davell

11-5 groundout/flyout ratio out of Butler tonight. He's being economical, 92 pitches in 7 innings. He's going to help us this year and slide into a fulltime spot next year. Its a pretty exciting time for our minor league pitching, at this point. In order, I'd rank them like this.... 1. Dylan Cease 2. Trevor Clifton 3. Oscar De La Cruz 4. Jose Albertos 5. Thomas Hatch 6. Duane Underwood 7. Alec Mills 8. Erling Moreno 9. Bailey Clark 10. Jose Paulino/Manuel Rondon I'd put Mekkes at 7, if I was ranking relievers in this. But, I may have read Paulino was going to the pen too, can't remember. This doesn't include Tseng, Hedges, Kellogg, Steele, Tyson Miller, Alzolay, or Morrison. Ryan Williams either. Damn near everyone currently in a Cubs minor league rotation has some semblance of major league upside. Which is awesome to see. Brailyn Marquez could wind up well inside the top 10 at some point this year and we may draft a guy or two at 27 and 30, or early on anyway, that makes this list too. Our depth looks great now and is going to start showing plenty of upside this year.

Read and laugh at the butt hurt comments. The championship truly is EVERYTHING I thought it'd be.

Thomas Hatch and Adbert Alzolay, as far as Starters go. Justin Steele too, was a bit surprised he got bumped up actually, after struggling last year in SB. Pedro Araujo throws hard out of the pen. I guess he's worth looking at. Higgins is fairly interesting. Gets on base and has picked up Catching quickly after being converted. Carlos Sepulveda is DEFINITELY worth watching. He's starting to get some prospect love. He's only 20 and didn't get a huge bonus, so he's a surprise.

Clayton Richard went 8 5 0 0 2 5 against the Dodgers. Clayton Richard.

Manny Rondon was decent today. 5.2 3 1 1 2 7. Not likely to wind up starting longterm. But, he'd be very interesting out of the pen.

It was nice to see Carl.

Happ's blocked too don't you think? Javy's probably going to be the everyday 2B next year and Zobrist will become the utility guy. Happ could take La Stella's spot but how much playing time could Happ hope to get unless he plays in the OF. There's going to be injuries. Happ can move into the utility role or into the everyday spot of whoever gets hurt. His versatility gives us even more options.

Happ makes me Happy.

Do you see the possibility that Zobrist doesn't finish his contract with the Cubs? Not really. His skill set ages well, but he'll probably be fairly bad by year 4. Until then, injuries can still get Happ plenty of AB's.

We don't need to trade Happ. We can deal Candelario, because he's actually blocked. But, we'll be able to find Happ AB's. He doesn't have to contribute much this year, if he does, that's great. But Zobrist will start to age at some point, Happ will start to find 500 AB's within 2 years easily. Plus, we have the D that allows us to take lesser guys much better anyway. We don't need to add an Archer type. Its kind of a waste of resources for us. Buy a guy next year and keep adding the Butler types. Our pitching will stay excellent.

De La Cruz went 5 5 0 0 2 5. Its going to be fun watching us move back to an elite system this year, with what's already on the roster.

I guess our other option is to have an ML1 and ML2 team, like the DSL. Theo hasn't accomplished THAT yet.

I like Jeimer. But, I can't see us finding him 300 ML AB's, without injuries. Not ever. Which is kind of awesome, because he's pretty horsefeathering good. Get the best young pitcher you can for him. It can be a low level borderline top 100 guy, or a guy that's lost some luster in the bigs.

Clifton goes 5 2 2 2 1 4. Damn good, considering he gave up a walk and homer to the first two batters he faced.

Struck out the side in the 4th. At 77 pitches, probably done for the night. Hit 99, by the way.

Hockin supposedly has a very violent delivery. I remember reading things that mentioned that somewhere. Miller is very projectable, but so is Clark. Clark went into last season as a guy that had the potential to be a first rounder. But, he had serious trouble starting last year. The early reports this spring mentioned he looked as if he had started figuring things out. Based on size and velo, I'd lean towards him having more upside than Miller(not a knock on him either). I'm genuinely interested in both. If I remember, Silverio doesn't have great stuff and has had some makeup concerns on top of that. But, he's been off my radar for a little while. So, maybe he's taken a step forward.

I could see him move VERY quickly. If the deception is as good as has been talked about, it wouldn't shock me to see him in Tennessee this year.

Guess I just read the Hatch part and my brain pulled a "this doesn't look like anything to me" with the Miller part. But yeah good night for me the 2016 pitching. Nah, I bet you read it before I added the Miller part. Tseng is just 22, in repeating AA. He went 5 4 1 1 0 7 tonight. 73-47 strikes, 4-1 ground outs to fly out. Yet another good start tonight. Mills is getting roughed up in the 4th though.

Hatch goes 5 1 1 0 3 2. 78 pitches, 42 strikes. 11-1 ground outs/fly outs. 1) Its extremely impressive we started him in MB. That's the first guy under Theo we've done that with. He was supposedly getting squeezed, so the walks aren't bothersome. And the 11-1 ratio speaks for itself. A few mode starts like this and he's going to start getting some prospect love from the national guys. Tyson Miller goes 4.2 4 0 0 1 7. 75-47 strikes. 3-0 groundouts to flyouts. Last years pitching looking very good after one start.

Tampa is getting connected to RBs a lot. At this point, it doesn't even appear as if McCaffrey will last this far. He seems much more likely than Peppers to me, who may or may not even go in the 1st.

The Ripkens were just a bunch of horsefeathers faces.

Final line was 5.2 6 0 0 2 6 Seriously, is it just this horsefeathering easy for us?

Why? That's the core of a .500 team.

That's the problem though. Outside of Garrett, I can see scenarios where everyone else falls outside the top 5. Thomas seems close to being a top 5 lock to me, but if San Fran trades out of 2 and Fournette goes there, he could drop too. Because I'm not sure we'd take him at 3(even if I'd take him there)

7th Round is obviously not easy to project. So, I'm not going to bother, other than to say its likely going to be an upside type that is raw and is getting stashed. No position seems out of the mix. As for our other picks, here's my general opinion.... Pick 3 Options- Solomon Thomas- Is he a great fit in a 3-4? I'd take him. Jonathan Allen- Shoulders OK? Injury issues seem like something Pace will shy away from at 3. Marcus Lattimore- Injury concerns here too, but he's separated himself from the other CB's. Malik Hooker- Raw, coming off injury. I don't see it, but I'm sure he's under consideration. Jamal Adams- Makes sense on many levels. Very safe. But, top 3 money on a Safety? Just not sure we'd go this way. Trade down- Probably our preferred option. How far? No idea if they'd drop out of the top half of the 1st, but if it added a future 1st, plus picks this year too, I'd say anything is possible. A situation like this could put QB in play in the 1st. Pick 36 Options QB- Any of the top 4, if they fall to this spot. Personally, I'm thinking one will. Kizer seems the best bet. OT- Ryan Ramcyck, Garrett Bolles, Cam Robinson- None of them may make it this far. But, my guess is one will. WR- John Ross, Corey Davis, Curtis Samuel I saw Pace make a quote about WR isn't a finished product for the team and to check back after the draft. If either of those 2 fell to 36, I could see us taking them. Samuel may be a slight reach here. TE- David Njoku, Evan Engram- Seems like another spot we're addressing. I think its likely we'll draft one before we take a WR. DE/OLB- Charles Harris,Takkarist McKinley- I kind of expect offense or a CB here. But those 2 are excellent value here. DT- Malik McDowell- Same as DE. Just a good value. CB- Marlon Humphrey, Quincy Wilson, Gareon Conley,Adoree Jackson, Kevin King, Tre'Davius White, Chidobe Awuzie. Some of these guys will go in the 1st. But, its hard to tell who's even 2, behind Lattimore currently. Great depth though. There WILL be excellent value at 36. S- Jabril Peppers. I doubt we'll take a S with one of our top 2 picks. But, there's excellent depth here too. I think any of the guys I've got listed as 3rd round values are slight reaches at 36. Trade- Either way. In fact, I'll predict we DO trade this pick. But, is it to move up for a QB? Down, to accumulate picks? I'll guess we trade down. Pick 67 Options QB- Davis Webb, Nathan Peterman I think my current hot QB take is that Webb goes before Kizer. Either way, Webb or Peterman is relatively decent value here. WR- Zay Jones, Cooper Kupp, JuJu Smith-Schuster I kind of figure we will find better value in the 3rd than WR. I've seen multiple analysts say if you aren't finding 4th round starters in THIS draft, you're doing it wrong. Seems easier at other positions. OT- Andrew Garcia,Taylor Moton, Dion Dawkins. Not easy to find an immediate starting OT outside the 1st honestly. These guys are decent value here. But, my guess is look elsewhere. TE-Gerald Everett,Jordan Leggett. This spot is soooooo deep. My guess is we either take an elite guy before now, or wait a round or two and still find a future starter. DE- Dawuane Smoot, Chris Wormley, Tanoh Kpassagnon- Long shot at this spot, in my mind. DT- Caleb Brantley, Carlos Watkins, Larry Ogunjobi. Long shot he's available here. CB- Akhello Witherspoon, Fabian Moreau, Cordrea Tankersley, Sidney Jones. So much value. This group starts from Day 1.(if healthy) S- Marcus Williams, Marcus Maye, Justin Evans, Budda Baker, Josh Jones, Desmond King. Great value here too. Guys like King or Evans may hold even more value, as they are also CB prospects and its possible we don't address both spots early on. Trade up- I can see us packaging our 4ths, or future picks, or SOMETHING, to move back into the 3rd. So much value here. Picks 111 and 117 Options QB- Brad Kaaya,Josh Dobbs. Get ready, because THIS is what I THINK we do, before taking one in the 1st next year, if needed. WR- Taywan Taylor, Carlos Henderson.That's it. Lots of decent players in this range, but I doubt we use a mid round pick here for some reason. OT- Julie'n Davenport, Roderick Johnson, Will Holden. Not likely to see a pick spent here either, in my mind. TE- Adam Shaheen,Jake Butt, George Kittle,Bucky Hodges, Jeremy Sprinkle, Jonnu Smith. I DO think this is where we get a TE. DE-Carl Lawson, Derek Rivers, Tarell Basham. Solid values here. In fact, they likely arent here at this stage. DT- Montravius Adams,Jaleel Johnson, Elijah Qualls, Dalvin Tomlinson. This group is value here. I can see us grabbing one from this group here. CB- Teez Tabor, Cam Sutton. If either guy falls this far, they become value picks again. Its stupid Tabor is even in this conversation, but it seems as if he is. S- Montae Nicholson, Lorenzo Jerome, Tedric Thompson, Nate Gerry, Eddie Jackson, John and Jadar Johnson. This or the 5th seems like where we normally take a S. And its about fit more than value, in some ways. Any of these guys could go here or last until the next round. Trade- I kind of suspect we only wind up with one 4th. Round 5 Options WR-Malachi Dupre,Ardarius Stewart, Noah Brown,Chad Hansen, Damore'ea Stringefellow,Josh Reynolds, Isaiah Ford, KD Cannon, Jalen Robinette, Amara Darboh. There's more too. Some of these guys will be gone. A few will be left. Not bad options at this point. OT-Jermaine Eluemenor, David Sharpe,Javarious Leamon, Adam Bisnowaty, Eric Seaton. A flyer on a developmental guy here makes sense. TE- Michael Roberts, Cole Hikutini, Eric Saubert. Still decent value here. Just a great class. DE- Carroll Phillips, Garret Sickles. Not likely to take one at this stage, in my mind. DT-Eddie Vanderdoes,Devon Godchaux. Same as DE. My guess is we only take one DL guy. And its long before now. CB-Brandon Langley, Jalen Myrick, Shaq Griffin, Jourdan Lewis,Rasul Douglas, Marquez White, Ezra Robinson,Corn Elder, Damontae Kazee. Lots of options, if we do wait this long. Doubt we do though. S- Some of the same group from last round. We have 7 picks currently, 2 4ths, no 6th. My guess is we end up drafting 9 players and add 2 picks next year too. Literally, zero basis for this. But, that's my guess.