MWL South Bend Cubs

Toyota Road Report: Opening Weekend April 7-9Â

April 6, 2023 - Midwest League (MWL)
South Bend Cubs News Release


The defending Midwest League Champions are officially back. As the South Bend Cubs get set to defend their second title in the last three seasons, there will be plenty of familiar names on the Opening Night roster as 16 former MWL Champs return as the Cubs head west to face off with the Quad Cities River Bandits. The short series, which is slated for three games beginning on Friday night, will see the Cubs in action for the first time since clinching the Championship on September 21, 2022.

In some cases, many things are the same. Lance Rymel is back as the Cubs manager after leading the 2022 team to the top spot in the Midwest League. Rymel is joined by returning hitting coach Dan Puente, as well as D'Angelo Jimenez in his second campaign as bench coach. New on the staff this season is pitching coach Clayton Mortensen. The former Big Leaguer was the pitching coach for the Myrtle Beach Pelicans last year and helped the Birds achieve the third lowest ERA in the Carolina League.

Just as much of the coaching staff comes back, as mentioned, many players who celebrated the championship on that September night are back too. Pitchers Kohl Franklin, Brad Deppermann, Luke Little, Richard Gallardo, Adam Laskey, Joe Nahas, and Sheldon Reed were on the active roster for the title game in Eastlake, Ohio. Infielders Kevin Made and Fabian Pertuz, as well as outfielder Yohendrick Pinango were also there, and they make their return to the Cubs lineup this season.

With every passing season though, players who we have come to know and love in Downtown South Bend move on. Pete Crow-Armstrong, Owen Caissie, Jordan Nwogu, and others are now in Double-A Tennessee. As hard as those goodbyes are, the welcome messages are as exciting as ever.

Number-two overall Chicago Cubs prospect Kevin Alcantara headlines the roster. The six-foot-six outfielder is a top-100 prospect in all of baseball.

As we saw last year, and in 2019 too, the Cubs of those years came together as a team. It was not individuality that won those titles, it was the drive to succeed together. As South Bend now goes for back-to-back championships for the first time ever, they'll look for a solid start in Davenport after the River Bandits took two of three from the Cubs last year on Opening Weekend at Four Winds Field.

Players to watch on Quad Cities...

Gavin Cross, OF: The first Toyota Road Report opposing watch list of the year begins with the number-nine overall pick in the 2022 MLB Draft, Gavin Cross. The former Virginia Tech Hokie traumatized ACC pitching in his final year at Virginia Tech, hitting .328 with 17 home runs and 50 RBI in 2021. After being selected in the top-10 by the Kansas City Royals, Cross went 5-10 in his first three pro games in the Arizona Complex League. That earned him a promotion to Low-A Columbia at the end of last season. In 26 games there, Cross posted a highly respectable .293 average with seven homers and 22 RBI. Cross is only 22-years-old, and is a big and strong body and swing from the left side of the plate. Already in less than a year with the Royals organization, he is regarded as their number-one ranked prospect by MLB.com.

Emilio Marquez, LHP: Like the Cubs, Quad Cities has plenty of returning players on their roster. One of them is left-hander Emilio Marquez. On the mound last year, there were few pitchers in the Midwest League that could contain South Bend's high-powered offense. Marquez was one of the few. Against South Bend a year ago, Marquez went 4-1 with a 1.62 ERA in seven appearances. Marquez won't jump off the page in terms of size or velocity, but the crafty southpaw knows how to pitch. He's really good at mixing his stuff and keeping hitters off-balanced. His control is also admirable. In his 16.2 innings against the Cubs in 2022, he walked only six batters. He can start, as well as come out of the bullpen. Dangerous arm.

Chandler Champlain, RHP: Former New York Yankees 9th-round pick Chandler Champlain was traded to the Kansas City Royals last year in the deal sending Andrew Benintendi to The Bronx. The Royals got back a number of prospects, and figured that Champlain would be the highlight arm coming back. Judging by his respectable 4.30 ERA in his first full-season at Single-A with New York's organization, along with 94 strikeouts in just over 73 innings, it was quite the get for Kansas City. The Royals though could not have expected Champlain to post a 9.84 ERA in eight appearances with Quad Cities after the trade. Champlain struggled, perhaps because of a new environment. Either way, his control was off. He walked only 19 batters in those 73 innings with the Yankees organization to start the year, then allowed 11 free passes in 32 innings with the River Bandits. We'll see what he has to offer as he starts on Sunday.

Players to watch on South Bend...

Kevin Alcántara, OF: It's a must to start this list with the top Chicago Cubs prospect seen on the 2023 South Bend Cubs Opening Night roster. Alcántara immediately made a name for himself when he was the highlighted prospect coming back from the Yankees in the deal that sent Anthony Rizzo to The Bronx away from the Cubs. Alcántara looks like the real deal. The tall man from the Dominican Republic stands six-foot-six, and he is continuing to grow into his body. He is going to continue putting on weight, and you would think his power would only continue to blossom. Last year with the Myrtle Beach Pelicans, Alcántara posted a .273 batting average with 15 homers and 85 RBI while playing for Buddy Bailey. The transition to the Midwest League is sometimes hard for young players. Look at Owen Caissie in 2022. He struggled mightily in April of last season, then in May was named the Chicago Cubs Minor League Player of the Month. If Alcántara starts hot, it can be a sign that he's about to have a monstrous breakout season.

Sheldon Reed, RHP: The guy who threw the final pitch of the 2022 South Bend Cubs season is back in town. Sheldon Reed, who nailed down the save in Game 3 of the Midwest League Championship Series in Lake County back in September, is set to start the season back with the defending champs. Reed's season last year had him start at Low-A Myrtle Beach, where he did not surrender a single run in nine appearances. He was quickly promoted to South Bend and immediately became one of the closer and back end of the bullpen options for Lance Rymel. That carried into the playoffs when he split closer duties with Jake Reindl, and the rest was history. Reed's pure strength on the mound gives him the ability to beat hitters with power. A really good fastball mixed with some solid breaking stuff could see him quickly climb the ladder in the Cubs organization in 2023.

Fabian Pertuz, INF: Of all the returning players on the South Bend Cubs Opening Day roster, there are few who know South Bend as well as Fabian Pertuz. The man from Colombia was in South Bend all of last season, and was a major part of the 2022 Midwest League Championship. Pertuz had numerous roles on the team, starting the year at either second or third base, and then taking the full-time shortstop job after Ed Howard's injury. Pertuz stepped up wherever needed last year. On Opening Day in South Bend last April, Pertuz crushed the first home run of the year for the Cubs against Quad Cities. It came off of righty Anthony Simonelli. Then as the playoffs went along, Pertuz settled into the lead-off spot in the South Bend lineup and performed tremendously; Especially as the Cubs fought to win the Division Series versus Cedar Rapids. Year two in South Bend for Pertuz will be one to watch in the system.

Schedule...

Friday, April 7 - 7:30 PM ET: RHP Richard Gallardo vs. LHP Noah Cameron

Saturday, April 8 - 7:30 PM ET: LHP Luke Little vs. RHP William Fleming

Sunday, April 9 - 2:00 PM ET: RHP Brandon Birdsell vs RHP Chandler Champlain

Catch the entire three-game series in Davenport on Sports Radio 960 AM WSBT, online at wsbtradio.com, or on MiLB.com with Brendan King on the call.

Check out the South Bend Cubs Statistics



Midwest League Stories from April 6, 2023


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