beckdawg
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Draft starts tomorrow. Placeholder post for that. Starts at 7 eastern tomorrow I should also mention it's just the first 36 picks. The draft continues monday
It's sad the cubs are picking all the way down at 21 after getting embarrassed in the wild card rd last year
Wicks has arguably the best changeup in the 2021 draft and his fastball, while not all that hard, has traits that enable it to play at the top of the strike zone, though Wicks hasn't yet worked up there with it. His breaking stuff is mediocre but workable so long as those pitches are located well, which Wicks' general feel for strike-throwing suggests they will be. After the Vanderbilt arms, Wicks is the surest healthy bet to stick in a rotation and move through the minors quickly. If his breaking ball improves, he'll be a mid-rotation starter.
Jordan Wicks is the pick
Scouting Grades/Report (20-80 grading scale)
- FASTBALL
55- CURVEBALL
45- SLIDER
55- CHANGEUP
65- CONTROL
55- OVERALL
55
I m ean other than Carraway none of those pitchers were considered quick to the majors types. Jensen needed to develop a third pitch. Little IIRC was 19.The skillset looks amazing on paper and there's nothing but great things in his scouting reports.
But my inner pessimist is annoyed that here's another college arm that's supposed to work his way through the system quicker, but I find myself still waiting on the other ones before him with scouting reports with glowing praise like Jensen, Carraway, Little, and McAvene.
Cubs need pitching quick. May he move faster than his collegiate counterparts of previous drafts.
Many scouts believed Jensen needed to fix overstriding and inconsistent arm slot with his durability which led to flat delivery as a starter which made him target practice, but MLB.com's scouting report believed he could 'quickly move as a bullpen piece playing up his power stuff.'I m ean other than Carraway none of those pitchers were considered quick to the majors types. Jensen needed to develop a third pitch. Little IIRC was 19.
Many scouts believed Jensen needed to fix overstriding and inconsistent arm slot with his durability which led to flat delivery as a starter which made him target practice, but MLB.com's scouting report believed he could 'quickly move as a bullpen piece playing up his power stuff.'
McAvene was a dominant college closer and 2 plus pitch arsenal that scouts said needed a changeup to have a chance to make it as a starter.
Little had command issues but a plus fastball that hit 97 and a power curve. He was also 21 when he was drafted and played at UNC before transferring to State College of Florida.
I'm fully aware that looking for instant gratification in the MLB draft is for fools. I'm aware some kids need more time in the minors than others, and the 'exceptions to the rules' that do come up quickly rarely have a major, immediate impact.
That being said...Jed (and Theo before he left) doesn't/don't exactly have a good track record at drafting pitching. There's a slew of college arms that have come and gone, being otherwise unremarkable when other teams are getting results when they draft pitching.
I want this kid to be what everybody's excited about. I'm also tempering my expectations.
Fair, but one can't help BUT look at history since 2012 when the braintrust got their 1st draft (no, I'm not complaining about the great hitting/defense drafted and their results), who's been a successful development at pitcher? College pitcher--which was my original specification? A lot of them have come and gone and the answer is sadly either Rob Zastrysny or James Norwood--which isn't exactly saying very much. Honorable mentions Corey Abbot, who's target practice in Toronto and Alex Lange, the same in Detroit.The Cubs are in a very new place right now and I wouldn't put anything into the history. New people running the show and the results have been seen in the pen this year.
A+ ball. You'd kind of hope a guy (again, college arm) now going on over 2 years in the minors would be past A+ ball, especially a college arm with the stuff he had coming out of Fresno State or wherever they drafted him from. But--he's being stretched as a starter it appears so the bullpen route isn't necessary.Jensen is pretty good at SB right now. .184 BAA. 1.03 WHIP.
Most pitchers didn't throw a pitch last year in the minors.Fair, but one can't help BUT look at history since 2012 when the braintrust got their 1st draft (no, I'm not complaining about the great hitting/defense drafted and their results), who's been a successful development at pitcher? College pitcher--which was my original specification? A lot of them have come and gone and the answer is sadly either Rob Zastrysny or James Norwood--which isn't exactly saying very much. Honorable mentions Corey Abbot, who's target practice in Toronto and Alex Lange, the same in Detroit.
Cease is about all there is/was at pure talent at pitching, and he wasn't a 1st rounder (scouts also loved Justin Steele from that draft till he got hurt). Kohl Franklin I too saw with a higher grade from most scouts, but I'm not counting him due to him being drafted out of high school.
Hope Kantrovitz flips the script on the Jake Stinetts, Keegan Thompsons, Chris Clark's, Thomas Hatch's Tyson Millers, etc. etc . Really do. Wouldn't mind the timeline for Wicks you proposed either.
A+ ball. You'd kind of hope a guy (again, college arm) now going on over 2 years in the minors would be past A+ ball, especially a college arm with the stuff he had coming out of Fresno State or wherever they drafted him from. But--he's being stretched as a starter it appears so the bullpen route isn't necessary.
And how exactly did the pen come to be?Let's be real for a second here. Really look at the Cubs pen. Who stands out as a super talented arm? Kimbrel who was broken and now fixed. The rest? Used parts for the most part that are performing over expectations.
He loves to reference the pitching lab and this bullpen, but im not sure how much impact it could've had. The main guys are Chafin, Tepera, Winkler, Kimbrel. They've mainly been on the MLB roster over the last year or two or injured so not sure this pitching lab has an impact on them. The only guys who've made some impact on the pen who may have been helped by this were maybe Thompson and Steele. The FO just managed to piece together the right guys dumpster diving.And how exactly did the pen come to be?
The 'throw buckets of shit at the wall and hope something sticks' approach to drafting pitchers, which for the better part of the last decade has been the approach sucks and isn't how it happened.
The cubs went dumpster diving for used parts and the stars aligned this year thus far. How many of them are drafted arms? Oh, I forgot--the present success of the bullpen has nothing to do with drafting college arms though, unless we talk about how a gross lack of drafted players are contributing to said bullpen--but 'pointing out 2012-2018 is a bad argument' when results show that isn't a bad argument at all, just a simple observation of this team being unable to draft college arms (especially when other teams have found guys) that you're trying to deflect away from.
Has nothing to do with the context of how the cubs have minimal/near laughable results at drafting pitching, especially college arms. I also never asked to have a super talented arm from the draft. I'm not naive to think a super talented arm is one that makes it to the mid-late 20s or end of the 1st round without some major baggage/issues.
I asked for results, but instead, I get you telling me to look at context before shifting the goalposts to deflect away from the thought of how drafting college pitching since 2012 has not gone well at all for this team. And there's a lot of early draft picks (rounds 1-5) on college pitching that have missed.
It's okay to say drafting pitching overall for this franchise under Jed/McLoud/THeo has been mostly a failure. Not 100%, because as I mentioned a couple of guys did make the majors and stick with the team for a year or two, but results-wise it's sorely lacking.