Baseball America's Top 10 Cubs Prospects
Logan Watkins showed up in BA's recent top 10 list.
(photo: Scott McDaniel)
With not much going on in the prospect world, things are slow here at Wrigley Bound. This time of the year is when prospecters sift through stats and scouting reports and come up with their top prospect lists. Most prospect websites are in the process of publishing theirs now, culminating in Top 100 lists closer to the start of the season
The yearly top 10 Cubs prospect list
came out today from Baseball America, who's lists are perhaps the most respected in the industry. Let's take a look at who they ranked where:
BASEBALL AMERICA TOP 10 CUBS PROSPECTS| 1. |
Starlin Castro, ss |
| 2. |
Brett Jackson, of |
| 3. |
Josh Vitters, 3b |
| 4. |
Andrew Cashner, rhp |
| 5. |
Jay Jackson, rhp |
| 6. |
Hak-Ju Lee, ss |
| 7. |
Logan Watkins, 2b
|
| 8. |
Chris Carpenter, rhp |
| 9. |
Ryan Flaherty, ss/2b/3b |
| 10. |
D.J. LeMahieu, ss/2b |
The list is very similar to the upper portion of my recent
top 30 list, with two notable exceptions.
First, they appear to be really enamored with Brett Jackson, who had an excellent pro debut after being selected 31st overall. Jackson, who checked in 5th on my list, has an abundance of good tools, though none that really stand out as exceptional. His plate discipline will be a concern going forward, but that's something BA can be persuaded to overlook (see Corey Patterson).
Everything else is the same until we find Logan Watkins at 7th. Watkins had a nice season for Boise as Hak-Ju Lee's double play partner, hitting .325/.385/.389 while showing good plate discipline and some speed. He is an athletic kid who was a multi-sport star in high school and is just 20 years old.
I imagine the ranking is based on his athleticism, but I just don't see
it. Watkins projects at the best as Ryan Theriot offensively, but
without the ability to play shortstop, and he's still several years
away from a major league impact.
I can see how Watkins could be a good ballplayer some day, but in my mind it's more likely he's a future backup infielder with a decent bat off the bench. Kind of an Aaron Miles in his heyday. For what it's worth, Alex Eisenberg echoed my sentiments in our recent interview, saying:
He's on the smallish side, but his bat is quick and his
swing is short and made for contact. His discipline is solid and like
Lee, he possesses good bat control. He does make hard contact, but it
hasn't translated to much power yet. I think he has a chance to
develop at least some power because his swing isn't one of those handsy
swings. In addition, like Lee, I'd like to see him lift the ball more.
I see him more as a utility fielder down the line.
I'll assume the exclusions of Kyler Burke and Jeffry Antigua mean they each just missed, because it would be hard to make a case for any two other Cubs prospects ahead of them.
Later I'll post again with my analysis of their top tools selections, which I think have more interesting implications.
3 Comments
BeFrank said:
Congrats to Logan Watkins for ranking 7th. He had a great season in Boise. He deserves all the props he's getting. I have seen him play and he is an exceptional athlete. Keep up the good work Logan.
scooby said:
I know you were trying making a good strong point against Jackson as a top whatever. I just think you failed to be balance in the criticism or didn't do enough research (link below is all I did!) Look at HR's to AB vs his jump in K's at Peoria. In scrubbing the numbers more deeply he had a higher BA against LHP then RHP (more K's to your point). His HR's were nearly equal vs LHP/RHP. His OBP AND OPS were very very good and not commented on. Take a look at 2 other over sights: Bret's run scores in total games and stolen bases. Runs win games and look at the record of Peoria when he led off. They went on a tear! And short him in playoffs (injury) they went 0-2. Now, I know you are making a great point on his K's but try to expand the article to show us everything. Otherwise I guess I have to agree that he shouldn't be in the top 10! Thanks and keep it coming.. http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?pos=LF&sid=milb&t=p_pbp&pid=571804
Matt Swain said:
Thanks for the comment, scooby.
I didn't go into a lot of specifics on Jackson in this post, and it seems like you are maybe referring more to my other post on Jackson's strikeouts, but it wasn't intended to be an overview of his game, just an examination of one potential concern.
If you want to read more of my overall thoughts on his game, which talks about most of the points you hit on, I would suggest you check out the scouting report I wrote of him here:
http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/chicago-cubs-wrigley-bound/2009/10/scouting-brett-jackson.html
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