More Zastryzny

There was some speculation here over the weekend that Mizzou lefty Rob Zastryzny was a signability pick at #41. That may still end up being true, but it’s now clear that he wouldn’t have been available to the Cubs in the third round, as the Blue Jays were set to take him six picks later. For his part, Jason McLeod, was bemused by the Zastrynzy speculation:

We all were watching the draft TV coverage and they called Zastryzny a finesse college lefty. Hey this guy works 91-94 MPH, when did that become finesse? He is a strong physical guy that had some inconsistent delivery and command.

….

You have to look deeper (than his results in college). He gave up 10 home runs this season. I saw him give up three in a game at Vanderbilt and I still walked away going, ‘This guy’s interesting.’ (link)

He’s definitely interesting.

Signings

It may not be Zastrynzy, but someone(s) is going underslot. It has been reported that Trevor Clifton, the 12th round high school lefty has agreed to terms with the Cubs for around 570K, which is mid-third round money. Perhaps the area scout should have gotten to know him getter, though, as buying him out of a “strong Kentucky commit” seems like less of a tough sell than some reports led us believe. To stay up to date with all the current signing info, I recommend this thread, which has all the latest in twitter stalking. The signing deadline is July 12th.

Cubs Draftee Rankings According to BA (Position, Rd)

#3 Kris Bryant (3B, 1st)

#49 Trey Masek (RHP, 5th)

#73 Tyler Skulina (RHP, 4th)

#76 Rob Zastrynzy (LHP, 2nd)

#148 Trevor Clifton  (LHP, 12th)

#160 Scott Frazier (RHP, 6th)

#192 Michael Wagner (RHP, 15th)

#214 Jacob Hannemann (CF, 3rd)

#226 Jeremy Martinez (C, 37th)

#248 David Garner (RHP, 7th)

#322 Daniel Poncedeleon (RHP, 14th)

#348 Tyler Alamo (C, 24th)

#358 Sam Wilson (LHP, 8th)

#385 Zack Brown (RHP, 38th)

#388 Marcus Doi (OF, 25th)

#393 Cael Brockemeyer (C, 16th)

#487 Zach Godley (RHP, 10th)

Higher Education Bubble Update

Colleges I had never heard of before this draft: Franklin Pierce University (NH), Mercyhurst College (PA), Shepherd College (WV), Bryant University (RI), and Northwest Florida State College. And that’s not including community colleges, from which the Cubs picked five guys.

Nil-linois

It’s typical for teams to be aggressive in selecting local players, for whatever reason. Not so for the Cubs in this draft. They failed to select a single player from an Illinois high school or college this year for the first time since 1993.  East Lansing, MI and Seymour, IN were as close as they came. By my count there were 10 Illinois prospects in the BA top 500, so guys were clearly out there. That’s not to say that the Cubs were without a regional bias, though, as the Northeast looks a bit overrepresented in this class, with 2 draftees from NJ, 1 from NH, 1 from RI, and 1 from …. is Erie, PA considered to be in the Northeast?

More Breakdown

• Eleven out of the Cubs’ forty picks were high schoolers. That’s not too far from the ratio for the entire draft class (31%), however, only 2 of them came before the 24th round- Charcer Burks (9th) and Clifton (12th).
• The Cubs draft definitely skewed towards pitching again, as eleven of the first fifteen picks were pitchers. All of those were from college, save Clifton. More McLeod:

We talked a lot about needing some starting pitching in the organization and we felt we needed to take guys that were a little bit more advanced. We wanted to infuse the system with guys who fit the criteria of what we felt could be starting pitchers and that was reflected in the top 5 or 6 rounds. We felt good because they are college pitchers that we really liked. These were guys who really performed and guys we evaluated to have stuff.

• Of the nineteen total pitchers selected, ten of them are 6’3″ or taller.
• Here (pdf) is a very thorough summation of the 2013 stats for nearly every player drafted by the Cubs. Lots of hard work went into that one.

Now that the draft is done, the next big thing in player acquisition is the international free agency. The beginning of this period for 2013 is July 2nd.