Bleacher Bums Forum

Exciting to have a good young player added to the system. 

We've got a new draft boss with a successful resume; I'm totally fine to trust his evaluation process until/unless it proves unsound. 

Howard seems well respected in all of the draft-value rankings, somewhere in the top-25 by everybody and in the top 10-15 by some.  So this seems like a more mainstream pick than many Cubs picks over the last decade.  (Simpson, Schwarber, Jensen, Hoerner, and Little were all variably unexpected and taken variably higher than where mainstream media rankings and projections anticipated them.)

I like the concept of having a Chicago kid.  Perhaps when free agency approaches, if he's hopefully good enough to demand a meaningful FA contract someday, he'll have more reason to prefer to stay home? 

Just from brief practice-field video at mlb, I kinda likes what it showed.  Seemed kinda boring and straightforward and balanced, without the big leg-kick that has been common for many Cub prospects past. 

Somebody earlier mentioned Barry Larkin and Addison Russell.  I wonder if Russell isn't in some ways a good analogy defensively?  Wasn't fast, didn't have the flashy big arm, but his shortstop defense was so smooth and economical, got ball from glove to throw very quickly, very accurate. 

Obviously you're not looking for Russell's personality or his crummy bat, but a Russell-esque defender with a good bat, and with brains and integrity, would be a very nice value.