beckdawg
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So i know a lot of people don't follow this as closely as I do and even I wouldn't exactly say I know these guys that well. But I do read a fair bit. From what I've read the strongest name that's been attached to the cubs so far is Nick Allen who's a high school SS. The book on him is he's TINY(5'8 158) but he is a true SS who should stick and he can hit(55 grade from mlb.com). I've seen Jose Altuve/Dustin Pedroia comps thrown on him. If he was a bigger guy he'd probably be much higher rated but teams tend to shy away on smaller build guys as they don't have as much potential. There's been a ton of pitching names thrown around and given you never know who will fall it's kind of hard to predict anyone else the cubs might go after but mlb.com and BA have both pushed Allen toward the cubs in mocks so I'd imagine if he's there we might see him.
The cubs positioning will be interesting because what tends to happen is you will see high school guys who have strong commitments slip because of signability concerns. Some of the talk I've read is the cubs might do an underslot deal at 27 and use the money they save to go after a premium talent who falls because of signability concerns. For instance, the latest BA mock draft has the cubs going Allen then Sam Carlson who's a high schooler out of Minnesota. MLB.com has him as the #15 guy and BA has him #14. I've also seen the cubs linked to guys like Griffin Canning(who may not fall), Tanner Houck, Clarke Schmidt, Nate Pearson, Quentin Holmes(OF not a pitcher). Schmidt would be an injury risk/upside play. Think I read some where if he didn't fall victim to TJS he might have been a top 5 pick as one of the best starters in college. Canning is also one of the better college pitchers. His stuff is really 3 good pitches but nothing "great" but he apparently throws strikes so there's that. Houck is out of Mizzou with a good fastball and size but meh secondariest atm. Pearson is a juco guy with good size and a good fastball but meh secondaries. Holmes is a true CF with blazing 80 grade speed.
Regardless, should be pretty interesting. I do think we'll probably see the cubs underslot someone and use that to grab better talent if not in the first round maybe similar to the Cease draft though obviously not quite on the same level given they wont have quite as much money to play with. Some of the talk I've read seems to suggest they may go nuts with arms again but I'm not so sure. I sort of think they may go quality arms and use a lot of their 2nd-10th round picks on bats because the past 2 years they've sent so many picks on pitchers. You tend to want to have a place for those guys to play and grow and if you go that crazy with picks you're forcing the issue a bit to either promote or cut guys. In 2016 they had one position player picked in the first 16 rounds. In 2015, you had Happ at 9, Dewees who's now gone at 47, DJ Wilson at 113, and Vimael Machin 293 as the only position players in the first 10 rounds. They also took 3 pitchers out of the next 5 from rounds 11-15
The cubs positioning will be interesting because what tends to happen is you will see high school guys who have strong commitments slip because of signability concerns. Some of the talk I've read is the cubs might do an underslot deal at 27 and use the money they save to go after a premium talent who falls because of signability concerns. For instance, the latest BA mock draft has the cubs going Allen then Sam Carlson who's a high schooler out of Minnesota. MLB.com has him as the #15 guy and BA has him #14. I've also seen the cubs linked to guys like Griffin Canning(who may not fall), Tanner Houck, Clarke Schmidt, Nate Pearson, Quentin Holmes(OF not a pitcher). Schmidt would be an injury risk/upside play. Think I read some where if he didn't fall victim to TJS he might have been a top 5 pick as one of the best starters in college. Canning is also one of the better college pitchers. His stuff is really 3 good pitches but nothing "great" but he apparently throws strikes so there's that. Houck is out of Mizzou with a good fastball and size but meh secondariest atm. Pearson is a juco guy with good size and a good fastball but meh secondaries. Holmes is a true CF with blazing 80 grade speed.
Regardless, should be pretty interesting. I do think we'll probably see the cubs underslot someone and use that to grab better talent if not in the first round maybe similar to the Cease draft though obviously not quite on the same level given they wont have quite as much money to play with. Some of the talk I've read seems to suggest they may go nuts with arms again but I'm not so sure. I sort of think they may go quality arms and use a lot of their 2nd-10th round picks on bats because the past 2 years they've sent so many picks on pitchers. You tend to want to have a place for those guys to play and grow and if you go that crazy with picks you're forcing the issue a bit to either promote or cut guys. In 2016 they had one position player picked in the first 16 rounds. In 2015, you had Happ at 9, Dewees who's now gone at 47, DJ Wilson at 113, and Vimael Machin 293 as the only position players in the first 10 rounds. They also took 3 pitchers out of the next 5 from rounds 11-15