South Bend Cubs Homestand Preview: August 22-27

Home sweet home! After their second longest road trip of the season, the South Bend Cubs are back at Four Winds Field with only three regular season series left to go in the 2023 campaign. Coming up this week, it’s a six-game battle against longtime rival and the First Half West Division Champions, the Cedar Rapids Kernels.

Over the last two weeks, South Bend reacquainted themselves with rivals of the past from the East Division in the Lake County Captains and the West Michigan Whitecaps. Both the Captains and Whitecaps are on a playoff push just like the Cubs, and the home teams won each series.

As the Cubs return home to face Cedar Rapids, who is waiting on their opponent in the first round of the Division Series, South Bend is officially in crunch time. Chasing three teams ahead of them in the Peoria Chiefs, Beloit Sky Carp and Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, South Bend is 7.5 games back of a playoff spot with 18 games to go.

It’s not over until it’s over. South Bend is going to need some help though from ball clubs around the league. Most of all, the Cubs need to take care of their own business. After this series against Cedar Rapids, South Bend will travel to Fort Wayne to face off against the TinCaps in their final scheduled road series, and then come home to face Quad Cities in the last regular season homestand.

South Bend’s lineup has been bolstered with the likes of Matt Shaw and Josh Rivera, the Chicago Cubs 1st and 3rd round picks from 2023. Rivera put together his second three-hit game since being assigned to South Bend in West Michigan. And Shaw saw his 10-game hitting streak end, but he had multiple hits on Sunday afternoon to start a fresh one.

On the mound, Yovanny Cabrera made his Midwest League debut out of the bullpen after being promoted earlier this week from the Myrtle Beach Pelicans. He pitched a combined 2.2 innings between two appearances, and allowed only one unearned run.

The Cubs are also getting solid pitching still late in games from Frankie Scalzo Jr. With a save on Friday night against the Whitecaps, Scalzo has eight of them on the season. He has pitched in all kinds of roles this year from long to short relief, but wherever he is, he excels.

A series win is required this week if the Cubs want to catch Peoria and the bunch. Of note, Peoria hosts West Michigan, who is leading the East Division and playing excellent baseball. Wisconsin matches up with Quad Cities in Appleton, and Beloit goes against Lake County at ABC Supply Stadium.

There will be some scoreboard watching no doubt, as the Cubs try to climb back up the West.

Players to watch on Cedar Rapids…

Emmanuel Rodriguez, OF: The #3 overall prospect for the Minnesota Twins has had a pretty underwhelming year in full, but that doesn’t mean he’s not supremely talented. This is a guy who was given 2.5 million dollars at the time of signing, and there’s a ton of pop in his bat. He’s got 15 home runs, but is only hitting .227 for the year. Against South Bend in seven games played, Rodriguez has only gone 4/25. What is all of this adding up to? He’s due. If Cedar Rapids is going to have success in the playoffs, Rodriguez is going to have to have a sharp stretch. Statistically, he’s having his second best month, batting .264 in August after hitting .277 in June. What also stands out, for a guy with a ton of power, he walks a lot. He has taken 77 walks in 84 games. He may have 113 strikeouts, but he walked more than he K’d at Low-A last season, so that can be adjusted certainly. MLB.com writes, “Rodriguez’s best tool continues to be his tremendous raw power, with a combination of bat speed and plate discipline allowing him to tap into it fairly consistently already. The left-handed hitter has worked to keep his bat in the zone longer, and while there’s still work to be done, he didn’t swing through strikes as much as he did in his pro debut. He makes a ton of hard contact and should continue to show the ability to drive the ball as he moves up the organizational ladder.”

Jordan Carr, LHP: When you want to win a Midwest League Championship, you’re going to need strong arms in the bullpen. There’s no way around that. If your bullpen fails, you will not be a championship team. We’ve seen it twice in South Bend. 2019 the bullpen was rock solid, and it was again in 2022. Cedar Rapids has one of the best lefty options in the Midwest League with Jordan Carr. This is what you need to know. Carr has not given up an earned run since May 20 against the Peoria Chiefs. Since that point, Carr posted ERA’s of 0.00 in both June, July, and so far in August. The only thing is he hasn’t been able to stay healthy. He has had injured list stints in both June and July. What’s impressive though, is he picked up right where he left off both times when landing on the shelf. He did surrender two runs, unearned, at Quad Cities on August 10. But the success he has seen this season has also been against the Cubs, including one start. Carr has pitched versus South Bend twice, posting 9.2 innings of one run baseball with nine strikeouts. Pitching pretty much exclusively out of the bullpen for the Kernels, he’s a threat to all lefties and South Bend will need to be prepared.

Kyler Fedko, OF: ‘The Kyler Fedko Experience’ has been an interesting one across the Midwest League. Starting ice cold in April, Fedko hit the Development List mid-season, and has seemingly picked things up lately in August, batting .300 this month. Fedko’s last game played on Saturday featured a 2/3 night against Wisconsin, along with a home run. The former UCONN Huskie was a 12th round pick of the Twins back in 2021, and he was a part of the playoff run for Cedar Rapids last year too. Fedko has shown that he can get it done at multiple levels, posting a .318 batting average in 26 games last year with Low-A Fort Myers. Fedko is going to have to prove it down the road to remain on top of the outfield options for the Twins, but this month may be salvaging his 2023.

Players to watch on South Bend…

Felix Stevens, INF/OF: The big man just keeps raking. Felix Stevens already owns the longest hitting streak by a South Bend Cub this season, and he’s already got 10 home runs in about 50 games played since coming up from Myrtle Beach. In total, Stevens has got 23 home runs, and it’s amazing that he’s doing all of this while not even on the Top-30 Prospects List for the Cubs through MLB Pipeline. Stevens definitely deserves it, but that’s how deep the Cubs are right now. Christian Franklin is now the #30 overall prospect, and Franklin joined Stevens, along with Moises Ballesteros as Cubs to homer twice up in West Michigan. The Stevens home runs were majestic shots. Both of them were clubbed over the right-center field wall, and I’ve never seen a player in West Michigan from the right side of the plate send a drive to the top of their stadium club in right-center. What is so promising about Stevens’ clutch ability isn’t just that these home runs are coming in big moments, but he is learning to adjust his swing based off what he is given. He has all the pull power in the world, but he is showing he doesn’t need it all the time. He can hammer a ball to right, and turn on one to left depending on the pitch. Stevens is going to be a Top-30 prospect at some point, it’s just a matter of time. Until then, enjoy the show.

Brody McCullough, RHP: What is most encouraging when watching a young pitcher on the mound is seeing their ability to battle through adversity. For Cubs righty Brody McCullough, he breezed through the Carolina League on his way to South Bend. McCullough has shined at moments, and has also been through long starts at others. What I love most out of him was what we saw in his last outing against West Michigan. On Friday night, McCullough matched up with former Tigers #3 overall pick Jackson Jobe. Most of the scouts in attendance were there to watch Jobe, but it was McCullough who had the last laugh. It took some battling, but Brody hung tough and hung some zeroes against the Whitecaps. The turning point of the game, which the Cubs came out on top in, was the 1st inning. McCullough saw the bases loaded early. West Michigan was threatening, trying to win their fourth straight game of the series. That was until McCullough locked down and got the Cubs out of the inning. A run came home to score in the inning, courtesy of a catcher’s interference call. West Michigan had all the momentum with a crowd of 8,000 on hand cheering them on. With his back against the wall, McCullough got Andrew Jenkins to pop out, and then struck out Izaac Pacheco to end the inning. Later on, after a lead-off single, McCullough induced a 5-4-3 double play ball to get out of another jam. McCullough is also most recently now a Top-30 prospect for the Cubs. MLB.com writes, “McCullough works aggressively with his fastball, which sits in the low 90s and tops out at 95 mph but stands out more with a flat approach angle and its carry and late action up in the strike zone. His best secondary pitch is a low-80s slider that should become a solid offering with more consistency."

Luis Verdugo, 3B: One of the biggest pieces to South Bend’s 2022 Championship runs, Luis Verdugo had arguably his best series since coming back to the Cubs at the midseason point. He’s batting .421 in his last five games, and that goes along with a 1.134 OPS in that time. Of course, the defense for Verdugo speaks for itself. He helped turn one of the prettier double plays that the Cubs have executed this season between him, Josh Rivera at second, and back to Felix Stevens at first. Since Verdugo came back to High-A, he had been in search of the same consistency he had for most, if not all of last season. Also love his swing in the 10th inning from Saturday night. Man at third, infield in, Verdugo hit one over the shortstop Gage Workman’s head into left, at the time giving the Cubs the lead. The approach remains fantastic from the Cubs third baseman. With three more series to go, if Verdugo puts a solid stretch together, that can really set the tone for his 2024 season. Of course, this year started out slow with the Tennessee Smokies, but the Verdugo swagger is something that not a lot of prospects have. Verdugo’s got a confidence in himself, that when going at his best, is really hard for pitchers to beat. Look for Verdugo to carry on what he did in West Michigan against the Kernels, and then if he does that, look out Fort Wayne.

Schedule…

Tuesday, August 22 - 7:05 PM ET: LHP Christian MacLeod vs RHP Tyler Santana - My Michiana

Wednesday, August 23 - 7:05 PM ET: RHP Andrew Morris vs. RHP Connor Noland - Marquee Sports Network

Thursday, August 24 - 7:05 PM ET: RHP Cory Lewis vs. RHP Grant Kipp

Friday, August 25 - 7:05 PM ET: RHP C.J. Culpepper vs. RHP Brody McCullough

Saturday, August 26 - 7:05 PM ET: RHP Zebby Matthews vs. RHP Luis Devers

Sunday, August 27 - 2:05 PM ET: RHP Kyle Jones vs. RHP Michael Arias

Catch the entire six-game series against Cedar Rapids on Sports Radio 960 AM WSBT, online at wsbtradio.com, or on MiLB.com with Max Thoma and Brendan King on the call.