CaliforniaRaisin

12:18 Schoop of ice cream: Is Singer on the Strasburg level where we could see him up in late 2019? 12:18 Kiley McDaniel: No, not in the top 5 anymore at this point, stuff is down. May not be the best pitcher on the UF staff right now.

Well, Tommy, maybe if you weren't hot garbage until you turned 29 you would've earned more money based on your performance history, ya dingus. Or the Cardinals could be less cheap with pre-arb players (like the Cubs). The Cardinals are being cheap and trying to pat themselves on the back for being generous.

BA just ranked him #60 in their top 100 overall prospects.

If you don't want to go the pitcher route, I can see it. He has a lot of the tools you want, the power has improved and he had a great summer against good competition. I still think a pitcher will go 1.1: Not enough power bats and a lot more high end pitching options - a couple will survive attrition.

Cubs get Kentucky RHP Sean Hjelle in this mock: https://247sports.com/mlb/scouting/Article/2018-March-Mock-for-Major-League-Baseball-Draft-Picks-1-30-115861234

So I averaged the rankings of all Cubs prospects who made all of BA, Fangraphs, BP, Keith Law and MLB Pipeline's lists. Only 15 prospects made all 5 listss (David Bote and Jeremiah Estrada each missed on only one list): 1.6 (tie) Adbert Alzolay 1.6 (tie) Aramis Ademan 3.0 Jose Albertos 5.2 Brendon Little 5.4 Oscar de la Cruz 5.6 Alex Lange 6.6 Victor Caratini 7.8 Thomas Hatch 12.8 Nelson Velazquez 13.4 DJ Wilson 13.8 (tie) Dillon Maples 13.8 (tie) Jen-Ho Tseng 14.8 Miguel Amaya 18.4 Alec Mills 18.6 Mark Zagunis

Yeah, I'm kind of hoping one of Isaiah Wynn, Will Hernandez, Billy Price or James Daniels falls to the second round. Have to address OL somewhere this year, but would love to try and attack defense with the top 10 pick.

I don't hate him for Cleveland either. Not sure he can work as a starter in Cleveland with Kipnis and Ramirez around.

Arizona Phil has the original minor league camp rosters: https://www.thecubreporter.com/03052018/2018-cubs-minor-league-camp-rosters#comments Most of these guys will end up a level lower as guys at the big league camp get demoted. The guys who are hurt or rehabbing: Corey Black Danny Hultzen Ryan McNeil Ryan Williams Erick Leal Manuel Rondon Hector Alonso Garcia Justin Steele Sean Barry Alfredo Colorado Chi-Feng Lee MT Minacci Yunior Perez

Ugh. Oscar de la Cruz was hitting 94 with the big league Cubs last week.

I mean you've heard of Mark Appel right? He was taken #1 right ahead of KB lol. I'm not that high on Mickey Moniak, but he should reach the big leagues. He might end up being their version of Albert Almora. Appel at least hung onto lists for several seasons. Agreed on the comp. Aiken has had a precipitous fall too. Struggling to hit 90 in A-ball.

He's ranked 164th in BA's current top 300 draft list. That's potential top 5 round territory.

Shae Simmons seems like an intriguing reliever option especially since he can be stashed at AAA:

I'm not biased and I agree.

Badler had basically the same article a year ago. The thought of scouting 12-year olds feels icky.

Yes. See what sticks and try to find the next Brandon Morrow this way.

No new players were linked to the Cubs in either his shortstop article or his pitcher article. That said, some of the players he mentioned weren't linked to any teams: Osiel Rodriguez, RHP, Cuba Sandy Gaston, RHP, Cuba - possibly could sign with the Marlins but not linked to any teams Jerming Rosario, RHP, Dominican Republic Rainer Polonius, SS, Curacao Ryson Polonius, SS, Curacao Badler said Osiel Rodriguez and Richard Gallardo (the pitcher linked to the Cubs) were the most impressive pitchers at the MLB Showcase last week. Annoyingly, Badler mentioned bonus amounts for many of the pitchers in his article but not Gallardo. Only one pitcher Badler mentioned is currently expected to get a 7-figure bonus (Dominican RHP Starlyn Castillo to the Phillies). Thanks man. We've got the SS and Gallardo as the only names known at this point. I'd love to see us add one other big bonus pitcher and spend the rest on hitting(if there's anything left) If I had to guess, they probably have about $2 million tied up with Gallardo and the SS Rafael Morel. With the hard IFA caps in the new CBA, it's tougher to sign multiple top IFAs so it would be a pleasant surprise if they could still get Osiel Rodriguez and end up signing the top two pitchers in this class. You get the top two pitchers in the class and you have a better chance that one will be a healthy top 100 prospect by AA ball. That said, I'm guessing they're already linked to a few mid-6 figure guys and might not have enough money for a guy like Rodriguez who basically is a pop up guy.

The Angels broadcasters should talk more about Quintana's .500 record.

No new players were linked to the Cubs in either his shortstop article or his pitcher article. That said, some of the players he mentioned weren't linked to any teams: Osiel Rodriguez, RHP, Cuba Sandy Gaston, RHP, Cuba - possibly could sign with the Marlins but not linked to any teams Jerming Rosario, RHP, Dominican Republic Rainer Polonius, SS, Curacao Ryson Polonius, SS, Curacao Badler said Osiel Rodriguez and Richard Gallardo (the pitcher linked to the Cubs) were the most impressive pitchers at the MLB Showcase last week. Annoyingly, Badler mentioned bonus amounts for many of the pitchers in his article but not Gallardo. Only one pitcher Badler mentioned is currently expected to get a 7-figure bonus (Dominican RHP Starlyn Castillo to the Phillies).

On that note, BA's first draft tracker: https://www.baseballamerica.com/draft/2018-draft-tracker-swaggerty-denaburg-larnach-helping/#RDfm6CjDQAZCzfqP.97 Stock Rising: Travis Swaggerty | OF | South Alabama Mason Denaburg | RHP | Merritt Island (Fla.) High Carter Stewart | RHP | Eau Gallie High, Melbourne, Fla. Trevor Larnach | OF | Oregon State Stock Falling: Nander De Sedas | SS | Montverde (Fla.) Academy Jeremy Eierman | SS | Missouri State On the Mend: Nick Madrigal | 2B | Oregon State Ethan Hankins | RHP | Forsyth Central High, Cumming, Ga. Slade Cecconi | RHP | Trinity Prep High, Winter Park, Fla.

Yeah, in his second start of the year. There are a lot of well regarded prep arms so maybe one gets lost in the shuffle or has serious injury, but I just have a hard time seeing any of Hankins, Liberatore, Stewart or Denaburg (or even Rocker) falling to 24. Agreed, the range for that kind of HS arm talent has been like picks 6-19 give or take. This is definitely not a group of players I would bank on being there at 24. Best case there is signability concerns and teams putting their money in college bats, though Rocker's maybe got a shot if he doesn't do anything too exciting this spring. The player I like that might actually be there at 24 is Greyson Jenista. Travis Swaggerty probably is that guy for me but he too apparently has a lot of helium.

FYI, he's getting top 5 pick buzz following that start, per Kiley McDaniel at Fangraphs.