Jason Ross

Sounds like there's solid barrel ability here. Good bat to ball. Not very big. UT Commit, so not only is that a good thing because they're a good program, it's a good thing because it cuts their legs out (Sorry, had to throw a jab in!). Probably the least upside-y pick so far, but kind of a cool player.

I'm sure they'll get him under. Guys don't get picked in the top-10 rounds if they won't sign. Good for them; nice pick.

That too! I really try to ignore the overall rankings. Especially when we get this deep in the draft. It's personal preference and even at that there's minute margins between most guys. And it's a lot easier to rank a 21 year old who we all saw pitch in the ACC the last three years versus a 17 year old who's only even recently gained US citizenship who played prep-ball outside of the public sphere. Many of these rankings are relying on a few games and you're right, they might have been games early in the year. Overall, I think the profile here is interesting. He's a kid with a frame he can grow into. He's already showing insane EV. You get him to buy into an approach switch, you build him out at 3b...there's upside to dream on here.

My guess is a couple of things: 1. It's hard to nail down these prep guys. The Padres took another prep SS right before who was "unranked". There's so many prep guys from so many corners of the planet, deciding who's #387 and who's #543 is basically a guessing game. 2. There's concerns with the approach here. He's a big swinger and it's not always pretty. He's very young and toolsy. These things generally go hand in hand. It creates greater uncertainty moving forward. 3. He's unlikely to stick at SS.

I really like the Cubs strategy here in 2024. This draft is top-heavy. So what have the Cubs done with picks 1, 2, and 3? They went big game hunting. Guys with pop, bat speed, and high EV. We'll see how it plays out, but it's interesting and I'm not against the concept. I suspect they feel confident on the depth of the organization. And we've talked about how they've been missing star power.

We're in the third round of a draft that is largely felt to have a huge drop off After picks 50+. Cruz offers pretty huge upside. EV of 108 at the combine. Major power. 17, so you get him super young and hope you can work on the approach. Round 3 in the MLB draft is always a risk. I'd rather chance it on a 17 year old than a middling college performer at this stage.

I saw an MLB.com scouting report video that said his power wasn't great. But it was posted in 2023's winter. I think it's just outdated.

I'd agree. Amick is fine, and I can't say I've done huge legwork on Mathis (he was not on my radar here), but what I have done makes me impressed. He's a fun pick. He's a *funky* pick. But fun. I'm excited for Mathis.

Mathis is an oddball pick. Don't get that twisted, that's not bad...but it's odd. They drafted a guy most everyone thinks is a 1b...and announced him at 3b. He's not a big-school kid. Did crush the Cape (they love the Cap). And the Cubs don't like drafting 1b. I didn't see a Mathis type pick. That feels like an underslot pick. But maybe others were really into him too and it's full slot. But that feels like there might be some money left over.

The dichotomy of Rockies picks. Condon might hit 60 bombs and Brecht is looking at that thin air wondering what he did to make people mad.

Have missed the entire draft so far. Between my own baseball game (we lost 16-4 and it was 97degrees. Yeesh) and moving (no internet until tomorrow AM), it's been tough to follow. On Cam Smith; fine pick. He wouldn't have been my pick, but I can't overly argue. Strong Cape performances and I've heard Ty Nichols, who was at the Cape, saw a lot of him out there. So there's your connection. He's among the younger selections. There's a good chance he sticks at 3b. The modeling data loves him. The swing...got way worse. He needs a refresh (or more) to get him to a place where I think hes an upper echelon upside guy, but there's also upside there. So I can't say I'd have picked him 14th if you gave me the keys to the kingdom, but I also can't whing and complain. It's got logic, I trust Nichols and hopefully the Cubs take a kind of bad swing and turn it into a good one!

He's not even in the portal. There's been zero scuttle on that here in Lexington. I'm a big UK fan; alumni and still live in the city. While maybe true, it'd come out of nowhere. Edit; sorry just saw your post above! You're good dude. There's like 10,00 kids. Easy to mix em up!

Looked like forearm to me.

As we round third and head toward the 2024 draft, it's a good time to take stock of how the Cubs' minor league system is doing overall. We've looked at rising and falling prospects, but how does the entire system look today? Are they headed in the right direction? Image courtesy of © Lily Smith/The Register / USA TODAY NETWORK A week from now, the Cubs system will look different, and regardless of whether the Cubs start winning, keep losing, or just tread water the rest of the month, more changes are coming. They will draft at least one player who will immediately vault into the top 10 of the system, and the range from 11-20 will likely have some re-shuffling, either trading a few prospects out (like Alexander Canario or Matt Mervis) or adding a few prospects in sell trades... or both! With that said, it's essential to reflect on how the first half of the season went for the Cubs' system. What's gone right? What's gone wrong? And where the Cubs could go from here? What Went Right Overall, it has been a good year for the Cubs' minor league side, though the Chicago squad's overall season has been poor. Still, it'd probably have gone significantly worse had the player development side not churned out a handful of useful players. Ben Brown is probably the biggest surprise in this regard; a pitcher who was maligned for the way his 2023 season ended (issues with controls and walks) turned into one of the Cubs' unsung heroes, filling in for ace-of-staff Justin Steele and providing valuable innings out of the bullpen before a freak injury has taken some time away from him. Past just Brown, the Cubs have gotten contributions from a handful of other young prospects. Jordan Wicks looked sharp before he went down with an injury, posting much-improved strike-out numbers and looking like someone who belongs in an MLB rotation. Porter Hodge has been lights out in 13 innings so far. Pete Crow-Armstrong has provided positive value despite the horrible hitting. We will have to be quite patient with the bat, but you can see how he will be a useful roster player if he can go from "unplayable" with the bat to simply "bad." A good point of reference here would be Brenton Doyle. Beyond the Cubs' MLB contributions, almost all of the Cubs' top prospects have had good seasons. Owen Caissie has had a great season in Iowa, posting improved strikeout numbers while maintaining a 117 wRC+ as a 21-year-old in Triple-A. Matt Shaw and James Triantos have torn up Double-A and look to be on the precipice of call-ups as both have made progress in trouble areas. Speaking of tearing up Double-A, Moises Ballesteros posted one of the best wRC+ seasons for a 20-year-old we have seen in two decades! He might never be a catcher, but there's no question Mo Baller can hit. Even prospects that had been more-or-less written off, like Cristian Hernandez, have seen themselves have a strong rebound and look back on track. And don't forget about the breakout of Alfonsin Rosario, too. The strikeouts are an issue, but past that, he's been an absolute monster. If you can get these anywhere near acceptable, the Cubs might have found a dude. On the pitching side, the Cubs have seen recent draftees such as Brandon Birdsell, Sam Armstrong, Will Sanders, Jaxon Wiggins, Nazier Mule, and JP Wheat have positive seasons, either due to strong performances or simply coming back and showing that they're moving beyond their injuries. Pitchers like Mule and Wheat still have major control concerns, but given their age, it's more important at this stage of coming back from Tommy John to see them healthy and throwing hard...hopefully, the control comes later. What Went Wrong Nothing is perfect in prospect land, and the Cubs' system has seen their fair share of disappointments, mainly due to injuries. Brown and Wicks have missed being hurt in real-time, as has Cade Horton, the Cubs' top prospect. After cruising through Tennessee, the Cubs' 2022 first-rounder struggled in Iowa, showing lower-than-expected velocity, control issues, and a lat strain. The hope is that he's been working on changing the shape of his fastball, which created new mechanics and led to a minor injury that the Cubs are being overly cautious about, but that's the rose-colored answer, too. The Cubs have also seen injuries to many other arms. Brody McCullough, Kohl Franklin, Richard Gallardo, and a handful of other interesting arms have gone down with injuries derailing the totality of their year. Moving past the pitching injuries, the Cubs' have seen injuries hit their position prospects. Brennen Davis can't catch a break as he was hurt during spring training and most recently has been discovered to have another injury in his back. Jefferson Rojas was hit in the face with a baseball, amiss a bit of a slump, himself. On top of posting a middling 106 wRC+ in the year, Kevin Alcantara has missed time due to various ailments. Even Matt Mervis, who didn't hit in a second chance at the MLB, recently broke his hamate bone. We also couldn't talk about the system without mentioning a few prospects who didn't have it. Drew Gray's struggles. While he's been healthy, he's been terrible, walking more than he's struck out on the season. Gray was tabbed as someone who could have real breakout potential, and he's simply gone the wrong way in 2024. BJ Murray has struggled to hit in Triple-A, a bummer as he could have been a potential 2024 call-up. Hopefully, he finds his swing. McGeary hasn't hit like a first baseman either. These weren't consensus top-10 or top-20 prospects, but they were all interesting enough to garner attention, and they haven't had the kind of seasons you'd hope. Where Do the Cubs Go From Here? As we look at the overall positives of the Cubs' system, most come at the higher levels. Iowa and Tennessee have easily been the most interesting areas for the team in 2024, and entering next year will likely provide a host of call-up options. That also means the lower levels have been...less encouraging so far. That might not keep; with interesting arms like Wheat and Mule getting back up and moving and Derniche Valdez missing most of the year so far, a handful of interesting prospects could jump back into action in the lower levels soon. In the 2024 draft, I suspect that the Cubs will look to refresh the pitching side of things the most. A draft that looks more like 2022, where the Cubs went extremely pitcher-heavy, feels like it's on tap here. They could use more interesting arms throughout, even with interesting arms starting to see their careers take off. The Cubs' top-10 is heavily skewed towards bats, with Horton and Wiggins the only two prospects who would make most of the industry's top-10 today. Generally speaking, though, this feels like a successful top nine for the Cubs' minor-league system. The top bats have progressed outside of Alcantara (and possibly PCA, but it's hard to tell with his lack of Triple-A time). Recent 2021, 2022, and 2023 drafts are producing interesting prospects that could be useful for the Cubs. What's more interesting is that the Cubs are finding prospects who stand out at the top of the draft (Wicks, Shaw, Horton, Triantos, Wiggins) and prospects who stand out in later rounds (Birdsell, Murray, Armstrong, McCullough). Nothing can ever be perfect in prospect land, but I think it's been a solid "B" of a year; most of the things you'd hoped to have happened have so far, and the bad things aren't devastating. Knock on wood, the back nine is just as good. View full article

Colazzo from BA had Tibbs at 14 for the Cubs but I'd agree, I think he's going before 14. I still think the likely group is: Yesevage, M. Moore, Waldschmidt, Benge, Cijnte, Smith as of now. I don't think Christian Moore and his in-zone whiff is going to be a Cub pick, myself. And I think he's before 14, too (he feels so desperately LAA, IMO).

This is fun. We should just do this series all the time.

Well, the last two nights were fun.

Hopefully Moore has an 80 grade pop-time...

Moore came on really hot on the back end of the year. If there's flags, it's that I've seen 45 grades on his in-zone-whiff and some bat path issues. As well, being that he's already at 2b, there isn't many places to move him defensively if for some reason he's not great there as we get more and more data on him on top of 2b just not being a premium position. If there's a positive, it's that the barrier to entry on the bat at 2b is low. I think he's a good prospect and another one of the "fine" picks the Cubs can make at 14.

Another day and another mock! Keith Law 3.0 has the Cubs taking Christian Moore at 14. Mentions Malcolm Moore as another possibility. Where I think things get interesting is in the last sentence where he connects the Cubs as "possible dark horses" on Carson Benge and Jurrangelo Cijinte. What I can't tell is if this is Keith Law hearing things, or if this is Keith being...well...Keith. Keith has a tendency to get a bit "personal" in my opinion when he does things; he doesn't love Christian Moore (ranking him in the 30's) but does really like Benge and Cijinte. So hard to tell if this is him saying the Cubs could be dark horses because...he thinks these guys are good enough to go there. On the surface, Cijinte makes Cub-sense. He's funky (throws RHP and LHP), he's got sweeper/slider/cutter profiles, and would be underslot. These are Cub hallmarks. So perhaps dark horse here is earnest!

Entirely. No one at the time thought Vitters was an off the board pick. Like looking back, yeah, totally a bummer that he didn't work out. In his defense he had a good offensive MiLB career. He was really good at low-a (133 wRC+ at 18), A (146 wRC+ at 19), and high-A (131 wRC+ at 20...he did struggle at double-A). Triple-A by 22, with a 17 K%, 6.6 BB%, .200+ ISO and a 121 wRC+. It's not super-studly, but that's a good line for a 22 year old in Triple-A. Sadly, it's pre-statcast era, so I suspect a look at that data would show the swing decisions were always rough. I think we looked at the time at the OPS and stuff and were more "whelmed" than anything, especially as defensively he wasn't good at third. But looking back he was pretty alright with the bat in terms of most of the data we could have seen (on top of things like wRC+ now). That's just the prospect game. Sometimes guys bust.

Go to a player's page - then splits - then scroll down.

I just started to get into the entire draft process around the Tim Wiklin Tyler Colvin/Hayden Simpson/Brett Jackson era. Those were bleak years. Ugh. I can safely look back and say I hate all three picks at the time, and I feel justified in that disgust using hindsight (though you could argue Colvin was a win in that he had a few fWAR here or there, but I refuse to accept my own logic this time and I don't care!). It's amazing to see how much more I enjoy how the Cubs do things under Kantrovitz versus Wilkin. McLeod had his ups and downs (and I think his downs were more in "development" than "scouting", IMO) but Kantrovitz feels like he "gets it". Or maybe he just "gets me". Ugh it sounds like I want to date Dan. Brb, going to go draw a red heart around my headshot of Danny.