First, a quick game recap. The Cubs beat the Astros in Houston behind another strong pitching effort by Ted Lilly. Lilly pitched 6.2 innings giving up just three hits and no runs. Mike Fontenot went 4-5 with a HR . On the down side, Milton Bradley went 0-6 to drive his batting average down to .208.
Now to the draft. I can’t claim to be any type of expert on this draft class, but in doing some research, I learned that the draft was heavy on pitching and weak on hitting. So naturally, the Cubs went after hitters in their first two picks.
In the first round, with the 31st pick overall, the Cubs selected Brett Jackson out of the University of California. Jackson is a CF who has been described as JD Drew with a good work ethic and excitement for the game. To his credited, Jackson claims to be a long-time Cubs fan. That’s nice. At Cal, Jackson hit .321/.407/.564 with 8 HR and 41 RBI. He has very good speed and is an aggressive base runner, stealing 11 bases for the Golden Bears while being caught five times.
In round two with the 79th pick, the Cubs took LSU 2B/SS DJ LeMathieu. LeMathieu is a good contact hitter who hasn’t shown much power to this point. In his sophmore year at LSU, LeMathieu hit .340/.408/.462 with 4 HR and 39 RBI. In the field, he has a weak arm for a SS, but does fine at 2B. Scouts believe he can mature into more of a power hitter. Considering he is 6’4″, his future is likely at 3rd base or in the outfield. Of course, his weak arm may help determine that decision.
The Cubs final pick of day was Austin Kirk, a 19-year old LHP out of Owasso HS in Owasso, OK. Kirk was taken in the 3rd round with the 109 overall pick. Kirk is said to have an overpowering fastball that hits in the mid 90′s, complimented by a good change-up and curveball. He has signed to pitch at the University of Oklahoma next year if he doesn’t sign with the Cubs.
To be honest, I’m not crazy about the Cubs draft. Again, I’m no expert, but it seems to me that there were better players available. I like Jackson’s make-up, but the fact that he strikes out about 25% of the time concerns me. He’s projected to be a top-of-the order kind of guy (he hit lead-off at Cal) because of his speed and excellent bat speed, but he’s going to have to cut down on the strike outs.
The LeMathieu pick confuses me. True, he comes from a top college program and had decent batting numbers, but his fielding is a question mark and he has shown very little power. It’s also true that he could develop more power, but why go with a guy that needs so much work (arm strength, power, fielding)? There were other guys available that can do now what the Cubs hope LeMathieu can someday do. At 6’4″, he certainly has the ability to mature and gain some power, and may someday be a good 3rd baseman or outfielder (depending on how his arm strength develops). But that seems like a lot of maybes for a guy taken in the second round.
Kirk seems like a good pick. Left handed pitchers with a plus fastball and two other good pitches coming right out of high school don’t grow on trees. He’s not projected to be an ace, but perhaps he’ll develop into a solid middle-of-the-rotation guy.
One final thought: The MLB draft is an absolute crap shoot. It’s not like the NBA or NFL drafts where you are generally drafting guys that can help your team in the next year or two. In baseball, the guys chosen in the draft will generally stay in the minor leagues for 3-4 years minimum before they ever make it to the big leagues, if they make it to the big leagues at all. And if history is any indication, some of the best players in MLB in 5-10 years will be guys that were drafted in the later rounds this year. Everyone has high hopes for the guys drafted in the first few rounds, but the baseball highway is littered with the names of high draft picks that never panned out. It happens once in a while in the NBA and NFL. It happens a lot in MLB.
