2014 Cubs Pick Discussion

[Guest]

Round 35:

 

Minch, Jordan Purdue (IN) LHP L/L SO

6'3" 190lbs DOB: 07/16/93

[Guest]

Entirely unimpressive from what I can tell.

[Guest]

Round 36:

 

Peters, DJ Glendora HS (CA) OF R/R HS

6'5" 210lbs DOB: 12/12/95

 

 

Ranked 196 by BA:

 

Peters stands out for his 6-foot-4, 214-pound frame and big-time power potential. A big name from the showcase circuit, his stock has dropped due to poor performance this spring. Peters has plus or better raw power in his righthanded swing, which is fairly stiff and can get long, raising swing-and-miss concerns and drawing Dave Kingman comparisons. Questions about his hit tool could make him fall into the back half of the top 10 rounds, though scouts expect some club to sign him away from a Cal State Fullerton commitment. Peters plays center field for his high school team but is no better than a 45 runner. He does not have great defensive instincts and profiles better at a corner, where his 55 arm will play. He is a good athlete for his size, but scout scouts have expressed concerns about his aptitude.

[Guest]

Round 37:

 

Adams, Riley Canyon Crest Academy (CA) C R/R HS

6'5" 190lbs DOB: 06/26/96

[Guest]

Also a ranked prospect:

 

BA #154:

 

Lean and angular at 6-foot-4, 185 pounds, Adams is athletic and projectable. He’s also big for a catcher, and his receiving is raw at this stage, but his hands work, giving him a chance to stick behind the plate. He has slightly above-average to plus arm strength, but below-average accuracy. Offensively, Adams has shown the ability to drive the opposite gap in the past, but he has shown more of a pull approach this spring and is hard on his front side. He had bat speed, but he’ll need to prove he can make more consistent contact. Adams could grow into average or slightly better power, but he remains a work in progress. He is a San Diego commit who is considered a tough sign outside the top three rounds.

[Guest]

Either the team has a lot of money to play with, these guys don't need as much overslot as thought or a lot of them will go unsigned. Because we're taking quite a few overslot guys.

[Tangled Up in Plaid]

Either the team has a lot of money to play with, these guys don't need as much overslot as thought or a lot of them will go unsigned. Because we're taking quite a few overslot guys.

 

Yeah, this is pretty crazy.

[craig]

If some money gets left available, maybe somebody will decide he wants to go pro. But Heh, this is just a setup. In ten years, one or two of these guys will turn out really well… for other teams on next draft. And we'll look back and say, "Man, why didn't we sign THAT guy…."

[Gmoney08]

Either the team has a lot of money to play with, these guys don't need as much overslot as thought or a lot of them will go unsigned. Because we're taking quite a few overslot guys.

 

 

Granted I'm not a guru of the draft but isn't that a pretty sound strategy. Instead of taking a couple really talented overslot guys and why not take a bunch?

 

Obviously there isnt enough money to go around on all of them but why focus on a couple then if they don't sign you put all your eggs in that basket just to bust.

 

Go after tons of overslot guys and odds are you will sign a few of them, plus you might get surprises and get a couple of the guys that were rumored to be overslot desperate to sign and land some of those too.

 

Go after tons of quality, hedge your bets cause some obviously wont sign but try and negotiate some down and see how many quality guys you can grab.

[craig]

Last year Cubs had 2nd pick in 6th round with a slot of $267.

 

No idea how much if any discretionary money we'll have after rounds 1-10 sign. But lets say there is some, whether that be $200K or $1000K.

 

If you make $300K offers to a lot of these guys who were ranked somewhere in the 150-250 range, that range wouldn't be too far off from 5th round money. Offer 5th round money to a dozen decent top-250 prospects, and maybe one or two will accept and want to get started. Last year, for example, Clifton ended up settling for $375. If you had a million to play with, you could hypothetically sign 5 of these guys at 5th-round slot. Maybe a couple will take that, sign, and hopefully work out.

[Guest]

Round 36:

 

Peters, DJ Glendora HS (CA) OF R/R HS

6'5" 210lbs DOB: 12/12/95

 

 

Ranked 196 by BA:

 

Peters stands out for his 6-foot-4, 214-pound frame and big-time power potential. A big name from the showcase circuit, his stock has dropped due to poor performance this spring. Peters has plus or better raw power in his righthanded swing, which is fairly stiff and can get long, raising swing-and-miss concerns and drawing Dave Kingman comparisons. Questions about his hit tool could make him fall into the back half of the top 10 rounds, though scouts expect some club to sign him away from a Cal State Fullerton commitment. Peters plays center field for his high school team but is no better than a 45 runner. He does not have great defensive instincts and profiles better at a corner, where his 55 arm will play. He is a good athlete for his size, but scout scouts have expressed concerns about his aptitude.

 

DJ was expected to go pro. Wonder why he fell.

[Guest]

Here is Martarano's report on BA from last year's draft. He was the #149 prospect in last year's draft:

 

Martarano is a Boise State football recruit at linebacker, and the school doesn't have a baseball team. So teams will have to decide whether to try to buy him out of college completely or work out a deal to allow him to play both sports. Martarano has some of the best raw power in this draft, with batting practice sessions this spring creating a lot of scouting buzz, though scouts aren't sure how well he'll be able to tap into it in games. He can get stiff at the plate and struggles with pitch recognition at times. Martarano is a lot more polished than many dual-sport athletes, and he knows the intricacies of the game and plays hard. He is already on Boise State's workout program and has a bulky, muscular build at 6-foot-3 and 240 pounds, and he's destined for left field or first base as a pro. It's a big jump from Idaho to pro ball, and the team that drafts Martarano will need to be patient with his development. His best case would be as a player in the mold of Mark Trumbo, with big power, lots of strikeouts and limited defensive value.

 

Will be interesting to watch him if he does sign and play for the Hawks.

[Guest]

@sahadevsharma: McLeod: We feel really good about Jake Stinnett, although we were holding our breath watching him pitch today, seeing him go 115+ pitches.

 

@sahadevsharma: McLeod on the HS arms taken in rounds 4-6: We took them in those rounds because we feel confident that we will be able to get them signed.

[Guest]

@NathanRode: #Cubs 33rd rounder Brad Bass is projectable, athletic RHP. Inconsistent spring, but keep an eye on him at Notre Dame. #MLBDraft

[cubsclapp]

@sahadevsharma

McLeod sound very optimistic on Boise St 3B Joey Martarano: Might be a situation where he plays football still & plays baseball in summer

 

@sahadevsharma

McLeod admitted Cease will likely have to undergo some surgical procedure on his elbow & it went into their thought process when picking him

 

@sahadevsharma

McLeod on Cease: To get that kind of talented player in the sixth round, we certainly felt it was worth it.

 

@sahadevsharma

More McLeod on Schwarber: There may have been teams that had Schwarber 10th or 15th on their list, but, like I said, he was number 2 on ours

[RammyFanny]

Any truth to the rumor Schwarber signed?

 

Marlin said it, my guess is its true. Wish we had the monetary number. They won't announce any of this stuff officially until they pass their physicals.

I've been skipping around, so my bad if it was posted, but here's an interview from Schwarber yesterday (credit Yagyu on PSD for the link):

 

http://media.1070thefan.com/Podcasts/2161/Swarber.mp3

 

Schwarber says he's going to take a physical and meet with Epstein/Cubs on Monday. Says Boise likely first stop.

[Guest]

Sahadev Sharma piece on the draft: http://m.espn.go.com/general/blogs/blogpost?blogname=chicagocubs&id=24710&city=chicago&src=desktop&rand=ref~%7B%22ref%22%3A%22http%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FVzNEEEfiE9%22%7D

 

Lots of McLeod quotes. On Stinnett:

 

“He was an athletic kid who was a conversion -- he went into Maryland as a third baseman/pitcher,” McLeod said. “So he doesn’t actually have as many innings under his belt as a lot of college pitchers do. This year was actually his first full season as a starting pitcher and he goes out and leads the ACC in strikeouts, big-time ground-ball rate, throws a lot of strikes. He’s already a physical guy that’s athletic and he’s a younger kid, for a fourth-year player in college, he’s actually at junior-age, he’s only 21. We felt all of those things lead to someone who’s still on the rise as a pitcher.”

 

On the potential overslots:

 

“These are kids that were rated very highly and had strong college commitments,” McLeod said. “But, through the due diligence of our scouts -- communication [is important], certainly in this system of the draft, you have a pool of money, you have to work hard to make sure it fits within the parameters. And we did and we feel like we got three talented young players that we think we’ll be able to sign.”

 

Cease missed most of the season after suffering an elbow injury and opted to have platelet-rich plasma injections rather than surgery. However, McLeod said the team believes he’ll likely have to undergo some surgical procedure, possibly Tommy John, and made the pick with that in mind.

 

“We also know that coming into the year he was arguably a top-15-type pick in the draft,” McLeod said. “Where we were in that area of the draft, we felt that looking at who we selected, if we use our money wisely it's an opportunity there to hit real big. We know that there's risk, he's a high school right-hander, will probably have to have some sort of procedure on his arm. But to get that kind of talented player in the sixth round, we certainly felt it was worth it.”

 

McLeod also appeared quite optimistic that the Cubs would be able to sign their 22nd-round pick, Joey Martarano, a third baseman with huge power, who plays football at Boise State.

 

“We're going to make a good run at him,” McLeod said of Martarano, who is slated to be a redshirt freshman linebacker in the 2014 season. “It's a different situation there in that they don't have baseball at that school, but he is a guy that was well-known on the amateur circuit in high school because he's so strong, physical, right-handed power. That one actually is one that we're going to try. It might be a situation where he plays football still and goes down and plays baseball in the summer.”

 

On Schwarber:

 

“I’ve always said, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, that certainly holds true in the draft,” McLeod said. “There may have been teams that had Kyle Schwarber 10th or 15th on their list, but, like I said, he was No. 2 on ours. You do your work on the signability, for sure, and what you think a player will sign for, you have those kinds of discussions. But that’s not what’s going to be the determining factor for us on where we’re going to place a guy on the board or if we’ll pick him.”

[Guest]

@sahadevsharma: McLeod on if he's nervous abt signing kids: Not so much because there's lotta comm. that goes on prior to picks on what kid's looking for

 

@sahadevsharma: More McLeod on signing HS arms: I have to have a good idea we can sign him or else you lose that slot money for all the rounds.

 

@sahadevsharma: More McLeod: It's not like you're taking fliers on these guys, because if you don't sign them that money goes away

 

@sahadevsharma: More McLeod: We've had a lot of good conversations, they do continue, we feel very confident we're gonna have everyone in top 10 rds signed

[Guest]

@sahadevsharma: McLeod on Zagunis: He's real athletic, we're certainly going to try to develop him solely as a catcher.

 

@sahadevsharma: More McLeod on Zagunis: esp if he & Schwarber are together at Boise you're going to see him move around a little bit just as they split time

 

@sahadevsharma: McLeod on Zagunis: He's played CF, which tells you kind of athlete he is. Might see some boxscores where he plays LF, but future w us is @ C

[ScrubMD]

Man, if they really do sign all of their first 10 and a few of their 10-40 overslots....that's a good draft.

[craig]

I missed it earlier on Deppermann, but he was ranked 192 by BA:

 

In a deep year for Florida high school pitching, the athletic Depperman was late to the scene, drawing considerable attention after a strong showcase outing in Jupiter, Fla., last fall when he was still uncommitted. He has since committed to North Florida, and while he has present stuff and strike-throwing ability, as an undersized righthander he might end up in college. Depperman has maintained 89-92 mph velocity all spring, touching 94 with late life from an easy delivery, though his fastball can be somewhat flat because of a lack of plane. He has multiple breaking balls, a slider that can touch 85 mph and a mid-70s curveball, with his slider flashing above-average. He also mixes in a changeup and is a strike-thrower with the potential for average control. The right team might be willing to look past his height because of his stuff and buy him out of college

 

After receiving the call, Deppermann posted this comment on his Twitter account: “Thankful for the Cubs giving me the opportunity to play professional baseball! So excited to see what (the) future holds for me.” - See more at: http://suncoastnews.com/su/list/suncoast-news-sports/turgeon-dunedin-deppermann-east-lake-selected-in-mlb-draft-20140607/#sthash.IqVywibJ.dpuf

 

Not sure that means he'll take that opportunity, so I don't assume that means he's signing. But, doesn't give the impression that signing would be very shocking either.

[Guest]

Not surprising:

 

@sahadevsharma: McLeod on when they can sign Stinnett: Once his season's over he'll go thru physical process & everything will fall into place after that

 

@sahadevsharma: McLeod on Stinnett: He's a guy with how many innings he's going to end up with this year, we won't even pitch him too much this summer.

 

@sahadevsharma: McLeod on Stinnett: It'll be more abt learning about our strength & conditioning programs, our throwing programs. He might get 15-20 innings

[UK1679666180]

More on Cease:

 

Position: RHP

Height: 6-2

Weight: 180

Bats/Throws: R-R

Birthdate: Dec. 28, 1995

High School: Milton

City, State: Milton, Ga.

Travel Team: Team Elite

Commitment: Vanderbilt

Projected Draft Round: 1-1S

 

Perfect Game All-American righthander Dylan Cease comes from a particular grouping of top pitching prospects known as the “Former Middle Infielders.” While that would be a horrible name for a band, it is a fitting way to describe a significant portion of each year’s top righthanded pitching prospects.

 

A quick look down the first round/first round compensation draft lists for the past few years gives us a very talented handful of names: Jose Berrios (Twins), Jason Hursh (Braves), Lance McCullers (Astros), Aaron Sanchez (Blue Jays), Braden Shipley (Diamondbacks), Marcus Stroman (Blue Jays) and Taijuan Walker (Mariners).

 

A similar glance at recent Perfect Game All-American rosters reveals more of the same: Ricardo Jacquez, Dillon Maples, Brett Morales, Clate Schmidt, Lucas Sims and Cameron Varga.

 

Along with the obvious arm strength that a shortstop brings from the middle of the infield to the mound, another big positive of the position switch is that shortstops are often the best athletes on the field. That athleticism on the mound is a constant with Cease and all of the pitchers listed above.

 

Another constant, of course, is that their abilities on the mound eventually passed over the ability to hit a baseball.

 

Cease has the prototypical middle infielder’s build at a slender 6-foot-2, 180-pound listed size. His build at 17 years old is virtually identical to that of Shipley or Schmidt. He’ll likely fill out a bit as he matures, but he has a naturally slender and athletic frame.

 

Cease’s athleticism is evident in his pitching mechanics. He has a timing intensive delivery with a big leg raise and hip turn along with a slight hesitation as he starts coming forward that allows his lower half to come around on time and generate plenty of power from his core and hips. His arm circle is clean and fast and it comes through from a high three-quarters slot that creates outstanding downhill angle to the plate.

 

When everything is in sync it enables Cease to throw and maintain elite level velocities with little effort and stress. It was very impressive to watch Cease at the Perfect Game National Showcase last June warm up effortlessly at 95 mph. It’s a check point on every good scout’s list to watch the velocity and effort that a pitcher warms up at in his early innings, not that one will often see a pitcher getting loose in the mid-90s. Cease eventually topped out at 97 mph in the Metrodome that day.

 

When Cease does get out of sync it’s when the timing of the little hesitation gets off and he pulls off his front side and his head early, causing his arm to rush to get through. This happened at the East Coast Professional Showcase in early August. Cease’s first inning might have been the best inning he threw all summer, sitting at 94-96 mph with outstanding life and overpowering hitters. Before the second inning, a light but annoying rain began to fall and it threw Cease off just enough that his next two innings were a struggle, especially with command.

 

Overall, Cease’s combination of sustainable mid-90s velocity, ideal downhill plane and outstanding hard running life make his fastball one of the top such pitches in the hard throwing 2014 high school class. Tyler Kolek throws harder but doesn’t have nearly the same type of life. Grant Holmes can match Cease’s velocity numbers and flash plus life but doesn’t have the plane to his pitches that Cease does. Touki Toussaint can match the plane and the life but does not stay as consistent with the velocity yet.

 

The reason that those three righthanders are ranked higher than Cease in the Perfect Game class rankings at present – Cease checks in at No. 14 – is the quality of their secondary pitches. Cease’s changeup, which he could use more frequently, is a solid offering in the 80-82 mph range and is a pitch that he will get outs with at the college and/or professional level.

 

His curveball, however, is presently a below average pitch and will need some fundamental adjustments to improve. Cease tends to drop his elbow and cast the pitch instead of getting out front with it, although he will flash some quality spin when he throws it at his hardest velocities, around 75-76 mph. There is nothing in Cease’s arm action or delivery that will prohibit him from learning a quality breaking ball, he just hasn’t yet, and until scouts see it, they can’t give him credit for it.

 

Early reports out of Georgia this spring on Cease have been outstanding, with him topping out at 97 mph and throwing easy and loose. His athleticism and outstanding fastball will get him into the top 40-50 picks in June regardless of any other considerations. If his curveball takes a significant step forward, his eventual slot could be much higher than that.

[davell]

http://ccdt.webs.com/

 

Yagyu, from PSD, is the MAN, for tracking down signing info and rumors. He created this to help condense everything and I asked him if itd be OK to link it here. Thanks a bunch. Yags!

[UK1679666180]

More on Stinnett:

Position: RHP

Height: 6-4

Weight: 215

Bats/Throws: R-R

Birthdate: April 25, 1992

College: Maryland

Hometown: Vista, Calif.

Previously Drafted: 29th round, 2013 (Pirates)

Projected Draft Round: 1S-2

 

Some players give us years to evaluate them, pick them apart piece by piece, and let us feel like we know them inside and out by the time they are drafted. Carlos Rodon and Tyler Beede have taken that kind of route, and even some high school players like Nick Gordon have that vibe as well. Then, there are prospects like Maryland’s Jake Stinnett who seemingly make us scramble in the final months before the draft as we try to figure out exactly what they are all about. And, that abbreviated process can have its share of pros and cons to it.

 

I’ve watched Stinnett throw twice now in 2014. In the first outing I saw, which I’ll detail below, the big righthander was downright electric against a solid N.C. State lineup. In the outing I saw more recently on April 25th, Stinnett was not the same pitcher and ran into some rough patches against an up and coming but far less noted Boston College lineup. If you’re a team, or more specifically, a scout who witnessed both outings, the question becomes how do you average the two and decide which version of this pitcher do you believe in?

 

Following his N.C. State outing in March, in which Stinnett out-dueled Carlos Rodon, I believed he should have been considered a top 75 overall talent in this year’s draft class, and perhaps even in the top 40 or 50. To his credit, he’s had impressive outings since then in which scouts came away saying he could go as high as the first round.

 

So let’s look at what he can do at his best, detailing his efforts against N.C. State. After that game, we’d learn that Stinnett had worked with his pitching coach on breaking out a new weapon. He made a concerted effort to pound his heavy sinking fastball in on the hands of righthanders, and he did it expertly over his eight shutout innings. And, what this did besides tie up those tough N.C. State hitters like Trea Turner and Jake Fincher, aside from saw them off and induce weak groundballs, was set up his slider down and away. That approach was the primary source of the 14 strikeouts he picked up that night.

 

It was clear from pitch one that Stinnett was razor sharp, and that he was more than a “performance guy” having a breakout senior season. He showed plus stuff, and that starts with the 92-94 mph fastball he was pumping in the first inning. That fastball settled in around 91-93 mph for the rest of the night, but he also did pop 95 mph in the sixth inning. There were clearly no stamina issues, as Stinnett had no problem carrying his velocity, as well as command and movement deep into the game on a chilly night.

 

Stinnett’s 91-94 mph fastball was no ordinary one though, and you have to round up his grades due to his plus movement and plus command. The 6-foot-4 righthander had the “scissor effect” going in full swing on this particular night, as he was able to use the spill over two-seam on the inside corner to lefties and also run it in on righties. And, that scissor effect is created when he follows that pitch with his late breaking slider going in the opposite direction. He throws his slider at 81-84 mph with two plane depth. He was able to backdoor it to lefties and sweep it away from righties as needed. It was a formula that work beautifully for him and kept the Wolfpack hitters guessing all night. Had he been facing wooden bats, there would have shards of wood all over the field throughout this game.

 

Although he didn’t need it much, Stinnett did break out a handful of changeups at 83-85 mph to help combat the lefty bats in N.C. State’s lineup. He yanked the first few he threw, but one of the last ones he threw showed outstanding spin matching two-seam movement down in the zone. This will be a pitch he’ll be asked to develop further in the future, and he very clearly has the foundation for an above average pitch.

 

This pitcher of last month, however, did not show up on Friday afternoon at Boston College. Make no mistake, he was still very solid and looked like a pitch who could go in the top three rounds. But, he showed subtle signs of fatigue throughout the outing, as his arm slot appeared a hair lower and he just was not as on top of the baseball as I had seen him previously. The two-seamer was more lateral and didn’t have that bowling ball type action. And, his slider was rounder and a little easier to read out of his hand. The velocity was fine for the most part, as he carried 90-94 for most of the game, but everything was simply less crisp.

 

Stinnett has been a workhorse for Maryland this spring, and on April 18th against Georgia Tech he threw 141 pitches. This is something I learned after seeing his Boston College outing, and it may make a little more sense now that his stuff wasn’t quite as a crisp.

 

A classic late bloomer out of Vista, California, Stinnett arrived at Maryland primarily as a hitter. And, he only became a full-time pitcher about halfway through his college career, and was only a 29th round draft pick in the 2013 draft. Despite his powerful frame and clean delivery, fatigue could a real factor even if the signs are subtle. His spring has been a tremendous one, though, as he’s been one of the most reliable Friday starters in the nation. Through his first 11 outings, he has posted a 2.92 ERA over 80 innings of work. And, you can just do the math to see how durable he’s been with his innings per start. Stinnett has also struck out 80 batters in that span while walking 21 and surrendering just 53 hits.

 

So, the question remains, how do you evaluate the differing version of Jake Stinnett, a pitcher who is still relatively new to this status when considering his 29th round selection last June. It’s not going to be an easy question to answer. He’s built a superb track record very quickly this spring, so that alone will help him answer some lingering questions, and he’s also done a good job of sustaining plus velocity. That fact should contribute to teams believing they can keep him in a starting role.

 

So, no, Stinnett has not quite sustained what I saw on one dominant night in March, but he’s still very much forced himself onto the map with a monster spring. And, it’s still hard to envision him getting out the second round if scouts are properly taking his heavy workload into account this spring. If there’s a team out there who more fully believes that the March version of Stinnett can fully be brought back, he could still be a factor in the top 40 picks.