Hrubes20

I'm guessing the Cubs brass sees a good bit more projection than McDaniel, if they are willing to shell out $2 million for him. Assuming this is true, of course.

Possibly at TCR? I rarely post there, but I've asked a few questions to AZPhil over the years.

AZPhil mentioned that Dustin Harrington was one of them (another non-shocker) and it appears that Harrington's twitter account confirms it. He said he was going to keep the rest of the names he suspects were cut a secret, so that any family members would not find out from him. Or something to that effect. I also noticed this on Harrington's twitter: Andrew McKirahan (tweeted on March 22: "Trust God's plan. 1 day at a time" He may have been cut as well. Another likely casualty.

Wasn't aware... Welcome over here, hrubes (pretend like you're reading this 19 posts ago). Thanks to both of you. I do really like what I've seen on NSBB. Seems to be a good group of knowledgable posters. I look forward to joining more discussions on here.

Isn't that exactly what he is doing now, though? Perhaps. Maybe this holds up through the year, but he didn't dominate against his one really good opponent this year in Rice. Maybe there was a reason, as admittedly, I haven't followed all that closely this year. Texas baseball is really slid a bit (actually all major Longhorn sports have slid a bit). Fresno State, to the best of my knowledge, isn't that dangerous. I admittedly don't know much about UNLV baseball, and maybe they are a quality squad (did sweep Stanford). This doesn't mean I don't think he's any good. Just ... I've been wary of him in the past, and I guess I want to see him dominate his quality opponents. Maybe he's turned the corner and the Rice game was just ... a game. The guy he's always reminded me a bit of is Chris Tillman, a guy with excellent stuff, stuff that makes you think he should just dominate, but he doesn't. I think Appel's probably better than Tillman, but I don't know by how much. I take it that you haven't watched him this year yet. I would recommend doing so. I was of the exact same opinion as you coming into the season. I believe I only caught 1 Appel start from 2012, but I came away terribly underwhelmed. Fastball command was spotty; he seemed to nibble way too much for a guy with his stuff; his pitch selection was questionable; he had very little deception; etc. I really wanted no part of him as the Cubs pick at 2 overall. But then 2013 came around, and Stanford is generous enough to stream their games online for free. I've been able to watch Appel on there, and the difference I have seen in him is like night and day. I haven't seen the fastball command issues, other than an inning lapse here or there. There is a bit more deception. He's using his plus secondary offerings when he should be (and both are swing and miss pitches). He's aggressively attacking the strike zone and truly challenging hitters. If Appel doesn't revert to his 2012 self, he is easily the #1 prospect in the draft for me.

What I don't get is the thought that signing a Prince/Pujols this year means the team is "going all out" to win in 2012. Does the rest of the contract not count? Does the contending team have to be put together in one offseason? There won't be any bats of Prince/Pujols caliber available after 2012, unless Kemp somehow reaches the market. Getting Prince/Pujols would shore up 1B for the next 5 years at least, allowing Theo to concentrate on the other team needs. It should also be noted that the free agent starting pitching class is absolutely loaded after this next season. A Prince/Pujols in 2011; and at least one of Hamels/Cain/Liriano/Sanchez/Greinke/Marcum/Danks/etc in 2012 would go a long way towards making this team a contender.

I agree with this as well. Maples would be in the 7-10 range for me. I didn't see anything from AZPhil's reports that made me think about Maples any differently. Mid 90's 4 seamer, low 90's 2 seamer with good movement, great breaking ball, concerns about wildness when he throws the heat, concerns about his delivery. I can't wait to see what the kid can do with a winter of professional training and a full season of pro ball under his belt next year. But yeah, this list is pretty terrible, IMO. Zych doesn't belong anywhere near the top 10.

I would have been more surprised had Baez NOT attended instructs. He was one of the best players in the DSL this year. He has tools coming out the wazoo. What surprised me to see, was that Malave, Acosta and Pieters are attending. Not one of the biggish name LA signings last year attended. Also interesting that the 4th bigger LA signing, Ricardo Marcano, a Venezuelan 3B, isn't attending while the others are. It's likely an issue of PT for everyone, and I won't lose sleep over a 16 year old not playing in instructs, but it would have been nice to get a first glimpse of the kid.

The ship has sailed on Carpenter as a starter. He's strictly a reliever now.

Agreed. Not much to dislike about the kid. Good frame, delivery, fastball, curve and changeup. I suppose the command could use some polish, but he still has another whole HS season to work on it.

Couldn't agree more. This is the most difficult list I've ever put together for a Cubs farm. For instance, I still rank McNutt #2. The stuff is still all there, and it's quite obvious the myriad of injuries he's sustained have destroyed his numbers. I believe it was Callis that said that his future looks the same now as it did at the end of last season. I also might catch some flack, but I rank Szczur 4th. I'm still working on the list (doing a top 50), but the 7-30 spots have been incredibly difficult.

What do you perceive Ha's ceiling to be? He's one of the more divisive prospects in this system. I can't see him being more than Marlon Byrd at the plate, although he can be Shin-Soo Choo in RF. For Ha to be the #1 prospect in an improved system, his power would have to continue to improve far beyond Marlon Byrd-levels. He has the potential to hit 25+ in a season though I think he'll probably only do that in career high seasons (especially if power continues to trend down). Oh, I know Ha would have to improve the power. I was mostly asking what you thought the liklihood of that happening is. I think he's a 15 HR guy, tops. Lots of doubles, though. He doesn't have a build that will be easy to add bulk to. I just don't think, even in the best case scenario, that Jae-Hoon Ha could be the team's #1 prospect (assuming the rest of the prospects continue on a normal development path).

Daniel Vogelbach flies out to centerfield in his first professional AB. I didn't think he would get any game action in before instructs.

I think he's gone, too. I bet Wilken stays though.

What do you perceive Ha's ceiling to be? He's one of the more divisive prospects in this system. I can't see him being more than Marlon Byrd at the plate, although he can be Shin-Soo Choo in RF.

Scouting. Every scout in the country gets a chance to see these guys in HS. You can usually find at least 3 videos of a HS pitching prospect and 10 or so write-ups from guys like Law, Goldstein, Badler, Callis, etc. Going by your own eye (video) and the collective reports from the evaluators, it's pretty easy to get a good read on a prospect. However, with Latin guys that haven't come stateside, you won't find any more than 1 short video, if you even get that. There usually is only 1 scouting report, and that is from Ben Badler. As much as I like and respect Badler, I need more than 1 scouting report on a kid. Maybe I'm more pessimistic than some, though.

Candelerio at 8? No offense, but that's borderline ridiculous. Until a player does something stateside, against better competition, they should probably be kept at the back end of the top 20 at best, regardless of bonus amounts.

That's a career high for Rhee. I wish we could get a scouting report on Del Valle. Saw a tweet tonight that Del Valle hit 98 on the gun. Didn't say anything about his secondary stuff, though. AZPhil said he had a good slider, though. I'm guessing the standard "changeup is a work in progress". Regardless, that kind of velocity is tremendous out of a lefty.

- BA Elias has been re-bolded. New bonus information: Justin Marra - $110,000 bonus John Andreoli - $134,600 bonus Taiwan Easterling - $150,000 bonus Ian Dickson - $100,000 bonus Dear Lord. Marra was an alright bonus, and Easterling's can be spread out over a few years due to the 2 sport thing. But $135K for Andreoli? Yikes.

Tim, where did you get the official list? It includes Elias, whose agreement was reported some time ago. And who was listing on BA's list for some time. But now today BA has un-bolded him. I wonder if that's a mistake, or if something is really up and he's unsigned? 38th rounder Casey Lucchese was unbolded as well. Wilken himself said that 34 picks were signed, which would have included both Elias and Lucchese. Interesting to follow, although BA has had this happen a few times already. I believe they had DeVoss bolded, unbolded, and then re-bolded a day later.

I'm pretty sure that I saw Dunston Jr. getting some consideration for the supplemental if signability wasn't an issue. Still not 1st round money, but not a gross overpayment and definately a legit talent.

I'd definately put Neftali Rosario on the "Interesting" list. He's more than holding his own in a small sample size at Mesa right now. He just turned 18.

I was wondering about this as well. His velocity has been down a tick all year compared to what I saw from him in Boise last year (87-88 as opposed to the 89-90 in Boise), but 84-87 is pretty bad. No wonder he got smacked around.

Yeah, Dunston Jr. and Gretzky are just too raw right now.

Wow. I hope the kid gets to start this year. He throws upper 90's routinely, but it's always in relief. Nobody knows if that velocity will hold up or not. Also, Mark Appel has been filthy in his 2 cape league appearances so far. 12 IP, 15 Ks, 1 BB and 7 H allowed. Apparently hitting 98 a bunch of times with a good slider and change.