Baseball America Top 10 Cubs Prospects and Mark Prior News
Submitted by Rob G. on Tue, 01/13/2009 - 5:13pm
The BA Top 10 came out yesterday...and surprise! Josh Vitters is #1.
- Josh Vitters
- Jeff Samardzija
- Andrew Cashner
- Dae-Eun Rhee
- Welington Castillo
- Kevin Hart
- Starlin Castro
- Ryan Flaherty
- Jay Jackson
- Hak-Ju Lee
You can view every BA Top 10 list since 1992 (sans 1997 and 1998) at this incredible new site started by some really smart people.
- Mark Prior re-signs with the Padres on a minor league deal.This is the year!!!
- The Marlins are my new second favorite team.
- Jae-kuk Ryu is DFA'd by the Rays (insert obligatory bird-killing joke).
- Harry Caray #18, Jack Brickhouse #13 on the top 50 all-time sportscasters. Unfortunately, Joe Buck #31, Milo Hamilton #32, and Bill Walton at #39 make the list useless.
- The uniform patch budget must have been cut due to the Madoff scandal for the Mets (thanks to Cubnut for the link)
- Dempster still thinking about pitching for Team Canada in the WBC, the Cubs will do the thinking for Rich Harden.
- Another surprise...the Friday deadline to submit final bids for the Cubs wasn't so final.
Twitter RSS for TCR
#1 Re: Baseball America Top 10 Cubs Prospects and Mark Prior News
Buck always sounded comatose to me - and that was way back in the 70's. Milo? Walton? Sheesh.
#2 Re: Baseball America Top 10 Cubs Prospects and Mark Prior News
Jack Buck (whom I believe you're talking about) I can handle and he's #11...Joe Buck is an ass-clown who hates sports.
http://awfulannouncing.blogspot.com/2008/07/joe-bu...
#3 Re: Baseball America Top 10 Cubs Prospects and Mark Prior News
kinda scary only 2-3 of them look to be MLB ready for 09...and 1 of them, samninja, we already assumed would be a part of 09 by default.
oh well...
#4 Re: Baseball America Top 10 Cubs Prospects and Mark Prior News
I don't know anything about Rhee, but I'm pretty high on the top 3 guys....
Cashner will move up quickly if he finds some control.
Jackson sure performed incredibly his first 2 months...we'll see how he does as he progresses.
#7 Re: Baseball America Top 10 Cubs Prospects and Mark Prior News
yeah, i feel good about a chunk of that list...it's just so many are in that 2010+ class.
#5 Re: Baseball America Top 10 Cubs Prospects and Mark Prior News
That patch that says "Stick Hit Ball & Stuff" is too much. I want one for my fishtail parka.
#6 Re: Baseball America Top 10 Cubs Prospects and Mark Prior News
some stuff about Rock Raines being passed over...
http://www.insidethebook.com/ee/index.php/site/com...
Blago trying to sign some girls tits...
http://www.mouthpiecesports.com/blog/2009/01/13/an...
#12 Re: Baseball America Top 10 Cubs Prospects and Mark Prior News
Blago trying to sign some girls tits...
If I had hair that awesome I'd be signing girl's tits, too.
#8 Top 10 NL Prospects by BA
http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/prospects/ask...
no Cubs
#9 You were wondering what life lessons Doug Glanville has for you?
Doc Glanville has a fluffy opinion piece over at the NY Times about baseball player pop psychology.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/13/opinion/13glanvi...
#20 Re: what life lessons Doug Glanville has for you?
Fluffy, yes. But an enjoyable read.
If more players had that attitude, baseball would be even more awesomer.
Awesomer.
#10 Re: Baseball America Top 10 Cubs Prospects and Mark Prior News
Looking at the Cubs previous BA/Top 10s is pretty much a buzz-kill.
#11 Re: Baseball America Top 10 Cubs Prospects and Mark Prior News
Suprised to see the Shark on the list, as he seems past the "prospect" phase.
Is there a prospect cutoff, like the rookie definition?
#19 Re: Baseball America Top 10 Cubs Prospects and Mark Prior News
as long as a player hasn't had his rookie year, he can still be considered a "prospect".
#13 Re: Baseball America Top 10 Cubs Prospects and Mark Prior News
BA shouldn't allow those old Top 10 lists to be published -- it kills any credibility they might have as a knowledgeable baseball source. Seriously.
It's like all the stock market analysts who are never right but continue to give forecasts. What's the point? Or every pregame NFL show (my pesonal pet peeve), where every analyst gives the great, in-depth analysis that running the football and limiting turnovers will be key to the upcoming game, while his fellow analyts nod as if he has discovered the secret of the universe.
#21 Re: Baseball America Top 10 Cubs Prospects and Mark Prior News
"Or every pregame NFL show (my pesonal pet peeve), where every analyst gives the great, in-depth analysis that running the football and limiting turnovers will be key to the upcoming game, while his fellow analyts nod as if he has discovered the secret of the universe."
This reminds me of watching Milwaukee Bucks games back in college. The color guy for them geve the same three "Keys to the Game" every game. 1) Defense, 2) Rebounding, and 3) Limit Turnovers.
EVERY GAME!
#14 Re: Baseball America Top 10 Cubs Prospects and Mark Prior News
Who are Starlin Castro and Jay Jackson?
#15 Re: Baseball America Top 10 Cubs Prospects and Mark Prior News
from scout.com on Jackson, they don't have Castro in their top 20 though
5. Jay Jackson, RHP
Acquired: Selected by Cubs in ninth round of 2007 draft from Furman
2008 stats: 4-2, 2.88 ERA, 50 IP, 13 BB, 72 K, 1.06 WHIP
Jackson had arguably the most eye-popping year for any 2008 Cubs draft
pick, racking up strikeouts as often as John McCain racks up ‘Joe the
Plumber’ references. Part of that, most scouts agree, is due to the
development of his two-seam fastball, his best pitch at present time.
He’s one of the most athletic pitchers in the Cubs’ system, and his
velocity is anywhere from 90 to 95 mph with good movement. Like
Cashner, scouts described him as overpowering in the Florida State
League playoffs. He features what David Rosario and other Cubs pitching
instructors hail as a plus slider and a changeup that is in the develop
#27 Re: Baseball America Top 10 Cubs Prospects and Mark Prior News
MILB.com on Starlin Castro:
http://www.minorleaguebaseball.com/news/article.js...
He's a Wilken signing, and along with Cashner, Vitters, Jackson and a couple others, they are getting enough notice to make you think Wilken can truly rebuild this system.
#30 Re: Starlin Castro signing
He's a Wilken signing
Where did you get that idea?
Starlin Castro is a Jose Serra signing.
#51 Re: Starlin Castro signing
Under the auspices of Tim Wilken, then. He basically runs the scouting dept, if he doesn't have final say-so over all they sign.
#16 Re: Baseball America Top 10 Cubs Prospects and Mark Prior News
Uh-oh. Cool map showing combined winning percentages of MLB, NBA, NHL, etc. for cities/areas around the country. I'd like to see a map that did combined winning percentages for a particular sport across the nation and from high school to pro.
Saw it thanks to the Blago autograph link that Rob posted.
Or this will take you straight to the map...
http://www.mouthpiecesports.com/blog/2009/01/08/ma...
#23 Re: Baseball America Top 10 Cubs Prospects and Mark Prior News
The vast majority of a state's High School sports are going to have records damned close to .500.
#24 Re: Baseball America Top 10 Cubs Prospects and Mark Prior News
Neal -
You mean your high school team didn't go on an annual west coast trip for 8-10 games? It was tough at first, but then new ownership gave my high school squad a sweet charter jet for all away games...
(I hope everyone's sarcasm meters are turned on)
#28 Re: Baseball America Top 10 Cubs Prospects and Mark Prior News
Yeah there's a bit of interstate games, particuarly for schools that are close to a border, and then there's some national tournaments for baseball and basketball, but the relatively small number of games would preclude the percentage from varying more than .01 % I'd guess.
It's an interesting idea, though, to graphically represent the calibre of HS athletics. Maybe to do it by division 1A scholarship athletes per capita or graduating senior or something.
#29 Re: Baseball America Top 10 Cubs Prospects and Mark Prior News
That would be an interesting graph to see. I'd like to see it broken down by state and sport (how many D1 signing to Ohio FB players/capita compared to FL) for example. THen i think we'll be able to get an estimate on which state plays "the best" HS football/basketball/baseball whatever it may be.
#17 Re: Baseball America Top 10 Cubs Prospects and Mark Prior News
Should say... Uh-oh, losing streak on the way for Midwest?
#18 Re: Baseball America Top 10 Cubs Prospects and Mark Prior News
Submitted by billybucks on Tue, 01/13/2009 - 9:42pm.
Suprised to see the Shark on the list, as he seems past the "prospect" phase.
Is there a prospect cutoff, like the rookie definition?
========================
BILLY B: Baseball America uses the same position player & pitcher limits as the BBWAA uses for Rookie of the Year (maximum 130 career MLB AB for position players and maximum 50 career MLB IP for pitchers), but does not care about MLB service time. I agree with this approach and I do my list the same way.
#22 Re: Baseball America Top 10 Cubs Prospects and Mark Prior News
Keys to the game:
1. Pound the Strike Zone
2. Work the Count
3a. Strong (defense) up the middle
3b. A 3-run HR can't hurt.
I'm sure there are a few more variants on these themes.
#25 Re: Baseball America Top 10 Cubs Prospects and Mark Prior News
Jim Bouton related that one guy on his team (in his book "Ball Four") always said the same thing about every batter during pre - game strategy; "smoke 'em inside." Which means you only have to locate a 95 mph heater on the inside corner of the strike zone, every time. Hilarious.
Return to Homepage