2011 Cubs picks and signings thread

[XZero771679666304]

The spending on amateurs (higher ceiling ones at that)this year has been really encouraging. As long as these expenditures aren't subtracted from the ML payroll, this is a really positive change of course.

[TruffleShuffle]

i'm really not high on gretzky at all. hopefully i'm wrong on that.

[Shilzzz]

why not? the rawness?

[Outshined_One]

why not? the rawness?

 

I'm inclined to agree with Truffle. I don't think anyone would care a whole lot if his name were Trevor Smith. He's a good athlete with legitimate power, but he needs a lot of work at the plate and in the field. That sort of thing would be intriguing for a catcher or shortstop, but for someone who seems ticketed for 1B, that's not exactly encouraging.

 

Still, it's good to see he signed.

[Shilzzz]

is he an overslot by a ton guy? i've not seen him play. but your description sounds like a few rounds later version of vogelbach, which would kinda make sense.

[davell]

The spending on amateurs (higher ceiling ones at that)this year has been really encouraging. As long as these expenditures aren't subtracted from the ML payroll, this is a really positive change of course.

 

I may get flamed for saying this, but I'd rather spend in this area in some ways than on the major league roster at this point. With the way things are going, with teams locking in their best guys for an extra couple of years, it's making it very hard to find bigtime FA's who are going to be in their prime for most of the contract they're going to wind up getting. You don't have to have a 135 mill major league payroll to consistently be a true contender, if you ask me. If it takes dropping the major league payroll down to 120ish or so, but have the ability to consistently spend bigtime thru the draft and IFA, then I'm actually all for it. The pipeline would be continuous and while you'd have to pay big money to keep some guys obviously, you'd also consistently have the cheap production needed to go around it at all times as well. In a perfect world too, you wouldn't be shelling out humongous money on volatile FA pitching either. You could home grow it and always have more on the way up as well.

[Little Slide Rooter]

The spending on amateurs (higher ceiling ones at that)this year has been really encouraging. As long as these expenditures aren't subtracted from the ML payroll, this is a really positive change of course.

 

I may get flamed for saying this, but I'd rather spend in this area in some ways than on the major league roster at this point. With the way things are going, with teams locking in their best guys for an extra couple of years, it's making it very hard to find bigtime FA's who are going to be in their prime for most of the contract they're going to wind up getting. You don't have to have a 135 mill major league payroll to consistently be a true contender, if you ask me. If it takes dropping the major league payroll down to 120ish or so, but have the ability to consistently spend bigtime thru the draft and IFA, then I'm actually all for it. The pipeline would be continuous and while you'd have to pay big money to keep some guys obviously, you'd also consistently have the cheap production needed to go around it at all times as well. In a perfect world too, you wouldn't be shelling out humongous money on volatile FA pitching either. You could home grow it and always have more on the way up as well.

 

Ive always thought that even when the Cubs do spend big money on FAs, a huge thing that separates us from teams like the Yankees and Red Sox is that fact that they seem to be able to constantly produce superstars from their farm system in addition to their FAs and trades, and we simply have not come close. Not much homegrown talent to get excited about from the Cubs in recent years. Hopefully thats a trend that can soon be reversed.

[XZero771679666304]

The spending on amateurs (higher ceiling ones at that)this year has been really encouraging. As long as these expenditures aren't subtracted from the ML payroll, this is a really positive change of course.

 

I may get flamed for saying this, but I'd rather spend in this area in some ways than on the major league roster at this point. With the way things are going, with teams locking in their best guys for an extra couple of years, it's making it very hard to find bigtime FA's who are going to be in their prime for most of the contract they're going to wind up getting. You don't have to have a 135 mill major league payroll to consistently be a true contender, if you ask me. If it takes dropping the major league payroll down to 120ish or so, but have the ability to consistently spend bigtime thru the draft and IFA, then I'm actually all for it. The pipeline would be continuous and while you'd have to pay big money to keep some guys obviously, you'd also consistently have the cheap production needed to go around it at all times as well. In a perfect world too, you wouldn't be shelling out humongous money on volatile FA pitching either. You could home grow it and always have more on the way up as well.

 

You don't have to have a 135MM payroll to compete, but in a market like Chicago, there's not much reason not to. I don't think we should have to choose between ML and amateur spending. But I agree that shaving 10MM off the payroll to allocate it to the amateur/MiLB side would be palatable, provided those allocating it are doing a good job.

[Little Slide Rooter]

Anyone find it strange that we've heard rumors and seen write ups involving the Cubs and just about every single super slot player, but there hasn't been a single thing about Baez? I thought he'd sign pretty quickly since he didn't seem like he would get much if any over slot. I thought Maples, Dunston, Vogelbach etc would be last minute types of deals and it seems to be the opposite.

 

Right around the time we heard DeVoss was signing or had signed and it hadn't been reported yet, there was a blurb(can't remember from who) that said Baez was expected in shortly or something to that affect.

 

It's pretty easy to get excited with all this stuff going on right now. I just want to see Maples here. Getting him AND Dunston would be phenomenal. Craig, I think I'm going to disagree with you on how much of an overslot I expect Dunston to be. I think he'll get a mill personally. (not saying I see him being worth THAT much either) But, he does have some very nice upside and whatever amount we can get him to agree to, I'm going to be happy about it, since it's a change of philosophy, at the very least.

 

Landing Vogelbach, Maples and Dunston was the dream from the get go. Now that we know Gretzky has signed as well, this has a chance to be a great draft. I would like to hear some news on Zych and Scott relatively soon too.

 

You make it sound like we already have Maples and Dunston. I havnt heard anything to that affect. I heard they were making good progress with Dunston, but thats about it. I really cant imagine that wed miss out on Baez either way though.

[davell]

I'm not scared about Baez. Just don't see any reason that's popped up to be. If we get 9 of our top 10, missing Dugas, I'll be extremely happy. Scott had said something to the affect he'll be signing at some point and he's a guy that has some upside as well. To turn this from a good draft(and getting 9 of the top 10 would be, if you ask me, based on who we took) to a GREAT draft, we've gotta get Dunston(looking good for now) and Maples(at least we're trying). Do those 2 things and we've probably gotten a top 5 draft in a year where we had zero extra picks.

[craig]

why not? the rawness?

 

I'm inclined to agree with Truffle. I don't think anyone would care a whole lot if his name were Trevor Smith. He's a good athlete with legitimate power, but he needs a lot of work at the plate and in the field. That sort of thing would be intriguing for a catcher or shortstop, but for someone who seems ticketed for 1B, that's not exactly encouraging.

 

Still, it's good to see he signed.

 

If "anyone" means ESPN or the radio, that's true. But I can't remember many top-10 picks by the Cubs that people like us who check boards like this every day don't care about. A 3B/RF prospect with potential monster power, why wouldn't we care? We never heard of Vogelbach's name before, but we're all interested in him. We'd never heard Szczur's name or Wells name last year, but when there became talk that they had some genuine talent, we all got interested.

 

I could care less if he's Gretzky. But a kid with big-time power potential and the chance to play 3B while doing so, hope springs eternal so I'm interested. Just like I'm hopeful that Rosario will have a rocket and end up hitting withpower. And that Schecht will sign and end up being a hitter. I don't see why Gretzky is any worse a risk than any of those other type guys.

[questionmarkgrace]

The spending on amateurs (higher ceiling ones at that)this year has been really encouraging. As long as these expenditures aren't subtracted from the ML payroll, this is a really positive change of course.

 

I may get flamed for saying this, but I'd rather spend in this area in some ways than on the major league roster at this point. With the way things are going, with teams locking in their best guys for an extra couple of years, it's making it very hard to find bigtime FA's who are going to be in their prime for most of the contract they're going to wind up getting. You don't have to have a 135 mill major league payroll to consistently be a true contender, if you ask me. If it takes dropping the major league payroll down to 120ish or so, but have the ability to consistently spend bigtime thru the draft and IFA, then I'm actually all for it. The pipeline would be continuous and while you'd have to pay big money to keep some guys obviously, you'd also consistently have the cheap production needed to go around it at all times as well. In a perfect world too, you wouldn't be shelling out humongous money on volatile FA pitching either. You could home grow it and always have more on the way up as well.

 

Ive always thought that even when the Cubs do spend big money on FAs, a huge thing that separates us from teams like the Yankees and Red Sox is that fact that they seem to be able to constantly produce superstars from their farm system in addition to their FAs and trades, and we simply have not come close. Not much homegrown talent to get excited about from the Cubs in recent years. Hopefully thats a trend that can soon be reversed.

 

that is a great point. People seem to forget how good the yankee farm system was in the mid 90's. They developed two legit HOFers in Rivera and Jeter and a pretty awesome catcher in Posada.

 

The cubs always seem to sign the flavor of the month guys as well though. We dont go after elite talent like a Texiera or A-Rod (insert roids joke here) or CC Sabathia. These are guys are elite because they have been consistent producers year after year. The cubs always seem to target those second and third tier guys who are coming off of a big season hoping they can be consistent. We also overpay because in part we pay for the hype. And then we are stuck with guys are overpaid and age as quickly as that guy who drinks from the wrong grail in Indiana Jones 3. Guys like Soriano, Bradley, Todd Hundley, Jeff Blauser, Danny Jackson, Dave Smith, Kerry Wood (03), etc. immediately come to mind.

 

But then thats where your point comes in the cubs sign a big name and then put it all on them to produce. The yankees sign a big name then put them in a line up with other big names.

[Little Slide Rooter]

The spending on amateurs (higher ceiling ones at that)this year has been really encouraging. As long as these expenditures aren't subtracted from the ML payroll, this is a really positive change of course.

 

I may get flamed for saying this, but I'd rather spend in this area in some ways than on the major league roster at this point. With the way things are going, with teams locking in their best guys for an extra couple of years, it's making it very hard to find bigtime FA's who are going to be in their prime for most of the contract they're going to wind up getting. You don't have to have a 135 mill major league payroll to consistently be a true contender, if you ask me. If it takes dropping the major league payroll down to 120ish or so, but have the ability to consistently spend bigtime thru the draft and IFA, then I'm actually all for it. The pipeline would be continuous and while you'd have to pay big money to keep some guys obviously, you'd also consistently have the cheap production needed to go around it at all times as well. In a perfect world too, you wouldn't be shelling out humongous money on volatile FA pitching either. You could home grow it and always have more on the way up as well.

 

Ive always thought that even when the Cubs do spend big money on FAs, a huge thing that separates us from teams like the Yankees and Red Sox is that fact that they seem to be able to constantly produce superstars from their farm system in addition to their FAs and trades, and we simply have not come close. Not much homegrown talent to get excited

about from the Cubs in recent years. Hopefully thats a trend that can soon be reversed.

 

that is a great point. People seem to forget how good the yankee farm system was in the mid 90's. They developed two legit HOFers in Rivera and Jeter and a pretty awesome catcher in Posada.

 

The cubs always seem to sign the flavor of the month guys as well though. We dont go after elite talent like a Texiera or A-Rod (insert roids joke here) or CC Sabathia. These are guys are elite because they have been consistent producers year after year. The cubs always seem to target those second and third tier guys who are coming off of a big season hoping they can be consistent. We also overpay because in part we pay for the hype. And then we are stuck with guys are overpaid and age as quickly as that guy who drinks from the wrong grail in Indiana Jones 3. Guys like Soriano, Bradley,

Todd Hundley, Jeff Blauser, Danny Jackson, Dave Smith, Kerry Wood (03), etc. immediately come to mind.

 

But then thats where your point comes in the cubs sign a big name and then put it all on them to produce. The yankees sign a big name then put them in a line up with other big names.

 

Yup. Yeah, the Red Sox, for example traded for A Gon and Beckett and signed Crawford and others, but they produced the likes of Pedroia, Youklis, Ellsbury, and Lester not to mention others. Same with the Yankees with Jeter, Rivera, and Cano. We seem to produce 1 impact player a decade at best.

[Guest]

http://www.baseballamerica.com/online/draft/news/2011/2612132.html

 

Slot for the top 5 rounds - here are the Cubs' unsigned picks:

 

1.019 Javier Baez - $1,962,000

2.068 Dan Vogelbach - $537,300

4.129 Tony Zych - $218,700

5.159 Tayler Scott - $157,500

[Outshined_One]

BCB has a poster on there who's done a pretty good job of being ahead of the curve in terms of reporting whom the Cubs have signed and when, even before news of those signings is released. He recently stated that the Cubs have signed Urban, Maples, and Dunston.

 

If true, it's fantastic news.

[NCCubFan]

BCB has a poster on there who's done a pretty good job of being ahead of the curve in terms of reporting whom the Cubs have signed and when, even before news of those signings is released. He recently stated that the Cubs have signed Urban, Maples, and Dunston.

 

If true, it's fantastic news.

[davell]

BCB has a poster on there who's done a pretty good job of being ahead of the curve in terms of reporting whom the Cubs have signed and when, even before news of those signings is released. He recently stated that the Cubs have signed Urban, Maples, and Dunston.

 

If true, it's fantastic news.

 

 

Good lord, I hope this is true. :D I really don't like having my hopes up like this, but damn.......This would be phenomenal. I didn't realize Urban was a top 10 round talent either, but his tweets certainly indicate he wants to be a Cub. He even tweets back and forth with Dunston some, which is cool to see. On PSD, someone mentioned we had increased our offer to Jensen as well. Fingers crossed on all these guys for sure. Wow, make it happen.

[craig]

Nice! (If true.)

 

Urban is apparently really wild and has some delivery/mechanics problems. Having a poor summer.

[Tryptamine]

If true, Ricketts has spent a ton of cash on the draft and international prospects so far. It makes me a bit more hopeful going forward.

[craig]

BCB has a poster on there who's done a pretty good job of being ahead of the curve in terms of reporting whom the Cubs have signed and when, even before news of those signings is released. He recently stated that the Cubs have signed Urban, Maples, and Dunston.

 

If true, it's fantastic news.

 

I believe it is true, or will be true. The Urban one is pretty much beyond doubt based on his Twitter.

 

A couple weeks ago somebody on PSD had suggested that Maples wasn't too far off, each side a couple hundred off of $2 But indicating that the Cubs were into it and were serious about paying major money.

 

Dunston rumors have also been circulating, so that seems likely. But Dunston has apparently Tweeted that it's not true, and it's not done, although the phrasing seemed to me more to the effect that it's not completely finished rather than that it isn't going to get finished.

 

Wow wow wow.

 

It just gets better and better.

[CyHawk_Cub]

I thought signing Maples was a pipe dream when he was picked. Damn glad to see I may have been way wrong on that one. The farm is gonna be even more fun to track after this year's draft.

[CubsWin]

I thought signing Maples was a pipe dream when he was picked. Damn glad to see I may have been way wrong on that one. The farm is gonna be even more fun to track after this year's draft.

If true, I agree. I just hope that there is reason to have a split focus between the minor league system and the major league team...

[Sammy Sofa]

Excellent.

[StarlinOnYou]

Baez, Vogelbach, Maples, Dunston Jr. add them to your Cubs top 10 prospect list.

 

This is pretty incredible if they are in fact all signed. Another 2012 draft class like this and we can be loaded with talent.

 

Such refreshing/exciting news.

[Guest]

Baez, Vogelbach, Maples, Dunston Jr. add them to your Cubs top 10 prospect list.

 

This is pretty incredible if they are in fact all signed. Another 2012 draft class like this and we can be loaded with talent.

 

Such refreshing/exciting news.

 

Dunston wouldn't be sniffing my top 10 this year.

 

Trevor Bauer and Sonny Gray signed today. Bauer is the first '11 draftee picked before Baez to sign. (Side note: Bauer will be pitching in high-A Wednesday and when Gray is stretched out, he'll head to AA.)