Miscellaneous Prospect Notes: Bryant, Edwards, Olt, Paniagua, Skulina, Vogelbach, More

Kris BryantIt isn’t all about trades and trade rumors today, as there are a few notable prospecting bits to touch on …

  • Jim Callis was asked how he’d rank various draft prospects if they could have been included in Baseball America’s midseason prospect update, and he was quite complimentary of the Cubs’ top pick, Kris Bryant. Indeed, Callis believes Bryant is the Cubs’ best prospect right now, meriting placement in the top 10 overall prospects in baseball; Callis would have him at number 10, one spot ahead of Javier Baez. That’s ahead of Mark Appel, the pitcher selected one spot before Bryant in the Draft.
  • On new Cubs prospects Mike Olt and C.J. Edwards, Callis says they would slot in behind the top four prospects (Bryant, Baez, Soler, Almora), with Olt at number five (ahead of Arismendy Alcantara, you’ll note), and Edwards coming somewhere in the six to ten range. Callis says there’s “no question” that Edwards and Pierce Johnson are the Cubs’ top two pitching prospects. There’s a good bit more in that edition of Ask BA, so it’s worth checking out.
  • Kane County and Boise made a couple roster moves each today, swapping Juan Carlos Paniagua and Kelvin Encarnacion (down to Boise) with Tyler Skulina and Jose Dore (up to Kane County). The step back for Paniagua is a disappointment, as it appears that he simply needs more work after missing most of the year with a visa issue. Encarnacion’s promotion to Kane County was kind of aggressive, given his limited stateside experience, so this isn’t a big knock on him. The promotion of Skulina, the Cubs’ 4th round pick this year (who received an over slot bonus), is good news. He dominated Boise, and will now get a few innings at Kane County to round out his year. He’ll be 22 next year, and could move quickly up the ladder.
  • Baseball Prospect put up an eyes-on scouting report of Dan Vogelbach (subscription required and recommended), and it’s mostly what you’d expect – physique and glove issues, but looks like it could be quite good down the line (though it, too, needs work). BP says that he’s still working on figuring out plate approach and pitch sequencing, which could be the next step for him to really break out offensively. A future .290/.360/.500 type line could be in his future if everything clicks.
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    Brett Taylor is the Lead Cubs Writer at Bleacher Nation, and you can find him on Twitter at @BleacherNation and on LinkedIn here. Brett is also the founder of Bleacher Nation, which opened up shop in 2008 as an independent blog about the Chicago Cubs. Later growing to incorporate coverage of other Chicago sports, Bleacher Nation is now one of the largest regional sports blogs on the web.

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