Cubs Prospect Notes: Draft Review, Paciolla, Strumpf and Bannon, PCA Documentary Style, More

Nov 21, 2022

I don’t always have a ton to share on the prospecting side of things in late-November, but there’s actually some interesting stuff to get into today …

Baseball America looked back at the post-draft seasons for 2022 draft prospects, and reviewed each club’s draft from that perspective. It turned out to be a bit of a tricky thing for the Cubs, who saw almost none of their drafted prospects play in any games this year. Thus, a lot of the review is kind of just looking back at scouting reports, and stray praise for Haydn McGeary’s strong debut (“Many of Chicago’s 2022 draftees weren’t activated this summer, but McGeary (15) logged 73 plate appearances and posted a 110 wRC+ overall between Rookie ball and Low-A Myrtle Beach. He played catcher, first base and DH’d.”).

That said, there was more on third rounder Christopher Paciolla, an over-slot California high school shortstop: “Christopher Paciolla has a projectable frame and a chance to hit for above-average power potential as he adds strength …. Paciolla has soft hands and good defensive actions and instincts at shortstop, though he played all over the infield in his pro debut this summer. His arm could get to above-average in the future, which would be an asset for him if his range forces him to move into more of an everyday third base role.” Paciolla will turn 19 in March, and we’ll see how aggressive the Cubs are with his assignment. We’ve seen some high school picks make their debut in full-season ball in recent years (i.e., Low-A Myrtle Beach), but there’s nothing wrong with the more conventional route of extended Spring Training, Arizona Complex League, and then maybe a taste of Low-A at the end of the year.

If you missed Bryan’s set of notes over the weekend on the various Cubs transactions of the past week that touch on the farm system, make sure you check it out here.

I appreciated Bryan’s note on the Rylan Bannon waiver claim, and its relationship to the slim chance that Chase Strumpf gets taken in the Rule 5 Draft. I wouldn’t say the two are perfect overlaps, but each would definitely project to be a righty-hitting 3B/2B type at Triple-A next year for the Cubs. Strumpf has more power, more swing and miss, is 24, and hasn’t yet played at Triple-A; Bannon is a little more-contact-capable, has a little less power, and has already had some offensive success at Triple-A.

I suspect the goal will be to sneak Bannon through waivers at some point to get him outrighted to Iowa, where he would join Strumpf and David Bote as 2B/3B types. Levi Jordan and Scott McKeon could also be in the infield mix, though their standing is a little less certain. And Esteban Quiroz may be back, but he’s pretty much limited to second base, I’d think. There’s also Jake Slaughter, who’ll be getting lots of starts at third base at Iowa if he’s still around. If Andy Weber gets the bump to Iowa, he might have the inside track on regular starts at shortstop. The same is true for Luis Vazquez, who got the late bump to Iowa last year, but I’d say it’s not a lock that he starts back out there to open 2023. It’s just a really crowded group of kinda fringy infielders. I don’t see a future star among them, but I could talk myself into several of them becoming big league role players.

Cole Roederer, who has an outside shot at being in the Iowa outfield next year, has already homered twice in his seven games in Australia.

Very cool honor here:

Congratulations to Cubs Area Scouting Supervisor Alex McClure for being named the Deep South Scouts Association’s Scout of the Year. Both JP Wheat and Ke’shun Collier were recommended by McClure. https://t.co/OA21RyDoMH— Greg Zumach (@IvyFutures) November 20, 2022

I really hate this so much, because he’s not wrong, and this is just the pitching side of things (thus Jordan Walker, Masyn Winn, and Alec Burleson are not even mentioned):

The St. Louis Cardinals have a lot of talent and depth in their pitching prospects.

Tink Hence
Gordon Graceffo
Cooper Hjerpe*
Matthew Liberatore*
Michael McGreevy
Inohan Paniagua
Connor Thomas*
Brycen Mautz*
Pete Hansen*
Alec Willis
Austin Love

Several more.

* = LHP#STLCards— Eric Cross (@EricCross04) November 18, 2022

The Cubs have more quality depth than most systems, but you look at an org like the Cardinals and you see so many impact types.

Not that the Cubs are entirely without impact types. You want a mini-documentary on top Cubs prospect Pete Crow-Armstrong? Cubs Productions is here to hook you up with some absurdly high production values, and PCA is here to hook you up with some hype on his and his org mates’ goals for the years ahead:

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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