Owen Ayers

Yeah, sort of.

It's a little bit more enhanced at this point in the year, but they have Austin Wins, the veteran catcher, Owen Ayers, the prospect.

Ayers is sort of up as a stay-ready, yes, but also as like a learning experience he's getting a lay of the land he was facing um who'd he fit i forget who he faced and oh he faced trent thornton in a in a live bullpen at wrigley the other day um but yeah they you know they have a bunch of these guys kevin alcantara bj murray was uh around the other day yesterday at uh at wrigley and a bunch of pitchers like jordan wicks gavin holloway hollowell was already activated off the il and uh edward cabrera went to like the family league list which is interesting i'm not 100 sure what's going on there I don't think that's a big loss.

Cabrera has been, I would say, arguably the Cubs' worst pitcher this year, even when he's been healthy.

And I'm going to start off with Brian and I'm going to do that very quickly.

I'm very specific on why I'm starting off with you because over at Baseball America, you just today, on Monday as we're recording this, it was released your pick over there for Cubs minor league player of the year, and you chose Owen Ayers.

I'm curious on this episode if you're going to stick with that, hold firm with that, or cover both your bases, which is perfectly acceptable here.

Yeah.

I am going to cover both my bases and I'm going to pick Josiah Hartjorn.

You know, to take our listeners a little inside baseball, I wrote about Josiah in the magazine earlier in the summer, I think in either May or June.

And I never got to write about Owen Ayers.

And when it came time, it was so close between the two when a decision was set to be made that I felt like the best thing sort of editorially was to write about Owen.

Obviously on our road, Wrigley shows, Jim Callis and myself discussed this a ton, but I think a different perspective on this is going to help a bit.

So, Want to dig into Josiah Hartshorn, Owen Ayers, a couple others, and then second half of this, we'll also just get your thoughts on the Cubs major league team and their potential for a deep October run.

Let's start with, I think I would consider, who I would think I would consider the rocket ship of prospects in minor league baseball this year.

At least one of the Mount Rushmore of this season, those that have broken out.

Gotcha, yeah, so it almost seems a matter of just like if he continues to do it and doesn't get bogged down by AAA pitching, then at some point you just start putting him higher and higher.

So I'm fascinated to see his trajectory.

Another name that kind of stormed onto the scene this year at least is Owen Ayers, switching catcher for the Cubs, who is starting to become an interesting name when you start building the 2027 roster for the Cubs.

He was in the Arizona Fall League last year, and I remember talking to Jim Kaus, and Kaus was like intrigued by him, but – It never seemed like the framing ever matched up with what Cal saw in person.

They got him.

Owen Ayers fell down as he tried to dive to first.

He's tagged out by Squires.

And the two-out walk is a race to end the top of the third.

Parks Harbor, three.

Owen Ayers, four.

Sam Antonacci, five.

Esmerlin Valdez, six.

Thank you on that.

Big correction.

But I would note with that, that like this is where Owen Ayers kind of started the Owen Ayers top prospect, question mark-

Mm-hmm

And if you look hard enough, you can find guys like that beyond the top 100 names who will be in the desert for six weeks.

I look, I think a perfect example from last year is Owen Ayers at this time last year, it was in the Arizona Fall League that kind of jumped out that Owen Ayers looks like a much better hitter.

We saw that all this year.

He's kind of turned himself into a top prospect.