Every so often, the good Lord reaches down and touches a ballplayer with the innate ability to react in an instant to the crack of the bat. It happens so quickly, the average person misses it as they glance at their phone or sip their beverage. A drop-step and whirl before beelining to a descending baseball […]
Tag: Albert Almora
Young Cubs: Almora Rising
It was a cold and windy week in Chicago, but some Cubs prospects are hot. Let’s recap this week in the minors. Iowa Cubs (Triple-A) (9-12) Albert Almora was the biggest story in the farm system this week, as he continued his torrid start to the season. He hit two more homers, and bumped his […]
Prospect Day: The Chicago Cubs’ Top 10 Prospects for 2016
Earlier today, the BP Prospect Team released the Cubs’ top 10 prospect list, and BP Wrigleyville’s Editor-in-Chief Rian Watt ranked the Cubs’ top talent under the age of 25. The full writeup can be found on the main site, but we thought you’d enjoy a short preview here. The State of the System: This is […]
Choosing and Developing Young Players: The Mental Side of the Game
In a piece for the main site last week, I mused about how a relatively new test used by the NFL might serve as a blueprint for psychological testing in baseball. Many teams already test prospects before drafting them, but each test is different, making the process as a whole a little bit all over the map. If Major […]
The Still-Exciting BP 101: Cubs Place Six
On the last day of the 2014 season, the Cubs won a meaningless game against the Brewers in Milwaukee, and all of Cubsdom quickly turned its thoughts to free agency and the waves of top prospects that were sure to finally grace the friendly confines come spring. The 2015 BP Top 101 Prospects list, then, was a […]
A Look at the Past, Present, and Future of Junior Lake and the Cubs
Lost in the wealth of young Cubs talent like Kris Bryant, Jorge Soler, Javier Baez, and Arismendy Alcantara are some of the other players of their generation. Junior Lake typifies this crowd, which also included former Cubs Brett Jackson and Josh Vitters—players best left forgotten. What shouldn’t be readily forgotten is how hot Lake’s 2013 […]
YOUNG CUBS: SCHWARBER SMASH
Photo courtesy of Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports Hello, readers. First of all, I’d like to mention that there are no odds and ends today as there wasn’t much spare news coming out of the system this weekend. I will, however, say that many of the top prospects in the organization continued to perform really well, and […]
Early Season Stock Report on a Trio of Top Prospects
Photo courtesy of Allan Henry-USA TODAY Sports We’re a little over a month into the 2015 season, so I thought I’d take a look at a few guys whose career paths seem to be going in different directions. We’re talking about the red-hot Billy McKinney, the forever slow-starting Javier Baez, and the guy who just […]
Young Cubs: Billy The Kid Does it Again, The Null Hypothesis, And a Non-Fiction Underwood
Hello, readers. Welcome again to “Young Cubs”! Finals are over and now only the summer session stands between me and receiving my undergraduate degree! Now that the main portion of my year is over and my finals are behind me, I will have even more time to devote to bringing you the best possible coverage […]
The Top 25-and-Under Cubs
With the season underway and the picture for some players and prospects becoming clearer than they were in November, let’s take a look back at the Cubs 25-and-under list with fuller, more in-depth write-ups for each player. Anthony Rizzo, 1B It seems like Rizzo has been tinkering with his swing forever. He’s adjusted his […]