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#Post#: 529342--------------------------------------------------
Re: Cubs Draft 2026
DIR By: JeffH
Date: July 12, 2026, 1:42 pm
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HTML https://goseattleu.com/sports/baseball/roster/player/luke-alwood
#Post#: 529344--------------------------------------------------
Re: Cubs Draft 2026
DIR By: craig
Date: July 12, 2026, 3:08 pm
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HTML https://www.mlb.com/cubs/news/cubs-2026-draft-picks
Includes brief comment from Kantro on each day-1 pick.
#Post#: 529347--------------------------------------------------
Re: Cubs Draft 2026
DIR By: craig
Date: July 12, 2026, 3:51 pm
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17-year-old Puerto Rican catcher in round 13 breaks up the
3rd-12th run of pitchers.
#Post#: 529348--------------------------------------------------
Re: Cubs Draft 2026
DIR By: craig
Date: July 12, 2026, 3:55 pm
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Pitching is always about location and control/command. seems to
me Cubs have taken a lot of stuff/spin-oriented guys, but
largely with stuff >> control. Think it's an intersting
philosophy contrast.
View 1: Draft guys with control, use pitch lab to make them
faster and to develop pitch shape. But velo-jump and new
breaking balls, that's easier to pitch-lab-create than control.
View 2: Draft guys with velocity and good stuff, then try to
"tread" them into better control. Draft the velo/stuff, and
hope that between experience and coaching, that the control will
come.
#Post#: 529353--------------------------------------------------
Re: Cubs Draft 2026
DIR By: Robert L
Date: July 12, 2026, 5:14 pm
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HTML https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/u/0/d/1R9hzhGo0Q_29g2bfa2yQwHYqNN799JzkCP7HyK-XCKY/htmlview?pli=1#gid=865993535
#Post#: 529356--------------------------------------------------
Re: Cubs Draft 2026
DIR By: davep
Date: July 12, 2026, 6:41 pm
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A few years ago, the Cub were trying to bring in guys in the
middle rounds of the draft that have good control, but little
stuff, hoping to improve their "stuff". Now they appear to be
trying, during the middle rounds, to begoing after guys with
good stuff and little control, hoping to improve their control.
They seem to have little success trying to improve the stuff of
starters, although they have had success with some relievers.
They might as well try to work on the control issues, to see if
their success rates improve.
I see a greater shift in tactics in their procurement of
position players. Looking over the past 15 years or so, when
their top 2 or 3 draft slots were position players, they took
only shortstops, center fielders and catchers, with a similar
philosophy applying to International Free Agents. the only
third basemen/first basemen picked for years was Bryant. Even
Schwarber was looked at as a catcher at the time of draft, and
for some years afterwards. But a couple of years ago, they
seemed to shift on that subject. Smith as a third baseman and
Mathis as a second baseman popped up in 2024, and Sorrell and
Bailey this year, perhaps signaling a change of philosophy.
Or it might be just the result of a small sample size.
#Post#: 529357--------------------------------------------------
Re: Cubs Draft 2026
DIR By: chgojhawk
Date: July 12, 2026, 6:53 pm
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--- Quote from: craig link ---
>
> Pitching is always about location and control/command. seems
to me Cubs have taken a lot of stuff/spin-oriented guys, but
largely with stuff >> control. Think it's an intersting
philosophy contrast.
>
> View 1: Draft guys with control, use pitch lab to make them
faster and to develop pitch shape. But velo-jump and new
breaking balls, that's easier to pitch-lab-create than control.
>
> View 2: Draft guys with velocity and good stuff, then try to
"tread" them into better control. Draft the velo/stuff, and
hope that between experience and coaching, that the control will
come.
>
--- End Quote ---
Tough call. #1 pitchers rarely have enough to be more than #4 or
#5 starters. They have some good minor league stats and then
usually get pounded in the MLB. My experience as a fan is that
the #2 wildman guys rarely improve enough to have success.
In a 1-10 scale I think pitchers can go up 2 slots in a
deficiency but that may not be enough. A pitcher with 8 velo and
3 control can become a 8.5 or 9 velo and 5 control. Is that
enough to be effective? On the flip side a 4 velo and 8 control
may get up to an above average 6 in velo with great control but
he is probably still a #4 or #5 starter at best and likely a
middle reliever who occasionally had a nice year.
#Post#: 529358--------------------------------------------------
Re: Cubs Draft 2026
DIR By: CUBluejays
Date: July 12, 2026, 7:00 pm
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The Cubs are always chasing what other teams do.
1.) Cleveland took control guys and added 4-5 mph and profited.
The Cubs thought that would be great and then forgot how to add
velocity (increases stuff) and it flopped.
2) Brewers took a wild high school pitcher from Illinois and
straighted out his control issues. Now the Cubs are going to try
and do that.
A better option would be figuring out what ability your system
is good developing and draft guys that are deficient in that
skill. If they don't want want to do that then at least figure
out how to do 1 or 2.
#Post#: 529360--------------------------------------------------
Re: Cubs Draft 2026
DIR By: craig
Date: July 12, 2026, 7:11 pm
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That's a good point, Dave. I'm probably forgetting somebody,
but over a long period of time, I think Dopirak was the only
pure 1b-only bat that they picked in the top handful of rounds.
Now with Matthis in 2024, and now Bailey yesterday, that's two
2nd-round 1B's within three years. Guessing having the DH is
something of a factor there.
#Post#: 529361--------------------------------------------------
Re: Cubs Draft 2026
DIR By: craig
Date: July 12, 2026, 7:12 pm
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We've had dreams of developing pitchers before. Boston and
Theo, maybe they know how to scout and develop and optimize?
Pitch lab, we've now got this pitch lab. Breslow, he went to
Yale. Now we've got Zombro and the Tread approach. I think
Zombro and tread is probably better than any of them. But I'm
still hesitant about how much you can fix wild. Watching
Maples, Burl, a Cabrera, or Snider, or Hollowell, etc., it seems
wild is hard to fix. But hopefully some of the interesting
stuff guys in draft, hopefully at least some of them will get
the wildness under enough control to be useful. Could be fun if
so!
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