This is starting to happen way too fast. Eight weeks from tomorrow, Major League Baseball will hold its annual draft and the Cubs will pick number seven. This week was a pretty active week in terms of publications putting out new rankings and some different mock drafts were also dropped. It’s quite a bit to keep up on as there’s a lot of movement in the top 10 and some names that were in the 50s and 60s are now starting to creep up into the 30s and 20s. They can only mean they’ll be in the tens in short order.
Let’s get to the rankings.
Prospects Live expanded their 400 list to 500. The big news is we may not see a pitcher in the top 10. Dylan Lesko began his fall as expected after having Tommy John surgery. Slotted in at seven was Texas Tech infielder Jace Jung who would make many Cub fans very happy.
MLB Pipeline released two mock drafts this week, one by Jim Callis and the other by Jonathan Mayo. Both had Termarr Johnson heading to the Cubs at number seven which would definitely be a great stroke of luck but it’s something that could happen depending on events at the top of the draft.
In the past couple of months, I have talked about how some teams are going to try and not necessarily lowball a prospect, but try to sign one for less than full slot value. As a result, some prospects are going to fall to the Cubs. Jonathan Mayo had the Orioles taking Jackson Holliday who has been ranked in the 5 to 7 category. That resulted in Termarr Johnson falling. The Orioles are not going to be the only club try and save a few dollars at the top of the draft. We could see some other talent fall as well.
Where things really get cooking in these mock drafts is in the 10 to 20 range. There, we start to see a lot of new names and several of them are moving up towards the top 10 while names that were at the edge of the top 10 are now in the 20s.
Prep pitcher Brock Porter seems to be the name of the week and IF Cam Collier, who has been linked to the Cubs, continues to rise getting out of the teens and into the low 10s in both mock drafts. That puts him within shouting distance of the Cubs and he’s probably the most intriguing prospect as he’ll be the youngest player on draft day since he reclassified a year early by going to junior college.
The biggest faller is Dylan Lesko who slipped all the way to the back half of the first round for both Callis and Mayo. The same is true for Chase DeLauter who was ranked number one on several lists back in November.
As for Baseball America, they listed the Cubs taking Termarr Johnson in their 3rd mock draft. FanGraphs also had Termarr Johnson at the 7 sot in their top 100. Keith Law of The Athletic had the O’s taking Jacob Berry #1 in a cost saving move while he had Cam Collier going to the Cubs. I would be just fine with that.
Over the next week, what I like to call “The Season of Heroes” will begin. Under intense scrutiny, players will either perform in the conference tournaments and College World Series or not. One single stint can propel a kid up draft boards and fortunes will be determined throughout the month of June.
I’m going to have to look into the draft combine some more as well as the draft league. If there’s someway I can keep up on what’s happening in the Draft League because that is someplace the Cubs really went for a lot of their day two picks in 2021, especially 14 through 20.
