MLB Draft: Chicago Cubs make surprising choice with 27th overall pick

The Chicago Cubs went with a college arm with their first-round draft pick, but the guy they went with didn’t show up on pretty much any pre-draft board.

Remember the confusion and general discontent when the Chicago Cubs drafted Kyle Schwarber back in the first round of the 2014 MLB Draft? Well, that pales in comparison to how a lot of folks are likely feeling after the team selected Fresno State right-hander Ryan Jensen with the 27th overall pick Monday night.

Jensen, who features a fastball that’s been clocked as high as 98 mph, was ranked 107th in Baseball America‘s and 99th in MLB.com’s pre-draft rankings. According to the latter, there were 20 higher-ranked pitching prospects left on the board at the time Chicago selected the lanky, somewhat undersized hurler.

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This year at Fresno State, 6-foot, 180-pound righty broke out as the team’s frontline starter, going 12-1 with a 2.88 earned run average in 15 starts and one relief appearance, limiting opponents to a .217 average. He posted a more than respectable 107-to-27 strikeout-to-walk ratio, as well.

Here’s what MLB.com had to say about Jensen.

"Jensen has arm strength to spare, with a fastball that sits from 94-98 mph. He’s able to maintain his velocity deep into his starts, showing plenty of 97-98 mph heaters in the seventh and eighth inning of his starts. When he finds his arm slot, it can have plus life, but he often loses it, causing it to be flat and very hittable. His slider will show flashes of being an above-average pitch, but it’s not consistent. He does have an upper-80s changeup with some fade that might be average, but he doesn’t use it much. Jensen has a tendency to over stride at times, which makes it tougher for him to repeat his delivery and command the baseball."

There are a lot of questions regarding whether or not he’ll stick as a big league starter or if he’s better suited for a late-inning role (really, Chicago needs help in both departments, so that doesn’t matter to me).

But what does matter is the fact that, with the 64th overall pick in the second round, it seems like Theo Epstein could have gone after Jensen with that pick, rather than his first-round selection. And, if we really want to get critical, it’s not like we have anything to show for the Cubs’ most recently drafted pitchers.

Literally, since Epstein assumed control over the baseball operations department, the team hasn’t seen a single draft pick make an impact on the mound at the big league level. Of course, Chicago hasn’t expended its first-round picks on pitchers very often in that time, but this feels like a wasted pick – or, at the very least, a seriously misused one if nothing else.

Maybe I’m wrong. I have far more faith in Epstein’s ability to evaluate players than my own – and with good reason. What I hope Epstein is thinking is that he comes in under slot value in the first round and goes hog-wild on arms in the rounds to come. If you’re looking for a positive spin on this pick? The Cubs don’t have impact arms – and this kid certainly has the potential to be one. But it’s far from a sure-thing for an array of reasons.