Hrubes20

With Strumpf getting slot, that leaves $1,616,345 for McAvene, Hearns, and Hendrie when the 5% overage is included. Something like $550K for McAvene, $1 million for Hearns, and $60K for Hendrie feels right.

He has been really good lately. The addition of healthy Barnette and Kimbrel would allow Strop to go on the IL again for as long as he needs.

May I ask why? Legit question, no snark intended.

I get a bit confused with the wording in these things. Are they saying Miller is the best pitching prospect the Cubs have according to them? Or that he's just having the best season?

This says D.J. Herz signed for "end of the 3rd round money", which is over $500K. http:// https://www.fayobserver.com/sports/20190613/terry-sanfords-davidjohn-herz-midways-matthew-barefoot-sign-with-pro-baseball-teams Our boy Wes Saver has Schlaffer getting $250K, which is less than I would have figured.

Colin Rea now listed as the starter for Iowa. Boo.

Semi-bonus baby Rafael Morel is smacking the piss out of the ball down in the DSL. 3 for 5 today puts him at .385/.457/.692 on the young season (10 games). 6 BBs to 5 Ks. These stats are meaningless in the grand scheme of things, but always better to ball out than not.

Much like the Jensen pick, it's not the direction I would have gone for what is likely to be the splashy mid-round overslot pick. But his offensive profile does sound an awful lot like Brennen Davis predraft last year, and the early returns on his rebuilt swing are terrific. With that plus arm and solid athleticism, he could transition fairly easily to a COF spot if the bat comes around but his receiving is still terrible.

Brennen Davis with bomb #2

Anyone mention what Allen’s price tag was?

Jensen is really interesting to me. Certainly not who I would have picked, but he had helium and provides a power arm in a system with very very few of them in the rotation. Strumpf is a super “meh” pick for me. HATE those k rates for a player that won’t provide defensive or base running value. I’m sure a fun high ceiling prep pick will happen in the 4th or 5th like usual and it will make this class look more appealing. Have to imagine Jensen saved some bonus money for overslots.

That was some filth.

Espino was at 15, Malone at 21, and Priester at 26 Thanks, no Goss or Thompson in the first? They might be my favorite HS arms behind Espino these days...I’m also pretty into Barco as the second round pick if that can happen/makes sense with the nonsense cap and rules It will all come down to medicals with Barco. Have to imagine one of the teams with a huge bonus pool like the Dbacks takes a chance on him.

https://www.thecubreporter.com/05282019/cubs-rehabbers-shut-down-dbacks-riverview Damn. Have to imagine he gets sent to full season ball rather shortly.

I don't know who you are speaking of. The Cubs haven't taken a 1st round pitcher since Hayden Simpson, who is out of baseball. I'm assuming the 2017 draft started in the 2nd round, because the 1st is blacked out in my mind. Not sure why you wouldn't also black out Hayden Simpson. The Cubs had such spotty drafts those days that it was just business as usual. Also, it was only one horrific pick in that one, whereas the Cubs whiffed not once, but twice in the same first round in 2017. Or at least that's what the web says. Like I said, it's all grainy in my mind.

I don't know who you are speaking of. The Cubs haven't taken a 1st round pitcher since Hayden Simpson, who is out of baseball. I'm assuming the 2017 draft started in the 2nd round, because the 1st is blacked out in my mind.

Lol. This was exactly my thought process last year with the Nico Hoerner selection. I was not happy at the time (and thought they should go for someone with a higher upside), but that pick has worked out pretty well so far. I'm praying Hoerner doesn't turn into Almora 2.0 Mine as well, except the initial reaction was the "they must be saving money" line.

Gross

I didn't like Singer, either. AA will be the proving ground for him, IMO.

In the first mock draft on The Athletic they have their beat writers select for each team so it's Sahadev Sharma for the Cubs. This should make Hrubes20 happy lol. Will Wilson is selected right before this pick to the Diamondbacks at #26 and Kameron Misner goes at #17 to the Nationals. I don't think we're taking Greg Jones because it doesn't fit what we've seen this FO do with their top pick. They're willing to take players with great athleticism that lack polish and are still raw in that 2nd/3rd round area (Jacob Hannemann and Brennan Davis). I don't think they would take that kind of player in the 1st round and Greg Jones has some doubters in regards to his swing/hit tool and how much power he'll develop. He's definitely an amazing athlete and would be the most athletic player in our system. Agree on all of that. It's highly unlikely that the top Cubs scouts see Jones as significantly more polished than what the accessible scouting reports are telling us at this point. It's fun to dream on, but I know it's not likely at all. Also, Jones had a rough last week or two and bumped his season K rate to over 15%. That's a dealbreaker for me in the 1st round.

Have you heard anything about Riley Thompson and the changes the Cubs' player development staff have made? It seems like both his command and control have improved drastically from where it was in college. I am also quite interested in this one.

I'm not going to go back for them again, but they are there. And Allie was most definitely drafted as a pitcher. Picked in the 2010 draft. Pitched in 2011. Didn't even get hitting stats until 2012. Cease famously hit 100 mph his senior year right before hurting his elbow. I already discussed it with Regular Show that 100 isn't some magical number. It's high velocity in general. I personally just use 100 because there literally hasn't been one case that I have seen where a prep pitcher has avoided a major arm injury AND been productive at the big league level. Small sample size or not, that's ugly, and shouldn't be ignored. Someone will do (or maybe already has and I haven't seen it yet?) a research about the future health of prep pitchers that regularly hit in the high 90's. I fully expect that class of players to have a substantially higher rate of serious arm injury than the rest of pitchers. With the bolded, are you actually arguing that higher velocity doesn't increase the odds of a major arm injury? Because science clearly disagrees with you. Numerous studies have already shown this.

I am quite intrigued with both Hoese and Greg Jones at 27.

Yeah, I'm sure you could do the research and find that even hitting 97 or 98 as a prep is a harbinger of future injury. I'll let someone else do that research and then I'll read it. For now, I will just continue to use 100 as any easy benchmark for a guaranteed major arm injury in the future.

Granted 6 guys is better than 2-3, but it’s still 6 guys with varying degrees of bust/success (there’s two outright busts in that group) to draw a broad conclusion from. Is 100 the difference between injury and no injury? Espino is the best prospect in that bunch on his draft day (if it were today) too, not even close. Two were already hurt, three didn’t have a breaking ball, and he’s way more physically talented than Bundy There are more than 6. That was off the top of my head, as I was on my phone and didn't want to research. Here are a few more after a very cursory google search: Stetson Allie Mike Nikorak Jameson Taillon Lance McCullers Jr. Michael Main Nick Travieso There are probably several more if I cared enough to dig deep. Let's check the collective health of these players, as my original statement was that, and I quote, "He has hit 100 multiple times as a prepster, which has been damn near the equivalent of a death sentence for a pitcher's health going forward." Kolek - TJS Greene - TJS Bundy - TJS Pint - Torn UCL, opted for rest and rehab but missed all of 2018 and has been predicably terrible this year Giolito - TJS Cease - TJS Allie - Didn't last long enough as a pitcher to need TJS Nikorak - TJS Taillon - TJS McCullers Jr - TJS Main - Avoided any surgeries that I can see Travieso - Shoulder surgery So, that's 10 of 12 of these highly drafted prep players that hit 100 mph and had a major arm injury, with the other 2 non-injured players busting spectacularly. TJS is certainly not uncommon, but it's nowhere close to this prevalent in the rest of the pitching community. SSS of course, but until we start seeing some high velocity prep guys stay healthy, it's an overwhelmingly good bet that a guy like Espino will suffer a major arm injury in the near future. As such, no thank you.