Kevin Alcantara – Picture by Todd Johnson

Tonight saw the third prospect list of the week drop. Earlier, North Side Bound covered Baseball America‘s new top 30 list and Joe Doyle’s of Future Stars Series top 30. Tonight was all about MLB Pipeline’s newest list. With a new top 100 and every team dropping at once, the questions I had were as follows:

1. How many draft picks from this year’s class made the list and how were they ranked?

2. Who were the biggest risers on the list and how much did they climb?

3. Who were the biggest fallers?

Those are three pretty good questions for a midseason list.

Let’s get to the results!

Everybody and their mother knew that Pete Crow-Armstrong would be the number one prospect on the list and he was. Cade Horton came in at number two and thankfully Owen Caissie was in the right spot at 3. Kevin Alcantara came in at 4 and Ben Brown rounded out the top 5.

That’s a pretty good start to the list! I cannot quibble with any of the placements.

Question 1

Matt Shaw was the first draft prospect on the board at 6 and I like that, I really do. As for where Shaw might play, in the future, they wrote:

“He has enough range to remain at short but his fringy arm strength may dictate a move. He probably fits best at second and could wind up at third, where the Cubs have a greater need. “

Only two other draft picks made the list – Josh Rivera came in at 23 and Jaxon Wiggins was two behind at 25. I thought Will Sanders might sneak in there, but he did not.

Question 2

The two biggest movers came in at 11 and 12. They were Jefferson Rojas and Michael Arias and that’s not really a surprise, but it is definitely fun to see the two most notable breakouts from each side of the ball making such huge strides in one year. Other big risers include Derniche Valdez at 17 and Haydn McGeary at 18 with BJ Murray moving up 11 at 19. As well, Drew Gray got the bump up to 15 from the mid-20s.

As for the top 10, Moises Ballesteros, as expected, made it all the way to #7. At this rate, he could be knocking on the top 5 door in the fall if the power kicks in a little more. If he ends up this year in the AFL, you could possible make an argument he could move past Shaw, especially if he successful in Arizona.

Question 3

Brennen Davis is still on the list at 20 while Kohl Franklin dropped all the way to 29. Considering how well he’s pitched the last month, someone shot their gun a little early on that call. Cristian Hernandez is all the way down to 21 and he might not be rising anytime soon unless his bat kicks in, which it could in the next year.

What put the biggest smile on my face was the placement of Brody McCullough at 30. Here at NSB, we are glad to see Pipeline is keeping up with us. In addition, I liked seeing Luis Vazquez get some love at 22.

The big shockers were not seeing Luis Devers or Brandon Birdsell on the list and both deserve to be there.

As for the New Top 100…

This was very nice to see Owen Caissie in the top 100 at 69. As a result, Cubs are probably close to a top 5 or 6 system with 5 top 100 guys.

But, wow! Five prospects in the top 100, that dog will most definitely hunt.