Last weekend, I sent a question to Greg Huss to answer with Jimmy Nelligan on their Growing Cubs podcast (57:14) about where they thought Cubs top draft pick this year would land on the Cubs’ top prospect list. In addition, I also noted, after the question, to save a spot for Christian Hernandez, the Cubs top international free agent.
When I listened to the podcast on Monday, Greg and Jimmy answered and said, as they should, that it depends on just exactly who they draft. They thought, for sure, that the prospect at the minimum would be a top 10 guy and as high as 4 in a list without Nico and Adbert. Greg even thought the Cubs could get three top 10 prospects in a year’s time from this year’s talent haul, and that included Hernandez. Jimmy later iterated that the second round pick would likely become a top 15 guy. Those are pretty measured thoughts.
At first, I thought I could see the number one pick this year being as high as 4 or 5 on the list, and maybe as low as 8 or 9. If it’s a college bat, I would rate a bat a little higher over a college pitcher. If it is a high school arm, I might be inclined to give him a little bit lower rating compared to a high school bat. We’re just going have to wait and see who it is.
I plan on releasing a new and updated list a couple days after the draft. That’ll give me a chance to go through some profiles and watch some videos of some of the guys the Cubs pick on June 10 and 11th. In doing so, I have saved three spots (for now) for the Cubs top two picks and one for Cristian Hernandez. Depending on how good the Cubs third round pick is, that player could sneak into the Top 21 as well. I doubt if the fourth or fifth round picks would be talented enough to overtake some of the Cubs currently on the list. You never know though, this is a pretty deep class.
The issue I am having is that I have about 30 names for 21 slots. This is the first time since 2017 that I’ve had that many names in contention. For the past three years, I’ve had an ala carte menu where the reader would get to pick from a list and they could fill in their own slots at 16 or 17 through 21. I’m thinking of doing that this year because the system has a lot more depth than it has in the past. And with five new draft picks and some international free agents, not everyone is going to make the list.
There seems to be a definite hierarchy this year. There are 14 guys that I can zip right through as the cream of the crop of the Cubs’ system. After that, things get a bit tricky. You could easily make an argument for one player over another depending on your preference for pitching over hitting, floor over ceiling, or even the affiliate level that they play. And, to be honest, I probably wouldn’t disagree with you.
So, as we approach the last two weeks before the draft, the prospect list is just about ready and I don’t think there are too many other big changes to the list. In November, I had 21 guys, this time I have 14 names that I really like and then you can pick from the other seven slots. I am excited to see how it all shakes out and where I’m going to put this new talent.
Cubs Central 