One of the best things that the Marquee Sports Network (MSN) does is “the Road to Wrigley” prospect show. Over the last year, Lance Brozdowski and Elise Menaker have been joined by MLB Pipeline’s Jim Callis a few times. That has added an extra set of eyes to discuss Cubs prospects and he can compare them to other top players. Tonight, Lance and Jim got down to talking about some Cubs prospect lists.

Jim Callis’ MLB Pipeline Top Cubs list dropped back on March 1. For our purposes today, it is all about Lance’s Top Cubs list which will come out soon on the website at MSN soon. But for today, we got a sneak preview on the “Road to Wrigley.”

10. Brennen Davis
9. Daniel Palencia
8. Matt Mervis
7. Alexander Canario
6. Owen Caissie
5. Jordan Wicks
4. Ben Brown
3. Hayden Wesneski
2. Kevin Alcantara
1. Pete Crow-Armstrong

At first glance, all the names look right.

But they are in quite the different order. Brennen Davis at 10? Don’t tell Greg Huss!!! Palencia at 9? Well, I loved Lance’s explanation on the show as he said he still envisions Palencia as a starter, just like me. Also like me, Canario is a top 10 guy, regardless of injury. I like that, too. Wicks at 5, sounds about right. PCA 1…he nailed that one, too.

Other surprises include the high rankings of Ben Brown and Hayden Wesneski at 4 and 3. As pitching and metrics expert, it is no surprise Lance has a lot of behind the scenes knowledge of certain pitchers in the system. Still, Lance’s ranking of Brown at 4 is extremely aggressive. Before Lance, the highest Brown had been ranked was by Baseball America at 6. This placement, it seems, is more about projection as Brown is a dream prospect and I am excited to see him after an offseason in the Cubs pitching program. Lance may have beat us to high expectations and a high evaluation.

One of the most interesting aspects of the show was the two were talking about Kevin Alcantara who Callis said “might have a higher offensive upside that any hitting prospect in the system.” Wow!

When Lance does post his full list next week on MSN’s web site, we will be get some of those in depth insights in that article along with the rest of his list.

As a result, there is only 1 major prospect list left – FanGraphs. Not sure when that will be. If I were you, I would not be holding your breath for it. I am not holding mine.

Here are the prospect list season totals:

1. PCA – 80 points
2. Alcantara – 65
3. Brennen Davis – 51
4. Hayden Wesneski – 49
5. Cade Horton – 31
6. Jordan Wicks – 30
7. Matt Mervis 28.5
8. Owen Caissie – 24.5
9. Cristian Hernandez – 20
10. Ben Brown 19