Chicago Cubs Top Ten Prospects for 2017

The Chicago Cubs won the World Series in large part based on the development from their minor league system. What is left in that system?

An Introduction

Our minor league top 10 series is coordinated by Benjamin Chase, one of our contributors at Call to the Pen.

He has pored over thousands of minor league games over the course of the year via milb.tv along with speaking with a number of team and independent scouts. These lists are based out of those conversations.

Each system will have prospects from 10 to 1, and then finish with one newcomer to the system that is worth keeping an eye on that is not in the top 10 at this time.

Conversations are certainly encouraged in the comments section on each system as we go along!

the team’s success has meant using much of the prospect capital that the organization had built

Cubs System Review

After breaking a century-old curse, the Cubs are riding high right now. They’ve ridden the excellent work that their front office has done in acquiring talent from the trade market, free agent market, international market, and draft to build their team, and that team is young with plenty of opportunity to be around for a while.

The team’s success has meant using much of the prospect capital that the organization had built on the major league team and in trades to help build the team. The team has traded away guys like Andrew Cashner, Dan Vogelbach, and Gleyber Torres, but to add keys to their championship like Anthony Rizzo, Mike Montgomery, and Aroldis Chapman.

So while the organization may be short in the depth of “studs” that they once had, there are still solid players. The Cubs will certainly see two guys in the top 50 with one more borderline top-100 guy.

The team made an intentional effort this year in the draft in pursuing pitching that could move quick, attempting to address one weakness the organization has had in the Theo Epstein era.

Let’s take a look at the top 10!

Next: #10