Vote for #12 Prospect

[Rob]

Would that go good on popcorn?

[sneakypower]

12) Torreyes

13) Szczur

14) Underwood

[Burtonbell]

Lake

Underwood

Szczur

[Cubswin11]

Who voted for McNutt? Care to explain? I get we are getting to the point where you can make an argument for about 20 guys to be anywhere between 12-20 but McNutt has had two straight years in AA now where he has put up pretty average-bad numbers. K/9 around 6 both seasons, BB/9 around 4, WHIPS of 1.6 and 1.4 and hasn't gone over 100 IP the last two years. He seems to have lost a lot of the promise from 2010 and it's looking more likely that he is a pen guy at best in the majors.

[rawaction]

Underwood

Lake

Szczur

[jumbo]

Who voted for McNutt? Care to explain? I get we are getting to the point where you can make an argument for about 20 guys to be anywhere between 12-20 but McNutt has had two straight years in AA now where he has put up pretty average-bad numbers. K/9 around 6 both seasons, BB/9 around 4, WHIPS of 1.6 and 1.4 and hasn't gone over 100 IP the last two years. He seems to have lost a lot of the promise from 2010 and it's looking more likely that he is a pen guy at best in the majors.

 

He's not really been old for his level yet, his arm could potentially bounce back to what it was, and he's advanced enough in his career that if he puts it together for any period of time in the minors he could be called up (even if it's just to the pen). Considering that filling out a bullpen with in house arms can save millions per year it's not a completely worthless player even if he doesn't end up being a long term solution.

Just my opinion. I have him in a clump of guys that could rank anywhere in the second half of the top 30. Then I have another clump of other guys that deserve a mention. I'm not really sure how to rank them inside each group. Any comments on that would be welcome.

 

Since I'm at it, here are my votes and clumps.

 

12 Candelario

13-23 Szczur/Wells/Lake/Loux/McNutt/Alcantara/Underwood/Blackburn/Torreyes/Hernandez/Amaya

24-39 Cabrera/Watkins/Struck/Martin/Zych/Whitenack/Antigua/Ha/Jensen/Arias/Rosario/Scott/Carreno/Hendricks/Bruno/McNeil

[Bilbo161]

Why is Josh Vitters so polarizing a kid? He has proven himself in the minors. He needs more time to see some adjusting at the MLB level. This is not a comparison, just food for thought. Mike Schmidt hit .206 in his first short appearance in 1972 and the next year, seemed like a full season from the stats, he batted .196. Why didn't they trade him of to the Cubs as worthless? Well, they knew he had power, AND........They knew how to be patient and let him adjust. Of course I get upset with my team when they lose a hundred plus games, and lord knows we Cubs fans have heard that we should be patient until that only fuels the upset more. But though the fans don't have to be patient, when it comes to player development the teams do. I just hope the Cubs have a chance get him enough MLB at bats to see if he can adjust before giving up on him.

 

Bill

[Bilbo161]

Sorry that last was meant for the other string.

 

Bill

[GrantJones7]

Voted AA, Marco and Jeimer.

 

What does everyone here think of Luis Acosta? I know he was higly touted and had a bad run at DSL but i havnt heard much since.

[davell]

Acosta? I think of Serrano. He no hit curveball. Straightball, he like it very much. He definitely has some contact issues, that likely keep him from making it to the states for another year anyway. Right now, its hard not to look at him as a giant miss already for me.

[Northsider]

Underwood

Lake

Loux

 

Underwood needs to get on this list close to Johnson; I feel the differences between their talents, injury histories, and closeness to majors make them almost equivalent prospects.

Lake has been very interesting this winter (and I had him higher).

Loux probably doesn't have a shot at being a core player, but could be instrumental or even stand out (like Phil Coke) in a playoff run sometime in the next few years.

[Guest]

Acosta? I think of Serrano. He no hit curveball. Straightball, he like it very much. He definitely has some contact issues, that likely keep him from making it to the states for another year anyway. Right now, its hard not to look at him as a giant miss already for me.

 

Yeah, if he's struggling this badly to make contact in the DSL, things don't look good when he gets to higher levels.

[Guest]

Poll closes tonight.

[davell]

Jumbo: My grouping of those guys would be something like this(not in individual order)- Candelario/Watkins/Szczur/Alcantara/Underwood/Torreyes/Hernandez/Amaya in Group 1. Group 2 for me is Wells/Loux/Blackburn/Martin/Cabrera/Ha/Zych/Scott. Group 3 for me is Carreno/Bruno/McNeil/Rosario. Everyone else falls in behind them.

[craig]

Underwood

Rondon

Szcurzur

 

This is my first vote for a player since Vogelbach, I think! I've been going with 3 from Paniagua/Johnson/Underwood/Maples/Rondon ever since. (Tim will love that....).

 

I've been tending to vote for pitchers who didn't have many innings but might end up very good (high ceiling) over position players with some pretty well-established flaws that limit their potential. An inexperienced pitcher's mechanics might get fixed, he might get taught a new grip, and he might develop a slider or cutter that he didn't have before. So a gifted young pitcher like Underwood or Maples might end up becoming very good. But when a position guy has a recurring flaw for years, I'm not a believer it's likely to go away, so it will probably always limit or sink him. (I'm thinking Jackson's K-contact problem, the contact problems that Villanueva and Vitters have with breaking balls; Vitters defense; Szcursur's power; Torreyes power; Lake's contact; Lake's infield defense....).

 

Underwood: purely potential here, but he's improved his consistency a lot since the Cubs signed him, and he's got a very good velocity now with potential for that to become outstanding. Athletic, coachable, has a chance to develop into a very nice pitcher. The right combo of arm/stuff/command/health rarely converges, but I see his plausible potential to be very high.

 

Rondon: My understanding is the Cubs love him. That he was throwing very fast in Venezuela, and that he has good control and movement on his fastball. As I often do, I'm totally deferring to the scouts here. But I think they see him as having a good chance to be a good reliever, with a chance to become a good starter down the road.

 

Note: I wonder if management has a somewhat different approach toward relief/rotation that was true in years past. The Samardz conversion to me suggests they may not be as role-assignment oriented as was true before, and that if a young pitcher looks excellent in relief and shows signs that he can throw strikes, it's possible that Samardz may not be the last relief-back-to-rotation conversion.

 

Szczur: Got a chance to be a traditional leadoff-type hitter. .390 OBP at Daytona with almost as many walks as K's, and lots of stolen bases. And has a chance to have excellent defensive range in CF. Michael Bourne type possibility? I think the Cubs and Szczur have bagged the try-for-more-lift/power idea. Hoping for a souped up version of Pierre/Bourne? (Pierre with better defense and lots of walks/OBP? Bourne with much better contact skill?) Pure hitting ability, for contact and for at least line-drive power even if not HR power, seems the question. This year will be huge. Theo's guys have had him for a year, now, and have all offseason to work with him. If he OBP's/steals like at Daytona, he'll be a value. If he hits as uselessly as at Tennessee, forget it.