Bleacher Bums Forum

Yes, but both the Red Sox & White Sox might be targeting the same guys as the Cubs.  We'll see tomorrow when the draft resumes.

Boston lost their 2nd round pick.  The White Sox lost their 2nd and 3rd round picks.  They both have less money than the Cubs.  They both only took 3 senior signs and some of their later round picks may be over slots.  I really doubt they have the cash that the Cubs will and so they will likely be targeting somebody of a lower tier.  The Astros and Dbacks would worry be more.

Don't they just have to want the same player for themselves?

Yes.  But the post indicated they would be doing it to hurt the Cubs, rather than to help themselves.

I don't think they are going to have a lot of overslot money coming out of the first 5 picks, as they did last year.  So their only money to play with is from the last 5 rounds.  I doubt if it can amount to much over a million dollars from those 5.

Piece below about David Berg.

Berg probably had the greatest career of any reliever in NCAA history. 

170 career appearances. 257 IP, all in relief.  Career ERA of 1.16.   41 walks/230 Ks.

http://web.usabaseball.com/article.jsp?ymd=201500521&content_id=125733050&vkey=news_gsa

Does anyone have a reading on Berg's current velocity?  That article mentions 82 mph in high school but doesn't mention if he has upped that number (which seems likely).

If he is into the low 90s I think he could move through the minors pretty quickly as he clearly has the right mindset, knows how to pitch and has the sidearm thing going for him.

I'm sure most of the senior selections were about money but did anyone else notice that Berg, Kellogg and Morrison all seem to have similarities to Hendricks?  Smart pitchers with underwhelming velocity. Perhaps Theo and co. feel they have found an undervalued skill set.

The Cubs have a lot of mid 90s pitchers in their system, but most of them have been moved into relief.  In addition to Black, you have Edwards (perhaps temporary), Paniagua, Francescon, Perakslis and Thorpe.  Most of them have had command problems, which probably is the reason why they are no longer starting.  They have also brought in young pitchers from the outside that are also mid 90s pitchers, the best of which have been Ramirez, Grimm and Rondon.

To me, it looks as if they have decided to take top hitters with their highest picks, and then bring in several high velocity, low command pitchers in the hopes that they can overcome their command problems at least enough to be effective relievers, and perhaps even enough to be good starters.

But in addition to that, they are also bringing in a lot of high command, lower velocity pitchers in the hopes of developing Hendricks-like starters.  All part of the "attack pitching with volume" strategy.

I would expect that they will draft three or four high velocity pitchers in the last 20 rounds, in the hope of striking gold.

Brett Taylor @BleacherNation
Cubs 11th Round Pick: Matt Rose, 3B, Georgia State.
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 Chris Crawford @CrawfordChrisV
@BleacherNation A nice value selection there.

JJ Cooper ‏@jjcoop36  8m8 minutes ago
Cubs 11th-rounder Matt Rose is a solid performer with a great arm who would have pitching pot. if he could stay healthy.