Recapping Chicago Cubs' 2026 Draft Class: A Big Bet on Tyler Zombro

[BigbadB]

Anybody have stats on what percentage of college players were drafted vs. high school players (ALL TEAMS), and how much that percentage compares to previous years?

[Jason Ross]

12 minutes ago, BigbadB said:

Anybody have stats on what percentage of college players were drafted vs. high school players (ALL TEAMS), and how much that percentage compares to previous years?

Over 70% college players, lower prep players drafted than normal.

Source

[craig]

Big bet on Zombro.  

Pitchers are revising offspeed stuff all the time.  New cutter, new sweeper, revised grip on change, etc.  

Question:  How common is it to revise a fastball in a significant way?  I know guys revise their frequency of usage, between 4-seam and 2-seam.  But for 4-seam guys like Townsend and Jasa, can those get revised?  Or are you kinda stuck with a straight, dead-zone?  

Random naive thoughts:

1. Grip:  I've got to believe there can be grip tweaks, particularly in the 2-seam direction.  Ben Brown came up with a tremendous new fastball in a single offseason that completely changed his capacity.  Why not send Jasa and Townsend to Brown school, and have them come up with tremendous ground-ball sinkers?  
2. Grip:  If Townsend and Jasa at present use 4-seam fastballs, is there anything they can do with grip to get better movement?   
3. I assume arm-slot tweaks are problematic.  Yes, tons of players have lowered their arm slots.  Gotten more healthy, and gotten different action on their fastballs.  But, I can't imagine you can mess with arm slot without disrupting breaking pitches.  If Townsend and Jasa are already spin guys, wouldn't lowering arm slot to help fastball do more harm than good, and mess up their breaking pitches?  
4. Stride length, same problem?  Lots of guys have shortened their stride, and in process impacted their fastball shape.  But again, I think that would also impact all of your breaking balls.  So if Townsend and Jasa have best pitches are offspeed stuff, I doubt they want to disrupt those?  
5. In other words, if both guys have kinda optimized their stride length and arm slot to optimize their breaking pitches, which they live off of, won't it be counterintuitive to mess with stride/slot on account of fastball?  

 

[Bertz]

Sahadev with an awesome draft recap:

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7451150/2026/07/17/cubs-draft-pitchers/?source=user_shared_article&unlocked_article_code=1.yVA.5ve5.M5kNY_tNDMtI&smid=ta-android-share

(I believe this is a gift link so anyone should be able to read)

- Jasa just started pitching a few years ago.  So combine that with some athleticism gains the team thinks it can get out of his gangly body they think there's a ton of untapped potential

- Marionneaux's Jamie Moyer-esque velocity has been overstated, he added 5 MPH over the course of his college career and by this year was touching 95

- Morton's a spin monster and there's a ton of Logan Webb to him.  Obvious injury issues of course

- Veasey's got good stuff *right now* despite very little experience.  Team thinks some pitch lab work in particular will unlock another gear

[craig]

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7451150/2026/07/17/cubs-draft-pitchers/?source=dailyemail&campaign=601983&userId=212065&source=dailyemail

Same article with the For-pay link.  Really great article, lots of input from anonymous Cubs source about things they envision.  

To add to Bertz:

1. Jasa.  "simple delivery with a short stride and not much depth in his lower half. ....Between Chicago’s high-performance plan and the hope that the Cubs can teach Jasa how to use his lower half better, there’s a belief that he can add multiple ticks to his heater... There is a hope that he can add a sinker to his arsenal that will play up coming from his high slot.
2. Marion..  "came to Chicago’s pre-daft workout weighing 165 pounds and already touching 95 mph. The Cubs believe that by adding muscle mass, he can be touching 97-98 mph in short order."
3. Morton:  "When healthy, Morton has what the Cubs felt was the best sweeper in the draft, a pitch that was in the 85-87 range with nearly 20 inches of glove-side movement. His sinker was sitting 96 with negative verts."

4. Veasey:  "Originally a catcher ... was a two-way player at Alabama but barely pitched...  Cubs are enamored with his athleticism... touches 97 with his fastball — one of just two pitches he throws, along with... curve ...very little time spent on pitch design .... By the time he gets out to an affiliate, possibly later this year, the Cubs expect him to have up to four or five pitches.  They’re looking to add a gyro slider, a sinker and a changeup, a process that’s already in motion."

Kind of fun to get some ideas about the pitch-design ideas they've got.  

I'd wondered about how much they can pitch-design fastballs.  The Jasa idea of adding a sinker, for example, that pertains.  

[We Got The Whole 9]

Soon Jasa will be sitting 99?

[Named After Maddux]

The joke I made with a scout a few months back on Jasa and think I brought it back up on the podcast is the team is going to lock Carson in the Sloan weight room with a stair climber when he gets down to AZ. He’s gonna come out with Mark Prior calves and throw 102.

 

Concerning some of these fastballs, there’s a lot they could do, but also they’re making a bet on supination and spin. Big deep arsenals but the trade off on that is side spin meaning those fastballs often don’t pop on the metrics as often. There’s still work to be done with them and usage is critical. The fastball often acts as what some player’s cutters are - bridge pitches and barrel suppressors. Then you beat guys with harder cutters that can be gyro sliders, hard curveballs, sweepers, and an arm-side offering like a changeup or split. Try to get as many of these pitchers with three fastballs (cut, 4s, sinker), multiple breaking balls, and one arm-side changeup or split.

[craig]

Thanks, Greg.  Agree that a combo of 4-seam, 2-seam, and cutter gives a lot of variations, even if the 4-seam itself doesn't have great metrics, in combination with the offspeed stuff.  

For Greg or Jason or anybody:  looking at the pitchers drafted, would we say the Cubs leaned predominantly towards supinators?  Or exclusively?  Or would our draft distribution of supination/pronation be not significantly different from what most teams do?  

[Named After Maddux]

2 hours ago, craig said:

Thanks, Greg.  Agree that a combo of 4-seam, 2-seam, and cutter gives a lot of variations, even if the 4-seam itself doesn't have great metrics, in combination with the offspeed stuff.  

For Greg or Jason or anybody:  looking at the pitchers drafted, would we say the Cubs leaned predominantly towards supinators?  Or exclusively?  Or would our draft distribution of supination/pronation be not significantly different from what most teams do?  

I believe the vast majority of the first 12 rounds of Cubs drafted pitchers fall into that larger bucket. It’s not perfect to bin guys strictly in pronation/supination from a far (without biomechanics analysis) but it’s decent.  Basically all of the first 12 rounds of arms have larger arsenals and high spin capacity. Even Chase Meyer who is probably the most pure-reliever they took has FB, Curveball, Slider, and he’s thrown a changeup before. Big spin, deep arsenals. Usually when you see that mix it’s often from someone with a supination bias. Not always. I’m painting with a broad brush but pretty solid.