Fun weekend, so instead of going over the whole week in sports, I'll just cover what has happened since Friday. The big news in Chicago baseball is that a new list, this one by mlb.com, has been put out ranking the top 100 prospects in all of baseball and the top 20 in each organization as well as the top 10 at each position. Of course I have my issues with some of it, but there are 10 Chicago players on the top 100 list, 8 Cubs and 2 White Sox prospects. Also, Bears training camp has started. I'll go over some of the notes that have come out from there and give my thoughts. There hasn't really been any Bulls or Blackhawks news outside of an interview with Joakim Noah that some reporters tried to blow out of proportion.
So, going over mlb.com's list. You can see it here. The two White Sox players that made the list are Carlos Rodon and Tim Anderson. Rodon is the #23 prospect right now in baseball. He's pitched in 2 games so far, giving up 2 runs in 3 innings. So it's really too small of a sample size to get a good idea as to how he's doing, but at the same time word has been good. With Anderson, he's been having a very nice season in high A Winston-Salem, hitting right around the .300 mark with 6 home runs in 286 at bats. While he doesn't project to have much power, his defense has supposedly been good. My only issue is that Courtney Hawkins has fallen so far despite playing much better this year than he did last year. The 25-30 home run power is there, and the batting average has improved. However, I guess that makes him worse than he was last year, somehow. I can't see how enough new guys have come in to knock him that far down. The top 20 prospects for the White Sox on this list are:
1. Carlos Rodon
2. Tim Anderson
3. Francellis Montas
4. Micah Johnson
5. Courtney Hawkins
6. Spencer Adams
7. Tyler Danish
8. Matt Davidson
9. Trey Michalczewski
10. Carlos Sanchez
11. Chris Beck
12. Jacob May
13. Trayce Thompson
14. Adam Engel
15. Keon Barnum
16. Adam Lopez
17. Micker Adolfo
18. Braulio Ortiz
19. Andrew Mitchell
20. Kevan Smith
It's not the best list ever, there's several prospects that are old for their league, but there's some very solid guys in there at the top. I'd change the order slightly myself, but not too much.
Now for the Cubs. Their 8 guys in the top 100 are Kris Bryant, Javier Baez, Addison Russell, Arismendy Alcantara, Albert Almora, Jorge Soler, CJ Edwards, and Kyle Schwarber, in that order. Bryant is the #4 overall, Baez is #6 overall, Russell #7, Alcantara #37, Almora #41, Soler #54, Edwards #60, and Schwarber #79. One of the best things is that nobody is borderline there. It makes me wonder if McKinney, who was their #9 prospect for the Cubs, is close to being on that list as well. My biggest issue is with the Soler ranking. I don't understand how he isn't in the top 50 on every list. He's been absolutely killing pitching at every level he's played at. Of course, his makeup is questioned, but those questions have all been answered, and the answers are mostly in Soler's favor. The only questionable thing that he has done is the bat incident, and he hasn't done anything close to that since then. He has proven to have a great approach at the plate, and at this point I'd argue for him being a top 30 prospect due to his tools and how refined they are for his age. The only questions for him at this point are if his hamstrings are going to be fine. He's got a strong arm, strong bat, great approach at the plate, and seems to have a good attitude as well. Anyway, the Cubs top 20 prospects are:
1. Kris Bryant
2. Javier Baez
3. Addison Russell
4. Arismendy Alcantara
5. Albert Almora
6. Jorge Soler
7. CJ Edwards
8. Kyle Schwarber
9. Billy McKinney
10. Arodys Vizcaino
11. Pierce Johnson
12. Dan Vogelbach
13. Jeimer Candelario
14. Eloy Jimenez
15. Jen-Ho Tseng
16. Gleyber Torres
17. Paul Blackburn
18. Kyle Hendricks
19. Corey Black
20. Jeferson Mejia
Looking at that list, the first thing that stands out is that Kyle Hendricks, who has looked like a legitimate middle of the rotation pitcher for the Cubs at the big league level, is all the way down at #18. Corey Black is a AA pitcher who has been having a good year and can still rise over the next year or so. Jeferson Mejia is a 19 year old pitcher at Arizona right now, so he's at a far lower level and has a chance to really rise in the near future. The Cubs have a lot of low level young players on that list with Candelario, Jimenez, Torres, Tseng, and Blackburn as well. Either way, that list is an incredible list right now, and there's more players behind that would be on almost every other team's top 20.
Now for a rigid segue, it's football time. The Bears started their training camp on Friday, and today they practiced for the first time in pads. Probably the biggest news has been how well rookie Kyle Fuller did against Alshon Jeffery in today's practice. With pads on now we can finally get a good look at all of the players. Jared Allen has supposedly been a major influence on the field as well.
The biggest thing here is that supposedly the defense has been looking very good. According to Michael C Wright, it looks like it will be very hard for the defense to repeat last year's performance. If the offense is even close to what it was last year, then that puts the Bears in a great position going into the season if they're able to stay healthy.
It's very early, but everything has been encouraging so far. The front office has done a great job in getting a strong team out there on the field. Hopefully they're able to do on the field what they look like they can do on paper. This could be a very fun season for Bears fans.
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