In the 2019 draft, the Cubs took a large number of pitchers for the third time in four years. For most of the last two years, the focus from that class has been on the big-armed college pitchers that threw close to 100. Ryan Jensen, Chris Clarke, Josh Burgmann, Hunter Bigge, Cayne Ueckert, and a few more garnered most of the attention that first season and early this year.
While I am still interested in seeing how those college arms develop, what now intrigues me most is how some of the high school and junior college pitchers the Cubs look coming up the next two and a half months. We’ve already seen DJ Herz flash quite a bit at Myrtle Beach. And he’s just the tip of the iceberg.
What has piqued my interest about this collection of talent is that the Cubs really haven’t taken a lot of high school pitchers the last 10 years. In this one single class, they took three high school guys in the first 13 rounds and then they took another prep arm much later out of Puerto Rico and they also took a junior college guy.
Here are the most recent updates and profiles of each of the HS and JuCo pitchers the Cubs took in 2019.
The way the Cubs’ system used to be set up, I thought most of these arms would get some work in at Mesa that first year and possibly begin their second year there as well. The more advanced prep arms would end up in Eugene to start 2020 and hopefully the other guys could get there by the end of the year. By 2021, they could’ve all made their way to low Class A.
Unfortunately, MLB’s minor league reorganization changed those plans. Herz is the only pitcher of that group to start this year at a full season affiliate. The rest of them will be in Mesa to begin play on the 28th (Monday).
What’s added to my intrigue the past few weeks has been the extended spring training game reports from Arizona Phil of “The Cub Reporter.” Two of those pitchers, Porter Hodge and Tyler Schlaffer, have gotten pretty good reviews from Phil about their progress. In addition, Johzan Oquendo and Elian Almanzar have also gotten some work in out of the bullpen.
Once the new so-called “Arizona Complex League“ starts Monday, I’m going to be looking out for those four names. I really wish those games were televised as they do play late in the night. When I go to check the box scores in the morning, I will be looking specifically in the pitching section for those four arms and how they do.
If all goes well, we might actually see some of them in Myrtle Beach in by mid August. I would not be surprised at all.
Cubs Central 
Todd, enjoyed reading this. We sometimes forget about the other high school pitchers that were drafted by the Cubs in 2019. These drafted players, along with Moreno, will be interesting to follow in Mesa – with the pitchers who have come from the DSL. Looking forward to the morning box scores from Mesa and follow the progress of the youngsters. I will claim Felix Stevens as one of my guys in the system.
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[…] should be an exciting three month season And we’re also going to get to see some of the Cubs young pitching prospects go at it. I’m most excited to see how Porter Hodge and Tyler Schlaffer perform along with 2020 draft pick […]
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Don’t forget Joel Machado, the top 16 YO LHP in the 2018 IFA group
I think Moreno’s going to be good, reminds me of the kind of arm the Indians draft
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[…] and often about some of the Cubs top hitting prospects out in the Arizona Complex League along with a few pitchers in the team from the 2019 draft class. One thing that stood out fairly well early in the first week of games out in Mesa last week was […]
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