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2022 MLB Draft Prep: The weekend in college baseball

Highlights of the weekend and thoughts about possible Cubs picks.

By Tim Huwe
Photo by Samuel Lewis/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Since I've been all-in with following the Cubs pipeline, and since I wrote an article on the Mark Leiter Jr. roster addition, my attention to the weekend in college baseball was limited. Nonetheless, player selection news rolled, unabated. So this is me playing catch-up on the weekend in college baseball.

Florida starter Hunter Barco left his start early with an injury. Barco is, or was, a legitimate second round option. Sounds less serious than feared.

Teammate Jud Fabian, who also is second-round viable, continues to hit.

I doubt Cal Poly's Brooks Lee slips to 1.7. Here's why.

I wouldn't be remotely upset, or surprised, if the Cubs select Adam Mazur in the second round.

This is a fantastic tweet, and I prefer Parada at 1.7 to Arizona's Daniel Susac. In addition to the three players at the top, I'd lean Parada, Jace Jung (an infielder from Texas Tech), Cam Collier from Chipola College, right-handed fireballer Dylan Lesko, or, possibly, Jackson Holliday, a prep shortstop who is former MLBer Matt Holliday's son. Holliday would be No. 8 on my list of seven names.

The last time I'd heard of someone named Anthony Hall, his middle name was Michael, and the topic was likely The Breakfast Club. A usable college bat, sitting in the 130s on a draft board? I'd be interested in Round 5 or so.

A bit of an aside: I'm unlikely to do a mock draft. I have no inside knowledge of who the Phillies, Giants, or Red Sox might prefer in Round 1 or 2. Nonetheless, I do have a soft prediction in the late first round, and it's logic- and historically-based. Somewhat. I would be totally unsurprising if the White Sox (who seem as "win now" as anyone, both in the actions and their use of recent draft choices) sect Ben Joyce in the first round and use him in Chicago by September. The Sox have a timeline for success, and Joyce could improve their bullpen immediately.

While I wouldn't "hard-throwing Vols pitcher to be used as a reliever" in the first round, the Sox did exactly that with Garret Crochet. If the Sox do that, I'd love it for the Cubs, who would have a better pool of names to choose from in Round 2. By at least one name.

If I'm talking drafting and precedent, the Cubs have had a degree of success with a Michigan Wolverine bat in the outfield with Jordan Nwogu. Clark Elliott might be the next, as early as Round Three.

Another aside. As cool as it is to add the "young prep bats", college veterans are more likely to represent early in their professional careers. A degree of balance is probably preferable to going all specifically anything, such as selecting a college bat at 1.7.

If Mason McRae raves, I listen.

A Cermak in the Cubs pipeline would work.

Questions? Fire away.

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2022 MLB Draft

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