Another day, another top Chicago Cubs prospect list. Sometimes, things are repetitive and they annoy you. Repeated Cubs prospect lists are not are not such things.
FanGraphs, by way of Marc Hulet, has released its top 15 Cubs prospect list, which lands as follows:
1. Javier Baez, SS
2. Kris Bryant, 3B
3. Albert Almora, CF
4. Jorge Soler, OF
5. Arismendy Alcantara, SS/2B
6. Pierce Johnson, RHP
7. C.J. Edwards, RHP
8. Dan Vogelbach, 1B
9. Arodys Vizcaino, RHP
10. Kyle Hendricks, RHP
11. Jeimer Candelario, 3B
12. Christian Villanueva, 3B
13. Duane Underwood, RHP
14. Eloy Jimenez, OF
15. Neil Ramirez, RHP
Hulet’s piece includes a blurb on each player, which makes for interesting background info. Among the notable bits from the ranking: Hulet is much lower on C.J. Edwards than most (unless he’s got Pierce Johnson and Arismendy Alcantara as top 50 prospects in the game), and it sounds like the knock is the one we hear regularly: slender frame casts doubt on durability as a starter.
Eloy Jimenez pops up once again, about which I’ll remain skeptical until he actually plays some stateside ball (which could be a year or more away). Kyle Hendricks cracks the top ten, and Duane Underwood is just outside the top ten. Hulet is preferring the legacy arms over the recently-drafted guys, as we saw yesterday in Chris Crawford’s list. Part of that is probably the rankers’ backgrounds, but it’s interesting.
And, once again, Neil Ramirez pops up in those mid-teens. I dig it.