Hrubes20

Same. Unless Roederer is getting more than anybody could expect, they just may be able to make a solid offer to Mitchell Parker. Edit: Forgot about Franklin. He's also a possibility to require more overslot than we think.

I may be having a Friday brain fart, but did we ever get word on what Little was dealing with?

Thomas has had one start in which he's allowed more than 2 ER and walked more 2. And it was the same game. 11 games, 9 really good ones. (He had two back-to-back, May 3rd and 9th that weren't great). There's something to be said for consistency as a prospect. In his last 5 starts, 28 IP, 14 H, 8 R, 7 ER, 5 BB, 29 K, 2.25 ERA, 0.68 WHIP. He's right there in the same tier as Lacy. 6 months younger, just as deserving of a call up and no place to put him. I like this new problem the Cubs have. Very few TOR possibilities but plenty of depth of guys with a chance. Thomas still throwing high 80's, or have the Cubs been able to tweak something to find another mph or two? Not as big of a deal since he's a LHP, but obviously it would be nice.

Wow. That's pretty big.

After getting over the assumption that every one of them will blow their arms and amount to nothing (eff pitchers), I'm also most interested in those 2.

Holy horsefeathers lol. That's at least double what the top pitchers are getting. Yeah it is. Probably closer to 3 times as much. I guess you get out of touch with the market when you don't partake in the signing of higher quality IFAs for a few years.

Sort of. Fennell was signed as a UDFA, but he's the first June 2018 acquisition to see game action... Good call. I thought he was a later round pick.

Well no, Kellogg and Twomey were really well known HS recruits that never got better but I thought they would in the pros. That's different. This is more the Cubs have drafted seemingly random college arms before with big holes in their profile somewhere or another and were given the benefit of the doubt on upside potential development ceiling. I don't see why Richan doesn't get the same when his flaws mostly seem aesthetic. There's 2 things here that need to be discussed: 1. What are you talking about with the "seemingly random college arms" comment? The only one I can think of is Zastryzny, who was pretty much universally disliked at the time of the draft. Most didn't care too much, because Bryant was an awesome pick, but nobody loved Zastryzny in the 2nd. The guys you pointed out were Stinnett, Skulina, and Pierce Johnson. All 3 went almost exactly where the national scouting lists said they should. I think Johnson and Skulina actually went a little later than they were expected to. This is nowhere similar to the Richan case, who was taken hundreds of spots earlier than anybody thought he should be on the national level. You are trying to paint some scenario that doesn't/didn't exist. 2. Are you trying to say that you personally think a guy with "meh" stuff has as good of a chance of developing a plus pitch or two in pro ball, as a guy with plus stuff developing workable command and control? Because that's a topic worth debating on here.

Grant Fennell got in game action last night . That's the first 2018 draftee to get in, correct?

Dammit. Hate losing a guy that well thought of by the scouting community. Especially when it was one of the "coups" while in the penalty box.

I wonder what Roederer is angling for there. Have to imagine the Cubs knew the number necessary and were going to meet it, along with 4 years future tuition at UCLA. With the lack of overslots in this draft class, it's actually really surprising that they all weren't signed right away. Total guess, but I'm figuring he gets a million. That'd put the first day as close to break even, which I could see them trying to do. I was assuming a million as well.

I wonder what Roederer is angling for there. Have to imagine the Cubs knew the number necessary and were going to meet it, along with 4 years future tuition at UCLA. With the lack of overslots in this draft class, it's actually really surprising that they all weren't signed right away.

From what I see when I read - his peak fastball velocity isn’t as high as the others mostly never showed that in the pros anyway. Otherwise those guys don’t really have anything over him that really really matters. Anecdotally after the 2016 draft I singled out Rucker as an interesting looking guy (on this site!) based off a Youtube clip of him closing a game for BYU. He wasn't pumping out 95+ pitch after pitch in that inning either or show a wipeout offspeed, but did repeat his delivery well while throwing strikes, getting some misses anyway, and not blowing his arm out. I got similar vibes watching Richan. A potential plus secondary is most certainly something "over him that really matters" but it's whatever at this point. But with the bolded, the big thing for everyone is whether or not you got the same vibe when you watched Ryan Kellogg, Kyle Twomey, or any of the other failed pitching prospects you fell in love with?

WTF?????? Or I can ask it in another way...... WTF?????? That's gotta be a hot gun. But, even if it is, we've known he's obviously a guy with serious upside. This puts it in some perspective anyway. Yeah, something had to be wrong with the gun. I think AZ Phil had him low 90s like 2 weeks ago. But Marquez was great for 3 innings. 2 of his 3 hits given up were of the groundball variety. 0 BBs. 6 Ks. He lost it in the 4th with 2 BBs and a HBP, but that’s something to work from.

Guess we have to hope for Victor Victor now. Also the Orioles are linked to absolutely no one and will be trading their bonus slots once again. They must be trading for money. They were already connected to several big money IFAs, much like the Cubs.

Same here. I thought I saw that he was asking for $1.2-$1.5 or something like that.

He has less fastball than all of them, and doesn't even flash a plus secondary like each of those 3 you listed. Those are the big reasons why he was knocked around all year at the college level. It's not always a great thing to throw strikes when your stuff is as mediocre as Richan's.

Duncan Robinson has been really, really good the past month or so.

Phew. Glad it wasn't anything. No need to add ammo for MLB's push towards an international draft.

I wonder if it's one of those extreme situations where a guy like Hoerner gets a 4-5 game stint in the AZL and then goes directly to South Bend. For a point of comparison: Bryant: 2 AZL games, 18 at Boise, then jumped to Daytona for 16 games Schwarber: 5 at Boise, 23 at Kane County, 44 at Daytona Happ: 29 at Eugene, 38 at South Bend Given Hoerner's profile(advanced bat but lesser ceiling) I wouldn't be surprised to see him spend 10-15 games in Eugene, and if he's hitting .350 like we might expect then get bumped to South Bend for the rest of the year. That Happ path does seems semi-realistic.

I wonder if it's one of those extreme situations where a guy like Hoerner gets a 4-5 game stint in the AZL and then goes directly to South Bend.

Apparently he broke the Welington Castillo PED story and has connections. Well then

Neither Badler nor Sanchez have tweeted about it yet. I would hold off on putting too much stock in a Dominican article until someone corroborates.

That Richan pick is my least favorite one. I know the underslot was necessarily, but just yuck. Not thrilled with the draft overall, but definitely interested in following how these "cognitive skill darlings" (CSDs for short, that's trademarked) are going to fare. It's clear as day that the Cubs selected their guys and didn't give a crap about where others valued them, or that they had higher bonus demands than the rest of baseball thought they were worth. Here's hoping they are onto something. Worst case scenario, is that we have an influx of new bats to follow in the minor leagues every day. That in itself makes me happy.

Gonna be tough to find all the ABs that will be necessarily after all the college bats sign. I do like that Velazquez is going to Eugene though. Just not quite ready for A ball yet.