Matt Szczur Forgoes NFL to Remain With Cubs

[jersey cubs fan]

I like Szczur and am excited that he signed with the Cubs. I'm also excited that the Cubs ponied up. That said ... I do wonder if the hype is getting a bit too much. The image I get when I ponder some of the positive reports on Szczur is ... essentially a slightly more athletic Brandon Guyer. That's a very intriguing asset to have, but I see some folks plopping him down as a top 3-5 guy in the system right now, and I guess I just don't have that level of SNTS as it relates to Szczur just yet.

 

The Cubs do have a lot of nice ballplayers but not All Star starters in their system, so he may rank pretty high even if he's looking like a potential 4th OF.

[davell]

For what it's worth, Law loved Castro.

 

That said, who really cares what ANYONE truly thinks of our system as long as we can do 2 things with it: 1) produce some major league players and 2) have other teams think well enough about it to make solid trades

 

Point 1: We've gotten Castro, Soto, Marmol, Colvin, Wells, Marshall, and Cashner out of it rather recently. Some of these guys are true building blocks and some of them are complementary guys, but this is a fairly decent return over the last 5 years, if you ask me.

 

Point 2: We've traded for Harden and Garza recently. Both of who are /were considered frontline starters when we traded for them.

 

My hope is we restock the system BIGTIME this year and operate like the Red Sox, who seem to always be one(or three) steps ahead of everyone else. The game has changed and less and less FA's are hitting the market in their primes at this point, so spending money in this area pays off more in the long run, because of these 2 previous points.

 

I'd like to see Wilken take more chances than he has in the past personally. Take a few more boom or bust types, because we do NEED some cornerstone type guys moreso than needing solid complementary guys right now. But, the bottom line for me is our system has done the job that we've asked of it for the most part. I just think that now we need to change some things and ask the system to do different thinfs than it has in the past. And from what we've heard anyway, hopefully the Cubs see this as well.

[KingCubsFan]

For what it's worth, Law loved Castro.

You're right. I was confusing Law and Goldstein, who didn't like Castro very much.

[rawaction]

I don't know crap about Szczur as a baseball player, but I followed him as a football prospect, and he was a pretty nice sleeper. He had obvious comparisons to other short, fast, white guys like Welker and Edelman.

[Guest]

Dale (Calvert City KY)

 

 

Is Matt Szczur a big time baseball prospect, now that he will be solely focused on the sport? What is his ceiling?

 

Klaw (1:41 PM)

 

 

Every area guy I talked to about him this spring called him a 4th/5th outfielder with plus speed and outstanding makeup but limited baseball tools.

 

Hopefully Callis - not Law - is right:

 

Bill (Lincoln,NE): Thanks for answering my question Jim, Do you see Matt Szczur's ceiling being something along the lines of a Grady Sizemore type centerfielder or am I just being optimistic?

 

Jim Callis: Not saying he'll get there, but no, that's not an unrealistic ceiling. Szczur has top-of-the-line speed and athleticism, and he can really hit.

[Banedon]

As part of the deal, the Cubs should have given him a couple more vowels for his last name.

 

And thus ends my once annual visit to the minor league forum.