Who is the #42 Prospect for the Cubs?

[CaliforniaRaisin]

Please vote for the Cubs #42 prospect (serious votes only, please!). Please post your rationale below.

 

If someone convinces you that someone else should be higher, please feel free to change your vote anytime between now and Wednesday.

 

For this vote, you should select the players you feel should be #42, #43 and #44. If we end up with multiple players having similar vote totals at the end of the voting period, there will be a run-off with just those players.

 

Results so far:

 

#1: Javier Baez

#2: Jorge Soler

#3: Albert Almora

#4: Arodys Vizcaino

#5: Dan Vogelbach

#6: Brett Jackson

#7: Juan Paniagua

#8: Christian Villanueva

#9: Dillon Maples

#10: Josh Vitters

#11: Pierce Johnson

#12: Junior Lake

#13: Jeimer Candelario

#14: Duane Underwood

#15: Matt Szczur

#16: Arismendy Alcantara

#17: Ronald Torreyes

#18: Marco Hernandez

#19: Gioskar Amaya

#20: Alberto Cabrera

#21: Logan Watkins

#22: Rob Whitenack

#23: Barrett Loux

#24: Ben Wells

#25: Paul Blackburn

#26: Hector Rondon

#27: Tony Zych

#28: Jae-Hoon Ha

#29: Trey McNutt

#30: Steve Bruno

#31: Michael Jensen

#32: Trey Martin

#33: Tayler Scott

#34: Jose Arias

#35: Ryan McNeil

#36: Jose Rosario

#37: Shawon Dunston Jr.

#38: Nick Struck

#39: Austin Reed

#40: Reggie Golden

#41: Carlos Penalver

[Cubswin11]

Hatley

DeVoss

Frandy

[craig]

Hatley

DeVoss

Frandy

 

Frandy

Hatley

Daury

 

(not eligible if he doesn't end in "y")

[Clem Fandango]

I haven't really been paying attention to this since about the 23rd ranking or something... but wasn't this supposed to be a Top 30 ranking?

[davell]

I haven't really been paying attention to this since about the 23rd ranking or something... but wasn't this supposed to be a Top 30 ranking?

I'm not sure what we set out to do. That said, the depth this system has is certainly among the deepest in baseball. Maybe THE deepest. There are guys that haven't been picked yet that would show up on half the teams in the league top 30 lists. It's certainly a measure of preference at this point, but we could likely come up with 60 guys we feel have a shot at making the majors.

[toonsterwu]

Okay, you know that's the type of statement that's going to make me bite and ask ... who are you referring to as guys who would make it on "half the teams in the league top 30 lists"? I can think of a couple guys who would probably show up on some ... but on half?

 

_____

 

As for this vote, I went Loosen, Chen, Hatley. With Chen, I just wonder if there's a bit more ... power consistency ... once he's out of the MWL (again, not expecting a power surge ... just more consistency, maybe a slight uptick). If so, here's a guy with a good approach, good D, and if there's any uptick or power consistency, he's actually fairly intriguing in that 4th OF/fringe CF starter way. Factor in age/level, and that's why I'm considering him around here.

[davell]

Toonster, guys that I think could would be Saunders, Carreno, Hendricks, Contreras, Loosen, Marra, maybe Raley or Rusin. It's as much an indictment of other systems as it is some of these guys talent levels. But the Diamondbacks, Royals, A's Nats, Reds, Blue Jays, Yankees, and Braves all have weakened their systems quite a bit and have very little depth currently. Then you have the Dodgers, White Sox, Angels, Tigers, Giants, and Orioles that haven't had depth in a while and still don't. Hell, everyone I listed would make the Angels, Tigers, and White Sox top 30's, many likely in the top 20 even.

[Bilbo161]

Saunders

Loosen

Andreoli - this kid could make cubs fans forget Campana. I read he had a huge walk rate and steals a lot of bases. .400+ OBP. Might be a future lead-off man. AA this year I think.

[Cubswin11]

Saunders

Loosen

Andreoli - this kid could make cubs fans forget Campana. I read he had a huge walk rate and steals a lot of bases. .400+ OBP. Might be a future lead-off man. AA this year I think.

I'm pretty sure everyone on here has already done that, don't think any of us are having a lot of sleepless nights over trading him.

[toonsterwu]

Saunders

Loosen

Andreoli - this kid could make cubs fans forget Campana. I read he had a huge walk rate and steals a lot of bases. .400+ OBP. Might be a future lead-off man. AA this year I think.

 

Andreoli is more ... James Adduci. He just doesn't have the plus range or speed to really draw the Campana comparison, IMO.

[toonsterwu]

Toonster, guys that I think could would be Saunders, Carreno, Hendricks, Contreras, Loosen, Marra, maybe Raley or Rusin. It's as much an indictment of other systems as it is some of these guys talent levels. But the Diamondbacks, Royals, A's Nats, Reds, Blue Jays, Yankees, and Braves all have weakened their systems quite a bit and have very little depth currently. Then you have the Dodgers, White Sox, Angels, Tigers, Giants, and Orioles that haven't had depth in a while and still don't. Hell, everyone I listed would make the Angels, Tigers, and White Sox top 30's, many likely in the top 20 even.

 

I think we have a good system. In a year ... it could be a great/elite system. Still ... while I like our guys, every system has similar guys to most of the above listed. On the arm side, you have soft-tossing lefties. Raley was ranked higher once because there was some hope he would develop a bit more, stuff wise (add a tick more velocity, etceteras ... although, out of college, some folks did note that they didn't think Raley would add velocity, and they ended up right). From the right side, Loosen/Carreno are righties without plus stuff currently and without an elite fastball to work off of. Loosen's age plays against him in ranking, IMO.

 

I don't have a BA or BP subscription, so I can't directly compare Top 30's and am too lazy to dig around the internet to see if some exist. But using Sickels "others" section for his lists for now, taking the Orioles, would any of those arms definitely rank ahead of a Bobby Bundy? I'd put them in roughly the same range. How about Tim Berry? Those are borderline top 30 guys. You can go organization by organization and find similar arms from either a production or a stuff standpoint. If you asked me, yeah, maybe I'd take some of our guys because I know them better. I imagine, fans of other teams would feel the same way (and Theo basically said something along those lines as well, so we know teams often place too much emphasis on guys they know).

 

As for the positional guys, Saunders is ... a unique case, I guess. One wouldn't think of him, skill-wise, as a top 30 candidate for any list, at least, not until he performs in higher levels. I'm not sure there's a Contreras or Marra in every organization, but there are some, and the gist is that both are guys that hold some promise, and one could make arguments on low level guys like that in many organizations. I'm just not nearly on this Hendricks train that seems to be going on right now, so I don't know what to say there, but in general, I view him, loosely, in a similar clumping as Loosen/Carreno.

 

This isn't to say those guys wouldn't make some top 30 lists. It all comes down to who does the writing (and there are probably couple other names that can fit in that group). I'm just not sure we should be that excited about our 40-50 guys to think that they could make half the top 30 lists. Let's take one of the worst systems out there and pick some names. Would you definitely, without a doubt, rank all our arms over hard-throwing young Brandon Hardin of the White Sox system? Would any of those arms definitely rank over Deunte Heath? What about Santos Rodriguez? I might take some of our guys over those, but I don't know if I would call it as locks that I would rank all those arms over them, and all three failed to make Sickels top 20.

[craig]

I see it your way too, toonster. I don't think guys like Marra, Saunders, Carreno, Rusin would be likely to crack the top-30's of hardly any team, although like you I haven't analyzed a bunch. I assume every team has some guys who either look like they have some talent but haven't done much of anything yet or recently (guys like Castillo, Hatley, Martin, McNutt, Golden, Maples on our top-31 BA list....) or guys who have been variably productive but don't scout that well (Loux, and that would be the umbrella under which Saunders, Raley, Rusin, or a pre-injury Carreno might fall.)

[Guest]

Sorry - I keep forgetting to put up the next poll. I will do it tonight.