Jason Ross

https://northsidebaseball.com/forums/topic/57207-2026-chicago-cubs-mlb-draft-day-1-thread/

The Chicago Cubs selected Dylan Marionneaux with the 126th pick in the 2026 MLB Draft Saturday afternoon. Marionneaux is a pitcher at Northwestern State University. The right-hander had entered the transfer portal this year and had interest from the University of Miami, though ultimately would transfer to the SEC and the Alabama Tide. The slot value for the 126th pick in the MLB draft is $609.200. Marionneaux stands 6'3" but is listed only at 163lbs. In his most recent season at Northwestern, he struck out 81 hitters over the span of 84 innings pitched, while sporting a 3.51 ERA on route to making the All-Southland first team. According to Baseball America in 2025, Marionneaux lives in the upper-80s and threw mostly fastball-slider: "Though Lane made history with eight innings in a combined no hitter, the performance of the week goes to Northwestern State’s Dylan Marionneaux, who silenced New Orleans with a complete game shutout in which he struck out nine to just one walk and allowed two hits. "Marionneaux, who sits in the high-80s and primarily relies on just a fastball and slider, didn’t allow a base runner after the fifth inning. He has given up just one earned run over his last 21.1 innings." This is is a developmental pitcher with prototypical height who could add velocity through strength training. It's also a good sign that multiple SEC programs, such as Alabama and LSU, as well as Miami, were all sniffing around the pitcher in the transfer portal. View full rumor

One listing I found on him had him at 6'2" and 145lbs. There's not a lot on his stuff outside of a few things of high 80's. But I like it. He's a fun developmental dart throw.

Miami, LSU and Alabama were all in on his recruitment. Big program. He's 6'3". looks like he's rail thin; 165lbs was his most recent listing. Hits high 80's but not hard to think with 30lbs he can be 92-94.

Yeah, I'd expect that it's going to be a lot of college lottery tickets who are pitchers and then a fun 11th round guy from here on out.

I doubt it. Zumach had him at $1.2m or so in his mock. I'd assume he comes in at, if not a bit over (maybe the small savings with Townsend goes to Jasa for neutral spending?)

And there's a positive: he basically didn't throw it. And he's coming to an organization that loves the fastball. If you can get him a feel for it a bit more, it should clean up control issues.

Some of them get good paydays. But especially cold weather kids aren't getting big SEC NIL deals. You won't be buying out a Vandy recruit with $1m. But a Seton Hall recruit who will transfer to an SEC school before his junior year? You can buy them out.

I love this pick. RHP who can hit high 90's and has more in him. He looks like Cam Schlitter (he isn't Cam Schlitter). Big upside. And has floor as a nasty reliever.

Hey. It's Jasa.

Probably $1m to get some of the prep arms who are "interesting but aren't top-recruits". They can likely find this amount. You probably go with a cold weather kid who is under recruited.

This construction noise needs to stop. I keep thinking my cat is horsefeathers with the horsefeathers in the sink because of it and all she's doing is behaving for once.

This is the correct choice.

Dibbs on Carl Weathers.

Seniors effectively have to sign. It won't change the math for a senior.

Roboscout has a tendency to really like high K, high power college kids. Keep that in mind. But Bailey was their second best projected college bat behind just Daniel Jackson.

Image courtesy of © Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images The Chicago Cubs selected Myles Bailey with the 75th pick in the 2026 MLB Draft Saturday afternoon. Bailey is a first baseman, formerly of the University of Florida State. The slot value for the pick in the MLB draft is $1,120,900. The Cubs were awarded the 75th pick in the draft for losing Kyle Tucker to the Los Angeles Dodgers in free agency. Last year, Bailey hit .363 with 13 home runs. He was ranked #83 on MLB Pipeline, unranked (given a 40 FV) on Eric Logenhagen of FanGraphs' "The Board", and #67 according to Baseball America. Using Jamie Cameron's consensus board, he was our No. 96th-ranked prospect. Jamie had this to say about him: "Bailey has the best raw power in the entire class. His average EV and EV90 are top of the scale. He was torching non-conference play to the tune of 13 home runs (a .913 SLG) in his first 26 games before a serious ankle injury resulted in surgery and the end of his season. Raw power isn't Bailey's only asset. He's a good athlete and has an excellent approach. He followed up a 13.7 BB% in 2025 with a 28.7 BB% in 2026. Additionally, he just doesn't expand the strike zone, with a 98th percentile chase rate. The profile does come with serious swing and miss concerns, however. Bailey registered a K% over 30% in 2025 and has some of the worst whiff and in-zone whiff percentages in D1 baseball. He's likely destined to stick at 1B in pro ball. He has an unusually diverse range of outcomes for a college prospect, but the power upside is huge." Strengths Power, power, and more power; the kid has thump. The kid has so much thump that Baseball America ranked his power tops in college baseball this year with other hitters such as Ace Reece, Logan Hughes and Ryder Helfrick, who all went above him in the draft as first-round selections. His 13 home runs on the year might not sound impressive until you realize he missed much of the year due to injury and only played in 26 games. That’s an insane amount of in-game power. Bailey has a violent left-handed swing and uses his 6’4” frame with every ounce of his body, but the swing is controlled violence. It doesn’t have a ton of movement or extras in it. It’s a small leg kick and not a lot of hand loading. This is good; coming to the pros from a mechanically strong position is excellent. We’ll get into his issues later, but one thing to note: Bailey strikes out a lot. The positive? Roboscout, which uses statcast data, including whiff rates, chase rates, etc., thinks that Myles Bailey is a stud. They rank him as the second-best hitter in the 2026 draft from the college ranks and has him projected as a 120 wRC+ hitter behind just Daniel Jackson. Last year, Roboscout loved Andrew Fischer despite the K-issues and the Brewers seem to have a bit of a steal with him. This is much more of a “fun” scouting than one we should bank too hard into, but it’s a fun thought and shows just how good the pop is. Approach-wise, Bailey has started to take a ton of walks. Some of this is likely college pitchers scared to pitch anything within a mile of the hitter, but you cannot ignore the improvement. Bailey walked 32 times in 245 PA’s as a freshman, but saw his walks balloon to 30 in just 122 PA’s as a sophomore. There’s whiffs, but there’s multiple ways he can impact an offense as well, which helps to mitigate that. Another thing to note: Bailey is very young. He played 56 games during his age-19 freshman season at FSU and hit 19 tanks. He is only draft eligible because he’s just celebrated a birthday making him eligible for the draft. Because of the age, you can be a little more patient and likely think that there’s the possibility to maturity at the plate naturally to help smooth some of the rough edges. Weaknesses The biggest issue (as alluded to earlier) in Myles Bailey's profile is that for all of the power he has, he has a ton of swing and miss in his game. During his freshman campaign, the slugger whiffed 76 times in just 56 games. And while the K issues got better this year, he still struck out 30 times in 26 games. Kids with potential 70-grade power don’t sit around the draft until the 75th pick unless there’s a red flag, and the contact issues are very real. As much as I want to see these cleaned up, whiff issues can be some of the hardest clean-ups out there. It’s likely this will be his Achilles’ heel. On top of that, while Bailey moves well for his size, he’s going to be limited to first base. What this means is that his pathway to MLB relevancy is narrow, even before we worry about the whiffs. For him to maintain any sort of prospect status, he basically has to show up to the organization and never stop hitting. That’s such an impossibly high bar to clear, but it’s the life of first base prospects and just comes with the territory. Overall Myles Bailey is a big swing of a prospect, both in the literal sense and the figurative one. The best version of Bailey is a three-outcome slugger who hits 30 or more home runs, strikes out a bunch and walks a ton. The worst version of Myles Bailey is a guy who strikes out a ton and never makes it past Knoxville at Double-A. There’s a massive variance in outcomes, but he’s a fun lottery ticket regardless. Bailey will likely require more than slot to sign, as well. Despite being ranked a little lower from some publications than where the Cubs snatched him up at, he’s very young and has the leverage. We shouldn’t worry about him signing, as the Cubs’ wouldn’t have picked him if that was an issue, but if you were hoping the org was going to grab some guys later with major over-slots, they probably won’t get any help doing that with this pick. View full article

Sorrel and Strosnuider are very similar. They both have big power, questionable chase. Logenhagen had them rated 59 and 60th. I think I prefer Sorrell a smidge. But they're very much cut from the same cloth.

Lefty, big power. Has chase/swing and miss issues. They have gotten better but there's some concerns. Could stick in CF.

Oh. Another Cade(n). How original.

That said, Carson Jasa is someone I'd be excited about if you want a name of those upside that I like. We'll see if they go that way.

I'm well beyond hoping for a name. Give me an upside play. All I ask. There's like 40 players I'd probably be happy with.

Gracia and McCarthy is nice from the Braves.