Cubs Draft Very Promising

Give the Cubs’ ownership this: when they say they will do something, they do it. The Cubs said they were committed to winning through the draft, international amateur signings, and the farm system. We’ve already seen some evidence that the Cubs are willing to spend on the international circuit over the past few months, and now we are seeing exactly what they are willing to do with the draft.

The Cubs drafted a number of guys who were considered to be tough signs. In short, they drafted a bunch of guys who were going to want a lot of money. If the Cubs had signed half of their tough signs, we’d be talking about this as a good draft. The dust has not settled, but right now it looks like the Cubs will have missed out on just one. At no time since they took over the team has the new ownership group displayed a clearer focus on winning the right way. If this is what we can expect from the Cubs under the Ricketts family, then the Cubs have never had a brighter future.

Grading any draft is tough, and it is even tougher when not all signings are registered yet. We know Tampa should do well given how many high picks they enjoyed, and we know Arizona should do well with their two prize pitching prospects at the top of the draft. And we also know the Cubs will do well. Very well. I would not be surprised to see the Cubs ranked in the Top 5 overall for this draft. If you want a letter grade, I’ll give the Cubs as an easy ‘A’. This is the best Cubs draft I can remember.

A quick rundown of where we stand as we wait on the final signings to become official.

Don’t panic if we slip into Tuesday morning and some guys are still listed as unsigned. It can take a few hours for the league office to process everything. We may not know what has happened for sure until sometime Tuesday, perhaps as late as Tuesday afternoon. Keep an eye on the Twitter feed for Baseball America’s Jim Callis for the latest. Most of this information was first confirmed by him.

Javier Baez – Signed. At midnight, Paul Sullivan tweeted that the Baez deal got done. Acording to Jim Callis, Baez signs for $2.625 million. That is much less than what I was expecting, but still the richest deal for the Cubs in this draft.

Dan Vogelbach – Signed, for around $1.6 million dollars.

Tony Zych – Signed.

Dillon Maples – Signed. Kendall Rogers is reporting that Maples is done for $2.5 million.

Shawon Dunston Jr. – Signed. About $1.2 million dollars. The Cubs paid him like a late first round or supplemental round pick, and he probably deserves it.

Austin Urban – Signed. Said to be about $100,000, which is way above slot for a 41st round pick. Then again, he could have gone in the first ten rounds.

Ricky Jacquez – Unsigned. Meet “The One Who Got Away.” Jacquez has apparently chosen to go to the University of Texas. Keep track of him, though. We could be seeing him on draft boards again in a few years.

We’ll have a more in depth wrap of the Cubs 2011 Draft a little later in the week, once the dust has had time to settle.