Cubs Minor League News: Ballesteros homers in third straight game |
In case you haven't been paying attention, and let's be honest, the Arizona Fall League may not be at the top of your list, but the Mesa Solar Sox have gotten a bit of a run the past week to stretch their record to 13-7 and remain one of the best teams in the league. This time, the Solar Sox went to work against the Surprise Saguaros as their offense continued to steal the show of late.
Despite Jonathon Long missing another game, which is starting to become either a concern or a mystery, depending on how you look at it, the Solar Sox still have plenty of firepower from the top down. This continued on Monday with a dominating 13-7 victory over the Saguaros. Eight of those 11 runs came after the seventh inning, including back-to-back three-run frames in the eighth and ninth inning to break the game wide open. Although Long was missing another game, the other two Cubs bats were in the mix, including Ben Cowles, who went back to his normal spot in the lineup of hitting sixth or seventh. When you look at Cowles numbers this fall, they are not going to jump out at you, but in his case you can't look at the numbers to gage his success. Cowles missed over three months with a broken wrist and only played in a handful of games after being traded from the Yankees to the Cubs organization. Now, in the fall league, Cowles is using this time to gain as many extra reps as he can, and for the most part, the results haven't been great unless you look at the defensive skills he has been showing. Cowles ended a brief hitless streak by going 1-5 in this one, but with a .239 average, there is still a lot to be desired, as the Cubs hope he can turn the corner sooner rather than later. While Cowles may not be doing much at the plate, Moises Ballesteros continues to lead the Solar Sox offense, which is impressive to see from such a young player. Coming off an organizational player of the year honor as the Cubs best minor league hitter, Ballesteros has continued to build off that season with a strong fall league thus far and is putting himself right in the middle of the AFL MVP conversation as we speak. Ballesteros continued to do his thing at the plate by picking up another hit to keep his average at .373, but as has been the case on most of his hits, he made that hit count. Leading 5-4 in the seventh, Ballesteros put the game away with his two-run shot and now has five homers for the season. He is up to 14 RBIs this season which ranks him near the top of the AFL leaderboard as he continues to impress every day. If Ballesteros managed to keep this pace up for an entire season, you're looking at a 40-plus homer and 110-plus RBI guy, which is all the Cubs could ask for from a young prospect. That is one thing that the Cubs are going to think long and hard about as Spring Training begins.
