Cade Horton – Picture by Todd Johnson

Kiley McDaniel of ESPN joined the parade of prospect list writers to drop his top Cubs prospect list yesterday. With 33 names in total, McDaniel’s list contains no descriptions and how could he? He’s one guy covering all 30 teams. Anyway, his list is interesting for a number of reasons. However, after letting the list sink in, names started to pop as I looked at the list. What caught my eye was the amount of youth permeating the list, most of whom will be at Low-A and below and some as high as Double-A (Moises). It’s a load other lists have yet to embrace or bare.

Let’s dig into the totality of it all. 

The top of McDaniel’s list is not out of the ordinary. PCA is on top followed by Cade Horton and then Matt Shaw. Then Jordan Wicks gets his highest ranking this winter at 4. Owen Caissie and Kevin Alcantara come in at 5 and 6 while Michael Busch, James Triantos, Ben Brown, and Moises Ballesteros round out the top ten. According to McDaniel, all ten rank in his top 180 prospects. Actually, top 166 for the Cubs. That is second only to the Dodgers.

Other names of note are Jefferson Rojas at 11, Fernando Cruz at 13, Jaxon Wiggins at 18, and then, two of my favorite rankings, Brandon Birdsell and Will Sanders arrive at 20 and 21. I love those two guys as they have big experienced arms. SS Josh Rivera came in at 22, Brennen Davis was at 23, and Michael Carico got the 24 slot, all very interesting selections.

The only complaints I might have include BJ Murray at 28. Yeah, that was a bit of a head scratcher along with seeing Drew Gray all the way down at 33.

McDaniel also has a soft spot for two relievers as Zac Leigh and Riley Martin both made the list.

According to McDaniel, he has the Cubs ranked as the number two farm system. It seems weird at times to not see names like Cole Roederer or Kohl Franklin or Christian Franklin or Pedro Ramirez or even Brody McCullough, guys NSB is really high on. Instead, McDaniel seems to balance upside potential more than performance or track record. In the bottom tier of his list, we see Matt Mervis and Luis Vazquez buried in the bottom 20s, but still on the list.

Then again, this is a deep, deep system, lest we forget. Most of the names on McDaniel’s are similar to ones on other lists. He just has them in a much different order and tier groupings than others. Still, he is just one man and 30 teams to cover is a handful to delineate.

It’s not a perfect list, but I kind of like the youth infusion in the top half. In fact, they seem to permeate the list. An 18-year-old here, a couple 19-year-olds there, and then there’s a 17-year-old. And to be honest, that is what will be happening over the next year as several players make it to Chicago in the next two years. A year from now, we will see Nazier Mule, Fernando Cruz, and Derniche Valdez rise up the list and we should see new young guys like Angel Cepeda pop and many more.

Prospect List Standings

Here’s how things stand with 4 lists left to go!