By Rodger M. Wood
On the first leg of my recent South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee photo shoot, I had the pleasure of taking photos of the young Daytona Cubs before and during games at Daytona and Clearwater.Daytona is blessed with three Baseball America’s “Top 30 Chicago Cubs minor league prospects.”Just returning from a leg injury, Matt Szezur, BA #3, is hitting 270, 2 HR, 24 RBI, and significantly, has 28 SB in 64 games.Since promoted to AA-Tennessee Smokies, RHP Tony Zych, BA #15, was 3-3, 3.19 ERA at Daytona.Rehabbing at Daytona, BA #19 RHP Robert Whitenack started the first game I saw at Daytona and looked stronger each inning pitched against Tampa Yankees.Just as noteworthy as the BA prospects were several other Cubs youngsters.Hitting 306 BA, 7 HR, and 51 RBI in the first half of the season, SS Arismendy Alcantara’s glove and bat are burning up the Florida State League. He will soon be near the top of any Cubs prospect list. .Big tough 1B Greg Rohan is hitting 285, 12 HR, and leading the league with 65 RBI.Starter, LHP Austin Kirk is 4-2, 2.66 ERA, RHP Matt Loosen 7-3, 2.84 ERA, LHP Frank Del Valle 5-3, 3.90, and middle reliever, Eduardo Figueroa 2-2, 3.42 ERA.Speedster OF John Andreoli is hitting 270, 0 HR, and 16 RBI and has 30 SB.As the parent club Chicago Cubs struggles in the NL Central while rebuilding this season, they can be rest assured there is much relief at Daytona on its way up to help them down the road.You can view photos of the Daytona Cubs mentioned above at this link XXXX and all my 151 Daytona Cubs photos in the photo galleries/2012 Daytona Cubs.