With the 9th pick the Cubs selected Javier Baez, a 6'1, 205 lbs shortstop out of Florida high ceiling player who can hit and hit for power. He's a SS now but he's expected to get bigger and possibly move to 3b. Other options are 2b, OF, or even catcher. One way or the other the Cubs will get his bat in the lineup if he develops as expected. Baseball America said he has "few peers on offense" in this draft.
Scouts have called his bat the quickest in the draft -- quicker even than Rendon and Starling. The two players he's been compared to offensively are Hanley Ramirez and Gary Sheffield. Sheffield seems to me to be the better comparison because 1) I don't think Baez will stay at SS. Scouts say he's better than you think -- one scouting director thought he was as good if not better than the consensus best defensive SS in the draft, Francisco Lindor, but it's likely he'll outgrow the position. 2) He has some of the same movement Sheffield does before the pitch, he's all wound up and itching to destroy the baseball and 3) He plays with a similar passion that sometimes boils over a little bit -- and that is the one area that had some concerned and may have scared some teams off.
He's known to have something of a temper and the Cubs haven't had too much success in that area (see Carlos Zambrano, Milton Bradley) but the Cubs knew this going in and thought it was worth the gamble. They did their research and have said that his fiery attitude on the field didn't translate to any problems with his teammates, nor did he have issues off the field. In fact, they reported him as modest and reserved in their interviews.
Here are the numbers on Baez, which are ridiculous even at the high school level, especially since his team often faced top competition.
.771, 22 HRs, and 20 doubles...all in just in just 83 ABs. He also walked 32 times and struck out just 3.
Offensively, Baez already has the skills to become the best pure hitter in this draft. Like most high schoolers, however, he needs to grow in a lot of areas. It'll be his development and maturation process that will determine whether this ends up being a great pick for the Cub.
I'd give this pick a B Grade with the potential to be an A.
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Tags: MLB Draft
Good pick, a "Wilikns" pick. A little off the track but very good ceiling and is projected to have good power.
I kind of like it. He could wind up being the best hitter in this draft. Without questions about his makeup he would have been talked about as a top 5 pick. One thing you can say about the Cubs, they don't play it safe.
No they don't but who can argue with Tim Wilkins record? Wilkins is about the high ceiling.
You mean the Cubs are going to have a character issued player? Interesting!
LOL...you'd think they'd step away from that after the whole Zambrano fiasco. The Cubs say they did their research -- and they prefer the word "fiery". They were told by the team that he wasn't disruptive. He's not done anything terrible and nothing off the field...so hopefully it's a matter of growing up a little. We'll see...usually it doesn't take bad character guys long to get themselves into trouble. He'll be worth keeping an eye on both in terms of talent and character.