Who is the Cubs #21 prospect?

[CaliforniaRaisin]

The poll will be open for 48 hours.

 

Results so far:

 

1. Javier Baez

2. Kris Bryant

3. Albert Almora

4. Jorge Soler

5. CJ Edwards

6. Arismendy Alcantara

7. Pierce Johnson

8. Daniel Vogelbach

9. Christian Villanueva

10. Jeimer Candelario

11. Mike Olt

12. Kyle Hendricks

13. Arodys Vizcaino

14. Paul Blackburn

15. Rob Zastryzny

16. Corey Black

17. Neil Ramirez

18. Eloy Jimenez

19. Josh Vitters

20. Ivan Pineyro

[A New Era]

I'm gonna go Rivero here. Just seems like the closer to MLB and some good upside in the pen deserves the nod here above some other guys.

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

Skulina, Maples, Underwood.

[craig]

Rivero, Maples, and Tseng. Heh heh, from the old to the young.

[wekim81]

Cabrera and Rivero. I still believe in Cabrera's arm. Gonna find out if i'm right the next six weeks.

[Guest]

We have catchers in the organization named Welington and Willson, come on guys.

 

I went with Dunston and Contreras.

[pitchcs]

Went with Rivero.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

I'm going to pretend like we're actually voting for him to be No. 2 and No. 1 at the same time rather than 21. Because he's just that good.

[Post Count Padder]

Is this a make or break year for Maples? Will be 22, struggled mightily in a brief stint in A-ball and has durability issues.

[craig]

Is this a make or break year for Maples? Will be 22, struggled mightily in a brief stint in A-ball and has durability issues.

 

Possible, although improbable. If he is as wild as he was at Kane, perhaps yes, break. (Between walks, HBP, and wild pitches, he had 45 wild things in 34 innings.) And if he carries his Boise effectiveness up through A- and A+, (ZERO HR's, G/A 2.35, K/inning, 2.15 ERA, and included a 4-game stretch with only 2 walks…), then he'll certainly be ranked way higher than #22. Make, not break.

 

My guess is that a year from now he'll neither be made nor broken. He'll be somewhere well below the 0/10/3 HR/K/BB good dream extreme, and well above the walk-per-inning nightmare. Probably somewhere in between, still too wild and inconsistent to make top 7, but still anti-HR enough with enough speed/movement/K's to stay top 30.

 

Certainly he's one of the guys best positioned to make a huge jump, though.

[Bilbo161]

Is this a make or break year for Maples? Will be 22, struggled mightily in a brief stint in A-ball and has durability issues.

 

Possible, although improbable. If he is as wild as he was at Kane, perhaps yes, break. (Between walks, HBP, and wild pitches, he had 45 wild things in 34 innings.) And if he carries his Boise effectiveness up through A- and A+, (ZERO HR's, G/A 2.35, K/inning, 2.15 ERA, and included a 4-game stretch with only 2 walks…), then he'll certainly be ranked way higher than #22. Make, not break.

 

My guess is that a year from now he'll neither be made nor broken. He'll be somewhere well below the 0/10/3 HR/K/BB good dream extreme, and well above the walk-per-inning nightmare. Probably somewhere in between, still too wild and inconsistent to make top 7, but still anti-HR enough with enough speed/movement/K's to stay top 30.

 

Certainly he's one of the guys best positioned to make a huge jump, though.

 

Maples is a tough one to figure out. I think I read that the Cubs simpliffied his approach and cut out one pitch (think it was the change-up) when they demoted him to Boise last year. After that he was lights out for a while with the two pitch arsenal. He really needs that third pitch to stick as a starter. Hope he can show some improvement this Spring.

[toonsterwu]

Contreras, Cabrera, and I'm sneaking in Amaya for now, as I buy the upside, and I think he could get uncorked in Daytona.

 

As a side note, if I was going to a young, upside arm already pitching in the system, my gut is to go with Underwood ahead of Maples. I just don't get the feel that Underwood's mechanical concerns are that significant, and he's such a good athlete, you hope he simply, over time, is able to adjust. Dunno, that's been my gut feeling this off-season.