Amaya and Hoerner are well regarded yes.
Ademan hit .221 with an .318 obp last year at A+ ball.
He's still young but doesn't scream great talent to me.
Brennen Davis and some other guys have talent but don't other teams have guys like this as well?
Most rankings have the Cubs farm system in the bottom five for a reason.
You can select and choose your small sample but that doesn't paint the whole picture.
Most rankings are done based on top 100 players which as mentioned is the cubs weak point. But that's not really a smart way to view development. Put it this way, would you rather have the #1 prospect and have the rest of your system be total shit or would you rather have a bunch of guys who could be useful MLB pieces but no super stars unless someone breaks through? The latter is more the situation the cubs are in.
As for Ademan, he just turned 21 3 months ago. Average age for hitters in the Carolina league is 22.6 years. So he played all of 2019 in a league where the average age was 2.5 years older than him. And if you look beyond the triple slash you'll see why he's still regarded as a prospect. His BB/k rate was 11.4%/21.8%. The walk rate is pretty great and the K rate is probably a little below average but not crazy given he's young for the league. His BABIP was also decently low at .282. Just looking at the numbers I suspect part of that is he's not currently tapped into his power. A .113 ISO is kinda meh but again his body is gonna fill out as he ages. I don't think we need to get into a lengthy discussion here about him but suffice to say fangraphs guys think he's an every day starting SS.
As for Davis, not many teams have guys like him. Your point which i think is a valid one is that a lot of teams have toolsy guys who are one breakthrough away from being something. But when we're talking about Marquez and Davis I don't think they apply to that. Not many teams have starting pitching prospects who can hit 100. Marquez can do that and do it from the left side which is even more rare.
And I don't think cubs fans appreciate Davis enough yet. The guy has CRAZY tools. Fangraphs had 179 guys with 60 or better raw power in their late 2019 ratings. Of those 179 guys only 20 also had 60 grade speed. Of those 20 only 12 had a 60 grade arm. And of those 12 only 8 had a 55 or better fielding grade. Davis is one of those 8. The other 7 are Travis Swaggerty, Jasson Dominguez, Luis Robert, Bobby Witt Jr., Monte Harrison, Robert Puason and Wilderd Patino. With the exception of Patino most of those guys are pretty huge prospects. Puason isn't gonna be on top 100 lists yet but IIRC he was the #2 IFA behind Dominguez last year. Most of the rest of these guys are easily top 50 guys.
As for Davis, like.. the catch with him is he wasn't supposed to hit for average. He was supposed to be like another one of those 8 guys in Monte Harrison. Fangraphs has his hit tool at a 35 and Davis' at a 40. However, at 19 Harrison's A ball line was 7.6%/41.8% bb/k rate with a .148/.246/.247 triple slash a .099 ISO a .265 BABIP and a 49 wRC+ in 184 PAs. Davis also 19 in A ball this past season over 204 PAs hit .305/.381/.525 with a 8.8%/18.6% bb/k rate, a .220 ISO, a .346 BABIP and a 160 wRC+. Harrison is still a good prospect. Fangraphs has him at #98. But it's quite evident that Davis is far more advanced at 19 than Harrison was. To give another comparison, Acuna at 18 in 171 A ball PAs hit .311/.387/.432 with 10.5%/16.4% bb/k rate, .122 ISO, .359 BABIP and a 139 wRC+. Just to throw another crazy comp out there, Trout at 18 in A ball hit .362/.454/.526 with 12.5%/14.1% bb/k rates and .163 ISO, .420 BABIP and 172 wRC+.
None of that is to say Davis is as good/better than Acuna and Trout. I'm merely giving you an idea of how impressive his A ball numbers were. I think you can make a good case that being a year older makes a fair bit of difference and that both Acuna and Trout posted better contact profiles. But the fact you can even bring him up in conversation with those two kind proves my point here. He's got crazy talent
