CubsWin

Agreed. Guys that should be on their but aren't: Zack Short, David Bote, Miguel Amaya, Javier Assad, Nelson Velazquez, and maybe Brailyn Marquez. Guys that shouldn't be on their but are: Chesny Young, Pierce Johnson, Rob Zastryzny, Jose Paulino, Carlos Sepulveda and maybe Eddy Martinez.

Yeah...

Ultimately, I disagree with this particular top 30 list and have generally found MLB.com's rankings less informed than others. They still provide scouting information which is helpful to a degree, but the order they place the players in is always off to me. Perhaps they value ceiling differently than I do. For my tastes, Rucker should be a lot higher than 29th and Amaya should've at least made the list. The uncertain nature of a lot of the Cubs prospects right now leads to a ton of valid variance, but if you're going to include Jeremiah Estrada at 19 then Nelson Velazquez has to at least make the top 30. I don't expect MLB.com to have paid the same level of attention as many of us do here, but still...

And the Cubs don't have any in the top 100. The Braves have 8. http://m.mlb.com/prospects/2017/?list=prospects

If all you have are pitching prospects do your really have any prospects at all? I know, right? At least the depth there allows you to hope 1 or 2 of them make good. Volatility is already high amongst pitching prospects in general, but when you look at those 8 guys it's even higher. De La Cruz hasn't even combined to pitch 100 innings over the last 2 seasons. Albertos, while still young and sheltered innings-wise as he should be, has dealt with some injuries and has only 47 IP as a pro. Alzolay ended his season on the DL. Lange and Little didn't look great in their pro debuts. Hatch stayed healthy but was up and down in High-A and had the injury his sophomore year at Oklahoma State. Clifton imploded this year and Steele just had TJS. Good lord.

MLB.com has their list out. http://m.mlb.com/prospects/2017?list=chc Still no Amaya in their top 30...

Watching the game. It's good one. Assad has looked great with a tight slider and his mid-90s FB. He's absolutely shut down Vancouver going 6 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 2 BB and 9 Ks.

Well, the Cubs took that 5 run lead and doubled it in the top of the 9th making it 13-3. Ivan Medina came in to close it out and got 3 consecutive ground outs to Carlos Sepulveda to clinch it. Congrats to the AZL Cubs on a most unusual and unexpected run to the championship. Despite having the 4th worst overall record in the league, they win 9 out of their last 10 to win their division in the 2nd half by just 1 game over the 2nd place Angels and then go 4-1 in the playoffs. Including an August 19th make-up game from a rainout in the 1st half and the playoffs, the Cubs finished out the year 17-3.

The storybook run to the AZL championship is just 3 outs away as the Cubs take a 5 run lead into the 9th with a chance to pad their lead in the top half of the inning.

Thanks for that clip, Navin! AZ Phil commented yesterday, I believe, that despite the fans in the stadium being very quiet (most of them being scouts), it was the most raucous game he'd been at because both teams were cheering, chanting and even singing in their dugouts. That's Yovanny Cuevas (#61) leading the chant.

Eugene takes the series with a 10-4 win! On to defend their championship! Mesa still leading 8-3 in the winner take all final game of the AZL championship...

The AZL Cubs blow it allowing a run on a fielding error in the top of the 9th. The lose 6-5 putting their fairy tale end to their season in jeopardy. Game 3 tomorrow. Winner takes all...

The Ems take game one but not without controversy. The Hops got robbed when their 1st batter got called out at 1B when he was clearly safe. Their manager came out hot and got tossed as a result but he was in the right for sure. The next batter took what should've been ball four but was called a strike. That should've been men on 1st and 2nd with nobody out. Instead, he hits the next ball to second for an easy out. The last batter flies out, the Ems steal game one.

Emeralds take a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the 8th. Jake Steffens on the mound to close out game 1.

Both really competitive games tonight. Giants tie it in the top of the 6th while the Emeralds do the same in the bottom of the 7th making it 2-2.

And the battle has been joined as the AZL Cubs score 3 in the bottom of the 5th on 4 consecutive walks (Zinn got picked off so no runs scored) and a bases clearing triple by Nelson Velazquez. 5-4 now as they go to the 6th.

As far as the game... ouch. But I'll take that scouting report.

Albertos bringing the heat tonight throwing 95-97. Breaking ball sitting 81-83 and change is solid as well, though I haven't heard a velo on it yet. He's allowed 1 hit, walked 1 and struck out 2 in 3 scoreless thus far.

AZL Cubs jump out to an early 2 run lead. Brailyn Marquez doesn't allow a baserunner in top of the 1st while striking out 2. Then, Jose Gutierrez hits a lead off HR, Sepulveda walks and 1B Luis Hidalgo drives him home. Good start, but a lot of baseball left to play.

Normally, I don't care much about minor league championships. They're nice for the players and all, but nothing to get truly excited about. However, the story of the 2017 AZL Cubs is quickly becoming the stuff of legends. The Cubs finished the 1st half in last place in the AZL East with a record of 9-19 and started the 2nd half 4-10. The Giants rookie team had the best record in the 1st half (20-8, also in the AZL East) and, coming off an 11 game stretch where they went 9-2, were well on their way to winning their division in the 2nd half as well. On August 20th, the Giants were 12-6 and in 1st place with the Angels in 2nd at 11-7 while the Cubs were 7-11. The Giants faced the Cubs on the next day and lost. It would be the start of a 5 game losing streak and a 1-6 run in which the Cubs would beat them 3 times. The Angels would win just 2 of their next 7 games, while the Cubs would reel off 7 consecutive victories. Coming into August 30th, the Cubs were 14-11 and in 1st place. The Angles were tied for 2nd with the Giants at 13-12. As luck would have it, the Cubs played their next 2 games against the Angels. In a game in which Jonathan Sierra went 3-for-4, the Cubs found themselves down 4-2 going into the top of the 8th. The Cubs would tie it up on a sac fly by Cam Ballego, but the Angels would walk it off in the bottom of the 9th on a throwing error by 17-year-old SS Luis Vazquez to pull into a 1st place tie with the Cubs at 14-12. The Cubs would win the 2nd game of the series 9-2 walking 11 times against the Angels. They beat the Reds 6-1 to close out the season on a 9-1 run and secure the AZL East 2nd half division crown by just 1 game over the Angels and 2 over the once mighty Giants. The Cubs haven't lost since, winning 12 of their last 13, and are now one win away from the AZL crown after coming from behind to beat the Giants in game 1 of a 3 game series 10-4 last night. With the game tied at 2 with 2 outs in the top of the 8th, the Cubs rattle off 3 singles to load the bases. A passed ball scores two when the Giants catcher compounds his error by throwing the ball away. A walk and 2 more singles later, the Cubs had scored 5 runs all with 2 outs to take a 7-2 lead. 18-year-old LF Nelson Velazquez would add a 2-run HR in the 9th to seal it. It was his 4th HR in 9 games and 10th this year. Brailyn Marquez is slated to start game 2 tonight.

Well, knowing his exact numbers would be silly. But I certainly didn't expect he'd have started 15 games for Myrtle Beach and have put up the kind of numbers he did for them. He was arguably their best starter in the 2nd half! That's unexpected. At least for me. But if you saw that coming, good on ya! And yeah, I'm liking what Ademan did this year, too.

If he can maintain his improved control consistently into next season, he'd be a nice (and somewhat unexpected) addition to the Cubs pen next season. I imagine he'll get some work the next month in Chicago, so we should get an idea if taken a step or not. It sure would be a bonus if Maples and Johnson could be effective power arms out of the pen next year. The fact they'd be real cheap would be significant. Yep, that would be great. CJ, Strop, Maples and Johnson would be a nice core going forward if the latter two can remain consistent. We pretty much know that when they're on, they're good. But the question still remains how consistently on can they be. Maples has answered more of those questions than Johnson at this point, but you're right, Pierce has looked good for 2 months now.

Well, I certainly didn't expect Rucker to start 15 games in High-A this season much less pitch 93.1 innings with an ERA of 2.51, a FIP of 2.80 and a xFIP of 3.20, with 92 Ks against only 19 unintentional walks for a K-rate of 24.6% and a BB-rate of just 5.6%. But if you did, that's impressive. Good on ya!

This was the year of unexpected emergence amongst Cubs pitching prospects. Normally, you can hope to have maybe 1 or 2 pop up prospects. This year, the Cubs have 4, and that's just the pitchers... Jen-Ho Tseng: 13-4, 2.54 ERA, 145.1 IP, 38 BB, 122 K, 1.14 WHIP, .233 BAA in AA/AAA Tseng's 2016: 6-8, 4.29 ERA, 113.1 IP, 32 BB, 69 K, 1.50 WHIP, .308 BAA in AA Dillon Maples: 6-3, 2.27 ERA, 63.1 IP, 37 BB, 100 K, 1.28 WHIP, .192 BAA in High-A/AA/AAA Maples' 2016: 1-3, 4.22 ERA, 32 IP, 17 BB, 23 K, 1.38 WHIP, .222 BAA in Low-A/High-A Adbert Alzolay: 7-4, 2.99 ERA, 114.1 IP, 34 BB, 108 K, 1.10 WHIP, .220 BAA in High-A/AA Alzolay's 2016: 9-4, 4.34 ERA, 120.1 IP, 28 BB, 81 K, 1.22 WHIP, .260 BAA in Low-A And there's surprise 2016 11th rounder Michael Rucker who in his 1st full season of pro ball went: 5-5, 2.38 ERA, 106 IP, 21 BB, 114 K, 1.04 WHIP, .226 BAA in Low-A/High-A Outside of maybe Alzolay who had glowing reports from Mesa this spring, did anyone see any of that coming?

If he can maintain his improved control consistently into next season, he'd be a nice (and somewhat unexpected) addition to the Cubs pen next season.