Christian Franklin – Picture by Todd Johnson

Now that the Shohei Ohtani free agent era is over, the offseason can truly begin.

Get ready for prospect list week starting tomorrow at North Side Bound!!! Greg Huss starts things off tomorrow followed by Rich on Tuesday, I drop mine on Wednesday while Thursday will see Greg Zumach and our combined list along with some comments by some other NSB writers will drop Friday. Finally, Greg Huss will report back on the fan’s list, which you can still vote on today.

As for this week, lots of stuff was going down!

The draft lottery was held on Tuesday and the Cubs got bumped from 16 to 14. And about an hour later, there was a mock draft over at Baseball America. They had the Cubs picking Charlie Condon, an outfielder from Georgia who will be just a draft eligible sophomore. Here’s what they said of his skill set:

Condon’s .800 slugging percentage was good for seventh among all Division I hitters and was the best mark among freshmen in the country in 2023. Baseball America’s 2023 freshman of the year, Condon is now a draft-eligible sophomore and provides huge raw power that stacks up with the top sluggers in the country. While Condon’s long levers create some swing-and-miss concerns, he did show solid plate skills with a 17.7% strikeout rate and 13% walk rate. His strikeout rate was the second-lowest among all players with 25 or more homers, behind only Maryland’s Nick Lorusso.

At number 15 in that mock was a favorite of mine, lefty pitcher Josh Hartle out of Wake Forest. Still, it is way too early for me to get locked in on one guy just yet.

Wednesday’s Rule 5 Draft

As Greg Zumach reported, the Cubs lost 4 players – Andy Weber to the D’Backs, Levi Jordan to the Reds, Adam Laskey to the Marlins, and Sheldon Reed to the Twins. Two of these were kind of tough for me to take aa I talked with Adam and Sheldon frequently the last year and a half. However, I am happy for them to get an opportunity with an organization that might have a path forward for them in their system.

Other Signings

Brailyn Marquez and Victor Caratini both signed with the Astros this week. Marquez’s deal was a minor league one and he was assigned to Triple-A while Caratini signed a major league deal.

Cards of the Week

I could see a Dylan Cease reunion in the Cubs’ future now that Ohtani is no longer free. Whether the Cubs do is a different story,

Videos of the Week

Christian Franklin continues to earn some buzz for his second half performance, this time from the University of Arkansas. In this video, he gives out some tips about finding your swing.

The second clip is from the Cubs and I loved it as it is a Darius Hill hype video!

A Return to Normalcy

If you missed other things this week, the position breakdown series profiled second basemen, the breakout series checked out reliever Jose Romero, while Friday inspected South Bend’s possible starting rotation in 2024.

The position ranking series will be back next week (12.18) along with the breakout series and an affiliate sneak peek of Tennessee’s infield. I will examine third basemen in the system and Christian Olivo.

Jam of the Week

Let’s go with an 11 minute jam today just because.