Ruoff Mortgage Homestand Preview: June 23-28

The second-half of the Midwest League season is officially underway, and the South Bend Cubs are set to return home for the first time since they clinched the West Division first-half playoff spot two weekends ago at Four Winds Field. The Cubs are back from Fort Wayne, where they just wrapped up their third and final regular season series against the TinCaps. This week, they’ll host the Quad Cities River Bandits, Midwest League affiliate of the Kansas City Royals.

We’ve talked all about this on South Bend Cubs radio since the Cubs clinched their first-half playoff position. The second-half is all about keeping the team’s collective foot on the gas pedal, while also trying to take momentum into September. At the same time, part of winning the first-half is having the reassurance that any sort of second-half playoff pressure is not looming. So it’s almost a yin and yang effect, the Seinfeld black and white cookie episode thinking. Keep winning and competing, but also have fun and take it easy knowing the postseason is coming.

South Bend did have a tough weekend in Fort Wayne, although Chicago Cubs lefty Matthew Boyd pitched for the Cubs on Saturday night, and top Chicago pitching prospect Jaxon Wiggins was on the mound Sunday. South Bend dropped both of those games, despite holding leads past the midway point of the game. The Cubs did win their first game of the second-half in comeback fashion in 11 innings on Friday night, which was an excellent team win. The Cubs will surely flush the last two games and be back to their usual selves this week, but this past week was just the second time this season that South Bend had lost a six-game series. Both times have been against Fort Wayne.

The only other time the Cubs can see the TinCaps would be the Midwest League Championship Series in September. The TinCaps would need to win the East Division second-half, so we’ll see what happens there. Of note, Dayton, who the Cubs visited in April, ended up winning the first-half in the East.

That brings us to this week’s opponent: Quad Cities. The River Bandits are in the same boat as everyone else in the West Division not named the South Bend Cubs. It’s the ‘Dash To September’ as I like to call it. There is very little time to make up ground if you start cold in the second-half, and if you get behind early when it comes to the standings, that can almost put you out of reach. Of course, like any West Division series the Cubs play in the second-half, this could be a first-round playoff preview between South Bend and Quad Cities.

The River Bandits dropped both of their second-half weekend games against the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, and had their game on Sunday postponed. So they will most definitely want to be getting that goose egg out of their W column in this half. The Davenport road trip was one of the most recent series that the Cubs played, and in the first week of June, South Bend took four of six games away from QC. It was supposed to be a seven-game series, but the Sunday game of that series was cancelled after the two clubs played a doubleheader on Friday, June 5.

Quad Cities has the services of top Kansas City Royals prospect Blake Mitchell. Another top catching prospect passing through QC, Mitchell follows in the footsteps of now Big League Royals catcher Carter Jensen. Mitchell was the eighth overall selection in the 2023 MLB Draft out of high school baseball in Texas. Last year, Mitchell hit .207 in 49 games with Quad Cities. This year, the average is hovering in the same area at .211, but he has 12 home runs in 61 games compared to just two last year. Mitchell has also struck out 94 times in 194 at-bats. But after all, he is still just 21-years-old. He is also known for his superb defense behind the plate, with a cannon of an arm. It is quite the catching match-up this week, with Mitchell profiling as one of the top catching prospects in the game, and Cubs catcher Justin Stransky leading the Midwest League in total baserunners caught-stealing with 23.

Elsewhere, the Royals have always sent very high pitching draft picks to Quad Cities. It’s no different this season, with the QC rotation against South Bend featuring the likes of fourth-ranked Royals prospect and former second-round pick David Shields facing South Bend on Thursday. 22nd ranked Royals prospect and 2023 second-round pick Blake Wolters will throw for QC on Saturday, in quite a tale of the tape with Jaxon Wiggins expected to throw in his second rehab game with the Cubs.

Mitchell is the top Royals prospect per MLB Pipeline, but the Cubs will also get a look at number-two KC prospect Kendry Chourio this week. Just 18-years-old, Chourio is a full-time starter with the River Bandits, signed as a free agent out of Venezuela in January of 2025. Rarely, if ever, do you see teenage pitching prospects in the Midwest League. But after Chourio dominated with Low-A Columbia with a 1.88 ERA in 11 starts with just nine walks and 44 K’s, Quad Cities came calling. In his Midwest League debut against Wisconsin on June 19, Chourio allowed seven runs in 4.2 innings on seven hits, but did not walk a batter. He also struck out 10 batters. That is a wild stat line. He will pitch on Friday night.

Players to watch on South Bend…

Ty Southisene, INF: What a weekend that Ty Southisene had, and in response to some struggles to start Friday night’s game against Fort Wayne. To start Friday, the first game of the second-half, Southisene struck out three times in his first four at-bats. It was only the second time in Southisene’s career that he had struck out three times in a game. Just when the Cubs were facing quite the deficit too, 5-0 after the 1st inning, Southisene saved his heroics for the game’s biggest moments. Not only did he mash the game tying two-run hit in the 8th inning, but he also had the game winning RBI knock in the 11th. Southisene then drove in his fourth RBI in two games on Saturday to cap off a big answer from some early weekend struggles. That is what Southisene has done all year long since coming to the South Bend Cubs in early May. He has been the perfect compliment to Kane Kepley at the top of the order, and the Kepley and Southisene combo continuously gives pitchers all kinds of problems due to their dual ability to grind out at-bats and see pitches. Now that Angel Cepeda is back in town, Southisene may get a chance to shuffle more between shortstop and second base. But if you think about it, it was Cepeda’s early season injury that opened the door to Southisene earning the South Bend promotion. Now they are both here, and you have South Bend’s opening day shortstop Cepeda back in the fold, with the guy who has owned the number-two spot in the lineup for more than a month now. This is going to be fun.

Nazier Mulé, RHP: Without question, Nazier Mulé spun together his best career outing on the mound on Saturday night in Fort Wayne. Not only was it the first game in Mulé’s pro career where he did not walk a batter, but it was the control, command, stuff, velocity, everything. It all came together. The Cubs selected Mulé in the fourth-round of the 2022 Draft, and Naz is still just 21-years-old. He won’t turn 22 until October. The youth of Mulé is so intriguing, and with him throwing upwards of 100 MPH on the regular, it’s so enticing to think about his future. Let’s see how he follows up that Saturday outing with his upcoming start on Sunday versus Quad Cities. But if his control is similar to last weekend, watch out. Because Mulé’ feels like a guy that can just explode on the prospects charts if he truly had the command figured out. He was a top-30 prospect for the Cubs for most of his career, and if that Fort Wayne appearance can almost act as a springboard, there is not limit on where that can take him. It felt like an outing where he said “here’s my best stuff, try and hit it”. And the TinCaps could not over three shutout frames. Huge start coming on Sunday for Naz.

Matt Halbach, 3B: Matt Halbach power was on full display in Fort Wayne! With two monstrous home runs at Parkview Field, Halbach played all six games last series, and had hits in five of them. That included his three hit performance on Tuesday that featured two lead-off doubles, and a home run off his former Cape Cod League teammate Matthew Watson. Halbach has given the Cubs professional at-bats and strong play at third base all season. He is a massive component on why this team is already playoff bound. Of course, South Bend has faced the injury bug lately. Kade Snell being out and Leonel Espinoza being on the IL as well does not help the fact that Cole Mathis is on the Injured List too. But Halbach has been that constant in the Cubs lineup this season, along with the likes of Kane Kepley and Justin Stransky and Christian Olivo that you know is gonna be out there everyday. The durability of Halbach to be playing a difficult position in third base, and to be rocking in the middle of the order everyday is a rarity. All six Halbach homers this year have come on the road, but that first one at Four Winds Field is coming. Let’s see if it’s a big one this week to help win a game late against Quad Cities.

Schedule…

Tuesday, June 23 - 7:05 PM ET: RHP Kevin Valdez vs RHP Tanner Jones

Wednesday, June 24 - 7:05 PM ET: RHP Jostin Florentino vs RHP Emmanuel Reyes

Thursday, June 25 - 7:05 PM ET: RHP Mason McGwire vs LHP David Shields

Friday, June 26 - 7:05 PM ET: RHP Koen Moreno vs RHP Kendry Chourio

Saturday, June 27 - 7:05 PM ET: RHP Jaxon Wiggins vs RHP Blake Wolters

Sunday, June 28 - 2:05 PM ET: RHP Nazier Mulé vs RHP Tanner Jones

Catch the entire six-game series in South Bend on 96.1 FM and 960 AM Sports Radio WSBT, online at wsbtradio.com, or on MiLB.com with Brendan King and Tyler Reidy on the call.