A year ago, I found myself digging into the MLB Draft deeper than I ever had before. The complete absence of sports in the Spring of 2020 meant I had all the time in the world to focus on the scouting players every night instead of worrying about the Cubs minor league affiliates. The shortened five-round festivities made the draft into a more consumable product and one that I felt I had the capacity to break down and analyze. The emergence of Prospects Live and their content made the knowledge right there and readily available.

But here we are in 2021. Sports are back and, more specifically, minor league baseball is back. That means I’m dedicating most of my free time to my coverage of Cubs prospects that are currently in the system. The draft is back up to 20 rounds, which isn’t as big as it once was, but will see four times the amount of talent infused into the system compared to a year ago.

It’s taken me more effort and I have relied heavily on player breakdowns from Prospects Live, Baseball America, MLB Pipeline, and Ivy Futures, but I have put together a list of players that have caught my eye to the point where I am excited to see if Dan Kantrovitz and Company pull the trigger on them beginning July 11th.

So I’m back. With the same configuration as last year. I’m going to spend the next few days on my own version of a Cubs MLB Draft preview. Instead of a mock or a ranking, my list will take the form of four separate articles: high school bats, high school arms, college bats, and college arms. The four articles will be released this week all leading up to the 7:00 pm ET on Sunday night. Within each article, players will be broken down into categories: guys that the Cubs should feel lucky to see at their first round pick at #21, guys that should be hovering right around #21 that shouldn’t be considered a reach, players that I’m keen on taking between rounds two and five, and for the college draftees, guys from schools that the Cubs have scouted and drafted from in the past.

I’m looking forward to breaking down dozens of players in the next few days and hope I can persuade you into being a fan of some of these dudes. If you’re interested in the draft (and if you’ve made it this far then I’m sure you are) then be sure to check out The Rant Live MLB Draft special on Sunday night. Along with my Growing Cubs Podcast co-host Jimmy Nelligan and Ivy Future’s Greg Zumach, I’ll be coming to you on Cubs Insider’s YouTube, Facebook, and Periscope pages starting at 7:00 pm ET to give a Cubs slant on the first round of the MLB Draft.