Since the sports world stopped last week, fans everywhere have had to rely on all the mems of better days. Marquee Sports Network has been re-airing the Cubs 2016 World Series run each night while MLB Network has been showcasing many of the best games in MLB history. Meanwhile, Twitter has been a hotbed for highlight videos of years past.
Recently, this week we got to see a few former Cubs prospects gracing our timelines and interestingly enough, each of the highlights came from guys in three completely different situations. Dan Vogelbach, Christian Villanueva, and Jae-Hoon Ha all find themselves in different leagues right now but all three were in the Cubs system during the same time period between 2012 and 2015. While there wasn’t a time when all three were on the same team together, they all were fan favorites during their time as Cubs.
Dan Vogelbach is my favorite prospect to ever be in the Cubs system. He is one of the biggest reasons why I follow prospects as closely as I do. Vogey was with the Cubs from 2011, when he was drafted in the second round, all the way to 2016, when he was traded along with Paul Blackburn to the Seattle Mariners for World Series save-getter Mike Montgomery. He exploded on to the scene last year, and hit plenty of big home runs including this grand slam against the Houston Trash Cans.
Christian Villanueva came up through the Cubs system in a time when the organization was absolutely loaded with prospects. He was acquired in 2012 and shipped away to San Diego after the 2015 campaign. Since he flew so far under the radar, he was a guy that I really liked to pay attention to. In addition to his impressive defense, he displayed some serious pop during his time with with the Padres. He is apparently still doing so today, now in the Japanese league in front of empty stadiums.
Unless you are a real prospect nerd like me, you probably don’t even know who Jae-Hoon Ha is. He played in the system from 2009 all the way through 2015 and actually had a few really good seasons in the outfield, making it all the way up to Iowa in 2013 and 2014. He was the Cubs representative in the MLB Futures Game in 2012 but had an interesting professional ride as he was eventually converted to pitcher during the 2015 season. Last year he played in the KBO in Korea. Here is a walk-off from 2014 from one of the most interesting prospects in recent memory.
Out of the Vines 