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In a standard MiLB season, I take my decision-making very seriously. Part of it is based on which MLB organizations are being opposed. A decent chunk of it is the starting pitchers. My default is, which of the available games will educate me the most. The night that Justin Steele suffered his injury that led to Tommy John surgery, I had chosen his Myrtle Beach game to listen to. Injuries suck.
Sunday, Steele was added to the Cubs roster. Having a 60-player pool merged with a 40-man roster, these are the good days. Steele was back pitching, after surgery, in less than a year. His partial year of 2018 was amazing. His 2019 was underwhelming. As much as people want to paint the traverse up the organizational ladder as with 80 percent or more predictable accuracy, I've seen plenty of seasons that aren't.
Steele has mid-90s velocity from the left side. Will he be able to spot the ball where needed, while throwing it that hard? That's a question that, at the MLB level, starts to get answered today.
Steele, a fifth-round pick in the Kyle Schwarber draft of 2014, is from Lucedale, Mississippi. Dylan Cease and Carson Sands were all prep pitching selections that year. Sands was an All-Star in full-season ball. Cease has been a bit up-and-down. Your note cards on Steele can begin very soon.
Remember that development on a player isn't necessarily complete until it is. I hope you will be supportive of Steele as he tries to be useful at the top level of baseball there is. Swapping out players in the 'low expense' contract range is what makes sense at the MLB level.
Steele begins as a no-leverage type. May he, if unevenly, start the climb to low-, middle-, and even moderate- or higher. I consider being supportive a huge portion of fandom. I hope I can count on you being supportive of a player drafted as a high-80s/low-90s guy before we knew anything about Schwarber. A key part of my decision making that I value is to limit piling on a player after a bad outing. May that not be necessary very often with Steele.