2025 MLB Draft Day 2 Thread: Chicago Cubs Draft on North Side Baseball

9th rounder: Colton Book, RHP, St Joseph's. Unranked by MLB:

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A 6-foot-4 lefty who spent his first three college seasons at Stony Brook in New York, redshirting in 2023, Book transferred to St. Joseph’s for his junior year and promptly earned Atlantic 10 Pitcher of the Year honors after finishing with a 3.53 ERA, 12.7 K/9 and 2.1 BB/9 rates and a .208 batting average against. He’s a pitchability left-hander who has a  86-90 mph fastball that plays up (32 percent miss rate), a 79-80 mph slider and some feel for a low-80s changeup.

Unranked by BA too.

Wanting to be book...is not book

It was a bit of an off-Book selection.

Sure fire bust book it.

Sure feels like a lot of these picks are pointing to a fun pick in the 11th round.

Shooting my shot and calling Diego Velazquez in the 11th.  

8 minutes ago, mul21 said:

Sure feels like a lot of these picks are pointing to a fun pick in the 11th round.

Yeah I'm expecting someone nearly as fun as Hartshorn.

Via MLB.com's rankings there are 12 HS seniors ranked between 50-100 who have not been drafted, would suspect we get one of them.

3 minutes ago, Bertz said:

Yeah I'm expecting someone nearly as fun as Hartshorn.

Via MLB.com's rankings there are 12 HS seniors ranked between 50-100 who have not been drafted, would suspect we get one of them.

One of those is my student. 

Just now, vance_the_cubs_fan said:

One of those is my student. 

Given that you said he really wants to go pro right away, I'd guess even if its not us he's not going to last past the 11th round

And selfishly for you hopefully it's us!

Another senior sign to round out the top 10.  

2 minutes ago, Bertz said:

Given that you said he really wants to go pro right away, I'd guess even if its not us he's not going to last past the 11th round

And selfishly for you hopefully it's us!

I am not sure his asks. He seemed enthusiastic about the draft but also grew up an LSU fan and has a full ride there for baseball and said he would get NIL money there. So, not sure... but if he ended up on the Cubs, I would be stoked. He knows I will be his fan either way... and as a joke on his last day of class, he took his student id and signed it and gave it to me. Told him one day, that could be my 1:1 piece of memorabilia.

 

10th rounder: C Justin Stransky, Fresno St. Another senior, Not ranked by anyone:

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After two years at Lower Columbia College, Stransky moved on to catch at Fresno State for two years and was a Buster Posey Collegiate Catcher of the Year semifinalist. He’s an excellent athlete behind the dish with a lean frame and long levers. He has good arm strength and speed while showing durability by catching nearly every game for the Bulldogs. He finished with double digits in home runs and stolen bases in 2025 while making a ton of contact (8.4 percent K rate) and walking more than he struck out, and he could be an intriguing senior sign.

 

6 minutes ago, Bertz said:

Given that you said he really wants to go pro right away, I'd guess even if its not us he's not going to last past the 11th round

And selfishly for you hopefully it's us!

That said, LSU does a good job getting kids to campus.

So who is left on the board to spend all this left over undersold money on?

Diamondbacks select Craig Counsell's son in the 10th round.

 

So Stransky is just Ariel Armas again?

I do not hate the idea of doubling down on that profile.

Bonus pool rounds are done. Round 11, here we go.

The more defensive minded catchers the better imo. If just one of them pops offensively you can have that position solved internally for cheap. 

Wait, there's an hour break?

What am I supposed to do now? Work?

2 minutes ago, CaliforniaRaisin said:

Wait, there's an hour break?

What am I supposed to do now? Work?

Finally, my kid can put his phone down and not worry about getting a draft call from scouts that were definitely not looking at him while looking at Conor Essenburg and Jack Bauer. 🙂

4 college hitters, all of them with more walks than Ks and Conrad the only one with a K% above 7%.  Really think there's something to the Bat Control hypothesis

I mean, I only know what is written by scouts and where guys are ranked that the Cubs took. But I have to say I am a bit underwhelmed by what they have done up until now. Where are they spending this money? Sounds like so far they might have 2 guys people are excited about. The rest were reaches or at best, about where they should be. College seniors are also a way to not towns money on a signing. They did that a few times. There has to be something big happening, right? 

1 minute ago, Rcal10 said:

I mean, I only know what is written by scouts and where guys are ranked that the Cubs took. But I have to say I am a bit underwhelmed by what they have done up until now. Where are they spending this money? Sounds like so far they might have 2 guys people are excited about. The rest were reaches or at best, about where they should be. College seniors are also a way to not towns money on a signing. They did that a few times. There has to be something big happening, right? 

Well, they're going well over slot on Wing and Hartshorn.

12 minutes ago, bukie said:

Finally, my kid can put his phone down and not worry about getting a draft call from scouts that were definitely not looking at him while looking at Conor Essenburg and Jack Bauer. 🙂

TIL bukie and I are neighbors