NDNazareth

5) Maples 6) Paniagua 7) Vogelbach

What's everyone's top 5 for the Cubs pick? In order, here is who I want most at Cubs pick. 1) OF Austin Meadows H.S. (GA) 2) RHP Ryan Stanek Arkansas (JR) 3) LHP Sean Manaea Indiana State (JR) 4) RHP Mark Appel Stanford (SR) 5) 3B Kris Bryant San Diego (JR) Keep an eye on: OF Clint Frazier H.S. (GA) LHP Trey Ball H.S. (IN) Frazier and Ball could rocket up boards.

Soriano and Drew Henson were both mentioned in that trade for Sosa that never happened. Funny, I just pulled up an old Buster Olney article about this. Back in June of 2000. So was Lilly, IIRC. Soriano, Lilly, Ledee, and a minor leaguer or two I think was the deal before it got cancelled at the last minute. I don't think Lilly was involved... Westbrook was the big pitcher the Cubs demanded and Alex Graman. The Yanks offered Ledee, the Cubs wanted he and OF Jackson Melian IIRC. The sticking point and the reason the Yanks walked away is because the Cubs demanded their top two positional guys Alfonso Soriano and DeAngelo Jimenez and the Yanks told the Cubs either or. Yanks offered: 1 of Soriano/Jimenez, Ricky Ledee, Jackson Melian and Jake Westbrook Cubs demanded: Alfonso Soriano, DeAngelo Jimenez, Ricky Ledee, Jackson Melian and Jake Westbrook I don't think the Yanks ever made Drew Henson available at least I remember thinking that the Cubs were resigned to the fact that they weren't going to acquire Henson.

Thanks Kyle, I strongly prefer the #1 pick but I do want to see our young talent play well so obviously I'm conflicted. I want to trade everyone possible! Dempster (love him) but gone if he agrees, Garza (not good enough for me to want to give him huge money and we're still a few years away), LaHair (has some value, great story but Rizzo is up and I don't like Brian in OF), Soriano (pay the whole damn contract I just can't see how we can't get a few interesting prospects), DeJesus (minimal value in a trade but has value to a contender) hell even Maholm. Get whatever you can for these guys if they aren't young and gonna be around for the rebuild why not try to maximize their value and get at least a lottery ticket. With the exception of maybe Garza we can easily replace all these guys in the free agency if we really had to find another temp place holder. We are in full rebuild mode so I want to see us go all out and restock the farm as much as possible. I'm in the same boat. I want somehow for the Cubs who are long-term assets to succeed, the Cubs who have trade value to improve it in the next month, and the rest of the roster-fill to just fall apart in horrific ways so we get that top pick. No more Paul Maholm shutouts, please. With the pitching injuries in the majors this year he may just get us a low A player with potential!

Thanks Kyle, I strongly prefer the #1 pick but I do want to see our young talent play well so obviously I'm conflicted. I want to trade everyone possible! Dempster (love him) but gone if he agrees, Garza (not good enough for me to want to give him huge money and we're still a few years away), LaHair (has some value, great story but Rizzo is up and I don't like Brian in OF), Soriano (pay the whole damn contract I just can't see how we can't get a few interesting prospects), DeJesus (minimal value in a trade but has value to a contender) hell even Maholm. Get whatever you can for these guys if they aren't young and gonna be around for the rebuild why not try to maximize their value and get at least a lottery ticket. With the exception of maybe Garza we can easily replace all these guys in the free agency if we really had to find another temp place holder. We are in full rebuild mode so I want to see us go all out and restock the farm as much as possible.

Just joined the site but been reading for years. Thanks everyone for the years of informative posts and reading entertainment. I am a lifelong Cubs fan but the last few years I have struggled to find much to interest me (understandably so), I'll never waiver on the Cubs but baseball season has been more an afterthought lately. I don't like spending my time looking at the calender waiting for football season to begin so I decided lately to start tracking things outside the actual Cubs roster. I have always been aware of big time prospects like every other serious Cubs fan but now I track the minors everyday and know the majority of the prospects in the system well, with the excitement of another Cubs loser there is a silver lining and that is our placement in the 2013 draft. This is another first time interest to me, I usually know the Cubs first round pick after the fact but never explored deep into the draft pool or discussed Cubs picks before they happen. I remember wanting Mark Texiera over Prior but I'm an ND fan and that's probably what clouded my judgement, anyways I digress. I am rambling but I wanted to preface my potentially dumb post to those of you that have followed this closely for years... So I have been doing all the digging I can to try and ready myself for our options potentially at #1, although Rizzo's game winning rbi's are messing with our status as worst team in baseball! Anyways I am curious what the experts on here have to say about this draft. I watched the College World series for the first time as a psuedo scout and I'm not seeing what most people are saying. That this draft (2013) is significantly stronger than 2012. Don't get me wrong I thought the 2012 draft was pretty weak up top when reading scouting reports and comparing it to recent drafts but I don't see the star power that blows this draft away. Is it natural at this point in the game that every big prospect has a big question mark somewhere in their game? Do these guys usually make that jump their draft eligible year? I ask because I am not seeing what many others are. I see solid players in Stanek, Whitson, Ficociello, Crawford, Eades, Jones, Plutko but none of those guys are the complete package that you'd expect the top pick to be. I don't see a Gerrit Cole or Trevor Bauer amongst the pitchers. I am very intrigued by Austin Wilson and he could be what Jason Heyward was supposed to be (too young to remotely close door) but he has contact issues against college pitching and is far from an ideal #1 pick. I loved what I read about Kris Bryant (never saw him play) but now I read that he has little chance to stay at 3B and will be a 1B. Those skills are greatly diminished as a 1B imo. I am very underwhelmed having watched most of those guys live and seeing their stats/scouting reports. The draft may be better overall then the 2012 draft but I don't really see more talent at the top and that's not saying much. I'm very intrigued by Austin Meadows and he would seemingly be the favorite for the first overall pick but he's a high schooler that you're projecting big time at this point. Need to see more from him his senior year but if he has the potential that everyone says he's the best pick on paper that I see but at the strongest position in our system. I am a firm believer in drafting the BPA, but with Almora signed soon (hopefully) Soler, Jackson, Sczur etc do you think the Cubs potentially shy away and draft pitching? I highly doubt Hoyer and Epstein will be influenced by what we have in the system but we are so void of any pitching right now that I fear we may reach for Stanek/Whitson over a better prospect because of our deficiencies. What do you guys think is it BPA all the way or do you think it's Best Pitcher Available? I know this is a dumb question and even more stupid to question those two but our system sucks as far as pitching goes and we need a serious influx of talent. Lastly how do you guys feel we should handle things if we get the #1 pick? The new draft rules create many more questions and strategies now and the Astros seemed to do very well going underslot #1. I am intrigued by that strategy, and feel that's exactly what will do if the top 5-6 players are closely lumped together like the '12 draft. If there is no player that stands above the rest I almost prefer the Cubs draft the pitcher that they feel they can sign the cheapest and then pick up another 1-2 studs later, especially if this draft is considered deep. If someone is considered the clear cut favorite, even if he isn't Harper or Strasburg I say you have to draft him regardless of position and money and figure out the rest later. That's when we have to trust our scouting department. I'm sorry to ramble I'm bored as hell at work and have been thinking a lot about the '13 draft, until Rizzo came up and provided some excitement and wins. Now I'm hoping our bullpen starts blowing Rizzo's game winners! What do you guys think? Who is your preferred #1 pick?