Kevin Alcantara – Pic by Todd Johnson

After an 11 day build up, MLB Pipeline finally released their newest version of their top 100 prospects in all of minor league baseball. The Cubs wound up with more than any other team as they had seven prospects on the list. That is the same number the Cubs previously had after the Michael Busch trade. 

Heading into the night, it was expected that Pete-Crow Armstrong, Cade Horton, Owen Caissie, Michael Busch, Kevin Alcantara, and Matt Shaw would all be on the list. The only questions were whether Moises Ballesteros, Jordan Wicks, and/or James Triantos would make it on and whether Ben Brown would stay on the list.

James Triantos flew on to the list at #72. That’s big debut! Kevin Alcantara stayed on the list at 65 which is good as he slid some after a rough first half at South Bend. Matt Shaw came in at 54 and Michael Busch was a smidge ahead at 51. Owen Caissie is rising fast at 47, Cade Horton get some love at 26 and PCA was tops at #16.

There are only a few prospect lists left to go. ESPN and The Athletic both have to release their top 100s as well as their individual team lists. Lance Brozdowski of the Marquee Sports Network has yet to release his top Cubs list as well, but that is coming. And, as usual, FanGraphs is bringing up the rear. They may not get their top Cubs list out until early summer.

I did see a Kiley McDaniel tweet today that he sent his top 100 list to the editors of ESPN. I would expect to see that compendium at some point early next week. I will have the updated congregate prospect rankings on Sunday in The Weekly.

It was, my friends, a fun night to be a Cubs fan as all of these guys are at AA or higher! Let that sink in.

Who knows, this summer we could be talking about Jefferson Rojas, Moises Ballesteros, Drew Gray and Fernando Cruz joining the list.