NEWSLETTER
Pre-season prospect rankings season is at a close, with MLB Pipeline dropping its Chicago Cubs top 30 list.
Seven of the eight best #Cubs prospects have joined the fold in the past 16 months.
Check out the fresh faces on their brand-new Top 30 prospects list: https://t.co/9kzsjkiKix pic.twitter.com/18qQ64Bob1
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline) March 23, 2022
Cristian Hernández gets the number two spot, where he has landed for most of the lists that came out after fall/winter scouting reports came in. I doubt that’s a coincidence.
What’s particularly interesting here is that James Triantos gets his highest ranking, all the way up at number three. It’s incredible to me that the Cubs have a farm system now where you can make a straight-faced, reasonable argument for a guy to be up in the 2/3 range, or down in the 10/11 range. And everyone in that whole 10-player range could be organized kinda however you want. And it’s not like they are bad prospects, either! It’s just such a uniquely-shaped system right now, and that part actually extends to the next several tiers of prospects, too.
Speaking of which: How do you handle a system with so many guys who are difficult to differentiate from each other – so much upside, but so far away and with so many questions? Well, you tier them, and/or you put them in buckets with similar prospects. It’s pretty clear from the list that the Pipeline crew took this approach, because you see sections of the list where similar prospects have been grouped. Seems reasonable to me!
For example, young outfielders Pete Crow-Armstrong, Kevin Alcántara, and Owen Caissie all appear together. Ed Howard and Kevin Made are back-to-back. The trio of good low-level outfield prospects that we just don’t know enough about yet – Alexander Canario, Christian Franklin, and Yohendrick Piñango – all appear together. And the late-inning relief arms appear together at the end of the list.
Here’s the full list, which is available – plus scouting reports – at MLB Pipeline:
1. Brennen Davis, OF
2. Cristian Hernández, SS
3. James Triantos, 3B
4. Caleb Kilian, RHP
5. Jordan Wicks, LHP
6. Pete Crow-Armstrong, OF
7. Kevin Alcántara, OF
8. Owen Caissie, OF
9. DJ Herz, LHP
10. Brailyn Marquez, LHP
11. Reginald Preciado, 3B
12. Kohl Franklin, RHP
13. Miguel Amaya, C
14. Ed Howard, SS
15. Kevin Made, SS
16. Nelson Velazquez, OF
17. Ryan Jensen, RHP
18. Alexander Canario, OF
19. Christian Franklin, OF
20. Yohendrick Piñango, OF
21. Christopher Morel, UTL
22. Pablo Aliendo, C
23. Alfonso Rivas, 1B
24. Drew Gray, LHP
25. Jordan Nwogu, OF
26. Chase Strumpf, 3B
27. Daniel Palencia, RHP
28. Ben Leeper, RHP
29. Cayne Ueckert, RHP
30. Ethan Roberts, RHP
