What I’m Reading

• This wonderful piece by Sahadev is on my Mount Rushmore of favorite articles this year. It’s so well thought out and explained while going super deep into Developmental Needs Analysis and individual philosophies.

• Todd is always on prospect stock watch over at Cubs Insider and if you’re on our website here, I’m sure you want to get in on the ground floor of some of the best up-and-comers this system has to offer.

Prospect Stock Watch – Quiet Buzz Building This Winter

• I love these columns from Todd. He does such a great job of taking the thoughts that are roaming around in his head and throwing them into something great to read.

• I tuned into more Pelicans games than any other affiliate last year, but who should you be watching in 2022?

• One of the smartest MLB Draft minds I’ve come across in my years of covering the minors is on our team here at North Side Bound. We’re just incredibly lucky that Greg Zumach covers the draft with a Cubs slant on it!

What I’m Watching

• I will ALWAYS watch Jordan Nwogu bombs. I can’t emphasize enough how difficult it is to hit a baseball *this* far in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

• This website is a safe space for anything related to Dan Vogelbach. Here he is in high school, the same school as another former Cubs prospect — Jeff Passantino.

What We’re Tweeting

• Life is kinda crazy for me right now, so you haven’t seen a whole lot of written action on my part. In the meantime, I put together a collection of nearly 15 takes regarding Cubs prospects. Check them out, tweet at me how I’m wrong, or praise me for being the smartest in the land. I’ll let you decide which action you wanna take.

• Extremely hard to argue with Jimmy’s logic here.

• Do you forget that Ben Leeper was originally assigned to South Bend? Because I forget that Ben Leeper was originally assigned to South Bend.

• Eduarniel Nunez puts up some of the best spin rates in the entire system. Talking with his teammates, it feels like he’s a breakout waiting to happen.

• Nelson Maldonado is so gifted at the plate. Just an absolutely professional hitter.

What’s Catching My Eye

• I think this is an extremely fair ranking of these four shortstops. Trevor is really good at what he does and it’s fun to see other folks outside of Cubs Prospects Twitter tweeting about our guys.

• Yonathan Perlaza was in the discussion for Cubs player of the year. That’s wild. But it helps when you put together a stretch of games that looks like this.

• Awesome to see Caleb Kilian on a list with some of the nastiest pitchers in High-A. And a friendly reminder that he did this without even featuring a brand new (and disgusting) spike curve.

Feature photo of Yonathan Perlaza by Rikk Carlson (@rikkcarl10)