jimmypasta wrote:
Theo's plan seems like there is no viable starting pitching in the farm system after 4 seasons. Somebody like IMU might know differently,but I haven't read much about help from the minors for SP.
The Cubs are stacked with 18-20 year old arms. The Cubs' last two drafts were heavy on high school pitching after the first couple of rounds. The fact that they were able to pay under slot value on several higher picks allowed to them to pay overslot money to high school pitchers in order to convince them to sign with the Cubs and not go to college. These 3rd-6th round guys weren't viewed as 3rd-6th round guys...teams had them higher on the board but signability scared teams away. The Cubs didn't have to worry about signability as much because of the extra $$ they could use to sign guys.
So yeah...besides Johnson, Edwards and Underwood there isn't a ton of pitching that you've heard of. But that doesn't mean it isn't there. The Cubs farm system is still so deep there are a ton of names.
But Stinnett, Cease, Hudson, Steele, Tseng and Sands are names you'll be hearing over the next few years. They don't have much of a chance to show up on the major league team until 2018 I'd think...and some of those guys could easily disappear. But if even two of them become big time prospects...that can help solve future starting pitching issues.
After those guys...there are some other dudes like Hudson, Zastryzny, Torrez, Black, Clifton... certainly not sure things...but sometimes pitching depth comes from surprising places. CJ Edwards was a 48th round guy, for example.