday, August 8 - 7:05 ET: RHP Will Sanders vs. RHP Eric Yost
Friday, August 9 - 7:05 ET: RHP Nick Dean vs RHP Isaiah Lowe
Saturday, August 10 - 7:05 ET: RHP Jaxon Wiggins vs RHP Enmanuel Pinales
Sunday, August 11 - 2:05 ET: RHP Erian Rodriguez vs. LHP Jagger Haynes
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