Rapid Cubs Draft Reaction

In Minor Leagues, MLB Draft by Rice Cube47 Comments

There are probably dozens of prospect perverts and sites better suited to this than I am, but the Draft is over and the Cubs got their 20 new guys, pending signability, but my guess is that the first 10 picks (within the slot pool) will certainly be signed, and they’ll get most of the others because they’re mostly college players and don’t have much in the way of leverage. There don’t seem to be any Cubs picks of note on the last day which is rounds 11 and beyond, at least according to one source, and regardless I’ve heard of none of these guys so I’m flying blind anyway (dying laughing). Only the first five picks have blurbs on MLB dot com, so I imagine the bulk of the slot money goes to them and the rest are going to be way underslot.

The Cubs picks are here and they have $8,962,000 (which is basically $9,410,100 before forfeiting future draft picks) to spend on those first 10. It breaks down as follows:

  • Three from high school, 17 from some form of college
  • Nine pitchers (only three in the top ten, and two of the top five)
  • Three listed as shortstops
  • Two listed as third basemen
  • One listed as primarily first baseman
  • Three outfielders
  • One listed second baseman
  • One catcher

I know drafts aren’t set up for need, but it seems they were going after established college bats so this seems like a safe draft. The two high schoolers picked #6 and #7 are probably going to be underslots and ready signs, but the prospect hounds seem to at least think there are tools there to be worked with. I imagine with a pretty decent pitching infrastructure in place, they could afford to err on the side of positional need, and the shortstops can eventually go somewhere else if Swanson and Hoerner haven’t bailed yet.

Teams have to sign their guys by August 1, which incidentally is the trade deadline, so I guess the front office interns are going to be making lots of Starbucks runs in the next couple weeks.

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  1. Author
    Rice Cube

    Allegedly the ASG starts at 8 PM Eastern but given the 30 minutes of introductions and then some I don’t expect them to start for a bit after that.

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  3. berselius

    I never follow the draft, but curious if anyone went big on HS players. IIRC there were several teams on day one that went Oops All College.

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  20. berselius

    Immaculate Grid 101 8/9:
    Rarity: 270
    🟩🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩
    ⬜️🟩🟩

    Got burned by Griffey, but I would never have guessed any of the White Sox guys anyway

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  21. Perkins

    Immaculate Grid 101 7/9:
    Rarity: 391
    🟩🟩🟩
    🟩🟩🟩
    ⬜️🟩⬜️

    So apparently Frank Thomas wasn’t RoY.

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  24. andcounting

    andcounting,

    Oh, I see. I remember A-Rod being this great phenom in Seattle really young, which he was . . . but his first two seasons were cups of coffee at 18 and 19 (he’s my age). His first full season (and the first time he was any good) was 1996 when some flash in the pan named Jeter won the ROY unanimously.

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  29. Author
    Rice Cube

    Re: Manfred talking

    https://www.stltoday.com/sports/professional/mlb/cardinals/will-mlb-reset-its-watch-for-october-players-propose-adjusting-pitch-clock-for-crunch-time/article_8a8cb8ce-1fed-11ee-acdf-07de33789958.html

    Re: the pitch clock changing for postseason as proposed by MLBPA

    “Giving back the progress we’ve made is something that we really have to pay attention to, whether it’s the postseason or otherwise,” Manfred said when talking with BBWAA members Tuesday. “That’s all I can say.”

    ,,,

    “I have thought about this a lot,” Manfred said. “I’m not sure that I would like to see the extra-inning rule that we use during the regular season move to the postseason. I just think the difference between the pitch clock and extra-inning rule is the extra-inning rule is kind of, by definition, outcome-determining.”

    Also stuff about the strike call challenge system, Oakland relocating, blackouts and expansion

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  30. andcounting

    Rice Cube,

    Possibly, but it wasn’t a factor for ROY. His two partial seasons (which roundly sucked) took him out of ROY eligibility for his breakout season in 1996. He received no votes.

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  32. Author
    Rice Cube

    Oooh I hope Oakland makes the A’s and MLB pay an exit fee or something

    Why did you want to meet with Manfred?

    For me, it was very important that (Manfred), and not just him, but the (league’s relocation) committee and the owners had a copy of all that we are presenting, for transparency purposes. Through the press, we have heard that Manfred has stated there was no proposal. We wanted to dispel that notion. If people were misinformed, we wanted to make sure everybody had all the real-time information of how close we were to a ballpark.

    “We had a good meeting, a very open exchange of views,” Manfred said Tuesday before the All-Star Game. “I understand she came to the process late and is doing her best to figure out if there is something that can be done in a process that was in a lot of ways kind of over when she showed up on the scene.”

    Based on the article Thao continued to negotiate from what was started with the previous mayor, so shrug emoji there…

    The packages the city prepared for Manfred and the owners included three booklets: A 52-page presentation of terms summarizing the transactional documents, a 114-page explanation of Howard Terminal design guidelines and a 120-page preliminary development plan including detailed maps, building and grading plans. The ballpark would be part of a $12 billion development project the A’s wanted at Howard Terminal. In Las Vegas, the team would be getting only a $1.5 billion, retractable-roof park.

    Thao, in a cover letter to Manfred, said, “Oakland very much had a specific and concrete proposal on the table,” and believed it was “extremely close to finalizing a deal with the current ownership of the A’s.” City officials said they presented the A’s with the proposal at 6:25 p.m. PT on April 14. The A’s announced five days later they had entered into a binding agreement to purchase land in Las Vegas for a future ballpark site.

    It keeps sounding more and more like a stupid version of Rachel Phelps’ plan in Major League

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  34. andcounting

    Rice Cube,

    “Our customer base is markedly younger since we changed things up and a global pandemic killed millions of old people” is a strange flex.

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  36. Perkins

    andcounting:
    Rice Cube,

    “Our customer base is markedly younger since we changed things up and a global pandemic killed millions of old people” is a strange flex.

    While that’s also true, I would read it more that the game is successfully attracting younger spectators, which can be a useful proxy for the long term viability of the game.

    Kinda the inverse scenario for American democracy when considering the age of elected officials.

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  38. berselius

    Rice Cube:
    Perkins,

    I played and didn’t get either of the ROY but was kind of surprised only 10% of people chose Adam Dunn

    I had Bryant for the ROY/RBI crossing, and despite the team bias here I’m a little surprised that he was only at 2%.

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  39. berselius

    Rice Cube,

    Not the abbreviation that you were going for, but I can think if several politicians that I’d love to see in Free Agency (dying laughing).

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  41. Perkins

    berselius: I had Bryant for the ROY/RBI crossing, and despite the team bias here I’m a little surprised that he was only at 2%.

    I fear Bryant may end up in the same RoY conversation as Geovany Soto and Rick Wilkins. Shame how injuries have derailed his career.

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  43. berselius

    Perkins:
    andcounting,

    Can’t wait to bust out Rick Wilkins or Geovany Soto when there’s a Cubs RoY square.

    After looking up Wilkins stats, I can’t wait for you to put his name in and realize that you mixed him up with Jerome Walton (dying laughing).

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  44. andcounting

    Perkins: While that’s also true, I would read it more that the game is successfully attracting younger spectators, which can be a useful proxy for the long term viability of the game.

    Kinda the inverse scenario for American democracy when considering the age of elected officials.

    If this actually happened with baseball (if the median age dropped because of an influx of young fans as opposed to an exodus of old ones) they’ve GOT to show that through a different stat. If they have an increase of fans 18–35, I’d love that. As it is, I suspect any actual growth in the younger markets is not nearly as impressive as the 8-year drop in median age makes it sound.

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  45. Author
    Rice Cube

    andcounting,

    I would agree, they should do something like what they do with surveys, i.e. 18 or younger, 19-34, 35-44, etc etc to see what the year-to-year percentages look like for each age bin.

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  46. Perkins

    berselius: After looking up Wilkins stats, I can’t wait for you to put his name in and realize that you mixed him up with Jerome Walton (dying laughing).

    Huh, my brain somehow conflated his having a good season as a young catcher with getting a RoY. Well at least I can put Soto. (dying laughing)

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