Top Ten Emerging Cub Prospects

[Guest]

Taiwan Easterling went to Florida State.

[Shilzzz]

if that was easterling and not tyler durden in your av, he would knock himself out and not be knocked out at all at the same time

[RynoRules]

Taiwan Easterling went to Florida State.

 

Had it in my head that he went to USC for some reason...in any case, he's been great so far.

 

EDIT: Bah - he's tailed off recently at Peoria: .290 /.333 /.409

[toonsterwu]

I like Easterling, and wish him well, but I don't love Easterling. That said, he's raw in baseball development, and there are tools to work with.

 

I think Marwin Gonzalez, despite in AAA, would be on an emerging Cub Prospects list, and maybe near the top. He's really zoomed onto the radar, and his glove at short looks fairly ... solid.

[CubsWin]

I like Easterling, and wish him well, but I don't love Easterling. That said, he's raw in baseball development, and there are tools to work with.

 

I think Marwin Gonzalez, despite in AAA, would be on an emerging Cub Prospects list, and maybe near the top. He's really zoomed onto the radar, and his glove at short looks fairly ... solid.

I thought about Marwin mainly because he's had some success this year, certainly a lot of improvement over previous seasons, but I primarily considered him because he's just 22 years old and playing decently at AAA. His OBP is still rather pedestrian and that's an improvement over horrible in many of his previous seasons. I guess because of his previous inability to get on base, I want to see him do it again next year.

 

One guy who probably should be on this list is Eric Jokisch. He's seemingly mastered Low A ball. In July and August combined, the dude's started 8 games, pitched 45.2 innings, allowed 34 hits, 8 earned (9 total) runs, 1 HR with 45 strikeouts and 7 walks. That's an ERA of 1.58 and a WHIP of 0.90. He just turned 22 a couple of weeks ago, so he's age appropriate for his level. But what's his scouting report like? Does he have decent stuff?

[toonsterwu]

I don't recall Jokisch's stuff right now off the top, but it's your typical end of the rotation, soft-tossing lefty type of stuff. I think some of us, at least, I am, are a bit hesitant to read into his numbers too much as he's a polished college lefty working in Low A.

[Outshined_One]

I don't recall Jokisch's stuff right now off the top, but it's your typical end of the rotation, soft-tossing lefty type of stuff. I think some of us, at least, I am, are a bit hesitant to read into his numbers too much as he's a polished college lefty working in Low A.

 

Plus, the Cubs have a bunch of those kinds of guys at higher levels than Jokisch. Off the top of my head, Rusin, Raley, Harman, and Lorick all fit into the same mold as Jokisch as soft-tossing college LHPs from big programs.

 

His performance has been nice, but until Jokisch is doing this in AA/AAA, I really don't have him on my radar.

[Guest]

Most reports I've seen have Jokisch 84-88. His draft bio had him in the upper 80s. I'm also waiting to see how Jokisch does at higher levels.

 

I believe Harman has better stuff.

[CubsWin]

I don't recall Jokisch's stuff right now off the top, but it's your typical end of the rotation, soft-tossing lefty type of stuff. I think some of us, at least, I am, are a bit hesitant to read into his numbers too much as he's a polished college lefty working in Low A.

Okay, that's kinda what I figured. And I agree, he's impressed with his numbers, but he should only be considered a prospect when he's able to do this at the higher levels.

[CubsWin]

Ha, Kirk and Struck are still deserving from the original list. That leaves 7 open spots and a lot of worthy candidates. For me, the cream of the crop performance-wise right now are:

 

-Larry Suarez has put together a very good season moving from Peoria to Tennessee and producing all the way.

 

-Jeimer Candelario's numbers as a 17 year old in the DSL are mighty impressive.

 

-Oliver Zapata's plate discipline as an 18 year old is encouraging, plus he just got promoted to Boise.

 

-As a 17 year old, Marco Hernandez put up pretty good numbers in the DSL. As an 18 year old in Mesa, he's OPSing over .900. Did I mention he plays shortstop?

 

-20 year old, right-hander, Roderik Pichardo has risen from the DSL to the MWL in one season. His numbers on the year meet my criteria of less than a hit per inning, more than a strikeout per inning with a decent K/BB ratio. And he's been putting up stats like that for several years now.

 

-20 year old, Taiwanese bonus baby, Yao-Lin Wang has put together somewhat of a breakout season and also meets the above criteria.

 

-Reggie Golden has battled through some injuries this season, but as a 19 year old in Boise, he's shown better than expected plate discipline (IsoD of 0.89) and decent pop for someone his age. The fact that he was drafted so high (2nd round last year) already put him on the radar, so his status as "an emerging" prospect is in question, but it's nice to see the early returns aren't terrible.

 

-Jeffry Antigua has returned to relevance as a left-handed pitching prospect with his performance in the FSL as a 21 year old.

 

-Arismendy Alcantara is hitting just enough to keep himself in the conversation. Of course, it helps that he is doing it as a 19 year old in Peoria.

 

-Aaron Kurcz just turned 21 two days ago and he's put up solid numbers at Daytona especially after moving to the pen. 2.05 ERA, 26.1 IP, 18 H, 36 Ks, 9 BB, .188 BAA. He produced similar numbers last year at Boise. So that's two in a row.

 

Then there's the rest of the field...

 

Casey Harman, Ben Wells, Wilson Contreras, Dustin Geiger, Kyung-Min Na, Gioskar Amaya, Luis Liria, Justin Bour, Willengton Cruz, Sterling Peralta, Carlos Penalver, Jeffrey Baez, Hunter Ackerman, Jose Arias, Alexander Santana, Pedro Araujo, Fransisco Sanchez, Wes Darvill, Victor Garcia and others.

 

These mentions are largely based on performance. Who is on the radar due to tools/stuff that I'm missing?

 

Who makes your top ten emerging Cubs prospect list?

Clearly an oversight on my part, I should have at least had him in the rest of the field, but I think it's time we return Dae-Eun Rhee to prospect relevance. His August as an age appropriate starter in the FSL is looking mighty impressive. The recent reports on his off-speed stuff and fb velo back up his recent numbers.

 

Frank Del Valle should be in the conversation as well. His August numbers suggest he's adjusted nicely to the MWL. And while recent reports of him hitting upper-90s on his fastball may be dubious, they're never a bad a thing.

 

Pin-Chieh Chen and Zeke DeVoss are showing enough in Boise to be in the discussion as well.

 

That's a lot of names. Clearly, I need to be more picky. Can anyone help separate the wheat from the chaff here or is it just too early to tell?