22 replies to this topic

[T C]

Are you going to update this for the trades, rule 5? Also, where's Hayden Simpson, our number one pick in 2010? Didn't he make any lists at all or did Hendry and the boys totally whiff at that?

As soon as updated rankings exist, I will update this as well.

Hayden Simpson had a truly awful case of mono that turned him from a normal sized human being to a way-too-thin-to-still-throw-93 human being. I, personally, think he'll rebound once he adds the 40 or so pounds back onto his body, but by then he'll never be any sort of top prospect again (query to whether he ever was, anyway?)

[Cubsin]

TC, Candelario was in the States this fall for the Arizona Instructional League, and hit .297/.361/.459 in 41 plate appearances, while Baez hit .273/.273/.364 in 23 plate appearances. I don't know how many scouts saw him, and it was obviously too late to influence the various top 10 lists, but it does provide some evidence that his DSL stats weren't a fluke.

[T C]

TC, Candelario was in the States this fall for the Arizona Instructional League, and hit .297/.361/.459 in 41 plate appearances, while Baez hit .273/.273/.364 in 23 plate appearances. I don't know how many scouts saw him, and it was obviously too late to influence the various top 10 lists, but it does provide some evidence that his DSL stats weren't a fluke.

Unfortunately, 41 plate appearances mean almost nothing, and Baez's 23 mean even less. These lists are strongly based off of scouts' opinions of players, and many are written by scouts, so the main component of them will be scouting. Stats mean something, but only in meaningful amounts of plate appearances against certain levels of competition. Until then, how a scout feels about someone is going to be the dominating factor of a player's position on a list.

It bears repeating, Baez is thought by many scouts to have had the best bat in the 2011 draft. He's going to be ranked near the top, if not at the top, of all lists

[ncsujuri]

This came from BA's Jim Callis, saw the link on the MLBTraderumors site and figured it belonged in this thread.

With the Cubs' recent trades, how high would first baseman Anthony Rizzo rank on the Cubs Top 10? Would righthander Zach Cates, outfielder Dave Sappelt and second baseman Ronald Torreyes all fall into the second 10?

Jon Kauffmann-Kennel
Elkhart, Ind.

When I listed my personal overall Top 50 in the 2012 Prospect Handbook, I had Brett Jackson at No. 28, Javier Baez at No. 31 and Rizzo at No. 42, so that would put Rizzo third on an updated Cubs list. I like Rizzo's power potential and think he's the third-best first-base prospect in baseball (behind the Astros' Jonathan Singleton and the Padres' Yonder Alonso), but Jackson and Baez are up-the-middle players and Baez has the bat to be an impact player if he moves down the line.

None of Chicago's other acquisitions would crack the Top 10. There's depth in the farm system, so if I were updating the Cubs Top 30 I wrote for the Handbook, I'd put Torreyes, Cates and Sappelt (in that order) in the back half of that list. Torreyes is a career .364 hitter in the lower minors, but he's also 5-foot-7 and lacks a second standout tool, so he's really going to have to max out what he has to make it as a big league regular. Cates has a strong arm but is relatively new to pitching and has a lot of work to do, while Sappelt looks like a fourth outfielder who's overmatched in center field.

In our preliminary system rankings in the Handbook, we put Chicago at No. 14. When we release our final rankings this spring, the Cubs' moves will push them up a spot or two.
As for Volstad, I thought he was a nice pickup in the Carlos Zambrano trade. Chicago might have released Zambrano if it couldn't have traded him. Though the Cubs had to eat $15 million of Zambrano's $18 million salary for 2012, they got a young, durable starter. Volstad may not be more than a No. 4 starter because he doesn't miss enough bats, but he'll help Chicago more than Zambrano would have.

[Dave H]

T C,

This is awesome. I never followed the minors alot to see what was going on down there. There wasn't much to watch though. Now that we actually have more than 3 people in the front office, it is great to follow prospects. This list really gives a glimpse in the crystal ball to see what we have to look forward to in the years to come.

[dabynsky]

Are you going to update this for the trades, rule 5? Also, where's Hayden Simpson, our number one pick in 2010? Didn't he make any lists at all or did Hendry and the boys totally whiff at that?

As soon as updated rankings exist, I will update this as well.

Hayden Simpson had a truly awful case of mono that turned him from a normal sized human being to a way-too-thin-to-still-throw-93 human being. I, personally, think he'll rebound once he adds the 40 or so pounds back onto his body, but by then he'll never be any sort of top prospect again (query to whether he ever was, anyway?)

He also had elbow issues that apparently he tried to pitch through as well. While his ceiling isn't an ace, it appears like it is far too early to right off Hayden Simpson because of the health issues he had last season.

[fromthemitten]

Remember Mark Pawlek? I mean for things other than tripping over the Playstation. That's how I see Simpson winding up.

[Luke]

Are you going to update this for the trades, rule 5? Also, where's Hayden Simpson, our number one pick in 2010? Didn't he make any lists at all or did Hendry and the boys totally whiff at that?

As soon as updated rankings exist, I will update this as well.

Hayden Simpson had a truly awful case of mono that turned him from a normal sized human being to a way-too-thin-to-still-throw-93 human being. I, personally, think he'll rebound once he adds the 40 or so pounds back onto his body, but by then he'll never be any sort of top prospect again (query to whether he ever was, anyway?)

He also had elbow issues that apparently he tried to pitch through as well. While his ceiling isn't an ace, it appears like it is far too early to right off Hayden Simpson because of the health issues he had last season.

I have Simpson just out of my Top 21. He was bumped down a bit by the Rizzo and Marshall trades.
http://cubbiescrib.c...spects-revised/

If he comes back healthy, he has four pitches he can throw for strikes and all of them are rated somewhere above average. His fastball may be a little flat right now, but he's likely to use his breaking stuff for his out pitches anyway. And he does have some very nice breaking stuff.

I got to watch him pitch once last summer. His velocity was clearly way down, but despite that only two batters made solid contact off him. He gave up a home run to the last batter faced, and a sharp liner up the middle early in the game. Everything else he gave up came via weak grounders or lazy flies that probably could have been caught. He did dissolve a bit when he got a runner on first, but I'm not too worried about that at this stage.

If he gets his velocity back, he's going to be tough. 2012 is a big year for him.