Farm System

[1060Ivy]

The folks over at Baseball Think Factory have developed their ZiPS projections for all ESPN's Keith Law's top prospects and  7 Cubs prospects rank in ZiPS projections top 100. 

 

ZiPS projections seems to have more love for Cubs prospects than Keith Law.   According to ZiPS projections, Cubs prospects ranked consistently higher than Law's with Baez topping the ZiPS projections.

 

Here's what the article had to say regarding Javier,

"Baez's 2013 performance in the minors at .248/.293/.472, and while that OBP is slightly on the low side, that's a phenomenal offensive season for a 20-year-old shortstop. ZiPS compares Baez to names such as Cal Ripken, Alex Rodriguez, Tony Batista, and Danny Tartabull."

 

Regarding one of the largest discrepancies between ZiPS and Law was noted with Cubs Alcantara. Here's Alcantara's projections,

"ZiPS sees Alcantara regularly hitting in the .260s with 15-20 home runs a year, but with hitters like Michael Young, Barry Larkin, and Robin Yount high up in his offensive comp list, there's the possibility that he's even better."

 

 

In addition to Baez and Alcantara being ranked higher, here are other Cubs prospects in their Top 100 and how they compare to Law's ranking

Baez ZiPS rank 1st vs Law's ranking of 7

Bryant ZiPS rank came in 9th vs Law's ranking of 15

Alcantara ZiPS rank came in 13th vs Law's ranking of 71

Almora ZiPS rank came in 24th vs Law's ranking of 28

Soler ZiPS rank came in 40th vs Law's ranking of 26

Edwards ZiPS rank came in 53rd vs Law's ranking of 67

Vogelbach ZiPS rank came in 97th vs Law's ranking of NA

 

So what's this all mean?  Don't know how much you want to read into the projections for prospects but it does bode well and it's nice that ZiPS seems to like the Cubs prospects more than Law.  Overall, my takeaway is that ZiPS supports that the Cubs have a great set of prospects. 

 

http://insider.espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/i...spects-mlb

 

Noticed that John at Cubs Den had a similar write up on ZiPS projections for Cubs prospects so for more ...

 

http://www.chicagonow.com/cubs-den/2014/...her-notes/