NEWSLETTER
We are about one week away from the regular season beginning at the big league level, which means we are just about one week away from minor league spring training finally starting.
The true minor leaguers will start doing their thing in Mesa, Arizona, and then a contingent of older prospects and veterans will head to the South Bend alternate site for April, to stand at the ready for call-ups (and/or to keep on preparing for the minor league season, which begins in May). While that stuff is going on, I’m happy to say we may get some eyes-on looks at Cubs prospects and minor leaguers, because they’re a ‘YES’ across the board here:
Here's the list of where scouts will and will not be allowed at Alternate Sites and minor league spring training. pic.twitter.com/del3NUQWPf
— Eric Longenhagen (@longenhagen) March 24, 2021
Elsewhere in Cubs prospect notes …
•  Jonathan Mayo broke down the recent set of MLB Pipeline farm system and player rankings, and there are a few very interesting things to note about the Cubs’ system. Although the farm system itself didn’t rank in the top 20 at MLB Pipeline (22nd overall), if you average the ratings for the 30 prospects in the Cubs’ top 30, they actually wind up tied for 10th. It’s a little difficult to square that chasm – it appears to be the largest across the league, at least in that direction – but it suggests there is a disparity in how the Cubs’ overall farm system is viewed as compared to how its individual top prospects are viewed. Moreover, the fact that the best prospects tend to be very young in the Cubs’ system probably also lends itself to them having a higher average rating, but the farm system as a whole seeming pretty high-risk. Either way you slice it, you could say it’s reason for a lot of optimism about just how high the farm system could bounce this year if the young prospects show out, now that they’re actually back on the field.
•  Among the other interesting Cubs bits in the breakdown: the organization is tied for fifth in best average fastball among the top prospects (yes, the Cubs have a ton of really good fastballs down on the farm!), and two of the three best curveballs in the entire set of 900 prospects ranked belong to Cubs prospects (65 grade on Burl Carraway’s and Chris Clarke’s).
•  And, as you might expect, when it comes to the youngest top 30s in baseball, the Cubs have the second youngest set, older than only the Angels. The average Cubs prospect on their top 30 only just turned 21.
•  Speaking of top Cubs prospects who only recently turned 21, Brennen Davis gets a lot of ink for his time in big league Spring Training:
Brennen Davis' spring results show he's still working his way up but aren't a big concern. He's in camp to learn from big-leaguers and is part of an important and emerging 2018 Cubs draft class. A look at him and some other key prospects from his class. https://t.co/1KHELXtAqa
— Sahadev Sharma (@sahadevsharma) March 17, 2021
.@BrennenDavis__ is soaking it all in.
MORE: https://t.co/MjTxI9y8AE pic.twitter.com/p1Y9vUonJa
— Marquee Sports Network (@WatchMarquee) March 23, 2021
•  That Athletic piece, by the way, doesn’t just have a ton on everything Davis has been working on with the big boys, it also has a bit on the stacked 2018 draft class – as Davis describes it – and it’s a great read. For example, we haven’t heard a lot about 4th rounder Ethan Roberts (an offseason video darling who’s posted clips of elite spin rates and huge velo gains), but the Cubs are excited to get him into minor league camp this year:
A future reliever, Roberts has opened some eyes with videos he’s posted online during the shutdown that show some impressive velocity gains. Once sitting around 89 mph and occasionally touching 93, Roberts has been seen touching 96-97. That’s indoors and not facing hitters, so the Cubs want to temper expectations before they see what he can do when he gets to minor-league camp. But he certainly wasn’t doing that before.
His fastball is unique and plays through the zone. He also has a slider and changeup, with the breaking ball being the better of the two secondaries as it plays well off the elevated, rising fastball. That gives Roberts two plus pitches for someone who’s shown to be a solid strike-thrower. The pitching development staff is excited to get him in camp, and there’s a chance he could be a fast mover if he continues to progress.
•  MLB Pipeline named its just-missed prospects for the recent top 30s, and for the Cubs, number 31 was lefty Justin Steele: “The Cubs gave seven-figure bonuses to three high school pitchers in the middle rounds of the Draft, and Steele ($1 million in the fifth round as a Mississippi high schooler) is the only one still in the organization. Slowed by Tommy John surgery in 2017, he’s on the verge of making the big leagues with a four-seam fastball that ranges from 92-97 mph and a mid-80s slider that some club officials believe is the best in the system.” The big question over the next couple months is whether the Cubs let Steele work as a starting pitcher again this year, or if he’s a reliever now. The pitches are big-league-caliber, so you never want to cut off the chance to be a starter TOO early, but you also want to make use of those big league bullets when a guy is already on the 40-man roster. My guess is we see him in the Cubs bullpen at some point this year.
•  Also a possible lefty in the Cubs bullpen at some point this year? Burl Carraway:
The metrics on the above pitch: https://t.co/1lPqGGlCcn
— Cubs Insider (@realcubsinsider) March 20, 2021
•  Carraway of course shows up on the Cubs Insider ranking of the top 20 Cubs pitching prospects, which is tricky on the precise rankings (it’s like that when a whole season is lost), but is definitely useful for getting to know more names in the system. The Cubs really and truly do have a lot of compelling pitching prospects.
•  So, that’d be 10 days from today:
13 more days… pic.twitter.com/nwjOGErYTy
— Michael McAvene (@mkill55) March 22, 2021
