Matt Mervis – Picture by Todd Johnson

And just like that, MLB Pipeline drops a top 30 Cubs list for us in the middle of the week and it is filled with a lot of goodness and some tasty things to talk about and discuss.

There’s not anything Earth-shaking about the top of the list as PCA continues to dominate. Pipeline did roll with Kevin Alcantara at 2 and Brennen Davis at 3. Cade Horton was fourth and Hayden Wesneski rounded out the top 5. Matt Mervis and Jordan Wick went back-to-back at 6 and 7 followed by Ben Brown, Jackson Ferris, and Cristian Hernandez to round out the top 10.

The big surprise here is Ferris being in the top 10. Jim Callis wrote “He physically resembles Blake Snell at the same age but with superior stuff and mechanics.” That’s a nice comp but I am holding onto something more from Ferris.

Cool to See

It was cool to see Aexander Canario coming in at 11. Had there not been that injury, we might be looking at a ranking somewhere behind or in front of Mervis. Seeing SS Derniche Valdez get the pop at 19 was cool to see as they said, “Valdez could grow into a Starlin Castro build and provide Hanley Ramirez production. ” I would take that in a heartbeat. Nazier Mule appears here as well as Drew Gray as Pipeline/Jim Callis went all in on some big named young kids, something Callis usually does not do.

I went a step further and broke the list down by level. It is pretty evenly split.

MLB – 1 |AAA – 8 | AA – 7| A+ – 6 | A- 6 | R – 2

In a seperate article, , Callis listed the top skill rankings in the system as well as breakdowns on how the list was built and the number at each position.

Hit: 55 — Pete Crow-Armstrong (Moises Ballesteros, Pedro Ramirez, James Triantos, Derniche Valdez)
Power: 60 — Alexander Canario (Kevin Alcantara, Brennen Davis, Matt Mervis)
Run: 60 — Pete Crow-Armstrong (Pedro Ramirez)
Arm: 65 — Kevin Made
Defense: 80 — Pete Crow-Armstrong
Fastball: 80 — Daniel Palencia
Curveball: 60 — Ben Brown
Slider: 65 — Cade Horton
Changeup: 70 — Jordan Wicks
Control: 55 — Jordan Wicks (Hayden Wesneski)

How they were built
Draft: 15 | NDFA: 1 | International: 6 | Trade: 8

Breakdown by position
C: 2 | 1B: 1 | 2B: 2 | 3B: 1 | SS: 4 | OF: 5 | RHP: 11 | LHP: 4

I will be back tomorrow with a look at the prospect list rankings with FanGraphs and Marquee (Lance Brodzowski) to go.