A Very Early Look at the Types of Talent in the 2015 Draft and Other Bullets

Jan 22, 2015

The Little Girl’s first comment to me on the way home from school yesterday was, “I can’t wait to see what’s in our package today!” There was no package. She was referring to the fact that we seem to receive a delivery from Amazon virtually every single day, and so she assumed that there would be a package waiting when we got home. I told you that we use Amazon a lot. I am completely comfortable with that, and it makes me all the more comfortable to tell all of you to use Amazon and to use this link when you use Amazon.

We started talking about the draft yesterday in the context of it being moved (though, if you missed the update, it’s not likely to happen before 2017), and Patrick Mooney has a great read on the 2015 Draft and the Cubs’ preparations for it. It’s early, but it sounds like the strength lies in college pitchers and high schoolers. That’s probably nice for the Cubs, who have the strongest collection of upper-minors hitting talent in baseball already, and also have some of their international bats ready to start approaching the middle-minors anyway (I’m not talking about organizational need as an influencer at the top of the draft, because, there, you just go with best available, regardless of “fit” – I’m talking about the draft, and organizational needs as a whole). Buuuuut, it’s really still too early to even be talking like that, what with a full amateur season still left to be played.

New Cubs outfielder Dexter Fowler is open to an extension with the Cubs (MLBN Radio), but that’s more of an “I’m open for anything” kind of position right now. I don’t think the Cubs are going to be looking to extend him right now, anyway. I think everyone just hopes for a great year from Fowler, and then he’s in a position to receive a qualifying offer. Then, who knows.

More details on the Ricketts’ purchase of a couple rooftop buildings and businesses from the Tribune. It’s still not quite entirely clear to me just how many rooftop businesses the Ricketts have been able to purchase yet, but I suspect it’s going to become very clear when the season gets underway, as Tom Ricketts confirmed at the Cubs Convention that the plan is to continue operating those businesses as rooftops (but they’ll be under the Cubs umbrella – so I’m guessing we’ll be able to tell which ones are which).

Jeff Sullivan writes about the Astros’ latest addition – Colby Rasmus – and how they’re going to strike out a ton this year, and he debates with himself whether that really matters. Mostly undiscussed is the fact that the team projected to strikeout the second most this year? The Cubs. The caveats are plenty, though, with the players the Cubs actually wind up playing potentially being quite a bit different from the current Steamer depth chart projections. Still, it’s no secret that the Cubs are probably going to have a ton of high strikeout guys, and the question will be whether the sum of the other things they do well will outweigh the strikeouts.

Although Jon Lester expressed distaste for the idea of a pitch clock in baseball (veteran starting pitchers are the guys who I’ll give the biggest break on not wanting a pitch clock – they’ve been playing the game professionally for so long without one, it’s gotta be unnerving to have this potentially thrown in their face), C.J. Edwards and Kyle Schwarber don’t think it’ll be an issue (Cubs.com). That’s probably good, because there will be pitch clocks this year at the AAA and AA levels.

I really think Cubs fans got a treat when the farm system picked up the Myrtle Beach Pelicans as the new High-A affiliate. Not only are they a lot of fun on Twitter, but they’re super quick with the clever promotion, AND for a good cause. To wit, the Deflate Cancer promotion, which will take place on April 15 against Boston’s affiliate. The details are here, and, yes, it’s a take on the DeflateGate controversy involving the New England Patriots and underinflated footballs in the AFC Championship. To have already put this promotion together, complete with activities and promotional materials, is pretty incredible. They already had this out yesterday:

We're proud to announce #DeflateCancer Night, raising awareness 4 testicular cancer. Details: http://t.co/tEGJTl5apt pic.twitter.com/dnAvtcOHtg

— MyrtleBeachPelicans (@Pelicanbaseball) January 21, 2015

written by

Brett Taylor

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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