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Cubs prospects paying dividends
How things change. In our 2007 preview, we spoke of Cubs fans bemoaning the state of their Major League team in 2006, but who could take solace that five of the six farm teams had winning records, hopefully boding well for some incoming talent to bolster the big-league club.
In 2007, as you may have heard, the Cubbies won the National League Central and indeed had some major contributions from the pipeline. Pitchers Carlos Marmol (5-1, 1.43 ERA in relief) and Sean Marshall (3.92 ERA in 19 starts), both in their sophomore Major League seasons, were big parts of the Cubs' success, as was Ryan Theriot (.266, 28 steals), another homegrown player who had barely used up his rookie eligibility in 2006. Top outfield prospect Felix Pie is no longer a rookie as well, and one can look for bigger and better things from him.
Reliever Kevin Hart (0.82 ERA in eight appearances) and likely catcher of the future Geovany Soto (.389 in 18 games) showed great promise in September auditions and still will be rookies in 2008.
In our preview we called the organization's starting pitching both "its biggest strength and its biggest Achilles' heel the last few years," citing a glut of injuries to top starting prospects but also the emergence of rookies such as Marshall, Rich Hill and Angel Guzman.
A look at this year's starters in the Minors shows fewer extremes, as no pitcher really jumped out on the radar and achieved potential superstar status. Two pitchers who appeared to meet that criteria are left-hander Donald Veal and right-hander Jeff Samardzija, with both having decent seasons that may have been disappointing only because of the high hopes held for them. Another top prospect, southpaw Mark Pawelek, missed nearly all of 2007 due to injury, but had a strong instructional league showing, leaving the organization excited for his 2008 season.
Rather it was a season more for the hitters, a situation that was emphasized in the draft when the club spent nine of its first 10 picks on offense, eight of which came from the polished college ranks.
On the field, the results were mixed with the system's .506 winning percentage landing them in the middle of the pack at 14th overall. Three of their top four clubs, Triple-A Iowa, Double-A Tennessee and Class A Peoria, all finished over .500.
See more at www.minorleaguebaseball.com
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