so when did the improvement start?

[A New Era]

In our minor leagues? I know about the last couple of years and the big names like Vitters, Colvin, and so on. And I do remember us adding a guy that was supposedly really good with minor league talent. Tim Wilken was it? I'm really excited about some of the players I am hearing about but could someone give me the quick laymen overview of the few big improvements that were made in the last few years?

 

And when did we get Starlin Castro? Now I'm hearing this young man has jumped to our #1 prospect, but someone like me who doesn't pay attention except for AA and above he kinda snuck in on me (as I'm sure many more in the future will).

[Serge]

In our minor leagues? I know about the last couple of years and the big names like Vitters, Colvin, and so on. And I do remember us adding a guy that was supposedly really good with minor league talent. Tim Wilken was it? I'm really excited about some of the players I am hearing about but could someone give me the quick laymen overview of the few big improvements that were made in the last few years?

 

And when did we get Starlin Castro? Now I'm hearing this young man has jumped to our #1 prospect, but someone like me who doesn't pay attention except for AA and above he kinda snuck in on me (as I'm sure many more in the future will).

 

I think the big thing is that at the end of last year we had a bunch of guys at the lower levels who were intriguing guys but no one of impact all that close. Now we have Jay Jackson, Chris Carpenter, and Andrew Cashner all as front or mid rotation types or power relievers all at AA or above. Then of course there's Castro who last year wasn't even in A-ball and is now knocking on the door of the big leagues. Then you have a few position players having good years like Vitters, Hak Ju Lee, and Kyler Burke. And then after that throw in the 09 draft class. I think largely whatever could have gone right for the Cubs minor league system this year did go right for the minor league system this year.

[Tim M]

2008 draft is probably the biggest reason. Throw in what appears to be a great 1st rounder in '09 (Jackson), and smart international signings (Castro, Lee), and trades (Burke, Archer, Gaub) and we have what appears to be a promising system.

[craig]

Combination.

 

2008 draft was good, with Cashner, Jackson, Carpenter, and Coleman.

 

2006(?) season was horrible; I have many concerns with Vitters, but that was such a strong draft that picking #3 it was hard not to get somebody with at least some promise, which Vitters clearly has.

 

Castro. You spend 15 years signing low-dollar Latins, once or more every decade one of them does blossom.

 

Korea.

 

Money and superslot. Not every superslot works, but Watkins and Huseby were both major superslots who have helped raise us from bad to average.

 

Wilken. Not sure how good he is these days. But whether you view him as really good or not, he's better than Stockstill.

 

Big-league budget. The big-league budget has been pretty capped out since the Harden trade, so Hendry hasn't been able to trade meaningful prospects for salaried big-leaguers. If he'd had more space to spend, some of the guys that are elevating us into the middle of the pack farm-wise might have been gone.

[toonsterwu]

I guess as a side comment, I'd note that too often, the difference between a solid system and a bad system isn't that much (difference between good and solid is wider). It can be as little as one draft. Right now, the 2008 draft is a big reason why our system has jumped. Certainly, there are other factors, such as our international signings (Castro, Lee, and others), netting youngsters in trades (Kyler Burke). It netted our top 3 arms, and a 4th guy (Flaherty) that I believe is a top 10 prospect. The organization loves Logan Watkins. The organization's pitcher of the year this year came from that draft (Coleman) and there's some solid arms to watch, like Justin Bristow, Jon Nagel, Jeff Beliveau. Rebel Ridling was solid for a 25th rounder. I still have some hope for Dan McDaniel, and guys like Shafer and Cerda can't be completely written off yet. Some other decent system options, with some borderline-to-decent potential for the bigs, came from that draft, like Luis Flores, Michael Brenly (backup catchers) Tony Campana (can't rule out his speed finding him some bench role), James Leverton (hey, lefties get opportunities ... and he still has a touch more potential).

 

I'm not lumping everything into that, though. I'm a Wilken fan (I can excuse Wilken's first two drafts a bit ... lack of picks in the first draft, and 07 seemed like a "fill the positional depth gaps" draft). I like the approach in finding athletes. There seems to be a bit of a "projectable collegian" approach, which is interesting. I think I went from "eh" on the 2009 draft to becoming more positive on my outlook on it by season's end. I certainly don't expect it to be as good as 08 has been, but I think it's another step in the right direction. I also believe that the Cubs started identifying better coaches. I guess one of the "turning points" for me, a sign that they were really progressing as a system, came with the hiring of Mark Riggins. Showed the organization wasn't limiting itself.