Ruoff Mortgage Homestand Preview July 13-18

Cedar Rapids Kernels

Miles from South Bend: 320

Affiliation: Twins

South Bend vs Cedar Rapids

This Season: 1-5

Last Season: 2-1

Since becoming a Cubs affiliate: 8-12

The South Bend Cubs (26-33) host the Cedar Rapids Kernels (34-26) for a six-game series this week. The Cubs are coming off a 4-2 series victory at home over the Beloit Snappers and the Kernels are coming off of a 6-0 series sweep of the Peoria Chiefs.

The Kernels come in as the hottest team in the High-A Central and sit in second in the West Division. They’ve won seven-straight games and have closed the gap between them and Quad Cities to five games. They are one of the most well-rounded teams in the entire league.

Cedar Rapids boasts an offense that is second in the league in homers (78), second in the league in walks (281), third in the league in slugging (.414) and third in the league in on-base plus slugging (.752). But while the offense is one of the most potent in the league, the pitching staff may be the best. Collectively the Kernels team ERA (3.58) is the best in the High-A Central; on top of that they lead the league in shutouts (6), have allowed the fewest homers (32), have the best WHIP (1.23) and the best opponents’ batting average (.213).

The Cubs and the Kernels are both coming off series victories and the second straight six-game home series at Four winds Field should be another exciting one.

The Kernels roster has six top-30 prospects per MLB Pipeline, but their top three prospects (Matt Canterino, Blayne Enlow and Matt Wallner) have all been on the IL since late May. Only two of their top-30 prospects enter this series healthy, Wander Javier and Seth Gray.

Players to watch on Cedar Rapids

Wander Javier, SS: Javier comes in as the Twins #19 overall prospect and the #3 shortstop prospect in the Minnesota farm system. The Twins signed him as the #8 ranked international free agent prospect in the 2015-16 class and gave him an organization record $4 million bonus. Since then he has battled many injuries, including a torn labrum that forced him to miss all of 2018. Javier is a superb defender, with 60-grade fielding ability and arm strength; the offense side is more where he struggles, coming into this season with a career strikeout rate of over 30%. This year the power numbers have been there as he’s second on the team amongst qualified players in slugging (.431), tied for second in homers (8) and fifth in the entire league in extra-base hits (23). But the strikeout numbers are quite high; this year Javier has struck out in 32.8% of his plate appearances and walked in just 7.2% of them.

Seth Gray, 3B: Gray has been a staple in the Kernels lineup all season, playing in 58 of the teams 60 games, more than anyone else. Gray gets aboard frequently, drawing more walks (34) than any other player on the roster. That walk total is the sixth most in the league and his on-base percentage of .364 is 18th in the league. Gray’s power took off in his junior season at Wright State. That year in 2016 he launched 11 homers and slugged .627. Those numbers were good enough to catch the Twins eye as they took the corner infielder in the fourth round of the 2019 draft. His strength is where his power comes from more than his bat speed but he grades better on the defensive side at third base, where his plus range and arm strength will allow him to stay at the hot corner for many years to come.

Alex Isola, C: Isola is another guy who has been an on-base machine. He leads the team in on-base percentage at .372 and is second on the team and tied for seventh in the league with his 33 walks. Isola walks at an incredible 17.6% clip and strikeouts at at only a slightly higher 21.3% rate. And he is at his most dangerous away from home this season. On the road Isola is slashing .253/.356/.573. Six of his seven homers and 12 of his 14 extra-base hits have been away from Perfect Game Field.

Players to watch on South Bend

Delvin Zinn, SS: After a rough series at the plate vs. Lake County, boy did Zinn turn it around on offense last week vs. Beloit. In the first two game of the series he reached base seven times, scored five runs, stole two bases and hit his third home run of the 2021 season. He finished the week with his second three-hit game of the series and altogether he was 11-for-26 at the plate vs the Snappers, scoring eight times. Zinn has played in 26-straight games for South Bend and is second in the league with 33 stolen bases.

Nelson Velazquez, OF: Well no one can be surprised here. I’m not sure if it would save time and space if I chose to list the categories in which Velazquez isn’t among the league leaders, heck it might also save paper if anyone is physically printing this out. But here it goes, Velazquez by the numbers… tied for fifth in home runs (11), sixth in slugging (.524), sixth in total bases (98), ninth in batting average (.289), tied for ninth in hits (54), 10th in OPS (.857), and tied for 10th in RBIs (37). There we go, now that wasn’t too long now was it? Now let’s see what he ranks top-20 in the league in… Just messing, I won’t delve further into that. I think we all understand that Velazquez has been one of the best hitters in this league all season long.

Ryan Jensen, RHP: Has there been a better pitcher in Minor League Baseball this month than the former first round pick in 2019 out of Fresno State? Jensen’s first start of the month came on July 3 vs. Lake County. That day he twirled six perfect innings, 18-up, 18-down. He struck out three that afternoon and lowered his ERA by 1.14 points. The next time out he tossed three perfect innings to start the game vs. the Snappers, making it nine-straight perfect innings. In all he went five innings that day and allowed just one run and one hit, he also walked just one batter and struck out six. So let’s look at his July… 11 IP, ER, H, BB, 9 K… That’s a 0.82 ERA. Opponents are hitting .029 off the right-hander this month. I mean, there’s good, there’s great, there’s elite, and then there’s Ryan Jensen in July…

Schedule

Tuesday, July 13 through Saturday, July 17 - 7:05 ET first pitch.

Sunday, July 18 - 2:05 ET first pitch.

You can listen to every game of the series on the flagship station of the South Bend Cubs, 960 AM WSBT. Every game can also be viewed on MiLB.TV and Tuesday, Friday and Saturday's game can be watched locally on MyMichiana.