CaliforniaRaisin

Callis’ first mock: I like it. Guys like Abel, PCA, Howard, Burns and Miller were still available at 16.

So I put together a consensus top 30 based on the combined draft rankings of BA, ESPN (Kiley McDaniel), FanGraphs (Eric Longenhagen) and MLB Pipeline (Callis/Mayo): 1. Spencer Torkelson, 1B, Arizona St 2. Austin Martin, 2B/CF, Vanderbilt 3. Asa Lacy, LHP, Texas A&M 4. Emerson Hancock, RHP, Georgia 5. Nick Gonzales, 2B, New Mexico St 6. Zac Veen, OF, HS (Port Orange, FL) 7. Garrett Mitchell, OF, UCLA 8. Max Meyer, RHP, Minnesota 9. Reid Detmers, LHP, Louisville 10. Jared Kelley, RHP, HS (Refugio, TX) 11. Heston Kjerstad, OF, Arkansas 12. Austin Hendrick, OF, HS (Imperial, PA) 13. Mick Abel, RHP, HS (Portland, OR) 14. Patrick Bailey, C, North Carolina St 15. Nick Bitsko, RHP, HS (Doylestown, PA) 16. Garrett Crochet, LHP, Tennessee 17. Ed Howard, SS, HS (Chicago, IL) 18. Tyler Soderstrom, C, HS (Turlock, CA) 19. Robert Hassell, OF, HS (Thompson's Station, TN) 20. Cade Cavalli, RHP, Oklahoma 21. Pete Crow-Armstrong, OF, HS (Los Angeles, CA) 22. Cole Wilcox, RHP, Georgia 23. Carmen Mlodzinski, RHP, South Carolina 24. Slade Cecconi, RHP, Miami 25. Bobby Miller, RHP, Louisville 26. Tanner Burns, RHP, Auburn 27. Dillon Dingler, C, Ohio St 28. Austin Wells, C, Arizona 29. JT Ginn, RHP, Mississippi St 30. Bryce Jarvis, RHP, Duke

BA has its mock out today too. The Cubs get a falling Hassell:

That’s the second national writer to recently connect the Cubs to Tanner Burns. If we go college pitching I’d much favor Burns to any of Cavalli/Wilcox and likely Crochet. I still wouldn’t be surprised to see the Cubs with Pete Crow-Armstrong. He’s the best CF defender in the class. He’s suffering from some draft fatigue and Kantrovitz has drafted a lot from CA (granted what scouting director hasn’t?). Kiley McDaniel was the other to mock Burns to the Cubs but neither has really “connected” the Cubs as much as just guessed college arm, which seems logical based on Kantrovitz’ history and the number of college pitchers in this draft. Both McDaniel and Law was careful to say they don’t have much info linking players to teams (they start getting that info about a month before the draft because you can see which teams are bringing decision makers to games, etc). I wouldn’t assume too much outside of Burns being there at 16 yet. I too would like the Cubs to go with a prep guy if all these teams are going college. Preferably a “famous” prep guy they have more info on (Hassell, PCA, Soderstrom & Abel have all been there at 16 in at least one mock and I’d like any of them; Ed Howard is another option if you’re confident in him). Basically, I see value in taking 4th prep guy at 16, rather than the 12th college guy. The prep class isn't that weak - especially prep OFs - teams are just inclined to trust the college player more.

1:15 Danny: Likely way too early to know but is the expectation that the 2021 J2 signing period will be delayed too? Something like January 2022? 1:16 Eric A Longenhagen: Yeah, I think we’re on a whole new calendar for Int’l stuff already. January for this group and every one beyond it until a draft (which I think will be ’23, Kiley thinks ’22)

Huh

The Cubs have the 19th most bonus money with $6,721,600. 1: $3,745,500 2: $1,436,900 3: $678,600 4: $492,700 5: $367,900

Not sure if it will be policed, but perhaps one way to get around the cap for guys not drafted will be to give them a large minor salary. So you may end up with a permanent pay raise for minor leaguers. BA mentioned that and specifically hypothesized the Blue Jays, Cubs and Giants would be at an advantage because they’ve already announced/implemented raises.

Congrats to the owners for saving $1 million/team while hurting the sport by limiting the talent entering.

The hangup appears to be this part:

Christian Hernandez is 5th on MLB’s list. I haven’t seen him lower than 2 on any other ranking, though this is the first ranking I’ve seen with Yoelqi Céspedes (Yoenis’ younger half brother). Moises Ballesteros was listed amongst the “best of the rest,” outside the top 30.

Would love to see Xavier McKinney fall to the Bears. Definitely hoping they can trade down with on of their picks and add a 3rd or 4th rounder. I know the Bears need to add speed on offense and he doesn’t provide that but I would love Michael Pittman.

BA has Teel ranked 91st in their top 400 draft prospects.

This is for next year’s draft, but interesting. I think the last person to re-classify 2 years was Bryce Harper.

BA did their Mock 3.0. https://www.baseballamerica.com/rankings/mlb-mock-draft/ Lot of disclaimers: They gave the Cubs arguably the top non-OF prep prospect: Pete Crow-Armstrong and Robert Hassell - the two prep OF with the best hit tool amongst the many talented first round prep OF prospects in this year’s draft - went in the next two picks.

At the rate this season is being delayed, Estrada might actually play a “full” season.

Looks like the Cubs are still getting Hernandez? Why wouldn't they? The only question is when the signing period will start. That BA article said Hernandez would get “around $3.5 million,” which would be the 4th highest bonus in the coming IFA class. Hernandez was the only Cub in the top 25 bonuses and the bottom of the list was getting around $1.5 million so we know Ballesteros will get less than that.

Prospects Live mock draft: https://www.prospectslive.com/mlb-draft/mlb-2020-mock-draft-2020