Today is the big boy. The draft is now only two days away and I am fully prepped for the Growing Cubs Podcast to take over The Rant Live during day one of the draft. After covering a smaller list of names for both the high schools bats on Friday and then the high school arms on Saturday, I broke out a bit with a much more sizable group of names yesterday for the college bats.

Today, I am just going to blow everything out of the water as I run through 26 college arms that I like in this year’s draft. I can’t afford to ramble too long with that many players to get into, so let’s begin!

Take If He Falls

Much like Heston Kjerstad from yesterday, I see no possible scenario where Max Meyer or Reid Detmers fall to #16 on Wednesday. I have seen Meyer mocked as high as #5 to the Blue Jays and Detmers up to #9 to the Rockies. But the funny thing is, when draft season began several months ago, both of these guys could be found all around the Cubs pick. They have obviously risen up draft board pretty quickly, and for good reason.

Meyer has arguably the best fastball AND best slider in the entire draft. The righty out of Minnesota is a little undersized but that two-pitch mix is good enough to get him to the bigs quickly. Imagine the damage he can do in a big league rotation with just one more good pitch. Detmers has the best curveball in the draft and probably the best pitchability as well. He was the ace at Louisville the past couple years and is my favorite arm in the entire draft. When we talked to his teammate Luke Smith on the Growing Cubs Podcast, he had nothing but tremendous things to say about the big lefty.

Good Fits At 16

The Cubs could really use a pitcher in their system with top of the rotation potential to go alongside Brailyn Marquez. Who better fits that role than a guy that reminds me so much of Marquez? Garrett Crochet is a 6’6″ lefty with high 90s heat and two decent offspeed offerings with his slider and changeup. He is a bit of an injury risk, but based off of his sensational fall season, he was looking more and more like a top-10 pick. I think Crochet would be a steal at #16, even with the potential durability risk there.

Going back to the interview with Louisville pitcher Luke Smith back in April, he mentioned two names to keep an eye on in this draft: Bobby Miller and Slade Cecconi.

Miller is probably my favorite of the two, as he features high-90s heat with plenty of life to it. Smith defined the pitch as more of a sinker than a two-seamer. The secondaries are pretty impressive as well with a slider in the mid-80s and tight spin and a splitter that he uses as his changeup against lefties. I have seen plenty of projections to the bullpen for Miller due to his high-effort delivery, but if he can get that smoothed out just a bit, his 6’5″, 220 pound frame is built to be a workhorse in the rotation.

Much of the same can be said about Cecconi, as he is a big righty with a mid-90s fastball and three secondary pitches. Like Miller, his slider is the best offering of the bunch. Cecconi is control over command right now, probably lives in the zone a bit too much, and doesn’t locate quite as well as he should. His upside is there though, and I would have no problem with the Cubs taking him in round one.

Cecconi’s teammate at Miami is no slouch either. Chris McMahon again has a similar profile as the two previous guys I mentioned. Mid-90s heat, touching 98 MPH, is big bodied, and can stick in the rotation. McMahon’s best offering is his changeup and he has a little less swing-and-miss in his game than the other guys.

I really like college pitchers that don’t have much wear and tear on their arms. Cade Cavalli played first base at Oklahoma his freshman season and didn’t move to pitching more often until his sophomore year. Still, he has easy heat, a really good looking hook, a pretty smooth delivery with no hiccups, and a starter’s build. He is not far off from already having the traditional 4-pitch mix that could play in the minors immediately. Something to note with Cavalli is that he is actually a throwing partner with current Cubs prospect and Oklahoma native, Kohl Franklin.

Other Guys I Like

The most recognizable name in this category goes to JT Ginn. The Mississippi State Bulldog was being talked about with some of the top names in this entire draft coming into his 2020 college campaign. Unfortunately, he went under the knife to Tommy John Surgery after just one outing this spring and will now be out for about a year. On the bright side, he won’t be missing much baseball this year due to the owners lack of wherewithal to get a deal done, so his slip down draft board might be all for naught. From a talent perspective, he is worth a second round selection and then some.

I can’t go through this entire post and leave out an opportunity to talk about my alma mater. Kyle Nicolas has an outside shot of being the second pitcher from Ball State selected in the first round in the last two drafts, following in Drey Jameson’s footsteps from last year. It is more likely Nicolas falls down to the second round, but his stuff is even better than Jameson’s, with a fastball touching 100 MPH and a slider that hits 90. His curveball and changeup are less advanced and he needs some fine tuning with his mechanics so he might end up moving to the bullpen, but the upside is definitely there.

Another guy that finds himself in the rotation, has a nasty two pitch mix, and could make his way into the bullpen is lefty Seth Lonsway from Ohio State. He has the second best hook in the draft behind only Detmers, but it is the walks that could come back to hurt him. Lonsway fails to find the zone too often, and that paired with very strong strikeout numbers might mean he is perfect for the pen.

Speaking of the bullpen, there are three guys in this draft that I would love the Cubs to draft and develop as relievers. Burl Carraway was the closer at Dallas Baptist and for the US Collegiate National team and could very well be the first 2020 draftee to crack the majors. He is a two pitch guy with top flight spin rates on both his fastball and curveball.

Joe Boyle is technically a starter now, but I think he could thrive if developed as a reliever. He has the best pure heat in the entire draft, popping the mitt at 102 MPH when he wasn’t working multiple innings as a starting pitcher. His 6’7″ frame might seem like a starter’s body at first glance, but the coordination isn’t quite there to maintain proper mechanics over the course of a full game. I say you let that fastball ride and wouldn’t even be opposed to using him in Chicago in a shortened MLB season this year.

You might have heard about Tyler Brown‘s story when he was closing games for Vanderbilt in the College World Series last year. The 6’4″ righty lost his mother to cancer as a teenager, blew out his arm in high school, and then became a father early on in his college career to a daughter with Down syndrome. Brown has seen it all in life and there is no way that I would bet against him on the baseball field.

From one guy that pitched in the 2019 College World Series, to another. Jeff Criswell became the Friday night starter at Michigan this year after watching a couple of his rotation mates go pro a year ago. The righty has a really nice sinker to go with a couple of above average offspeed offerings. He profiles more starter over reliever as a pro and if he can tighten things up across the board, even just a little bit, he will make an impressive pro prospect.

The most mysterious man in the draft is East Tennesee State’s Landon Knack. He is a fifth year senior (rare) who several teams have never even seen before (even more rare). So how is it possible he is going to be a second round pick? Well besides the fact that a team can save some money on his signing bonus, Knack put up silly numbers in his COVID-shortened 2020 season. In 25 innings, he struck out 51 batters. Wow. Impressive. But the real kicker? He only walked one guy the entire year. Talk about his mid-90s fastball all you want, but at some point you just can’t argue with results.

Going Back To The Well

There are a whole host of pitchers that will be drafted Wednesday and Thursday night from schools that the Cubs have scouted and drafted from in recent history. In fact, there are eleven names for you to keep an eye on, mostly because we know for a fact the Cubs scouts already have been.

The University of Florida boasts a couple of arms that profile as starters when they turn pro and have plus-plus makeup on the mound. Tommy Mace and Jack Leftwich are both right-handers, with Mace being the more polished of the two and likely the higher draft pick. The Cubs drafted a position player, Nelson Maldonado, in the 21st round out of Florida last year.

Stop me if you have heard this before. The Cubs draft a closer out of the University of Louisville with the intention of converting him to a starter. Michael Kirian could be added to a list of Michael McAvene and Riley Thompson. Kirian strikes out a ton of batters, walks very few, mixes speeds very effectively, and is an absolute savage on the mound. Sign me up.

The Cubs have drafted out of Clemson University each of the past two years, going with Drew Wharten in 2018 followed by Grayson Byrd a year ago. This year it could be lefty Sam Weatherly, who is actually one of my favorites in this category. He struck out 17.1 batters per nine innings in this shortened season and I view him as a poor man’s Crochet, which is intended to be much more of a compliment than an insult.

I’m sure Gavin Williams wouldn’t mind throwing to his former East Carolina batterymate, Jake Washer, in the Cubs system moving forward. Williams was actually one of the top high school arms in the country going into the 2017 draft, but honored his commitment to becoming a Pirate. It is all about the fastball with this guy. That heater touches 100 MPH, but doesn’t have much as far as accompanying pitches go. He could be a bullpen piece as a pro.

The duo of Bryce Elder out of Texas (Ryan Reynolds in 2019, Josh Sawyer in 2018) and Trent Palmer from Jacksonville (Zach Bryant in 2019) both have the makeup of back of the rotation starters, albeit with different feels. Elder has been the Longhorns workhorse over the past couple years and features some impressive tunneling skills. In my eyes, his floor is Alex Lange with a ceiling being Cory Abbott. Palmer is more control than command and has more of a chance to move to the bullpen than Elder.

The Cubs took Chase Strumpf out of UCLA last year, but that isn’t the only connection to Holden Powell here. The 6’0″ righty was spending 2020 as the closer for the Bruins for the third consecutive season and had racked up the second most saves in school history and the Stopper of the Year award in 2019. The most saves in UCLA history? None other than David Berg, former Cubs prospect and member of the “Greg was way too high on this prospect” list.

There are a couple of names that could be available either as fifth round draft picks or undrafted free agents out of the Pac-12. Kyle Hurt (USC) and Stevie Emanuels (Washington) are both big-bodied starters that don’t really have skillsets that stand out in a good or bad way. Hurt has a more impressive track record as a former top 100 high school star, but both players could desperately use some professional coaching and lab work, in my opinion. The Cubs drafted Chris Clarke out of USC last year in the fourth round and took Levi Jordan and Josh Burgmann in 2018 and 2019 from Washington.

The final prospect blurb of this series goes to a former Cubs draft pick, Bryce Bonnin. He was selected in the 26th round in 2017 out of his Texas high school, but chose to attend the University of Arkansas instead. Three years and one transfer later, Bonnin is projected to go somewhere in the fourth round as a starter out of Texas Tech. He has really pretty stuff, especially his mid-90s fastball and mid-80s crossfire slider. It isn’t uncommon for players to remain in contact with the scout that drafted him out of high school, and with a draft that will depend so heavily on strong relationships, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Bonnin end up a Cub.

That’s it and that’s all folks. 48 names in the 2020 MLB Draft for you to keep your eye on. I hope you have enjoyed reading about some of my favorite players from a year in which I have put more hours into following the draft than any other year. Here’s to the Cubs drafting exactly one (1) of these players. Hey, 2% ain’t bad.