South Bend Cubs Gameday Program - May 2023

McGeary Mashing

THE CHICAGO CUBS 15TH ROUND PICK FROM LAST YEAR'S MLB DRAFT IS FLOURISHING EARLY IN HIS CAREER

By: Max Thoma

There’s a baseball essay titled “The Green Fields of the Mind” by former MLB Commissioner Bartlett

Giamatti (who is in fact Paul Giammati’s dad, for what it’s worth). It’s an incredible piece about baseball, but there’s a sentence that when I read it, or hear it aloud, I can’t help but picture what I see from Haydn McGeary daily in batting practice…

“Now he looks over some low stuff unworthy of him and then, uncoiling, sends one out, straight on a rising line, over the centerfield wall, no cheap Fenway shot, but all of it, the physics as elegant as the arc the ball describes.”

Bartlett was not only the seventh Commissioner of Baseball but also the 19th President of Yale University and waxes poetically, while romanticizing about baseball. Every year after the final out of the Red Sox season their broadcaster Joe Castiglione actually reads a portion of this essay.

Well McGeary's story is one that isn't quite as romantic, but a story still that truly makes you want to believe in the power of persistence. You can't help but pull for a guy who has perhaps his whole life been undervalued.

Now there are a myriad of paths to

becoming a professional baseball player. For players born in the United States that path to being selected in the MLB Draft is often one of these four: drafted straight out of high school, drafted after three years at a Division I school, drafted out of Junior College, or drafted after going to Junior College and then transferring to a DI program.

High school kids come less developed physically, with boundless potential, but with often more questions than answers. With JUCO college kids and DI athletes you get a more finished product, a more mature player whose played at a higher level, but guys that generally don’t have the same type of robust room for growth.

Then there are the Haydn McGeary’s of the world.

McGeary grew up in Phoenix and in his final year of high school baseball put up some incredibly gaudy numbers. At 6-foot-4 and 225 pounds, the burly right-handed hitter raked to the tune of a .522 batting average, while finishing top-10 in the nation in homers, and being named the Arizona 4A Player of the Year.

The intangibles seemed to be there and the numbers catapulted off the page, but despite the lofty accolades, the college offers

Haydn McGeary steps into the box for Colorado Mesa University.

Credit: Courtney Thompson.

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did not roll in.

McGeary found himself at Colorado Mesa University in 2019, a DII school in Grand Junction, Colorado.

In year one he helped guide the Mavs to the National Championship game. In 36 games McGeary hit .347 and launched 11 home runs. Impressive as that may sound, it would be by far his worst season in college.

In the shortened Covid season that followed the Arizona product hit .471 with nine homers in a mere 18 games.

As a junior he blasted a career-best 20 homers and slugged .973, which is almost unfathomable. While McGeary’s numbers obviously came at the DII level, just for reference sake, the highest slugging percentage in the MLB last year was produced by Aaron Judge, who broke the AL home run record; he slugged .709.

In his senior season McGeary, who had developed a knack for topping himself year after year, just kept getting better. For the

whopping .579.

Colorado Mesa University often turns high school kids into MLB Draft picks, they’re no slouch despite their DII status.

From 2000 through 2021 the Mavs had produced 19 players that had been selected in the MLB Draft, though 18 of those were chosen in the 14th round or later.

In 2022 they added three more draft picks, tied for the second most they’d had in a single year in the program’s history.

But McGeary’s path to the pros wasn’t yet complete. He’d try to boost his draft stock

second year in a row he hit exactly .481 (consistency you say?!), and this time he crushed 35 homers.

In 2022 he actually slugged 1.061, which if it was an OPS would be dominant, but as a slugging percentage it’s much closer to say, other worldly. That’s without even mentioning the 43 walks he drew in 57 games, helping him to produce an on-base percentage of a

one final time with a summer playing in the Appalachian League, a collegiate wooden bat summer league.

The powerful slugger showed up and dominated with the Bluefield Ridge Runners: that summer he batted .403 with a 1.104 OPS and 17 extra-base hits in 30 games.

The DII National player of the year would hear his name called by the Chicago Cubs in the 15th round of the MLB Draft.

“He’s accumulated some off-the-charts, Nintendo-type numbers,” Cubs Vice President of Scouting Dan Kantrovitz told the Chicago Tribune last year. “It’s backed up by some context-neutral data points as well when we’re talking about the exit [velocity] and how the ball just flies off his bat.”

Watching McGeary and reading about

McGeary fired up with his Mavs teammates after scoring a run.

Credit: Courtney Thompson.

McGeary celebrating after homering for the first time as a South Bend Cub.

Credit: Ethan Levy.

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McGeary, I'm telling you it's easy to picture the majestic arcing homer you read at the beginning.

past spring and last year led the entire Cubs system in walk rate.

McGeary didn’t debut at the pro level until he was 22, and in his rookie season he only appeared in 18 games total after being drafted. In 18 games he drove in 11 runs, homered once, and batted .273.

But most importantly, he got his feet went before entering his first full season of pro ball, similar to what we saw the Cubs do with Jordan Wicks in 2021.

The Cubs have seemingly developed a knack for spotting underrated talent in the 15th round.

In 2017 the North Siders selected Jared Young, an infielder from Old Dominion. By 2018 Young was named the Chicago Cubs Minor League Player of the Year after hitting .300 between his time in Myrtle Beach and South Bend.

Last fall Young made it up to the big leagues and tallied five hits in six games, batting .263 across three series in the middle of September.

Two years prior Chicago picked Scott Effross in the 15th round of the 2015 Draft. The right-handed reliever came onto the scene in 2021 with 14 solid appearances out of the bullpen and in 2022 twirled a stellar season between the Cubs and Yankees, ultimately finishing with a 2.54 ERA in 60 appearances.

Effross was so highly valued the Cubs were able to trade him for a Yankees super talented starting pitcher in Hayden Wesneski. Even in 2021 the Cubs selected B.J. Murray, whose incredible eye at the plate has mightily impressed throughout his short time in the farm system. Murray played with Great Britain in the World Baseball Classic this

Wicks was selected in the first round in 2021 and joined South Bend for the final three series of the season to get a taste of the minors before a full offseason of working to improve.

In a day and age where you can’t read about baseball or watch analysts talk about the game without hearing references to launch angle, exit velocity, spin rate, induced vertical break, and more, McGeary is producing numbers every baseball fan and expert, both young and old, can appreciate. There aren’t many players of his size that

The Cubs dugout mobs McGeary after he clobbered his first home run at Four Winds Field.

Credit: Casey McDonald.

Jared Young batting at Four Winds Field in early April of 2018.

Credit: Casey McDonald.

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have such prolific bat-to-ball skills, consistently putting up .300 average seasons year, after year, after year. But nowadays there’s almost more jaws dropping at the raw metrics prospects produce than their individual stat lines do.

And in batting practice, there just simply aren’t many that can impress like McGeary can.

In his first week at Four Winds Field he hit a ball out to left field that left the park in a blur, whizzing through the air like a jet bound for a faraway destination. It left the bat at 114 MPH and traveled 458 feet.

Anyone who has been fortunate enough to watch McGeary play knows how powerful his bat is and how much potential he possesses. When he took batting practice on Opening Night in South Bend, reporters kept asking us if they could talk with the brawny first baseman, before they'd ever even seen him play in person.

It's a small sample certainly, but here's what McGeary has produced in his first 2.5 weeks in South Bend, 2.5 weeks in which he's the only player who has started in each and every game.

McGeary in 15 games is batting .373 with nine extra-base hits, two homers, and 12 RBIs. He's already drawn 10 walks and has posted a .464 on-base percentage to this point in April.

Compared with the rest of the Midwest League he's second in batting average, second in RBIs, second in OPS, third in slugging percentage, and fifth in on-base percentage.

Plus he leads the whole league in hits, doubles, and extra-base hits.

Every year there are a few players that shoot through a given farm system, sometimes out of seemingly nowhere like with Matt Mervis in 2022.

Mervis started the year in South Bend, destroyed Midwest League pitching, and got promoted twice during the season. Mervis finished the year in AAA-Iowa and simply never slowed down all season long. He possesses an incredible amount of power yet hits super well in terms of his average as well.

Sound familiar?

If I was a betting man, Haydn McGeary would be near the top of my list of position players who could move up multiple levels. He’s got the power, the discipline, the intangibles and sometimes just blows you away with a single swing.

It's easy to pull for a guy that just kept on grinding, a player who was incredible in high

school but never got the chance to play at a big college. A guy who played four years at the Division II level, then played a summer of collegiate ball after graduating, and wasn't drafted until the 15th round.

Fans in South Bend are going to love McGeary, he's a clutch hitter oozing with potential who works his darn tail off. But that said, they shouldn’t get too accustomed to seeing his name on the videoboard, for it feels like his flight to Tennessee isn’t too far way.

McGeary walking around in the Cubs firstbase dugout during pregame.

Credit: Casey McDonald.

PLAYOFF PERTUZ

FABIAN PERTUZ LOOKS FOR ANOTHER SOUTH BEND CUBS RING WHILE HAVING HIS EYES SET ON WRIGLEY FIELD

By: Brendan King

Every championship team in any given sport can always point for specific moments in their season that acted as turning points in the quest to the top. For the South Bend Cubs and their 2022 Midwest League Championship, you can point to multiple highlight memories.

Owen Caissie’s walk-off grand slam comes to mind, or all those comeback wins at Four Winds Field. But a late June of 2022 summer night is what started the true belief. South Bend had been in a battle against the Cedar Rapids Kernels that final week of June in Downtown South Bend. Coincidentally, the Kernels would be the team the Cubs would meet in the first round of the Midwest League postseason.

On June 25, Fabian Pertuz ripped a walk-off RBI single to beat Cedar Rapids. That was the point in the year that the South Bend roster was really morphing into what it would ultimately become; Championship level. Pertuz was the guy that had been there all along though. He hit the first home run of the year on Opening Day, and that walk-off rifled the Cubs up the standings in their pursuit of the postseason.

After the game, Pertuz spoke on the field with Max Thoma for the postgame interview. In an answer that has resonated since last

June with the team and media, Pertuz said simply, “I want to go to the playoffs.”

It was from that moment that things changed. The playoffs became the obsession of that team, and they in turn reached their goal. Not just appearing, but dominating to a championship.

Since then, Pertuz is the same easy-going, confident, and genuine personality that South Bend Cubs fans got to know on an everyday basis last year. He’s back with South Bend to start 2023,and since last September, he’s gone

Credit: Langston Johnson.

through multiple new life experiences on the diamond.

What’s the same? The goal. The only thing that Pertuz has his eyes locked in on is winning.

“Our goal is to do it again,” Pertuz said. “The guys on this team came here to play hard not just today, but everyday. I believe in this team and these guys. Whether they are players here right now, or if they come from Myrtle Beach or the ACL (Arizona Complex League), I believe that with this coaching staff we can go to the championship again.”

Fabian Pertuz being interviewed by Max Thoma after his walk-off base hit.

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It’s the right mentality to have for a player like Pertuz, who in the grand scheme of things is still very young. At just 22-years-old, Pertuz returning for another year in South Bend is a different feeling for him. An older player spending two years at High-A could be troublesome, but Pertuz is getting a chance to play everyday at Four Winds Field; Something he may not have available at somewhere like Double-A Tennessee.

A log-jam of infielders in the organization that starts at the top from Wrigley Field with Dansby Swanson and Nico Hoerner, then Triple-A with the likes of David Bote and Christopher Morel. Double-A Tennessee features Chase Strumpf, Luis Verdugo, and Andy Weber all competing for playing time.Then there are the players such as Cristian Hernandez at Low-A Myrtle Beach mwho is regarded as one of the best shortstop prospects in the game. Additionally, as Ed Howard continues to rehab back from his injury, where does he fit in there?

All of that boils down to one question. What makes Fabian Pertuz a name that should be on the top of many lists when it

comes to the future of a Chicago Cubs starting infield? Simple. The year-by-year improvement, and range displayed on a daily basis.

Early on this season, the patience at the plate, as well as speed on the base paths is what has defined the 2023 South Bend Cubs. It has been well documented that Yohendrick Pinango was one-third of the way to the number of walks that they had all of last season before April ended. But the same can be said about Pertuz, as he gets older, he gets more selective. In the last week of April, Pertuz had an on-base streak that tallied a double digit amount of games. Plus, he was also nearly halfway to his 2022 base on balls total through only 12 games this year.

Stats are nice, but becoming a multifaceted baseball player is how guys get to the Big Leagues fast. Last season, Pertuz started out splitting time between second and third base. That was before he started playing shortstop practically everyday following Howard’s injury.

Here in 2023, it’s the same type of deal to start. Pertuz has shuffled between third, second, and shortstop with Kevin Made

Pertuz makes a throw over to first base while off balance and charging a slow grounder.

Credit: Tim Reilly.

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starting the year in South Bend and getting most of the time at short. That has not deterred Pertuz, he embraces being able to play all over.

“After last year I have not played a lot of second base but I still try and practice everyday with Coach DJ (D’Angelo Jiménez),” Pertuz said. “I can feel comfortable playing second base, but I feel great at shortstop most. I will play anywhere they need me, even third base too. It’s important to stay ready for anywhere.”

Being able to stay ready and expect the unexpected suited Pertuz well as his name was called this spring to participate in the World Baseball Classic and play for his home country of Colombia. With Team Colombia,

Pertuz played a consistent amount of time for Colombia, mainly at second base, which included a start and signature moment against the United States. Playing against some of the top talent in the game, Pertuz had a base hit, coincidently off of Kendall

Pertuz was tasked as one of the youngest starting players, and got to be teammates around the infield with big leaguers Gio Urshela and Jorge Alfaro.

“I want to say that it was the most tense but fun moment you can have going to the WBC,” Pertuz said as he chuckled thinking about his experience. “A lot of guys playing were from MLB or coming from The Show, and other guys did not have the opportunity to go there. But there were memories made that I’m going to have for the rest of my life.”

Credit: Joe Rondone, The Republic.

Graveman for the USA. Of course, Graveman won the 2019 Midwest League Championship with the South Bend Cubs, while Pertuz, the 2022 champ, had the base knock.

There were also plenty of photos making the rounds of Pertuz in the infield and the likes of Mike Trout and others in the background of the photographs. Pertuz helped turn three Colombia double plays in their loss against the USA, one of them forcing Trout out at second base.

“That game against the United States I was so excited,” Pertuz said. “When you get to a type of feel and moment like that, you just try to take it all in a play. Playing guys like Mike Trout, Mookie Betts, and Trea Turner, those are the guys I want to go play in the Big Leagues. And I know I can play at that level.”

As Pertuz grew up as a young player in Colombia dreaming of getting to this stage, he reflected back to his childhood during our interview together for this story at Dow Diamond in Midland, Michigan. Pertuz credits

Pertuz batting at Four Winds Field against the Beloit Sky Carp.

Credit: Tim Reilly.

Fabian Pertuz turning a double play for Colombia as they take on the United States.

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his parents for getting him to this point, and his idol, Derek Jeter, for the love of playing the middle infield. Specifically shortstop.

The day before the interview, Pertuz made a Derek Jeter style jump in and throw in the hole at short. The next day, he brought up Jeter as one of the biggest influences on his game. As he credited South Bend Cubs bench

obsessed with getting towards. Interestingly enough, Pertuz has only heard about and seen pictures of Wrigley Field. He has never been to The Friendly Confines. But anytime he sees a photo, all he can envision is someday running out of that dugout for a sunny Friday start at 1:20 PM.

“Sometimes when we are going to the field on the bus or when we are running out of the dugout at home or on the road I close my eyes and imagine what that same feeling would be if I was at Wrigley Field,” Pertuz added.

So yes, the infield depth chart for the Chicago Cubs right now is quite frankly stacked. And as per everything in the game, nothing is guaranteed. If one thing is for sure, Pertuz has the work ethic to climb up those ranks. It’s just a matter of those daydreams becoming reality, and walking around Waveland and Sheffield to see the real thing for the first time on the bus or when we are running out of the dugout at home or on the road I close my eyes and imagine what that same feeling would be if I was at Wrigley Field,” Pertuz added.

coach D’Angelo Jiménez earlier for helping his development in the field, Pertuz is about as close to Jeter as you can get. After all, ‘DJ’ made his Big League debut at Yankee Stadium playing next to Jeter at 3rd base before they ultimately won a World Series together.

It’s that type of level that Pertuz is so

So yes, the infield depth chart for the Chicago Cubs right now is quite frankly stacked. And as per everything in the game, nothing is guaranteed. If one thing is for sure, Pertuz has the work ethic to climb up those ranks. It’s just a matter of those daydreams becoming reality, and walking around Waveland and Sheffield to see the real thing for the first time.

Pertuz, a versatile defender, who can play three spots on the infield. Here he is playing third base.

Credit: Tim Reilly.

2023 SOUTH BEND CUBS COACHING STAFF

Lance Rymel - Manager

Rymel returns for year two as Manager of the South Bend Cubs. In 2021 he was the Rookie League Mesa Cubs Manager. Later that year, he managed the Mesa Solar Sox in the Arizona Fall League and won the league title. This will be his eighth season as a coach or manager in the Cubs organization, where he also managed Single-A Eugene in 2019 following two seasons at the helm of the Cubs Dominican Summer League squad in 2017-18. Rymel began his coaching career in 2016 following a three-year minor league playing career as a catcher in the Cubs system from 2012-14. Rymel was selected by the Cubs in the 28th round of the 2012 Draft out of Rogers State.

Clayton Mortensen - Pitching Coach

Mortensen spent the 2021 and 2022 seasons as the pitching coach for Low-A Myrtle Beach and will begin his third season in the Cubs organization. Mortensen spent 2019 as the Pitching Coach for the Idaho Falls Chukars of the Pioneer League where his team won the 2019 Pioneer League championship. Mortensen was drafted by St. Louis in the first round (36th) of the 2007 draft and spent five years in Major League Baseball playing for St. Louis, Oakland, Colorado, and Boston.

Dan Puente - Hitting Coach

Puente returns as the hitting coach for South Bend. This marks Puente’s fourth season in the Cubs farm system. In 2021, Puente was the hitting coach for low-A Myrtle Beach. He has been a hitting and catching instructor at Elite Baseball Training since 2012, a technology-infused baseball and softball instructional company created by the Cubs Director of Hitting Justin Stone. Puente also served as an associate scout for the Houston Astros and from 2008-12 was the Manager of Youth Baseball Initiatives for the White. Sox. A former catcher, he was selected by Baltimore in the 12th round of the 2004 Draft and played two minor league seasons.

D’Angelo Jiménez - Bench Coach

D’Angelo Jiménez will continue to serve as the bench coach for the South Bend Cubs. He previously held the role of hitting coach for the DSL Cubs in 2021 and this will be his sixth season overall in the organization. Jiménez came up with the Yankees as a player and spent eight years playing in the MLB from 1999 to 2007, appearing with seven different teams. Primarily a Second Baseman, Jiménez would spend time at shortstop and third base.

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The Legend of Luke

LUKE LITTLE, THE CUBS GIANT LEFTHANDED PITCHING PROSPECT, IS BLOWING AWAY THE OPPOSITION

By Max Thoma

The Guinness World Record for fastest pitch thrown is 105.8 mph. It was near the end of the season, on September 24, 2010 and you probably have a pretty good idea of who threw it: Aroldis Chapman.

The fastest pitch ever thrown in college baseball history was actually just last year. Tennessee Volunteers flamethrowing Ben Joyce chucked a fastball versus Auburn that clocked in at 105.5. Ben Joyce wound up being chosen by the Los Angeles Angels in the third round of the 2022 MLB Draft and actually skipped rookie ball, Low-A, and High-A and started his pro career last year in AA-Rocket City.

Those two fastballs are simply incredible and nearly unhittable, though in fairness Joyce’s actually missed the zone for a ball. And for reference sake the hardest thrown pitch in the MLB last season was 104.2, coming from the arm of Saint Louis Cardinals reliever Ryan Helsley.

In the spring of 2020 there were no baseball games being played at the professional or collegiate level. Covid-19 had ended college seasons short and stopped many professional ones before they even began.

On March 6, MLB and the MLBPA agreed to shorten the 2020 MLB Draft to five rounds. So naturally, it became difficult to showcase your

potential to scouts.

So for guys like pitcher Luke Little, a junior college hard-throwing lefty, they had to get a bit creative.

In May of 2020 a video surfaced that took the baseball world on social media a bit by storm.

Little, in an indoor bullpen session, had hurled a 105 mph fastball. You can just picture the eyes of front office baseball ops personnel and farm directors widening as they watch a 6-foot-8 lefty sit 101-102 and top out at 105.

I’m sure most people immediately conjured up an image of Chapman and all the years he’d locked down saves in the ninth inning with his vicious heater.

The video of Little I’m talking about is still one of the first things that comes up when you Google his name. It’s a video posted by Pitching Ninja on YouTube, Pitching Ninja is big in the baseball ranks for posting clips of the nastiest pitches and pitchers in the game, and the video as of the moment I’m writing this has nearly 1.5 million views.

Little had been ranked just outside of the top 150 MLB Draft eligible prospects by MLB. com, so it’s not like he wasn’t on the radar for MLB teams, but you had to imagine this type

Luke Little (right) walks off the field with catcher Casey Opitz (left) after a strikeout. Credit: Casey McDonald.

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It seems fitting that so many people saw Little and their brains conjured up an image of Chapman, because four years after Chapman helped the Chicago Cubs end their 108-year World Series drought, Luke Little was taken by the Cubs with the 117th overall pick in the 2022 MLB Draft.

Little was born in Charlotte, North Carolina and went to play college ball at San Jacinto College, a junior college in Houston, Texas. The Gators baseball program is tremendous and the team has won five National Championships and appeared in 27 JUCO World Series. San Jacinto has a long list of alumni that have made it to the big leagues and had tremendous careers. Incredible MLB starters like Roger Clemens and Andy Pettitte were both Gators.

As a freshman the big lefty went 3-1 with a 2.04 ERA in 17 appearances, six of which were starts. His stuff, when his control was on, dominated the opposition. In 35.1 innings he allowed a mere 18 hits and only one home run, while striking out a completely ludicrous 69 batters. The only thing holding him back at all was the walks, which piled up to 36 by the end of the season.

Before the 2020 season was cut short, Little made five more collegiate appearances as the Gators closer. He tallied three saves on

the year and did still make one start on the hill. In nine total innings he allowed three hits, two runs, and punched out 17.

That means in 44.1 collegiate innings, the lefty struck out 86 opposing hitters, nearly two per inning.

However, with the 2020 Minor League Baseball season cancelled, Little, like many others, lost valuable in-game experience throughout the entire year and he didn’t make his debut until August 28, 2021 with the rookie affiliate of the Cubs in Arizona.

His 2021 season on paper looks rather insignificant in the grand scheme of a young players development. He made four appearances, three starts, struck out 15 and went 0-1 with a 4.50 ERA. It was a usage that mirrored his covid-shortened final college season in terms of the in-game experience.

But 2022 was totally different. After nearly a year-anda-half in the Cubs system, working on his development, Little was ready to showcase his talents for the entirety of a professional baseballseason.

So he did.

Little broke camp on time and began the season in Low-A Myrtle Beach with the Pelicans. The lefty with the highest velocity fastball in the 2020 draft shoved in the Carolina League, breezing through lineups to the tune of a 2.91 ERA in 20 appearances, 19

Luke Little making his first home start of the 2023 season.

Credit: Ethan Levy.

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By midsummer the 21-year-old was in rare form. In July he amassed 25 strikeouts in 15.2 innings while allowing just two runs, good enough for a 1.15 ERA for the entire month. He finished the month with 13.2 straight scoreless innings and was names the Chicago Cubs Minor League Pitcher of the Month.

On August 12 Little was promoted to High-A South Bend. He finished the year making three starts with the Cubs and allowing just one run in 10.2 innings.

After an incredible season, one in which opposing hitters batted just .180 against him,

Arizona, throwing on the back fields and working in the pitching lab, working on continuing to develop his secondary pitches and working on his endurance and longevity. The slider seems to have really improved and now he features a nasty splitter to complete his three-pitch mix.

Many prognosticators see Little as a future bullpen arm, a lefty who could come

his hard work was paid off not just with the midseason promotion, but with a Midwest League Championship.

It wasn’t long before Little was back in

in during high leverage situations and strand runners with his swing-and-miss stuff, like a Chapman or Andrew Miller.

On July 22 of last year Little threw four full innings for the first time in his pro career. He matched that in his final home start of the year on August 30 when he tossed four perfect innings, striking out five, including the side in order in the third inning.

Luke Little working from the stretch against the Beloit Sky Carp. Credit: Ethan Levy.

Luke Little (right) hoisting the Midwest League Championship trophy with South Bend Cubs Owner and Chairman Andrew Berlin. Credit: Casey McDonald.

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If it was five or six years ago, Little would probably find himself among the Cubs top 30 prospects on MLB Pipeline, probably even top 20 or top 15.

But the Cubs farm system is as loaded as it’s been with starting pitching in a long time.

Chicago's plethora of arms includes many drafted and internally developed guys like Jordan Wicks, DJ Herz, Cade Horton, Jackson Ferris, Kohl Franklin, Porter Hodge, and Luke Little.

But in recent years what has helped springboard this group is through trades.

The likes of Ben Brown, Caleb Killian, and Hayden Wesneski have come over in big deadline deals with the likes of the Phillies, Giants, and Yankees respectively.

even better than before. Now as a 22-year-old, Little’s first three starts of the season combined for 10.2 innings of work and just one earned run allowed.

The ERA stands at 0.84 as we enter the final week of April and his strikeouts-pernine-innings has blossomed to 10.1. The slider looks nasty this year and paired with the lethal fastball he may just continue to dominate the Midwest League.

So here’s a 6-foot-8 southpaw with a cannon of an arm, slowly increasing how deep he can work into games and hanging just outside many writers list of top Cubs prospects.

He’s simply a fascinating player to keep an eye on, competitive, fiery, and built like a stretch four in the NBA.

But what makes Little different is the rareness of his ability and arm strength when combined with his size.

As of writing this article, five players have appeared in an MLB game this year that are listed at 6-foot-8 or taller. All five of them are pitchers, and all right-handed arms. Finding a left-hander, as tall as Little, with the raw arm strength he possesses is truly rare.

Plus so far in his 2023 season, he looks

Little certainly has that breakout potential, another full year like last year, but with fewer walks and beginning to touch the fifth inning of games could see him shoot up prospect rankings; the potential is there.

The fastball is huge, the slider is devastating, the personality is large, and the dude is massive. So in reality there really is nothing little about him, except his name.

The tall Little shows great balance, with his high leg kick and 6-foot-8 frame, every pitch he throws get on batters in a hurry.

Credit: Kayleigh Sedlacek.

Little walking off the mound after finishing off an inning vs Lake County.

Credit: Kayleigh Sedlacek.

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