Cubs Insider

The guys spend the first half hour of the show answering questions from listeners regarding everything from the highest upside reliever to who they like best between Chase Strumpf, Nico Hoerner, and Nick Madrigal. They spend the back half of the show digging in real deep on some of the most interesting names in the system: DJ Herz, Strumpf, Kevin Made, Yonathan Perlaza, Burl Carraway, and Owen Caissie.

In this weeks episode of the Growing Cubs Podcast Greg and Jimmy discuss the Marquee Sports Network airing Myrtle Beach Pelicans games (3:50), the addition of Justin Steele and Keegan Thompson into the Cubs starting rotation (10:50), and prospects who can hold down the fort in Chicago while the Cubs rebuild their roster (24:37).

Now that the dust has settled, the guys make an attempt at trying to decipher who the Cubs' top tier of prospects are (4:15). After that, they describe what they saw from the organization's new prospects now that they have suited up for in the blue and red (25:30). Greg and Jimmy finish out the episode by daydreaming about the best ways this system could finish off the season as the final month of the minor league season approaches (45:15).

Spoiler alert: the faces of the Chicago Cubs have been traded away at the deadline leaving the future wide open for the prospects in the system! In this episode of the Growing Cubs Podcast, Greg and Jimmy break down every trade the Cubs made at the deadline, answer listener questions, and discuss where the system now stands in all of baseball after the trade deadline.

Greg spent the entire week with the Iowa Cubs on their road trip to Columbus so he used the first portion of the episode to talk about his biggest takeaways from the Triple-A squad (2:45). The guys couldn't beat the news of the Andrew Chafin trade during their recording, but still discussed some potential returns for guys like Kris Bryant and Craig Kimbrel (24:45). They wrap up this episode by digging into some of the hottest bats in the system in Pablo Aliendo, Jordan Nwogu, Nelson Maldonado, and Alfonso Rivas (42:15).

After a long episode from last week's special draft coverage of the 2021 MLB draft, Jimmy and Greg are back to their regular podcast format. They discuss who is hot in the Cubs system, including 2021 Futures Game MVP Brennan Davis (2:35), the new Prospect in the Cubs system Bryce Ball (31:13), and wrap up the show covering draft picks from rounds 2-20 (37:43).

If you think this episode seems exceptionally long, it's because we pulled over our live draft coverage that was featured on The Rant Live, also presented by Cubs Insider. Listen in to our Cubs-centric coverage from pick #1 on through our analysis of the Cubs selection at #21. We are joined by your favorite guests: Evan Altman, Mason McRae, Todd Johnson, and Bryan Smith. Be sure to stick around to hear what we have to say about your newest Cub - Jordan Wicks!

After spending some time in Indianapolis to watch the Iowa Cubs series against the Indianapolis Indians, Greg and Jimmy talk about the exciting game they watched in person on Thursday. The guys got to see Marty Peavey get ejected, Hermosillo continue his tear, the good Iowa Cubs bullpen, while also getting the chance to spend a half inning in the booth with Iowa Cubs broadcaster Alex Cohen. The rest of the episode, the guys discuss who has been hot in the Cubs system both on the mound and in the batters box.

We have a special edition episode this week as we pull on Ivy Futures' Greg Zumach to talk about the upcoming MLB Draft! No Cubs affiliate prospect coverage, but we dig into all of the possible options for the Cubs in the first round at pick number 21 including Colson Montgomery and Trey Sweeney. We also take a look at some possible options for the Cubs further along in the draft including Braden Olthoff and James Triantos.

Jimmy and Greg have one of the longest episodes of The Growing Cubs Podcast this week! Now that the MiLB season is almost 1/3 of the way over, the guys revisit their prospect predictions from the beginning of the year. The guys look back at their predictions for the systems biggest riser (5:55), how many prospects would make their debut in 2021 (11:38), the breakout player of the year (24:00), Cubs MLB rookie of the year (27:15), pitcher of the year (33:10), hitter of the year (37:10), their bold predictions (43:02), bounce back player of the year (50:05), favorite guy to watch (54:07), most likely to get two promotions (56:40), and farthest hit ball (59:55), and their over unders (1:01:05). They end the episode with another one of Jimmy's bold predictions (1:05:50).