The latest follows a trend we’ve seen all season: the Chicago Cubs’ top prospects are generally holding their place on the top-100 lists, but dropping back a bit in the process.
The updated Cubs group at BA:
44. Cade Horton, RHP
45. Matt Shaw, INF
54. Owen Caissie, OF
59. Jefferson Rojas, SS
66. Moises Ballesteros, C
79. Kevin Alcántara, OF
By and large, I’m not going to argue with much of that, but what’s weird is that it marks a steep fall for almost all of these guys over the last two months. To be sure, drafted prospects were included in the interim, but that doesn’t come close to explaining how Matt Shaw is falling eight spots in two months when all he’s done in that time is get promoted to Triple-A and hit well. Owen Caissie fell 12 spots after his hottest stretch of the year? Moises Ballesteros falls six spots despite getting better all the time? The draft picks coming in ahead of them is part of the story, but not all of it.
It’s just odd to me. I understand that prospects aren’t being considered one-to-one like that, and it’s all relative to others. Cade Horton and Jefferson Rojas dropping 10+ spots in two months? Sure. That I get. There is a pretty clear explanation there. The others just don’t make sense to me.
Also, James Triantos, who was at 99 i🌺n that early-July update, is now off the list. That one I do think we can attribute to the 10 draft prospects who show up somewhere on the list. No shame in it, though Triantos does for me at this point have a top-100 feel.
Also, also, if Cam Smith keeps on doing what he’s been doing so far, he’ll wind up another one of the 2024 draft picks who show up quickly on top-100 lists.
