Don’t judge a book by it’s cover. And, most times, don’t judge a prospect by his stats.
For teams that have a nice run into the NCAA College World Series, they usually have several players get drafted in the MLB Draft. Such was the case for McNeese State last year. However, what was weird was that the Cubs took two pitchers from McNeese State in the 2019 Draft, The Cubs took lefty Bryan King in the 30th round. But 3 rounds prior to that, the Cubs picked Cayne Ueckert, the man in today’s profile.
Height – 6’3”
Weight – 200
Throws – Right
Age – 23
From Jasper, Texas
College – McNeese State
I’m going to cut right to the chase here, the first thing you notice when you start to look at Ueckert’s stats is that they are not good. However, one does not go to junior college and then a division one school without some kind of talent. In fact, his McNeese State bio referred to him as a fire baller in high school.
To begin his college career, Ueckert went to Panola College in Carthage, Texas where, as a 20-year-old freshman, he put up a 4.00 ERA and struck out 29 in 36 IP. Ueckert seemed to have a problem walking almost as many guys as he struck out. As a sophomore, Ueckert started 10 out of 13 games and struck out 44 in 37.1 innings. Then again, the ERA was not very sparkling at 6.99.
He went and pitched summer baseball in Alaska for the Anchorage Bucs after his sophomore year and did much better there. He struck out 25 in 42.2 IP with a 4.00 ERA in the regular season.
Ueckert had something that got him a spot on the roster at McNeese State in the Southland Conference. In his junior year at McNeese State, Ueckert saw action in 16 games and started eight of them. He had a 4.57 ERA and struck out 58 batters in 65 innings. But the free pass thing was also rearing its head as he walked 42 in 65 innings.
His senior year was not good through the end of April as his ERA fluttered close to 7. Then a huge change occurred. At the beginning of May, Ueckert was moved to the bullpen and was lights out in the month of May as he did not allow an entire run in six appearances. In fact the only time he allowed any runs was when he was stretched out to throw 3.1 innings in a 13 inning affair against Ohio State in the College World Series in June.
Just based on that month where he struck out nine in nine innings and had a 0.00 ERA for the month, while walking just 2, that small change to the bullpen was enough to get him drafted in the 27th round.
Because of the amount of innings he threw at McNeese State as a starter last year, Ueckert did not throw that much as a Cub in 2019. In fact, he only threw 23.2 innings in Mesa last summer. However, he was pretty darn good. He had a 1.90 ERA in 23.2 innings with 26 strikeouts. He had a 1.35 WHIP because he still had a little bit of an issue with walking guys. While his strikeout rate was at 9.89/9 innings, his walk rate was still pretty high at 4.56/9 innings.
In spring training, Ueckert was assigned to the Myrtle Beach squad.. He could wind up there or at South Bend to start the season depending upon how he would’ve performed in camp. Hopefully, we’ll get to see him out of the pen this year at some point.
I am also interested in finding out just exactly what he throws and how hard he throws it. We know the command was/is an issue in the past, I’m hoping it won’t be this year.
Cubs Central 
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[…] Director of Player Development, talked up Leeper in every podcast he did after fall instructs. When I profiled Ueckert in 2020, I thought the 2019 draftee could find a new career moving from being a starter in college to a […]
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