13 replies to this topic

[Luke]

The Baseball America Top 100 prospect list is up, and there is a small surprise on it. Matt Szczur not only makes the list, but he comes in at #64.

http://www.baseballa...12/2612998.html

He is the fourth of four Cubs to be ranked (Jackson, Rizzo, and Baez are the other three).

I'm happy someone else vindicated me for ranking Szczur as high as I have been all winter. Somehow, that guy keeps getting over looked by the national writers.

[BFiddy]

He is just so hard to project...sweet that BA ranks him so highly, though.

Also, Jackson all the way up at 32! Excited for whenever he gets to the bigs...

[BFiddy]

Of interest...

4. Yu Darvish
Not a surprise to see him here. Everyone still very much on the "better than Daisuke" bandwagon.

14. Yoenis Cespedes
So weird that he landed with the A's...now he's their top prospect.

32. Brett Jackson (#38 in 2011)
Keeps working his way up. Hope he lands on the big team and sticks this season.

33. Yonder Alonso (#73 in 2011)
BA thinks Pads upgraded by going from Rizzo to Alonso. Fine with me...made it possible for us to get our future 1B.

44. Hak-Ju Lee (#92 in 2011)
Makes the Garza trade look a bit worse...

47. Anthony Rizzo (#75 in 2011)
Trending up...seems right, but I'm surprised given how poorly his Cup of Coffee went.

61. Javier Baez
They compare him to Gary Sheffield in the writeup. Quick bat and probably won't stay a SS...

64. Matt Szczur
Wow...shocked he is here. Incredibly high ceiling but somewhat low floor.

89. Chris Archer at (#27 in 2011)
Makes the Garza trade look a bit better...

[Luke]

I'd still do the Garza trade over again. I liked it when the Cubs made the trade, and I haven't backed off that. And Chris Archer at #89 is too high. Put him in any other system and I think he gets left off. Tampa gets too much credit for their pitching prospects, in my mind.

[hansman1982]

I'd still do the Garza trade over again. I liked it when the Cubs made the trade, and I haven't backed off that. And Chris Archer at #89 is too high. Put him in any other system and I think he gets left off. Tampa gets too much credit for their pitching prospects, in my mind.

Lee is still, at best, a year away from being called up for full time duty and Garza still has a tremendous amount of trade value. Archer is the wild-variable in this. I think, at best, he becomes what Garza is now, a #2 starter, and that is if everything pans out for him.

We did give up a lot to get Garza, but just think of how dire our rotation would look without him and I think we still get a haul for him at the deadline.

[Luke]

I'd still do the Garza trade over again. I liked it when the Cubs made the trade, and I haven't backed off that. And Chris Archer at #89 is too high. Put him in any other system and I think he gets left off. Tampa gets too much credit for their pitching prospects, in my mind.

Lee is still, at best, a year away from being called up for full time duty and Garza still has a tremendous amount of trade value. Archer is the wild-variable in this. I think, at best, he becomes what Garza is now, a #2 starter, and that is if everything pans out for him.

We did give up a lot to get Garza, but just think of how dire our rotation would look without him and I think we still get a haul for him at the deadline.

Cubs got two pitchers back in that deal. A lot of people of forgotten about Zach Rosscup, but we probably haven't heard the last of him. His walk rate is a little high, but he's pitched pretty well despite that.

http://www.baseball-...id=rosscu001zac

I think he was injured late in the season, though, and I'm not sure how his recovery is going.

[King Jeff]

I'd still do the Garza trade over again. I liked it when the Cubs made the trade, and I haven't backed off that. And Chris Archer at #89 is too high. Put him in any other system and I think he gets left off. Tampa gets too much credit for their pitching prospects, in my mind.

Lee is still, at best, a year away from being called up for full time duty and Garza still has a tremendous amount of trade value. Archer is the wild-variable in this. I think, at best, he becomes what Garza is now, a #2 starter, and that is if everything pans out for him.

We did give up a lot to get Garza, but just think of how dire our rotation would look without him and I think we still get a haul for him at the deadline.

Cubs got two pitchers back in that deal. A lot of people of forgotten about Zach Rosscup, but we probably haven't heard the last of him. His walk rate is a little high, but he's pitched pretty well despite that.

http://www.baseball-...id=rosscu001zac

I think he was injured late in the season, though, and I'm not sure how his recovery is going.

I was saying the same thing about Rosscup back in early August before he got hurt. I think he's got a chance to end up with a better career than Archer, which would be a bit of sweet irony.

[Brett]

I'd still do the Garza trade over again. I liked it when the Cubs made the trade, and I haven't backed off that. And Chris Archer at #89 is too high. Put him in any other system and I think he gets left off. Tampa gets too much credit for their pitching prospects, in my mind.

Lee is still, at best, a year away from being called up for full time duty and Garza still has a tremendous amount of trade value. Archer is the wild-variable in this. I think, at best, he becomes what Garza is now, a #2 starter, and that is if everything pans out for him.

We did give up a lot to get Garza, but just think of how dire our rotation would look without him and I think we still get a haul for him at the deadline.

Cubs got two pitchers back in that deal. A lot of people of forgotten about Zach Rosscup, but we probably haven't heard the last of him. His walk rate is a little high, but he's pitched pretty well despite that.

http://www.baseball-...id=rosscu001zac

I think he was injured late in the season, though, and I'm not sure how his recovery is going.

I was saying the same thing about Rosscup back in early August before he got hurt. I think he's got a chance to end up with a better career than Archer, which would be a bit of sweet irony.

I like the optimism, but let's pull back a bit - he's a 23 year old who threw only 49.2 innings last year ... in High A. I like that his K-rate shot up, but so did his walks. Short of a Jeff Beliveau-level improvement this year, I'm not sure that we'll hear much about him again.

[Luke]

I'd still do the Garza trade over again. I liked it when the Cubs made the trade, and I haven't backed off that. And Chris Archer at #89 is too high. Put him in any other system and I think he gets left off. Tampa gets too much credit for their pitching prospects, in my mind.

Lee is still, at best, a year away from being called up for full time duty and Garza still has a tremendous amount of trade value. Archer is the wild-variable in this. I think, at best, he becomes what Garza is now, a #2 starter, and that is if everything pans out for him.

We did give up a lot to get Garza, but just think of how dire our rotation would look without him and I think we still get a haul for him at the deadline.

Cubs got two pitchers back in that deal. A lot of people of forgotten about Zach Rosscup, but we probably haven't heard the last of him. His walk rate is a little high, but he's pitched pretty well despite that.

http://www.baseball-...id=rosscu001zac

I think he was injured late in the season, though, and I'm not sure how his recovery is going.

I was saying the same thing about Rosscup back in early August before he got hurt. I think he's got a chance to end up with a better career than Archer, which would be a bit of sweet irony.

I like the optimism, but let's pull back a bit - he's a 23 year old who threw only 49.2 innings last year ... in High A. I like that his K-rate shot up, but so did his walks. Short of a Jeff Beliveau-level improvement this year, I'm not sure that we'll hear much about him again.

The Rays are extremely methodical when developing their pitching, which is why he was only in High -A, and his innings were limited because of an arm injury. He was one of Daytona's better starters for much of the season.

If he comes back healthy, I see a potential #4 or #5 starter or, depending on the movement on his fastball, a possible setup guy. Maddux was high on him when the he came back in the Garza deal.

Comparisons to Archer are a huge stretch, but it really depends on Archer. In the firs thalf of last season, Archer looked like a career minor leaguer. In the second half, he looked a future #2 starter.

[Brett]

I'd still do the Garza trade over again. I liked it when the Cubs made the trade, and I haven't backed off that. And Chris Archer at #89 is too high. Put him in any other system and I think he gets left off. Tampa gets too much credit for their pitching prospects, in my mind.

Lee is still, at best, a year away from being called up for full time duty and Garza still has a tremendous amount of trade value. Archer is the wild-variable in this. I think, at best, he becomes what Garza is now, a #2 starter, and that is if everything pans out for him.

We did give up a lot to get Garza, but just think of how dire our rotation would look without him and I think we still get a haul for him at the deadline.

Cubs got two pitchers back in that deal. A lot of people of forgotten about Zach Rosscup, but we probably haven't heard the last of him. His walk rate is a little high, but he's pitched pretty well despite that.

http://www.baseball-...id=rosscu001zac

I think he was injured late in the season, though, and I'm not sure how his recovery is going.

I was saying the same thing about Rosscup back in early August before he got hurt. I think he's got a chance to end up with a better career than Archer, which would be a bit of sweet irony.

I like the optimism, but let's pull back a bit - he's a 23 year old who threw only 49.2 innings last year ... in High A. I like that his K-rate shot up, but so did his walks. Short of a Jeff Beliveau-level improvement this year, I'm not sure that we'll hear much about him again.

The Rays are extremely methodical when developing their pitching, which is why he was only in High -A, and his innings were limited because of an arm injury. He was one of Daytona's better starters for much of the season.

If he comes back healthy, I see a potential #4 or #5 starter or, depending on the movement on his fastball, a possible setup guy. Maddux was high on him when the he came back in the Garza deal.

Comparisons to Archer are a huge stretch, but it really depends on Archer. In the firs thalf of last season, Archer looked like a career minor leaguer. In the second half, he looked a future #2 starter.

Yeah. All fair.

Then again, the Rays are probably pretty good at holding onto pitching talent.

[King Jeff]

I said "he might have a chance" of being better than Archer and that it would be sweet, I didn't say that I was expecting it. I saw him pitch in Daytona last year and he looked pretty good. It may be my Cubs prospect sunglasses influencing me, but I was more impressed with Rosscup than either of the other two Daytona starters I watched. The bullpen is another story, there were some top flight prospects there last year. I know you guys follow the minors closer than I do, any word on how they plan to use Jeff Antiqua going forward?

[Luke]

My biggest fear going into the Rule 5 draft was that the Cubs would lose Rhee or Antigua. They lost neither. I did a happy dance.

So far as I know, the plan with Antigua is to keep him in the bullpen and move him up the system as fast as is practical. If the current crop of lefty relievers don't pan out, Antigua will be in the next wave to arrive. If they do pan out, he'll probably be included in a trade. My sense is that he is not viewed as a late inning arm, but more of a reliable mid-innings guy.

[King Jeff]

My biggest fear going into the Rule 5 draft was that the Cubs would lose Rhee or Antigua. They lost neither. I did a happy dance.

I am more impressed with Antigua than I am with Rhee, but Rhee has some wicked stuff if he can locate it.

I had read that Antigua was still in consideration for being a starter at some point. The problem is, most starters at Daytona only go 4 or 5 innings max, so their wasn't a whole lot of variation in performance after he moved to the pen, so I couldn't tell which he would be better suited for.

[NormB]

I like Rhee as well! My personal top 20:

1 - Brett Jackson
2 - Anthony Rizzo
3 - Javier Baez
4 - Trey McNutt
5 - Welington Castillo
6 - Dillon Maples
7 - Dan Vogelbach
8 - Dae Eun Rhee
9 - Jeimer Candelario
10 - Josh Vitters
11 - Matt Szczur
12 - Marco Hernandez
13 - Reggie Golden
14 - Dave Sappelt
15 - Gerardo Concepcion
16 - Jeff Beliveau
17 - Ronald Torreyes
18 - Junior Lake
19 - Ben Wells
20 - Rafael Dolis